Assets tab open by default

Hi ​@Fedo ,

I understand that you're experiencing an issue where the Assets tab opens by default instead of the File tab whenever you open a file.

I tested this on my end and here’s what I observed:

• In Chrome: The tab that was open when you last closed the file will appear the next time you open it. For example, if the Assets tab was open when you closed the file, it will reopen with the Assets tab by default.

• In the Figma Desktop app: When I open a file, it initially shows the Assets tab by default, just like you reported. However, after clearing the cache via the Apple menu bar → Help > Troubleshooting > Reset Figma and Restart, the File tab opens by default when reopening a design file.

I also checked internally and couldn’t find any other recent reports of the same behavior.

If the issue persists on your side, I recommend reaching out to our Support team using this secure form: Submit a request
If possible, please include a screen recording of the issue showing your full screen — this will help the team investigate further.

Thanks!

as we know,  none of the official docs say “you can set which tab opens by default” or “the default has changed to Assets”.

Try opening the same file in the Figma web version (in Chrome/Firefox) and see if the default tab is File or Assets. If the behavior differs, it might point to the desktop app version being the issue.

Hello everyone.

After getting to work today, things started working out normally again in Figma, with the latest tab left open, being the default one when opening a file, without doing anything in particular.

Thanks for the support!

I’m experiencing the same issue. After restarts of the Figma Desktop the side panel always switches on load from “File” to “Assets” (there’s a split second where I can see that the panel switches from its last state to “assets” – noticeable when I throttle internet speed). I did try “Reset Figma and Restart” but this behaviour is still happening and quite annoying.

Hello, did you also try cleaning the cache?

https://help.figma.com/hc/en-us/articles/22380853110551-Clear-the-Figma-desktop-app-cache

I also tried and had no luck, but maybe for you it’ll work.

I couldn’t pinpoint what fixed it for me, but after 2 days of this problem, turning on the PC today, it was back to its “normal behavior”.

Hope it’s gonna be fixed soon for you aswell! 

Yes even went as fas as uninstalling Figma and clearing all preferences / settings in the ~library folder. No luck so far.

Same here.

When I leave a file via the Figma icon (“Back to files”) and then go back to the same file, it defaults to “Assets” even though I didn’t have it open when I closed it. This has been happening for a couple of days now.

Atp my best guess is that it’s some sort of A/B testing going on…

Hope it goes back to working as before for you guys aswell, sorry I can’t be of more help, hopefully some dev gets back to this thread if it’s a bug!

Experiencing same issue for a couple of weeks or something. Clearing cache didn’t help. If it’s some kind of A/B testing then Figma designers clearly don’t know what they are doing since whole that “new UI” thing reveal.

Same issue here. Clearing cache didn’t help. Resetting Figma and restart didn’t work. Getting a bit annoying.

The same thing is happening for me on the desktop app for mac. Resetting Figma and clearing the cache didn’t fix the problem. This isn’t the end of the world, but it’s annoying.

Same issue! Hoping this gets addressed soon as it’s very annoying.

I have the same problem on the Desktop application.

It’s funny how something as little as that is really annoying!

For God’s sake, Figma is trying way too hard to act  “developer friendly” but I can tweak just about everything in VS Code and still can’t hide a tab I barely even use in Figma?

fix it yesterday!

I’m having the same issue here, tried to restart figma and everything but still it defaults to the Assets tab...so annoying.

Hey All, thanks for continuing to flag this issue! 

Are you still having issues with this behavior?

I just tested this, and it’s not happening for me using a macOS in the browser or the desktop app.

As mentioned previously by ​@Junko3, the only way I can get my design files to default to the Assets tab is if I select the Assets tab before closing my file. If my file/layers tab was last selected when closing my file, the next file I open will also be in the file/layers by default.

On Windows app it happens like right now.

Thanks for confirming, ​@Варвара Каратаева!

Just to confirm, this happens regardless if you have the File/layers tab selected when leaving any Figma design file and reopening the same file or another file? And may I ask if this is also happening for you using Figma in the browser?

I don’t have a Windows device to test this out immediately, but with a bit more context, I’ll pass this onto our team to investigate further.

Regardless.

Can’t tell, I set browser links to always redirect to the app.

Unrelated but I somehow perfectly timed each GIF lol

Thanks for the screen recordings, ​@Nuzza! 

To clarify that we’re both completing the same steps:

• ​​​​In the desktop app, after selecting the File/Layers tab, I only close the active file’s tab within the desktop app. Then, I open the same or a new design file from the file browser. I don’t completely close the desktop app.
• In the browser, after selecting the File/Layers tab, I also close the active file’s tab then open the same or a new design file from the file browser. I don’t refresh the active file’s tab.

In any case, can you confirm which OS you’re using? And are you using the latest version of the desktop app? 
The team has an ongoing bug report for this issue now. I’ll pass this information to them while they continue to investigate.