Accept library updates per page

I also had this wish at first, but it is now also in Figma. Now if I want to do an update. The model contains tabs with current page and all pages. With current page as default option. This is what I see:

True @vdekkernl, but when you press ‘Update’ or ‘Update all’ in that window, it still updates the instances on all pages, not just the current page. So it doesn’t help for my use case. (I just tried it out to be sure.)

What you can do in the Updates window is press an individual component to see the changes for every single instance in your file. You can then update only the instances you want to update by pressing ‘Update instance’. But this is a lot of work if you want to update everything except the instances on a specific page:

Accepting Library Update is a key point in the health of a Design System, and yet we feel that it’s left as it is.

Today, only being able to accept updates on the whole file slows down the acceptance of updates by users, because it can change the design under development for example on others pages.

An idea: improve Library Updates modal, both in terms of functionality and UX.

When I select the “Current page” Tab and then the “Update all” button, I want updates to be applied only to the Current page. Obviously the button should be renamed like “Update in the current page".

Hello @Nicolas_Chatelain, Thank you for sharing your thoughts about Library Updates modal! I noticed another community member requesting something similar over here, so I combined your post to gather all the feedback in one location.

I believe your idea could be valuable for other community members! We are excited to see how other members in the community will react to it.
Please feel free to vote up!

Thank you!

What is the actual point of giving users a chance to click All Pages or Current Pages if clicking Current applies the changes to All?

This feels like a glitch rather than an improved suggestion. If you click Update Current it should, you know, Update Current, not all.

So I’m pretty confused.

@Junko3 See above, please!

Hi @Kevin_Zazzali, Thank you for bringing this to our attention! I see why you’re feeling puzzled.

Currently, as described in Review and accept library updates Help Center article, when the [Current page] tab is selected in the [Update] tab, the [Update all] button will only update the assets listed on the Current page tab.
I also tested this on my end and experienced the same behavior as outlined in the article.

If you find that assets from other pages are being updated when you click [Update all] in the [Current page] tab, could you kindly provide a quick video recording or screenshots of the issue? It would be beneficial to have the entire Figma screen visible, including the left and right panels displaying the properties and layers.
This additional information will help us gain a better understanding of the problem and see if we can replicate the same behavior.

I look forward to hearing from you soon! Please don’t hesitate to let us know if there’s anything else I might have missed.

Thanks,

@Junko3 yes it will only update those assets that are used on the current page, but it will update those assets everywhere in the file (also on other pages)! That is what this post is about. I would like to be able to update all assets only on a single page without updating the (same) assets on other pages.

@Junko3 what @Anne13 is experiencing is exactly what I’m experiencing.

So, your statement “the [Update all] button will only update the assets listed on the Current page tab,” is NOT accurate.

@Kevin_Zazzali no, it’s correct what @Junko3 says, it’s just not the issue we are talking about.

For example if you are using the asset coolComponent on page 2, but this asset is not used on page 1, the coolComponent on page 2 won’t be updated if you press ‘Update all’ on page 1. That’s what Junko is saying. But if you are using the asset awesomeComponent on page 1 and 2, and you press ‘Update all’ on page 1, it also updates awesomeComponent on page 2. That is the issue we are experiencing.

Hopefully that clears up the misunderstanding.

@Anne13 Unfortunately it does not. I appreciate you trying to clarify but I’ve reread the article.

Something’s off somewhere on Figma’s end. It’s either a glitch or a misalignment on their end between what the feature is doing and what they THINK it’s doing.

@Junko3 @Anne13 I just confirmed with Figma support directly that what we’re describing, Anne, should NOT be happening. I would get in touch with someone who can escalate this for you.

Hello @Anne13, Thank you for clarifying and I apologize for the misunderstanding of the issue.
Also, I completely understand that it can be a bit confusing when selecting “Update all” in the “Current page” tab results in updating instances of the asset on other pages as well.

For the visibility, I see the case of @Kevin_Zazzali on our backend about this, and we are currently investigating this further.

Thank you for your help and cooperation!

Thanks a lot for your replies and for passing this on to the team.

I have also heard from designers at other companies that branching (which is part of the Organization plan, we don’t have that) could offer a solution to my issue of freezing “ready for dev” files while still being able to work on and accept updates for other parts of the same file… something to look into.

Hello there! I just want to share key points from support with the community for visibility.

Currently, the functionality you are experiencing when selecting “Update All” while viewing the Current Page tab from the update modal is expected. It will update all instances across all pages of the file.

We understand that our help center article may have caused some confusion, and we have revised it to better align with the intended functionality.

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback on this feature. While we can’t make any promises, our product team is already aware of this!

We truly appreciate your input!

Hi, I have the same problem; it is very inconvenient to update components since I cannot do this page by page. I have a trick, and maybe it will be helpful until Figma figures out how to fix this issue.

1. I create a new Figma file and attach the necessary design system to it.
2. Then, I copy the screens that need to be updated and paste them into the new file.
3. I update the components in this new file.
4. Copy updated screens, and move them back to the original file.
    

Currently, the functionality you are experiencing when selecting “Update All” while viewing the Current Page tab from the update modal is expected. It will update all instances across all pages of the file.

​@Junko3  If this is the “expected behavior” I think the community is telling you that the design is not reflecting that behavior nor is the expected behavior how we want it to work

1. We are saying that when we see in the flow of applying updates “Current page” it is indicating to us that the update will only apply to the current page and no others. If the expected behavior is that it will apply on all pages, than the Figma UI needs a better UX design.
2. We prefer Figma leap frog and instead make it work differently by actually allowing us to apply updates per page. Here is my use case:

I work on ideas on a page. I review them. I copy the page to preserve the review, renaming the pages. I don’t use version or branching, as this helps preserve the review history, keeping the reviews visible and easy for stakeholders to see the rounds of feedback. I do this enough times I may have 5-10 pages. I’m about to work on another set of changes and now I need to update a global component. But if I do, I only want it to updates on the most recent page and preserve the iterations as they were designed on those pages.

Today, this is only possible if I 

1. copy the file and start over
2. copy the page, name my version, and detach all nested components on previous pages
3. knew to use a wrapper component around global components from the beginning. then i could have duplicated that component, detatched global component from first wrapper, then updated  the global component in the new wrapper, then used new wrapper moving forward - but I can’t go back in time nor do I want to have to know to do this upfront.

It’s crazy that this hasn’t been fixed yet. I now have to create tons of separate Figma files to have reliable documentation of what designs looked like in the past, which is really messy. Frustrating for myself and PMs and creates lots of confusion. 

Please just allow us to accept updates from a library and apply them on individual pages. 

Updating the components that appear on one page, but then apply the changes to those components across all pages is weird and unintuitive. 

I found a workaround!  While the way I expected this to work is to apply an update per page (so please Figma still prioritize this), I found a way to do this with existing functionality.  Inspiration hit when I realize how I was doing this within a file, then I simply applied this method at the library level:

Within a file:

1. ​Create component to reuse within that file to speed up ideations and mock faster. Will consider adding to pattern library or design system later once we know this is what we want to use.
2. Copy pages to track feedback loops and keep iterating.
3. Want to update a component, but not affect the rest of my pages to preserve old idea…
4. Copy component, rename existing to “[previous name] V1” or something
5. In latest page, swap to new component. Done!

To abstract this to library level:

1. Put component and any nested ones into a section called “[previous name] V1”
2. Duplicate section and Rename
3. Rename all old components with “v1”
4. Old mockups using this component still reference the original component
5. Publish new component
6. Go back to your file and accept update
7. Switch to using new component in latest page.

What’s nice about this is I now also have a history in the library file of how tha component evolved over time too.

Well it’s kinda crazy because I have the opposite issue 😓 I keep clicking “show updates for all pages”, and it doesnt update all of them at once. The library manager is just broken.

​@Lauren_Shupp3 I’m glad you found a workaround! Though wouldn’t the number of components and versions of components in a library grow exponentially over time? Sounds really hard to manage, especially when you have multiple files inheriting from one library.

​@Apolline Yeah I’ve had similar issues, though reloading a tab before applying changes from libraries seems to help some.

I’ve also encountered this issue projects I’ve been working on. It is somewhat of an Achilles heel within Figma, trying to have designs which don’t change for dev, QA, and archival purposes. (There were many disadvantages of Zeplin but it handled handover and archival pretty well)

One way I’ve found to manage it is by using the branching system in an unconventional way. At the end of every sprint we create a new branch in the handover file, and add the designs of that sprint to the new branch. After sprint is complete we don’t accept any updates from library. 

It’s pretty much the same as having a separate file for every sprint handover (which is what I’d recommend if branching not available), but the branches reduces the number of files we have.

Hello!  Yes this is the issue with Figma not formally supporting this. lol

I think to avoid this we can unpublish the older versions of the component when ready. I’m still exploring the best way to do this. I think this would effectively “break” project mockups from the library, but I’m NOT sure. I’m curious if republishing them would bring that connection back. Before trying this and risking bulk detachment, I’m going to let some time pass to make sure the link isn’t needed anymore.  I could also just setup some dummy components and try this out...