Designer iPad recent changes to a file not saving

[drippy cat]

Hi,

I have a curious problem with Affinity Designer for the iPad. I spend some time drawing out and editing shapes on a file then quit Designer. When I come back a day later and open Designer I find that most of the work I've done has been saved apart from the last few things I did. I've checked the History studio and it bears out what I see on my screen. The last few things I did were not there when I came back to my work.

The work is dragging out and editing simple shapes, using the round corners tool, duplicating shapes and creating groups. The problem has happened fairly consistently although the amount of objects created and edited seems to vary. The worst case was when I created 5 simple rectangles to test how many would be there when I opened Designer after a day. None were there when I opened the file, but also I found that a group I'd duplicated and moved wasn't there and a shape I'd duplicated & moved, flipped horizontally and changed the color had only been duplicated and moved. The flip horizontal command I'd given from the transform studio hadn't been recorded or anything after that.

I've tried making a snapshot from the History studio to see if that makes a difference. I was also wondering about how I quit Designer. Normally I just swipe up from the bottom of the screen. Would going back to the Gallery before I quit make a difference? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Paul Mudditt]

55 minutes ago, drippy cat said:

Hi,

I have a curious problem with Affinity Designer for the iPad. I spend some time drawing out and editing shapes on a file then quit Designer. When I come back a day later and open Designer I find that most of the work I've done has been saved apart from the last few things I did. I've checked the History studio and it bears out what I see on my screen. The last few things I did were not there when I came back to my work.

The work is dragging out and editing simple shapes, using the round corners tool, duplicating shapes and creating groups. The problem has happened fairly consistently although the amount of objects created and edited seems to vary. The worst case was when I created 5 simple rectangles to test how many would be there when I opened Designer after a day. None were there when I opened the file, but also I found that a group I'd duplicated and moved wasn't there and a shape I'd duplicated & moved, flipped horizontally and changed the color had only been duplicated and moved. The flip horizontal command I'd given from the transform studio hadn't been recorded or anything after that.

I've tried making a snapshot from the History studio to see if that makes a difference. I was also wondering about how I quit Designer. Normally I just swipe up from the bottom of the screen. Would going back to the Gallery before I quit make a difference? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

You absolutely must return to the Affinity home screen otherwise as iPadOS reclaims memory it will mean everything since the last auto save will be lost. You should also reduce the auto save interval down to 30 seconds from the default 300 seconds.

[DM1]

1 hour ago, drippy cat said:

then quit Designer.

How are you quitting the app? 
If you tap the back arrow to Home screen it should save changes to Sandbox (not to a .afdesign file though). When you next tap the icon on Home screen the changes should still be there.

If you simply switch apps via the iPad home button, there is a likelihood that iOS will release ram to make it available to other apps, resulting in a loss of data back to your last save/autosave.

In either case best practice would dictate using Save (Home screen or Workscreen), to create/update an  .afdesign file (outside of sandbox). 

[drippy cat]

Thank you to both of you very much! You've both helped me out in more ways than one...

Simon

[Saraheros]

Thank you! But beginner question: where is the save tool/menu item in Affinity Designer in the workspace? I have located it in the gallery view (burger menu) but where is it when you are working? 

[DM1]

4 hours ago, Saraheros said:

where is the save tool/menu item in Affinity Designer in the workspace?

A trap for beginners, the Save option in the Document menu does not become available until the file has been saved.  I know, that sounds crazy but it’s true. 
You will find Save a Copy, but if you use this, you will need to reload the saved copy and work on that. After loading the copy (Open from Cloud) you will see you have now got a Save option available that saves to the current file.

The simplest way is to use the Home screen (Projects) 3bar Save option. Now when you open the file you will find a Save option (under/over) the Save a Copy. Now when you save you will update the file you are working on and also the afdesign version stored in the Default Designer folder.

Why have Save a Copy, I hear you say, well it allows you to choose a save location other than the default location offered by the Home screen. However it is a copy, not the 'active' file. To make it the active file, you need to close the current file and open the copy using Open from Cloud. Now you have a Save option available in the workscreen document menu.

To further confuse newbies, if you open a file using Import from Cloud you are creating a new copy of the file and need to go through the whole save process again to get this new file out of the apps sandbox memory.

I hope this hasn’t confused you even more😁

[Saraheros]

excuse my acronym, but wtf? 

Well, I can't change the program but that sounds really odd.

I am trying to establish a workflow, so I don't lose things in the future as I did last week. What microsteps would you suggest at the beginning of a new file, starting from a template that I created?

And by "Home" screen, do you mean Gallery view?

And by 3bar menu, do you mean burger menu?

 

Thanks so much in advance.

[DM1]

7 hours ago, Saraheros said:

And by "Home" screen, do you mean Gallery view?

And by 3bar menu, do you mean burger menu?

Yes and yes🙂

 

7 hours ago, Saraheros said:

What microsteps would you suggest at the beginning of a new file, starting from a template that I created?

It depends a little on whether you are happy to stick to the default save folder (iCloud or iPad), if so I suggest the following:

1. create new file (or from a template). This opens in workscreen.
2. return to ‘Gallery' (back arrow) and use burger menu to name/rename the file. 
3. use burger menu to Save the file. (Creates an .afdesign file in default Designer folder). 
4. tap icon in Gallery to open in workscreen and you now have a Save option in Document menu. 
5. make edits and Save before switching apps. This updates both the sandbox (icon file in gallery) and the .afdesign file in the default Designer folder.

Paul’s suggestion above to reduce the time period between auto saves is also a very good tip for beginners.   

Returning to Gallery should also update the file. Not returning to Gallery, or not Saving prior to switching apps may result in loss of work as IOS will reallocate ram to other apps as needed. Until you save, or the app auto saves, your most recent edits are stored only in ram (volatile memory) and can disappear for ever😩

You might also like to have a PDF copy of the help file that you can browse/search while using the app.

 

[Saraheros]

Thank you so much!!! This was extremely helpful for me. I have one more issue related to this, but I will experiment a bit and see if I can figure it out first. Thanks again so much!!!!