NOTES FOR: FILE CORRUPTION, " CANNOT SAVE FILES ", " CANNOT OPEN FILES ", OR " DON"T HAVE PERMISSION TO... " ISSUES:
1: FILE CORRUPTION: /// OS & Application compatibility
This is probably SOP for most but I started using Affinity products 3+ years ago and had eventually spread my process over separate machines and different Operating Systems. So I first checked to make sure that all versions of Affinity products were operating on the proper OS they were designed for. I also begin making sure to monitor files that migrated between older and newer environments and made sure to save them often and in a more programatic naming system, IE: Date created- file # - and Tag or "Name" ( 2022-001-filename.afdesign ) or ( filename-001-2-14-22.afdesign ) and saving multiple files so that I had at least 3 working versions of the file from different dates/times to insure that I wasn't loosing more work than I was comfortable with at any one time. ( Especially for large files )
2 FILE CORRUPTION PT 2: /// NEED MORE RAM
Memory allocation was a critical part in resolving many of the issues for one of my machines. I would recommend purchasing more RAM for your machine if you are having slow performance, crashing, or issues saving your larger files. The inability to manage application and device resources due to a lack of RAM caused all of these issues for one of my machines. Not having enough RAM caused at least three of my files too corrupt, including the the file that prompted my post, because my machine simply ran out of RAM needed to finish processing a save request. On a MAC you can use your Activity Monitor app. from Utilities to view the amount of Memory being used when your applications are running. A good way to tell if you need more RAM is to run the activity monitor while saving a file and if your computer uses all of your memory and/or you start to see it using large amounts of Swap memory you might need more RAM. ( This is of greater importance if you have very little storage left on your machine. IE: 1tb machine with 10 gb available. )
2. " CANNOT SAVE FILES ", " CANNOT OPEN FILES ", OR " DON"T HAVE PERMISSION TO... " ISSUES: //// REINSTALL OS. **** WITH CAUTION ****
If step one and two still don't help, and if you use a MAC with the most current OS, you might need to completely wipe your internal drive(s) and install a fresh version of the OS before downloading and installing the most recent version of Affinity software. YES, that's right, COMPLETELY DELETE YOUR HD! I spent several hours with upper level MAC Support on this. There is apparently an issue surrounding the how the install occurs and how your OS is updated, and how they are tied to you appleid/keychain as this process has changed in the last few MAC OS releases. If done in the correct sequence, No Problem, if not then you get the "Do not have permission to... " or "Cannot Save File" error messages and no amount of sorting through your preferences will change this.
The resolution that finally worked for me was to....
FIRST STEP: Thoroughly back-up/SAVE everything from your machine that you need before doing anything else. Use timemachine or whatever you prefer just make sure you get everything you want saved on some other drive or machine because this resolution requires deleting the entire volume(s).
( *Note if you haven't done this before please read up before trying as you will need to familiarize yourself with using the apple key commands for " Internet Recovery Mode" and" Recovery Mode" and how you will need to use them with DISK FIRST AID; This might take a good deal of time to complete ) (*Please make sure to have all the documentation/Serial#'s you need for application installs ready as you may need them to re-install some applications and their updates. )
SECOND STEP: Only after you have created a complete backup of everything you want saved, and I do mean EVERYTHING, please double check... Make sure you are connected to the internet, then use the Disk First Aid Application to completely erase your HD. ( I had to erase my machines HD multiple times because the first aid would complete the erasure and create an extra phantom drive leaving me with two HD's. Apple Support explained that this was normal and was part of the difference between the original/factory OS and the newest OS which was part of the reason for the permissions errors. )
THIRD STEP: After you have erased the HD enough times to have a single drive remaining then you will need to use either "internet recovery" or "recovery" and reinstall the native OS or original factory OS on your HD and continue installing the OS updates all the way to the most current OS without installing anything else until the final OS is completely installed and updated. Then you should be able to reinstall all your applications and have permissions restored.
This was as far as I needed to go to resolve all of the permission related and file opening and saving related problems if your are still having issues I would contact Apple support and explain that you are having issues with the installation of the most recent OS update. They are aware of these compatibility issues and can be very helpful in resolving them or at least explaining if you might need to take an additional step to achieve the same results I did.
3: IF YOU ARE STILL HAVING ISSUES THEN.... Check Font Compatibility:
After going through all of the above I still had some files open with display issues and no matter what I did I could not select the fonts that were displayed improperly. The problem turned out to be POSTSCRIPT fonts. I've been working as a designer for quite some time so I have many fonts from long long ago. These older fonts can be read by a number of applications but they are becoming less and less compatible. I would recommend updating to the OTF or TTF versions of your fonts to ensure that the Affinity applications can use them along with any other font management software you might be using.
Hope this helps.
Best of luck.
