v1.8.3.2 crashes - changes not saved despite having saved the file

[grafxbylisa]

Starting to think my issue might be related to iPadOS (13.4.1) since the issues I’m having started around the same time I updated my iPad Pro (2nd gen, 12.9”). Here is my issue:

Open a New Document in Designer. Do some work. Save file from within the document via the “Save” option. Save to My iPad. Do more work on document over several days/weeks. Prior to exiting document or Designer, hit that Save button each time. Wait for file to save. Walk away and/or exit Designer.

Come back to Designer. App has crashed/restarted (most of the time but not all of the time). Open my document - all changes done prior to last save are gone.

However, if I save the file from within (as above), and then ALSO exit the document (whereby it saves the file again) - if the app crashes and/or I manually close Designer, reopening the app & that document retains (saves) changes.

The document in question (most important one) is simply a multi-layered pixel project (drawings, black & white). There might be around 40 layers but as mentioned, simple black & white pixel drawings on each layer. It doesn’t seem to matter what file/document it is. The app crashes a fair bit lately and a lot of work is lost.

[grafxbylisa]

Also forgot to add that I have the “auto-save” duration at 30seconds in Settings. Apparently that’s not working either.

Additionally, if I close Designer and open the document in the Files app, it’s the same result - all changes gone.

I have restarted my iPad a few times over the last while but the “file not saved” problem persists.

[DM1]

9 hours ago, grafxbylisa said:

Open a New Document in Designer. Do some work. Save file from within the document via the “Save” option. Save to My iPad.

Just to be clear, if you open a new document, there won’t be a Save option available in the Document menu (only via hamburger menu on Home screen). In the Workscreen you would  need to use Save a Copy first, then close the original file, then use Open from Cloud to open the newly saved copy, then you get a Save menu. Saving now updates the 'copy'.
Easier to use Save in Home screen Hamburger menu, then you get Save option in workscreen and don’t have to close the current file and open the copy.
 

The benefit of the Save a Copy option is that you can choose any location to save the file to. The downside is that you then need to close the current sandboxed version to load the copy version, or else you will be working on the wrong version. 

[Sean P]

Hi grafxbylisa,

The 'crashing' you're seeing, is not actually the application crashing, it is the way the iPad unloads applications to free up memory when you're using other applications. So when you go back into it, it has to reload completely. If you've got any open documents then these are closed down. I have seen a lot of reports of people saying this is a much more frequent occurrence in iOS13.

With that said we're aware of an issue where the Save option you've highlighted isn't working consistently, so that would explain why your work is regrettably being lost. The best thing to do when you need to save is just return to the homescreen as that is saving without issue.

If you go into Preferences there is an option to switch the Default Save Location to the 'iCloud Drive', so any newly created documents are created in your iCloud drive folder and are saved in there when changed (not enabling this won't switch existing documents on the home screen).

[grafxbylisa]

Thanks for your replies!

I understand about the Save As as well as the Save on the hamburger menu on the Home screen. I should have mentioned that I had saved the document both via the hamburger menu as well as within the document (to cover all saving angles). And to reiterate, I was/am saving it to my iPad, not to the cloud.

The particular project I’m working on (for several weeks now), as I said is a several pixel layer document, black & white, basically a multi-layer “pencil” drawing - it is only 3000x2000px in size (300dpi). Saving the document has become the bane of my existence in very strange ways.

A couple of weeks ago I started noticing that it was taking longer and longer to save the file. So I thought I should try to merge some of my layers thinking that maybe there were too many. Funny enough, the merging seemed to take longer and longer, and so did saving the document... so much so that it was never certain if the document would be saved at all. For perspective, a month ago, saving took about 3-5 seconds. A week ago if it saved in 5 minutes that was fast.

By the way, as far as the merging goes... it seems like Merge Down or Merge Selected takes longer than Merge Visible (hide all but the layers I want to merge). So maybe this is another thing to look at?

I tried a few things... copying all of the layers then opening a new document and pasting them there. That seemed to alleviate some of the time for saving the document (whichever way I did it, either within the document or on the Home screen). In fact, I just did that copy/paste thing again and the saving/exiting the document is super fast - back to the 3-5 second range. I make duplicates of my documents, you know, just in case something goes awry... though sometimes work is lost and must still be redone.

As for the “crash” (not a crash as you said), it doesn’t always happen, and very often when it does, I usually only have one or two other apps open (usually Photos and Safari).

The saving (any way I did it) *was* working until recently. So I’ll keep backing up and tweaking my way through.

Glad to know that there is an awareness of the issue.

[DM1]

Maybe try deleting some of the history. Might free up more ram?