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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.

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

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?

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'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,

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

Hi, we have a weird issue here. A lot of our users are not able to open Publisher files. As soon as we try, it crashes. If we try and open the file directly on the Server , it crashes. If we try and open the file from within Publisher, it crashes. Publisher will open if I don't open any files. I have attached a crash dump. I've also tried upgrading to v2.1, but it makes no difference. We are currently running this on Windows 10 Pro and the files are located on a Synology NAS. Can anyone assist or point me in the right direction for a resolution? Its really impacting a deadline we are working towards! Thank you in advance. e240ed31-cec2-46d9-9958-a9778cfeaa13.dmp

Hello, now I use the the version 2.1 on my iMac M1. I still hve the problem that the system trys to connect to any server (like my NAS). So I can't start Affinity Photo. The Designer works perfect... My old message from the version 2.04 😉 Hello all, in principle all parts of the programme (V.2) run perfectly on an iMac M1. I have a Synology NAS running in my network. Unfortunately, the Affinity programmes can only be started when the NAS is switched on. The programmes do not start when the NAS is switched off. After some time, I get the Apple message that the server "NAS" is not accessible. However, no programme parts or data...

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?

I use Synology Drive as my principle document file system, using the Drive Client, so all my affinity files are in their already. i don't really understand why you don't do it like that?

first of all, no idea where to post this really, this is one the few forums that was enabled to select and seemed relevant. I'm on iPad Affinity Designer. Wanted to draw something then join some strokes but every other time I did that, the app crashed without saving. Very annoying, please fix that! I updated my iPad version but issue remained. Then wanted to update the app version (usually you do that first, I know) but the app is up-to-date? I actually found Affinity Designer 2 in the app store, don't know what that it. Why is that not replacing my version? Anyways, then i wanted to uninstall the app and reinstall BUT you need to first save/backup your files. I don't automatically save to the iCloud, but always save to On My iPad and send files to other devices later via dropbox. Here's some feedback on that (if you're interested) - Affinity doesn't backup your files if you save to On My iPad. If you uninstall your app, all your files are gone - Not good - If you want to make a backup of your files manually you have to first change the Default Save Location in the settings to iCloud and then save each file separately by clicking burger menu in the bottom right corner of the file (in the overview) and then "save". - "save" is not saying much and saving one by one is of course annoying - "save" will save to the iCloud and only to the iCloud - Why not other locations like Dropbox? Why not to a backup folder on the iPad? Whatever, I did all that, but when I save the files, every other file saves a backup on the iPad anyway and NOT in the iCloud. This seems random and buggy. All I wanted was to join some strokes EDIT: if I open a file on my iPad and click on Save A Copy I can very well save in Dropbox (so I didn't imagine that part after all and that's how I usually save my stuff) or in Synology Drive. But how come I cannot set that as the default save/backup location.

Hello, My Synology (NAS) went offline due to a power supply failure, and since then I'm unable to launch Affinity Photo 2.0.4, apparently, due to Photo wanting to access that failed volume for recent documents, etc. I tried launching from a different account and Affinity Photo 2.0.4 did launch. So, I went back to my account ,held down the control key, and launched to the reset dialogue to "clear" it from attemting to access "Recent documents" but no luck - it still just sits with the spinning beach ball while it tries to access the disconnected server. You'll see my selections in the attached screen shot - notice how the "clear" button is just stuck in the "pressed" state while I get the attached error message about not being able to connect and the application remains in an unrepsonsive state. How can I manually clear recent documents and reset Affinity Photo 2.0.4? I'm in a time crunch and I need to use it from my current account before I'll have my NAS running again. All help is appreciated. Thank you, J. P.