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Updates to how drafts work

Written by Figma Man

Updated at June 19th, 2025

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Table of Contents

Why we're making this change What to expect Move a file out of ‘Drafts to move’ Frequently asked questions

Note: On October 15, 2024 we rolled out the new drafts experience to everyone who doesn't have it yet. If you are part of this group, you can now access your external projects and files by clicking the name of the current team in the file browser. 

We’re in the process of moving Drafts into teams on the Starter and Professional plans. Moving forward, each team now has its own Drafts space.

Your draft files are currently in a temporary space called Drafts to move, where you'll be prompted to transfer them into Drafts on one of your teams. These files will stay private to you and anyone you share them with, no matter which team you move them to.

A comparison showing how teams are no longer grouped in the left sidebar of the file browser, with a single drafts space to serve them all. Teams can now be found under a switching menu, and each one has it's own drafts space.

Why we're making this change

We found that our current drafts model—where drafts live outside of teams—causes unclear ownership, lack of team association, and inconsistent product experiences.

Learn more about this change on our blog →

What to expect

  • You can continue to create and edit drafts free of charge, and you can continue collaborating with other people for free in Starter teams.
  • You can switch between each team you’re a member of using the team switcher in the file browser sidebar.
  • After you move a file, people you’ve shared the file will have view access. 
  • On the Professional plan, all of your team’s paid features—like password protection, advanced prototyping, and Dev Mode will now be available in your drafts, depending on your seat type.

Move a file out of ‘Drafts to move’

drafts-to-move.png

When you navigate to Drafts to move, you’ll be prompted to move files into a Drafts space within the team of your choosing. Once all files have been moved out of Drafts to move, the section will disappear from your sidebar.

  1. From the file browser, click Drafts to move in the left sidebar.
  2. Hover over each file you’d like to move and click Move.
  3. Select a team to move the draft into, then click Move.

Tip: You can also choose to bulk move or delete drafts. It’s not possible to recover deleted drafts.

Frequently asked questions

Can I keep sharing files and working with other people for free?

Yes, you can collaborate for free in a project in a Starter team.

Starter teams have one project with up to three design files and three FigJam files in them. You can share these files with edit access to unlimited collaborators.

To migrate drafts to a Starter team:

  1. Create a new Starter team.
  2. From Drafts to move, select relevant files and move them to your Starter team Drafts. This will temporarily give view-only access to anyone you’ve shared the files with.
  3. In your new Starter team, move your files from Drafts into the available project. If you have more than three design files or FigJam files, you may need to condense them down.
  4. You can now re-grant edit access to anyone you’ve shared the file with.

Tip: If your collaborators only need view access, this change won't affect how you work together. You can move your files into Drafts on any plan and continue sharing the files with can view access.

Where should I do my personal work now?

You can keep working in draft files. The main difference is Drafts are now associated with a team, rather than a user. Now, each team you’ve joined has its own Drafts section.

For your personal work, we recommend creating a free Starter team and continuing to work in your drafts in the Drafts section of that team.

From Drafts to move, you can click Move all to send all your existing files into Drafts on your new Starter team—even if there are hundreds of files.

One important note: if you typically collaborate with other people in your drafts, you’ll need to move them from Drafts into a project on your Starter team. Each Starter team can have one project, with up to three design files and three FigJam files. You can share these files with edit access to unlimited collaborators. For larger scale collaboration, please see our guide to collaborating with clients in Figma.

I’m on the Professional plan. How do drafts work now?

There are two main changes to be aware of:

  • All the paid features of your Professional team are now available in draft files, like Dev Mode, password protection, and advanced prototyping.
  • If you typically share your draft files with others, both you and the recipient need a paid seat to edit the file. For free, small-scale collaboration, you can always create a Starter team to work together.

Note: On a Professional team, people with a free View seat can continue creating and editing unlimited draft files in the team. They'll only need to upgrade to a paid seat if they want to share the files with other people.

If I move my draft files to a Starter or Professional team, will they become visible to other people on that team?

No. Your draft files will remain private to you and whoever you share them with. After you move your files, you’ll be able to find them in the Drafts space of the team you move them into.

Your draft files will only become visible to other people on your team if you decide to move them out of your Drafts and into a project.

Will everyone I’ve shared the draft with still have access after I move it?

Yes. However, after you move the file, people you’ve shared the file with might not be able to edit the file any more. For example:

  • If you move the file into Drafts in a Starter team, you’ll need to move the file to a project to give other people can edit access.
  • If you move the file into Drafts in a Professional team, anyone invited to the file with can edit access will now have can view access. You can restore their edit access at any time. 

Caution: There is one exception where people you’ve shared the draft with will lose access after you move it: If you have a View seat and you move the file into Drafts in your Professional team, anyone invited to the file will lose access. You’ll have to request an upgrade to your seat to keep sharing drafts with others moving forward. You can tell if you have a View seat by clicking Share in a file. Figma will prompt you to upgrade your seat to keep sharing.

Why can’t I move my drafts into my company’s organization?

Before this update, members on the Organization or Enterprise plan couldn’t move drafts created in External teams into the organization. To protect the security and privacy of your organization, we’ve kept this behavior the same.

Note: If a draft belongs in an organization, we recommend you save a copy of the file to your computer and then import it into the organization. If the file uses styles or components from a team library, it won’t receive any library updates after it is imported.

This method won’t work with deleted drafts. You’ll need to move deleted drafts into a team before you can save a copy to your computer.

Can I hide ‘Drafts to move’?

It’s not possible to hide Drafts to move, but you can quickly move all your drafts into a team in one click, or permanently delete them. Once all drafts have been moved or deleted, Drafts to move will disappear from your sidebar.

Why can’t I open some files to review them before moving?

If the draft file is in the Deleted Draft tab, it means you deleted the draft file at some point. It’s not possible to open these files in Drafts to move. You can move the file into your Drafts in a team to review the file and decide whether to keep it or delete it again.

One of my teams has a ‘Locked’ label. Why?

If a Starter team has the Locked label, it means the team has exceeded the limits of the plan. To understand why, navigate to the team with the label and click the banner at the top of the page. You’ll see advice for how to unlock the team.

I’m an admin of a Professional plan team. What should I expect from this change?

Moving forward, collaborating in drafts requires a paid seat. To prevent unexpected upgrades when a draft is moved into your team, we’ll change the access from can edit to can view for collaborators invited to the file.

These collaborators need to re-request edit access to the file to keep working on it. If they don’t have a paid seat on your plan, they’ll need to upgrade to keep editing.

Over time, if more co-editing happens in existing drafts—or if people share new drafts—you could expect to see more upgrade requests or an increase in paid seats in your team. If you want more control over seat upgrades in your account, consider adjusting your seat approval settings.

I’m an admin on the Organization or Enterprise plan. What should I expect from this change?

Side-by-side screenshots of the before and after state. In the before shot, there is an item in the sidebar called External teams. In the after shot, all the teams are present in the team switcher.

Previously, everyone in your organization could navigate to their Starter or Professional teams by visiting External teams. With this update, External teams has been removed and each team outside your organization now has its own dedicated space, with a Drafts space in each team, to make it easier for people to find their files and make sure they are in the right place.

In Drafts to move, draft owners are being asked to organize their external drafts into any Starter and Professional teams they use outside the organization.

Some key things to consider:

  • This change does not have any access or billing implications for your account.
  • People won’t be able to move these external drafts into your organization. This matches the previous behavior, where people couldn’t move drafts into your organization from External teams.
  • All of your settings and controls around external content remain unchanged.

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