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Does Figma Automatically Save?
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Does Figma Automatically Save?

If you’re on this page you might be wondering if Figma automatically saves your files or if you have to manually save them. The answer is..

Pierluigi Giglio
September 19, 2023

If you’re on this page you might be wondering if Figma automatically saves your files or if you have to manually save them.

The short answer is:

Yes, Figma does automatically save your files when it’s connected to the internet.

This means that if you are not connected to the internet, your Figma files won’t be saved, but do not worry.

Figma will simply keep the progress you made on the file as a local copy and, once your computer is connected to the internet again, it will automatically save your .fig file.

Is the Autosave in Figma reliable?

Yes, the autosave feature in Figma is reliable.

As a designer, having used Figma for the past 5 years, I never had issues where a file was lost due to the autosave feature.

That said, if you want to force a manual save or simply download the Figma file within your computer, you can easily do that by following the steps outlined in the sections below.

How to download a Figma file manually?

Downloading a Figma file on your Mac or PC is very easy, you’ll simply need to click on the top left menu (the one with the Figma icon) and then select File > Save local copy…

File > Save local copy

This will enable you to download a .Fig file, which is the file type of Figma files. To upload in Figma you will simply need to drag and drop it on top of the Figma main dashboard.

How to create a backup of a Figma file?

Although there is no intrinsic need to create a backup of a Figma file since this design tool already uses an Autosave feature, you can still create one by clicking on the top left menu (the one with the Figma icon) and then select File > Save to version history .

Save to version history

What this will do is create a copy of the current progress in the Figma file to the version history, which is a feature that allows you to go back in time and see past iterations of that very Figma file you’ve been working on.

Can I see past saved files in Figma?

Yes, by visiting the Version History within Figma.

You can access the Version History by simply clicking on the center of the top black menu the arrow next to the name of the file and select the first option, which is “Show version history”.

Show version history

Once you’ve done that, you will see on the right a column with a series of recent autosaves showing you past versions of your Figma project.

figma version history

Simply click on the desired one, check it and then you can click next to the name of that saved file “restore this version” and you will restore that very version.

Restore this version

Please note that this might override your current file, so the safest way to proceed with this would be to simply use the Duplicate feature, which will create a duplicate of that Figma file within your account.

By doing this you will have both your original file and your past saved version.

We hope this guide was helpful, if you want to learn more about Figma please check our other tutorials.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pierluigi Giglio

Sr. UI/UX Designer and Consultant with over 10+ years of experience working with Fortune 500, large enterprises and funded startups. Having worked on hundreds upon hundreds of design projects, collaborated with 40+ clients from all around the world and taught design to thousands of students I am very grateful that I have the opportunity to give back to the design community and help other become better designers.

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