Detaching component instances is a practice that's commonly
frown upon by pro Figma users, especially when working with design systems. Detached instances make maintenance
difficult, can cause inconsistencies in your design and complicate developer handoff.
Fortunately, Master plugin now has a complementary tool to
efficiently manage and resolve these issues:
Fix Detached Instances plugin finds and
lists all detached instances, allowing you to select and navigate to them. Once located, you can reattach
instances to their original main components.
Any changes you made to the detached instances would be
preserved as overrides where possible. This helps maintain the integrity of your design without losing the
customizations you've applied.
However, there are situations where reattaching a detached
instance to its original component may not be possible without resetting all the changes. In such cases, use
Master plugin to create a new component from the detached instances, effectively integrating it
back into your design system.
See the Fixed Detached Instances plugin in action:
Reattach instance or extend the system?
Steps to resolve detached instances using Fix Detached
Instances and Master plugins:
Find: scan the file for detached instances, select and locate them in the file using Fix
Detached Instances plugin
Resolve: decide whether you should attach them back or create a new component in the design
system using Master plugin
Next up let's take a closer look at both approaches and when
you should choose one over the other.
Reattach with Fix Detached Instances
Often detached instances are often have significant
differences from the main component which makes override preservation difficult. In order for changes to be
preserved in instance when reattaching, its layer structure needs to exactly match the original main component.
Start by using the Fix Detached Instances plugin to scan your file and locate all detached instances.
Select instances in the list and navigate to their location to check them visually and examine the layer
structure.
Try reattaching them to the main component and see if the changes are preserved.
In case the attached instance is reset to the default state,
it's likely that some layers got reordered, added or removed after it has been detached. Undo the action and try
to change the layer structure to match the main component.
If reattaching removes important details, you could create a
new component to extend the design system instead.
Create new component with Master
When reattachment isn't possible, use the Master plugin to
create a new component from the detached instances and extend your design system.
Unlike native methods, Master plugin allows you to turn
multiple instances at once into a single new component and keep the differences between them as overrides.
Use Fix Detached Instances plugin to select instances that should be turned into a new component.
Use Master → Create Component from Objects. This will create the component and attach selected detached instances.
Cut & paste the new component into your design system and if necessary place it in the variant set
together with the original main component of the detached instance.
Example
Here is an example where an icon is added to the detached
button so it can't be attached back to the original button without losing changes:
Instead of replacing this button, it would be nice to add a
new button type to the design system: button with icon. Let's see how it can be done with the help of Master
plugin:
Steps are clickable and are tied to video segments.
Copy the detached instance and reset it to default state, turn it into new component
Use right click or Shift + I, Plugins → Master → Pick Target Component
Select all detached instances you want to attach to this new component
Use Master → Link Objects to Target Component, all selected objects will be attached to the component you
picked
Finally, move the newly created component to the design system or ask the DS maintainers
to add it
Of course this approach is scalable to any number of
detached instances and it would be especially valuable with complex structures with a lot of nested layers that
would be hard to override manually.
Tips for best results
Preserve overrides: Make sure the detached
instance has the same layer order and structure as the main component for successful reattachment.
Regular checks: Periodically scan your
design files to catch and fix detached instances early. Run a check before handing off the file to engineers.
Prevention > restoration: Try to prevent
users from detaching components in the first place by making them easy to use and customize.
Collaboration: Enable your users to
contribute back to the design system and use Master plugin to clone
components instead of detaching.
