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PDF exports saved to iCloud Drive Affinity folders don't reopen with Preview


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PDF exports saved into an iCloud Drive Affinity folder do not reopen with the Preview app, but the Affinity app that initially created the PDF.

 

Assumptions:

- I have an iCloud account set with iCloud Drive and Affinity Publisher, Photo and Designer applications have set their own folders in there.

- PDF files genuinely open with the Preview app by default on my Mac.

 

However:

From any Affinity app, if you export any kind of PDF file into an iCloud Drive Affinity folder, when you double-click on it, it will not open with the Preview app, but with the Affinity app that initially created the export file.

Strangely enough, in the Finder, if I right click on the PDF, the default app to open PDF is set to Preview. And it opens with Preview if I click again Preview from this contextual menu. But, if I straight double-click on the PDF, it will open the Affinity app that initially created it.

If the PDF is then moved away from the iCloud Drive Affinity folder to anywhere else, it will then open properly with the Preview app if I double click on it.

I managed to replicate this issue with all 3 Affinity apps running v1.8.1, on an iMac and a MBP both running Mojave.

 

Grateful if someone can replicate this issue too.

 

-macOS Ventura - Affinity Suite v2.2.1

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Wow, that's interesting. Based on what you said, I just made a test. I have an old PDF sitting on my desktop that happened to be created with InDesign (the point being that Affinity never touched that file). Double-clicking that file opens it in Preview as I expected. Then I simply dragged it into the Affinity Designer folder in my iCloud folder (I don't have one for Publisher), and tried double-clicking. That time it opened it in Designer.

It seems those application folders on the iCloud Drive have unique behavior, and that appears to me to be an intentional behavior of the Finder. Serif can have no control of that, because it is the Finder that chooses which app to send a file to.

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OK fair enough. As you tested it, it seems to me as a Finder bug. It clearly should not behave this way as the default app to open PDF is Preview as per the Finder "open with" settings. Whatever the folder it resides on, any PDF must open with the Preview app.

Now if you drag your PDF file out of the iCloud Drive Affinity folder and put it in the root of iCloud Drive or in any other non-Affinity folder, it will then opens with Preview.

The way Finder behaves with those iCloud Drive Affinity folders is odd: you will notice that you cannot save or put any txt file into them for instance. jpeg, pdf OK but txt no.

So, any "compatible" files located in the iCloud Drive Affinity folder, will open with the relevant Affinity App.

Clearly a bug to me. Don't you think?

 

-macOS Ventura - Affinity Suite v2.2.1

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It may be a Finder bug as you said, but I don't use the Mac generated folders for the respective apps it creates in iCloud, and I have had no problems.  I created my own folders in iCloud for all my work in each of the Affinity apps, and have had no problems w the PDF's I've created and exported from Publisher opening in Preview by default from the iCloud folders I created. 

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I fully agree with you as I used to do the way you described, having my own folders, and had no issue too.

As a matter of interest, a PDF generated by the Pages app saved into the iCloud Drive Pages folder, opens with Preview.

In my opinion, the issue is with the Affinity apps and their relevant default iCloud folders. As I said, a right-click on a PDF clearly shows it must open with Preview, but when you double-click on it, it launches the Affinity app that created the PDF. Might not be a Finder issue on its own as the Pages iCloud folder behaves OK.

-macOS Ventura - Affinity Suite v2.2.1

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Ah interesting.  Annoying for sure.  ☹️  I've never had much luck or control with the auto generated folders in iCloud for certain apps.  For one thing it doesn't allow much if any subfolders, and I quickly did away with using them because they are not reliable or consistent when using non-Apple apps, but maybe I just don't know how they are really supposed to work under the hood. :)

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