multiple Affinity files not generated by me

[Mary675]

Just purchased Affinity Photo.  Have only tried it on 2 photos.  Now I find many of my phot files have Affinity photos that I didn't generate.  I don't need all those files to delete.  How do I stop this?

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums, @Mary675.

If you're on Windows, it may simply be that Windows is putting an Affinity Photo logo (and file type) on your existing JPG, TIFF, or PNG files because Photo was the last application that registered itself as a handler for them. But that does not mean that your files have been changed, or that any other files have been created. If you configure Windows File Explorer to show the file extensions it may be clearer what is going on.

 

[Mary675]

Still lost.  What is Win file manager and I still don't understand why my files are changing.

[PaulEC]

Open the folder with your photos. Click "View" then tick the box that says "File name extensions", then the file name will include the type of file that it is (jpg, png, tiff, afphoto etc).

Windows and/or the Affinity apps can't just change file types. If you open a file in Affinity Photo and than save it, it will normally create an .afphoto file, but it will not change or overwrite any other file, it will be in addition to it. (If you want to "save" a file from Affinity Photo as any type of file, other than .afphoto,  you need to "export" it, rather than "save" it.)

I suspect that what you are seeing is Windows indicating what program the file opens in, rather than what file type it is.

[walt.farrell]

Sorry; I meant Windows File Explorer (and I've fixed that, above).

Again, it is my belief that your files are not changing. Windows is simply displaying a different file icon and maybe a different file type, because that's the way that Windows works. When you install an application and it registers itself as capable of handling that kind of file, Windows makes those changes. But Windows also provides you with mechanisms to specify what application you want to use to open the files, and if you choose some other application that will change the file type and the icon that Windows displays.

One thing I would recommend: make sure you've told Windows to display file extensions. You can do that in File Explorer, using the View tab:

 

 

[IanSG]

43 minutes ago, Mary675 said:

Still lost.  What is Win file manager and I still don't understand why my files are changing.

"Win file manager" is Windows Explorer - type <windows key>e and that's what starts and shows you your files and folders.

Your files aren't changing - Windows Explorer is telling you which program it will use to open those files.