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I've not forgotten about your issue @Demys. I've been trying to replicate it, on and off, with my Synology using 2.4 & 2.4.2 and different files, but still struggling to replicate. I can see that Nathan logged a similar issue in this thread that could be related and when fixed, may resolve your issue too. Would it be possible to provide a screen recording of the process you're going through and the issue occurring? Might help us replicate - feel free to DM me with a link to a recording if you're not wanting to share it publicly. I can also provide a Dropbox link if needed to upload the files to.

Hi, I'm working on file wich use linked exr 3D render. The affinity files, and the exr render are on a NAS drive wich is connected to my windows as network drives, so they have their own letter and not just an IP. A lot of the time, when i load the af files i'm getting a low resolution image, without any error message about something missing, and i need to replace the linked file with himself within the Ressource Manager to get the true resolution. Even if the file path are exactly the same. The small preview also shows a difference, but excepted the resolution, everything look the same. Some files are working, some are not, even when the configuration are the same. The working ones show me this icon: The non working this one But they both are in the exact same folder windows 11, Affinity photo 2.2.0 and now 2.2.1, synology NAS DS220. Connected by wire, no stability problem on my local network. Regards,

Dear All, I was working on a Vector Graphic in Designer. Suddenly the program stopped working and said "the file appears to be corrupted". I'm working on Windows. The file is not on my laptop, but saved on our private Synology Drive. I have been working on that file for a while. There have been Affinity updates since I began working on it. The last backup is 1 week old. I tried opening the file in publisher, still corrupted. Is there any way to restore my file? Thanks in advance, Judith Biodiversity.afdesign

Hello @Tom W. and welcome to the forums. I also have a Synology NAS but I use Windows. Do you access the files via SMB, AFP or NFS share protocol?

Apologies for the delayed response here - unfortunately I'm not personally aware of any workarounds for this issue, as no specific settings for Synology seem to change this behaviour in Affinity. I have however 'bumped' this issue with our development team to bring it to their attention once again for you. I hope this helps!

Eigentlich ist der Fehler nicht komisch. AFDe (welche Version?) vermutet irgendwas noch auf dem alten Server (Synology NAS DS216?). Bist du sicher, dass alle Verweise auf dieses NAS angepasst wurden? Gibt es vielleicht innerhalb der Dokumente noch (harte) eine Links? Gemounted wird das NAS auf deinem Mac ja wohl nicht mehr sein.

@Dan C do you perhaps know of another workaround? I noticed other oddities when working in different layouts. When I export a publisher layout where I have not yet zoomed in to force loading, it sometimes happens that the affected graphic is not exported as a vector, but as a rasterized pixel image. If I then simply export the document again, the export in the second file is correct. It has also happened to me twice now that a placed graphic was not exported at all and was missing in print. Has your colleague been able to reproduce this, or has any tips as to whether you need to do anything special in the Synology settings?

Hey Dan, the damaged file is uploaded, thanks for your effort in advance. Following your requested information: 1. OS: Windows 10 Pro 22H2 2. Affinity Version: Affinity Publisher V2 Version 2.3.1 3. File was last saved on a local disk within a synchronised folder with Synology Drive. Sadly there is no older version of the file available on drive. 4. The error occurs short after or directly after saving (I'm not 100% sure) Don't hesitate to ask for further information, kind regards, Farin

Every time I launch AP I get this "Can't connect to Diskstation" error message, regardless whether the Diskstation in not mounted on the iMac . Why is AP looking for this each time, how do I stop it? I'm totally unable to run any batch jobs, even off my iMac HDD because eAP looks for the Diskstation. thought initially I had a server issue but It now apparent its almost certainly AP as I only get this with AP and its everyone I launch it. On launch If I click OK I can continue to work no problem BUT on batch jobs it just crashes. Thanks.

This photo was taken using my A7IV's APS-C mode. I just took a new image and the horizontal dimension is 4736 on the RAW file when shooting in APS-C mode. However, this has also occurred with full-frame files and even jpegs from my Pixel 6 Pro in the past. This image of two flamboyant cuttlefish shot using my Pixel 6 Pro in jpeg form was corrupted in July 2023, however the image has existed since the previous December and was already posted online. Unfortunately, the corruption was so bad that it corrupted the bottom half of the image. I ended up having to Frankenstein what was left over of the full res file with lower res versions of the image posted online. Unfortunately I don't have the corrupt version of this image anymore. Notably, this occurred when importing the image into Affinity over an OpenVPN tunnel that I was using to connect to my Synology NAS while I was out of state. The more recent corruptions have occurred regardless of whether I am using OpenVPN to connect to my NAS or whether I am on the same network as my NAS. It also occurs when I have the image stored locally on my computer and not my NAS. Curiously, the DSM viewer does not seem to acknowledge that the corrupt pixels exist. By that, I mean that the corrupted pixels are missing altogether in its preview of the images, as though the image were cropped. However, this corruption again only occurs after importing a file into affinity for editing.

Many thanks for your continued patience here! A colleague of mine has been able to replicate this on their Synology SMB drive, and therefore I have logged this with our developers for further investigation. However they also noted that if you set the PDF on the Context Toolbar from Interpret, to Passthrough then back to Interpret - then save, close & reopen the .afpub file, this stopped occurring for him, so hopefully this allows you to workaround the issue also

I don't personally, though a colleague of mine uses Synology SMB without such issues - though I have asked them to double check this using your files provided to see if we can replicate it. That's unlike behaviour I've seen previously, thanks for providing these for me - just to verify, is both the .afpub file and the linked PDF on your external drive, or only one of these documents? If you move one/both of these files to your local disk, does this stop occurring please?

Do you have any tips on which network protocol I should use? I'm currently using a Synology DiskStation with SMB. Do you use another one internally like AFP or similar? I tried using the different zoom levels of the keyboard shortcuts. However, that didn't help. I need to zoom to a value greater than about 1100% for something to happen. I'm attaching a video for you. The video was made with the test settings you recommended (OpenGL) so I can say that unfortunately this doesn't change anything. Zoom.m4v

I'm new to Affinity products, but I have very similar problems with Designer and Photo and I've read similar things from other users here. I can say for myself that I have been working for decades with a wide variety of programs in different networks, e.g. Windows NT, Linux, Synology and even such special ancient systems as Kirschbaum. I have never had such file problems. For me, the probability clearly shows that Serif programs have problems dealing with networks, not the users. This is a fundamental problem and I would be very grateful if this were confirmed and resolved as a matter of priority. To be clear, copying a file locally for the time being may be a temporary solution, but it is not a solution. Half the world works with networks and clouds, but at Serif you copy to local data carriers? I don't understand that.

I have never read or experienced anything like this - except now with Affinity. I have been using NAS (in my case Synology) for many years. NAS directories are integrated into the network as WebDAV drives and I have never known of a single program that cannot work over the network. Even large files, including InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and many others, can be opened over the network without a local copy. The only exception so far is Affinity Designer, which I recently switched to. If what the colleague above writes is true - and my current experience painfully confirms this - Affinity is stuck in the digital stone age, despite all the invaluable advantages in this respect. I would be delighted if this elementary problem were solved as quickly as possible, even before all the new functions.

Sorry for the delay in replying @Demys - I have the same Synology NAS box at home. Will give this a test over the weekend and see if I can replicate. I take it you're using an SMB share?

Merry Christmas to you all for trying to help me. after a lot of testing i've understood that the issue is very much because the file system i'm using is within my Synology Drive Client. Yes they're local files and folders on my PC, but they're inside my Synology Drive, which syncs up and down to my NAS. If i move an icon thumbnail webp out of the Drive folders and into a OneDrive or local folder, for instance, the image thumbnail renders. when i move it back, it doesn't again. i know that Synology doesn't show webp thumbnails ON the NAS and i'm fine with that because i work on the local files and folders, but how it's reaching down into my Windows file system and saying, in effect, "well i don't support this so you can't either," i don't know. but it's the only realistic explanation, and the only explanation left. talking to Synology Support about this is pointless because they'll neither confirm or deny that a fix is in the works, and they wouldn't give a date for future fixes anyway, but since this is an Affinity forum, think i should apologise, because it's not an Affinity issue. If you have any suggestions or genius hacks, i'm open the hearing them. Mapping the network drive works, actually, but it's a clunky webDAV solution, and if you don't know it, Synology Drive is an excellent piece of software, so i would really like it to work.

Hi, thanks for your suggestions, my solution was to use the collect feature inside the Resource Manager and point all the files into my local drive, now everything works smooth, it doesn't matter that is a sync folder (synology sync drive), I am attaching/linking the new images from the network drive, I imagine that with time it will get slow again, but I guess I will collect all the images once again. Thank for your help!. -Luis

Yes, deleting the lock file will solve the problem, look like I'll need to delete lock file every time if I open the file stored on the Synology, this problem didn't exist with V1, only with v2.

Yes, I can see there are some ".afphoto~lock~" files, shouldn't the app auto delete those lock file when I closed and saved the file? I'm on Synology with the latest DSM. Thanks

Hi, I will buy a NAS unit Synology DS918+. Can I use this unit and edit/save directly from the unit plug-in to my router (for now High Sierra), in real time without problems using my 3 Affinity programs? Any know problem with this NAS unit and Affinity apps? Thank you very much for all your help. Best regards.

Are you looking for a free alternative to Adobe Acrobat? Then Stirling PDF (https://www.stirlingtools.com) might be just the thing. Alternatively it is possible to host the Stirlingtools in your own network. However, this requires some knowledge of Docker to host the Stirlingtools on your (home) network. All you need is a single board computer like the Raspberry Pi (4GB or more) or similar. I run the tools in a Docker container on a Synology Diskstation. Follow the link to the projects github page: https://github.com/Frooodle/Stirling-PDF

Thanks for your reply. Both the two points you mention are possible with Synology Drive. Sync-On-Demand even, and saving as .af files. But it's true that I embed all my images and graphic resources, so in that is case syncing files across device through the Synology cloud isn't an issue. Is that what you're referring to the need to sync a .af file that refers to a separate resources folder?

Hi. On Windows there is pair of files name.arw and name.afphoto. Both files are stored in the same folder on Synology nas. When I try to open name.afphoto with Afinity Photo v2 on iPad I see message window „Resource file missing, would You like to locate them?” My answer is YES. BUT. During opening afphoto file - File manager was open in folder on Synology, now is open on „Recent folder” - KK. WHY not the same folder ? Next, when I locate disired folder I see unlinked arw file but it is grayed out and I can’t relink this file. Darek

And i apologised. i was navigating in and out of agnostic local folder trees on my C drive. i didn't forget that these were sync folders, but because i couldn't see how Synology could be affecting local files on local folders on a windows PC, i set it - mistakenly - aside and concentrated on the evident problem; why are these files on my PC not showing thumbnails when they should? there is no setting in the Synology Drive Client that says "f*** my system up."