diff --git a/src/main/endpoints/formatText.ts b/src/main/endpoints/formatText.ts
index 0566f8d..2c46b7a 100644
--- a/src/main/endpoints/formatText.ts
+++ b/src/main/endpoints/formatText.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,13 @@
 import { NodeInfo } from "../../types";
 import { createEndpoint } from "../utils/createEndpoint";
 
+// Cached across all formatText calls in a session. listAvailableFontsAsync is
+// one of the most expensive Figma API calls; calling it once per node during
+// a multi-node pull would multiply the cost unnecessarily.
+let availableFontsCache: Font[] | null = null;
+// In-flight promise prevents concurrent callers from each issuing the request.
+let availableFontsPromise: Promise<Font[]> | null = null;
+
 export type FormatTextEndpointArgs = {
   /** The text that is to be displayed in the textNode. Can contain some basic html tags that will be replaced */
   formatted: string;
@@ -64,12 +71,13 @@ export const formatText = async ({
     return ranges;
   };
 
-  let cachedAvailableFonts: Font[] | null = null;
   const getAvailableFonts = async () => {
-    if (!cachedAvailableFonts) {
-      cachedAvailableFonts = await figma.listAvailableFontsAsync();
+    if (availableFontsCache) return availableFontsCache;
+    if (!availableFontsPromise) {
+      availableFontsPromise = figma.listAvailableFontsAsync();
     }
-    return cachedAvailableFonts;
+    availableFontsCache = await availableFontsPromise;
+    return availableFontsCache;
   };
 
   const getFontsOfFamily = async (font: FontName) =>
diff --git a/src/main/endpoints/getConnectedNodes.ts b/src/main/endpoints/getConnectedNodes.ts
index 6562235..a3c2253 100644
--- a/src/main/endpoints/getConnectedNodes.ts
+++ b/src/main/endpoints/getConnectedNodes.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
+import { TOLGEE_NODE_INFO } from "@/constants";
 import { NodeInfo } from "@/types";
 import { createEndpoint } from "../utils/createEndpoint";
-import { findTextNodesInfo } from "../utils/nodeTools";
+import { findTextNodesInfo, getNodeInfo } from "../utils/nodeTools";
 
 export type ConnectedNodesProps = {
   ignoreSelection: boolean;
@@ -12,11 +13,29 @@ export const getConnectedNodesEndpoint = createEndpoint<
 >("GET_CONNECTED_NODES", async ({ ignoreSelection }) => {
   const basedOnSelection =
     !ignoreSelection && figma.currentPage.selection.length > 0;
-  const items = basedOnSelection
-    ? figma.currentPage.selection
-    : figma.currentPage.children;
+
+  if (basedOnSelection) {
+    // Selection path: still walk manually since selection may be a subtree of
+    // any depth and `findAllWithCriteria` only operates on the whole page.
+    return {
+      items: findTextNodesInfo(figma.currentPage.selection).filter(
+        ({ key }) => key,
+      ),
+      basedOnSelection: true,
+    };
+  }
+
+  // Page-wide path: let the Figma runtime filter by plugin-data key natively.
+  // This avoids recursing through every node in JS and calling getPluginData
+  // on every TextNode — O(all nodes) → O(connected nodes).
+  await figma.currentPage.loadAsync();
+  const connected = figma.currentPage.findAllWithCriteria({
+    types: ["TEXT"],
+    pluginData: { keys: [TOLGEE_NODE_INFO] },
+  }) as TextNode[];
+
   return {
-    items: findTextNodesInfo(items).filter(({ key }) => key),
-    basedOnSelection,
+    items: connected.map(getNodeInfo),
+    basedOnSelection: false,
   };
 });
diff --git a/src/main/utils/settingsTools.ts b/src/main/utils/settingsTools.ts
index 40f00d0..d00be79 100644
--- a/src/main/utils/settingsTools.ts
+++ b/src/main/utils/settingsTools.ts
@@ -9,18 +9,25 @@ import {
 import { emit } from "@create-figma-plugin/utilities";
 import { setPageData } from "./pages";
 
-const getGlobalSettings = async () => {
+const getGlobalSettings = async (): Promise<Partial<GlobalSettings>> => {
   const pluginData = await figma.clientStorage.getAsync(
     TOLGEE_PLUGIN_CONFIG_NAME,
   );
-  return pluginData ? (JSON.parse(pluginData) as Partial<GlobalSettings>) : {};
+  if (!pluginData) return {};
+  // clientStorage may return an already-parsed object (Figma auto-parses JSON
+  // strings, or old data was stored without JSON.stringify). Handle both.
+  if (typeof pluginData === "string") {
+    try {
+      return JSON.parse(pluginData) as Partial<GlobalSettings>;
+    } catch {
+      return {};
+    }
+  }
+  return pluginData as Partial<GlobalSettings>;
 };
 
 const setGlobalSettings = async (data: Partial<GlobalSettings>) => {
-  await figma.clientStorage.setAsync(
-    TOLGEE_PLUGIN_CONFIG_NAME,
-    JSON.stringify(data),
-  );
+  await figma.clientStorage.setAsync(TOLGEE_PLUGIN_CONFIG_NAME, data);
 };
 
 export const deleteGlobalSettings = async () => {
diff --git a/src/ui/hooks/useConnectedNodes.ts b/src/ui/hooks/useConnectedNodes.ts
index 291a8d9..e3b885c 100644
--- a/src/ui/hooks/useConnectedNodes.ts
+++ b/src/ui/hooks/useConnectedNodes.ts
@@ -13,6 +13,12 @@ export const useConnectedNodes = (props: ConnectedNodesProps) => {
   return useQuery(
     queryKey,
     delayed(() => getConnectedNodesEndpoint.call(props)),
-    { select: (data) => ({ ...data, items: data.items.filter((n) => n.key) }) },
+    {
+      select: (data) => ({ ...data, items: data.items.filter((n) => n.key) }),
+      // Keeps data "fresh" long enough that an optimistic cache patch written
+      // by useSetNodesDataMutation.onSuccess prevents an unnecessary full-page
+      // rescan when returning to Index right after a connect/disconnect.
+      staleTime: 30_000,
+    },
   );
 };
diff --git a/src/ui/hooks/useSetNodesDataMutation.ts b/src/ui/hooks/useSetNodesDataMutation.ts
index 7d6d328..d1d6324 100644
--- a/src/ui/hooks/useSetNodesDataMutation.ts
+++ b/src/ui/hooks/useSetNodesDataMutation.ts
@@ -3,22 +3,51 @@ import {
   setNodesDataEndpoint,
 } from "@/main/endpoints/setNodesData";
 import { getConnectedNodesEndpoint } from "@/main/endpoints/getConnectedNodes";
+import { getSelectedNodesEndpoint } from "@/main/endpoints/getSelectedNodes";
 import { delayed } from "@/main/utils/delayed";
+import { NodeInfo } from "@/types";
 import { useMutation, useQueryClient } from "react-query";
 
+type CachedNodes = { items: NodeInfo[]; basedOnSelection: boolean };
+
 export const useSetNodesDataMutation = () => {
   const queryClient = useQueryClient();
   const result = useMutation<void, unknown, SetNodesDataProps>(
     [setNodesDataEndpoint.name],
     delayed((props: SetNodesDataProps) => setNodesDataEndpoint.call(props)),
     {
-      onSuccess: () => {
-        // Mark connected-nodes data stale without triggering an immediate
-        // refetch. Refetching on every keystroke walks the entire page tree
-        // (see getConnectedNodes with ignoreSelection: true) and froze the UI
-        // while typing. Stale data is refetched on the next mount, e.g. when
-        // navigating back to Index/Pull/Push after Connect.
-        queryClient.invalidateQueries([getConnectedNodesEndpoint.name], {
+      onSuccess: (_, { nodes }) => {
+        // Patch the page-wide cache directly so returning to Index does not
+        // trigger a full-page rescan. useConnectedNodes uses staleTime:30s,
+        // so fresh data here prevents the redundant allNodes.refetch() call.
+        const key = [getConnectedNodesEndpoint.name, true] as const;
+        const old = queryClient.getQueryData<CachedNodes>(key);
+        if (old) {
+          const patch = new Map(nodes.map((n) => [n.id, n]));
+          const updated = old.items
+            .map((item) =>
+              patch.has(item.id) ? { ...item, ...patch.get(item.id)! } : item,
+            )
+            .filter((item) => item.key && item.connected !== false);
+          // Add newly connected nodes that were not tracked before
+          for (const n of nodes) {
+            if (
+              n.key &&
+              n.connected !== false &&
+              !old.items.some((i) => i.id === n.id)
+            ) {
+              updated.push(n);
+            }
+          }
+          queryClient.setQueryData<CachedNodes>(key, {
+            ...old,
+            items: updated,
+          });
+        }
+        // Mark selection stale so Index re-fetches node characters after
+        // navigating back from Pull (Index remounts, mountedRef resets to
+        // false, so the route-change effect never fires on that remount).
+        queryClient.invalidateQueries([getSelectedNodesEndpoint.name], {
           refetchActive: false,
           refetchInactive: false,
         });
diff --git a/src/ui/views/Connect/Connect.tsx b/src/ui/views/Connect/Connect.tsx
index f29f2d4..46bacd3 100644
--- a/src/ui/views/Connect/Connect.tsx
+++ b/src/ui/views/Connect/Connect.tsx
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ export const Connect = ({ node }: Props) => {
       nodes: [
         {
           ...node,
-          translation: resolvedTranslation || node.characters,
+          translation: resolvedTranslation ?? node.characters,
           isPlural: isPlural ?? node.isPlural,
           pluralParamValue: pluralParamValue ?? node.pluralParamValue,
           key,
diff --git a/src/ui/views/Index/Index.tsx b/src/ui/views/Index/Index.tsx
index b3eaf8b..3d9a9fc 100644
--- a/src/ui/views/Index/Index.tsx
+++ b/src/ui/views/Index/Index.tsx
@@ -109,7 +109,11 @@ export const Index = () => {
     }
     if (route[0] === "index") {
       selectionLoadable.refetch();
-      allNodes.refetch();
+      // Skip the page-wide rescan when the mutation already patched the cache
+      // (useSetNodesDataMutation.onSuccess + staleTime:30s keeps it fresh).
+      if (allNodes.isStale) {
+        allNodes.refetch();
+      }
     }
   }, [route]);