Here’s Why You Can’t Edit Text in Figma

As a collaborative design tool, Figma allows you to invite multiple people to work on projects. While this is handy in speeding up your work and enhancing collaboration, it can also lead to issues. Conflicting access rights and unintentional changes may lead to you being unable to edit the text in your Figma projects.

This article covers two of the most common reasons you might not be able to edit the text in Figma. It also offers some solutions that may restore editing functionality.

Another Editor Moved the File

Improved collaboration is brilliant until another editor on the project makes a change that restricts your access. In some cases, your inability to edit text may result from another editor moving the Figma file to their drafts or another team or project. While you’ll still have access to a read-only version of the file, you’ll no longer be able to edit it. There are two ways to fix this problem.

Method No. 1 – Duplicate the File

Duplicating a file that you can access but can’t edit allows you to restore your editing privileges. However, it’s not a perfect solution. Duplicated files lose their version history data, so you don’t have a record of who made changes or when.

To duplicate a file, you first need to create a team and a project for it to work on using these steps.

1. Open the file browser and navigate to the “Create new team” button on the left sidebar.
   
2. Click the button and name your team.
   
3. Select “Create team.”
   
4. Invite any collaborators you want to be team members by entering their email addresses. Alternatively, select “Skip for now.”
   
5. Choose a plan for the team between the Starter, Professional, and Education options.
   
6. Click the team page and click the “New Project” button in the menu bar.
   

Set up the new project for your team, and you’re ready to duplicate the file that you currently can’t edit.

1. Enter the file browser and locate the file you can’t edit.
   
2. Right-click and select “Duplicate” to generate a copy of the file.
   
3. Drag the file in your team project to transfer it.
   

You should now have complete ownership and editing capabilities of the duplicated file.

Method No. 2 – Transfer the File Back to Your Team

Another editor may have accidentally transferred the file to their team, thus limiting your editing capabilities. This method assumes you can contact the editor, and they’re willing to transfer the file back to your team. A transfer restores the file and retains the previous editing data you lose if you duplicate.

1. Click an empty spot on the canvas to deselect any selected layers.
   
2. Select the project’s filename in the toolbar.
   
3. Click “Move to project.”
   
4. Type the name of your project team into the search bar and select “Team project” below the team name.
   
5. Click “Move” to complete the transfer.
   

The File Uses a Font You Don’t Have

Figma provides users with a catalog of Google Web Fonts for their projects. These fonts are standard to Figma, meaning all users can access and use them. However, Figma also allows users to purchase and use other fonts, in addition to using fonts they’ve stored locally on their computers.

The local storage function can also lead to you being unable to edit text.

If Figma can’t access a font you have in local storage that has also been used in the document you’re editing, you’ll be unable to change the text. You can fix this problem fairly quickly in both the Figma desktop app and the browser-based version of the platform.

Figma Desktop App

The Figma Desktop App is available for Windows PCs and devices running macOS. Once you’ve installed it, follow these steps to access your local fonts in the platform’s font picker.

1. Select either your text layer or a portion of the text within the layer.
   
2. Navigate to the text properties in the right sidebar.
   
3. Click the drop-down arrow on the right of the font in this sidebar.
   
4. Select your desired font family.
   

Browser-Based Figma

Accessing local fonts in the browser-based version of Figma requires you to install the platform’s font service manually.

1. Head to the Figma download page.
   
2. Scroll to the “Font installers” section and select the installer for your operating system.
   
3. Open the download file.
   
4. Click “Install.”
   

The executable will run and install the Figma font service onto your desktop. Reboot Figma, and you should be able to access your local fonts. This allows you to edit the text in your Figma document again, assuming it uses a font you have stored locally.

Regain Your Text Editing Abilities

Losing the ability to edit the text in Figma is a frustrating experience that can lead to delays in project completion. Often, the issue arises because of font conflicts or mix-ups in document ownership. The solutions in this article help you solve both of those problems so you can start working without restrictions in Figma again.

Now, we want to hear about your Figma experiences. Do you think Figma could alert document editors if something occurs that prevents them from changing their documents? How has losing the ability to edit text affect your work schedule? Let us know in the comments below.