As editor and maybe also as viewer I want to be able to see where specific components are used. So I’m basically talking about way to find instances of a component across files.
There’s a plugin called “Instance Finder” but unfortunately it’s just working within one file not across.
For huge design systems with multiple files and different designers working on it this is far from ideal.
This idea is not new but since the other topics are closed I guess I need to open a new thread.
Describe the problem your experiencing and how your idea helps solve this
I want to be able to find instances of components within my Figma file.
Add as much context as possible (screenshots, Figma files, mockups, etc.)
For a huge design system with multiple designers working on it, I often need to find molecules and all the places they’ve been used (organisms/templates), etc. For a big design system, this becomes very difficult and adds a lot of manual time to sift through the hundreds of components and organisms.
Ask questions to bring the community into the conversation
(e.g. Does anyone else experience this? Is anyone using a plugin or workaround to help solve this?, etc.
There’s already a plugin called “Instance Finder” but it doesn’t work on large design system files.
You’d still have to search page by page but for me this is a HUGE improvement. I am now able to search for an instance on a page and find the instances and move through them, rather than literally looking for instances frame by frame!
I’m still having trouble with this feature. I have ‘Used in this file’ instances that have been removed from the original file. But when using the search feature, the component does not show up. So I’m still not able to find ghost components. I believe it’s also not working for hidden stuff…
are you sure you’re searching in the right page? I had this issue too then I realised the search feature works only on the page level and does not search in the entire file… you’d need to search page by page.
You are wrong. The search function can work on the entire file. To do this, just click the “See results on other pages” item or select “All pages” instead of “This page” in the drop-down menu.
In the attached images you see I have a dropdown field used in this file, when I go to the master component, I’ll go to the file where it used to be, but it’s saying the component has been removed. But when I try to search for it in the file, there are no results 😦 annoying as hell
Little update; I managed to find my ghost instance by manually removing stuff per page and putting it back lol. That’s what I do when I’m desperately trying to get rid of ghost components in the assets panel. Anyway, I think the search feature is still buggy, because as it turned out indeed, the instance was hidden. But even after unhiding it, it still doesn’t show search results…
@tank666 I actually cannot search through pages in a view-only file, only one page at a time. Not sure why. And this is my usual use case (searching through other people’s files that i dont have edit access to, to find component usages)
I don’t know if this is a bug or a missing feature in view-only mode.
If the former, please report the bug to support via this form: Submit a bug report. If the latter, then create a feature request on this forum under the #share category.
This was easy to do in Sketch 3 years ago. Robust component handling is something I really miss from Sketch. Things like notifications when a component you’re deleting still has instances and where they are, easy copy/pasting master components between files without detaching instances. I’ve used Gleb’s Master plug-in, which is helpful, but Figma should really support these things in product by now.
Silly workaround, but it helped me! I just edit the background of the component to be an obnoxious color that’s not used in my file. Then I go through the pages zoomed out looking for that color. Another option, which would let you find it in the layers, is to add text to the component that says something unique like “Find me – I wish Figma could do this!” and then do a find on that text. Yes-- I’d rather right-click on the component and choose “Find instances”… but until then, this trick will work for me.
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