Re-create a master from an instance?

Select the component, and the master is actually gone (not linked) then you should be able to click Restore Component in the sidebar.

If it isnt showing that, then it means that you are still linking to that design system or other file. You should be able to right click on the instance and click “go to main component”

If that doesnt work, then you might need to just go to your asset panel, go into the linked design systems, and disable the one that is feeding these components to you. I am not 100% sure if it will break all of the links, but at the very least you can click “restore main component” and it should pop up somewhere nearby.

Also, there are several plugins that search for instances that are linked to a different component and changes their links to a new component. Useful for me when I was trying to combine multiple design system files into one, as I moved everything together and then had to relink a bunch.

Great suggestions, thank you. To better explain my problem, I no longer have access to the original library and because I am on a new corporate Figma account, none of my former file or library sharing setting apply. Your suggestion about somehow “tricking” the component instance into thinking the master was somehow deleted and needed restoration is good.

The Libraries panel references the missing library with its 19 components and 28 styles. I have the option to reassign the used styles and components to another library but that’s the problem – there is no other library. Hmm, could I create a new but empty library and “push” the used components and styles into that?

Off to experiment.

Hi @Ron_Fernandez1 did you find a solution or process for re-creating masters from instances? I have a file that has instances of a main component, but no matter how I’ve tried to relink and enable libraries, I get an error for ‘you don’t have access to this file’.

This would be a fantastic feature, or plugin if someone knows of one?
Even if you have access to the master component, on many many occasions I’ve wanted to break away an instance, but KEEP it as a component, with all the variants etc. If I could just say “create new master from this instance” I would be so happy. Kind of surprised this doesn’t exist?.. 😕

Bumping a 2 year old thread.

I also have this issue. Customer sent me a .fig file they saved locally. They do not have access to the file where the master variants were made. Figma still shows the instances, but “Go to main component” is not showing and there are no assets in the asset panel.

Two years later, still an open issue.
I was unable to trick the components into “moving” into a new library.
Figma is great but the networked aspect can really make file management unbelievably confusing, especially if someone not on the original design team takes a file and runs with it. Good luck!

Here’s what I found for a work around.

The Regressor plug-in will create every variation from the instance, but it renames them poorly. So there’s another plug-in called Set Instance Property as Name.

This seems to be a close work-around. The naming plug-in doesn’t work perfectly but the dev is active.