File Duplication

[MousePods]

Hi,

I am having an issue with iCloud and Affinity designer where, as far as I can tell, if the file isn't downloaded to the iPad, the file will duplicate when saving. 

My work process is:

1. Make a new file.
2. Name the file and Save a Copy to iCloud.
3. Move the file to the affinity designer folder in iCloud.
4. Open the the file through "Open From Cloud".
5. Then I just save the file normally as I work on it.

If I have a file called Tom and save the file, I will get Tom 1. Then I can save it again and get Tom 2.

I don't know how to get a file undownloaded from iCloud so it's hard to test. All I know is that when the download icon is in the upper right corner, the file will sometimes duplicate.

Is this a known issue or am I doing something wrong?

[DM1]

9 hours ago, MousePods said:

Then I just save the file normally as I work on it.

How do you normally save the file?
For example the Save option on the Project screen (where you see the files icon) always creates a 'new' copy of your file in the default save location. So, Tom,Tom1,Tom2 etc.
If you just use the back arrow on workscreen that should update the local edits into the file you 'opened from cloud’ after using Save a Copy. 
If you saved a copy, then used 'open from cloud' to open and edit that copy, you will now have a new menu option in Document menu which is called 'Save'. This will also update the open file in its 'saved' location.

It helps to understand that AP and AD keep a copy of your file in there 'sandboxed' memory. Edits are made to this copy. How you loaded this copy will determine whether a file exists outside sandbox.

It appears to work like this.

Start a new file. This creates a sandbox file that can only be accessed by Affinity. This is the icon you see in project screen. You cannot access this file with Files app to move, backup etc. Generally not secure.

Use Save from the Project screen (Hamburger/3lines menu). This creates an .afdesign/.afphoto file in the apps default save location (iCloud or On My IPad Affinity Folder). Every time you tap Save it creates a NEW file.

Alternatively you could use Save a Copy in the Workscreen Document menu. Note at this point every time you use Save a Copy it now gives you the opportunity save a new copy or overwrite the old copy. The real benefit of this method is that it allows YOU to choose a save location anywhere you prefer.

Now if you close the file you created, use the project screen hamburger menu and close there, it will remove the initial file from sandbox (gone forever). Don’t panic yet. Go to Open from Cloud, navigate to the location where your copy was saved (saved using either method), and open the file. This creates a new sandbox version that is linked to the .afdesign/.afphoto file. You can work on other files and come back to project screen, tap the file icon and still be linked to the .afxxxx file in your folder. Much safer. Now any changes you make will appear in the project screen icon but more importantly will be saved back to the .afxxxx file.  If you lose the sandbox version for some reason you still have the .afdesign version (up to date) to reload via Open from Cloud. This method also creates a new menu option. If you look at the Document menu you will now see a Save option (in addition to Save A Copy).

If you use Import from Cloud you simply create a new file and will need to repeat the above if you want your work to be backed up safely.

Sorry for long post but it helps to know how iOS works with Affinity else you can lose lots of work. 🙂

[MousePods]

30 minutes ago, DM1 said:

Now if you close the file you created, use the project screen hamburger menu and close there, it will remove the initial file from sandbox (gone forever). Don’t panic yet. Go to Open from Cloud, navigate to the location where your copy was saved (saved using either method), and open the file. This creates a new sandbox version that is linked to the .afdesign/.afphoto file. You can work on other files and come back to project screen, tap the file icon and still be linked to the .afxxxx file in your folder. Much safer.

Thank you so much for the long post and the explanation! It helps to understand how everything works. Unfortunately, I think I am working with the documents correctly, but it is still saving multiple copies. Maybe there is a glitch where somehow the connection is lost?

I always create a new document, save a copy, close the document in the project view, then using the + icon to open from cloud and using File > Save in the document whenever I want to save.

I don't know if this helps, but here is a video of the issue.

If you pause the video at 11 seconds, you can see that it even says the correct file name it is saving to as "Buzzsaw Rail Tiles.afdesign" to iCloud Drive: not Buzzsaw Rails Tiles 2.

Is there anything else I can show that would help the developers?

Thanks!

[DM1]

I just learned something new. When saving to iCloud as default location and using Open from Cloud, the edits don’t update automatically, you have to tap Save on either Document menu or hamburger menu. I normally use iPad as save location. When saving locally, tapping Save on the Hamburger menu definitely breaks the link between sandbox and afdesign file that was providing the auto update on local storage. Now you have to manually save to add the edits to the afdesign file. Strange behaviour.
 

Regarding your video, It looks like you have default save set to iCloud and looking at icons of Buzzsaw Rails Design.afdesign I can see a cloud symbol next to one of the copies so I think what you are seeing is something to do with synching between the iCloud copy and the sandbox copy. It actually says it’s saving the file to iCloud and shows the same file name but creates an incremental copy! It’s like it sees an unsynched file with same name and so creates a new name for the file it is uploading. The only way I can create incremental copies with same name is to save a copy and not choose overwrite.

 

[MousePods]

I don’t know how to stop it. Every time it starts duplicating I have to delete the duplications and then just reopen the file again using open from iCloud and it will work for awhile.

Its frustrating as sometimes I will have several files that have duplicates so it takes awhile to sort it out. 😭

I hope this is an issue with AD and not something to do with iCloud.

[MousePods]

@Sean P Just wondering if there is a fix coming for this issue?

Thanks!

[Gabe]

Hi both,

Sorry for the delay in responding.

I can't replicate this here either. Any chance you can attach a screen recording of your entire workflow, in case we miss something?

[MousePods]

Unfortunately this is impossible to duplicate easily. I cannot seem to figure out how to remove a iCloud file from local download on my iPad. I know that after awhile, the files app will remove files locally for space reasons. When this happens the file will only exist in the cloud. When I click save in the affinity app, I believe it will see that there is no local file (it is only in the cloud now) and save it with a 2. The only solution is for me to then delete the original file, remove the 2 from the file name, and reopen it.

Is there a way to remove the file locally on the iPad? If not, is there a way to check if the same filename already exists and ask to replace that instead of creating a duplicate?

On macOS, if you open the file then right-click and click Remove Download on the file, you cannot save the file (of course). I believe what is happening is that on iPad, because of how it works, it will save the file and save it as <filename> + 2 because the link between the local file was broken when the local file was removed by iPadOS and only existing in the cloud.

From my previous post above, in the video, that file was only stored in iCloud and it just keeps duplicating. I never removed that file from the AD app using the Close option.

Thanks!

[MousePods]

Bump

[Gabe]

We could still not replicate this issue. iOS has a really weird way of managing storage, and you cannot "force" fill it.

Even though it is "full", it's not really full and you can still download stuff. Files could not have used 319gb of a 32gb iPad...