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I can't get Designer to save my files in any folder containing my work. Every time I click on SAVE AS, name the file, and select a location, I get the warning: "Save failed because you do not have permission to create a file in that location." We're even talking about my Documents folder. Why would I not have permission to save files in my Documents folder? Just to reassure myself, I did a Get-Info on the Document folder and, for sure, I have the permission to Read and Write to that location.

Also, I can't open a .jpg created by Photo because Designer doesn't recognize the file type. Again, this is the same .jpg that caused Photo to freeze after creating and saving it.

Can someone tell my what may be happening here?

With freezes and failures to save and open files, I haven't been able to work for days.

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Have you tried repairing permissions?

https://www.macworld.com/article/1052220/repairpermissions.html

You can do the same thing from Disk Utility’s First Aid

  • Press CMD + Space to get spotlight
  • Start typing disk utility until it shows and press return
  • 352060791_ScreenShot2020-07-07at06_54_37.png.702ffbee79c8ae1ff13166cf62dbfcde.png

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
B| (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum)

Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions

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In the article I was referred to by another forum member, there is reference made to an option on the lower right-hand corner of the Disk Utility First Aid window go repair permissions. As the screen shot above and the one I've attached shows, that option doesn't exist in Catalina. I had run TechTool Pro 12 hoping it would catch those problems for me.

Screen Shot 2020-07-07 at 8.22.37 PM.png

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Not coincidentally, the “repair disk permissions” option in Disk Utility — long used for troubleshooting various Mac problems — has now been removed. System Integrity Protection should prevent crucial file permissions from being tampered with, anyway. The Disk Utility has been redesigned and still has a “First Aid” option for repairing errors, but includes no way to repair permissions.

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Every other program I have can save a file to a folder I created on my hard drive. Designer won't. It keeps giving me the message: "

Save failed because you do not have permission to create a file in that location.

Do you wish to save the document to a new file?"

Affinity Photo saves a file anywhere I want to save it!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have this same problem, but with Windows 10 Pro.  I am using Designer 1.8.3.641.  I can save to any other directory (and other drives), but not the Documents folder.  All of my other apps can save to the Documents folder, but Designer can't/won't.

Could this be a problem in the Install not setting up the application's permissions correctly?  Other applications ask if the app should be installed for the current user or all users.  I generally install for all users, if given the chance, but the Designer install doesn't give that option.  I don't know if that is part of the issue.

FWIW, I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Designer.  No change.  Still won't save to any folder in the Documents folder.  It will read the files, but not save to it.

I have even copied the Designer folders that are in the Documents folder to another drive/folder and Designer will both read and save the files in that folder.  Just not in the Documents folder.

This appears to be a specific problem between Designer and the Documents folder on Windows 10 (and, apparently, MacOS).

Scott

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7 hours ago, GlueFactoryBJJ said:

This appears to be a specific problem between Designer and the Documents folder on Windows 10

Or, it could be the security options you've enabled on Windows.

For example, Controlled Folder Access, which limits what programs can write to certain folders.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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16 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Or, it could be the security options you've enabled on Windows.

For example, Controlled Folder Access, which limits what programs can write to certain folders.

I have a generic install. Literally every other application other than Designer and (I just tested) Photo can write to any of the folders in the Documents folder.

Only my two Affinity apps (Designer and Photo) cannot write to that folder.  Because if this, I'm standing by my assertion that it is something to do with Affinity's installation. It probably isn't setting the correct permissions.

I've worked in IT for decades and have never seen something this specific to one software publisher. An app maybe (I've used to do a lot of beta testing), but not all said from a specific publisher.

The specific error in Photo is: (while trying to SAVE a file)

"C:\Users\Scott\Documents\temp.afphoto

File not found.

Check the file name and try again."

I just checked to see the exact wording is for Designer, but now I can save to the folders I literally could not have to this time last night.

Argh!

Designer appears to somehow have fixed itself, but now Photo is broken.

I can save with Photo to anywhere else (that doesn't have expected access restrictions), but not to the Documents folder.

Sigh...

Scott

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7 hours ago, GlueFactoryBJJ said:

The specific error in Photo is: (while trying to SAVE a file)

"C:\Users\Scott\Documents\temp.afphoto

File not found.

Check the file name and try again."

That is the exact error I would expect if Controlled Folder Access were preventing access by Photo and Designer. Please check that option in your Windows configuration. And yes, Controlled Folder Access can allow some applications access, while preventing others. It is intended, in part, as a protection against ransomware. Windows has security dialogs to allow you to grant access to an application, and when it tries to do something Windows should be displaying that dialog. If it's not, that would be a Windows problem, not an Affinity problem.

 

7 hours ago, GlueFactoryBJJ said:

It probably isn't setting the correct permissions.

The installation of an application does not need to set any permissions for the Documents folder. And if Controlled Folder Access is your problem, it would not be possible for the application to set such permissions, as that would defeat the purpose of having ransomware protection :)

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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Ok, first I tried running the app with Administrator privileges, but no luck.

Then I looked up the Controlled Folder Access from the search bar and added both Affinity apps to the allowed list.  And, yes, you were correct, that appears to have fixed the problem. 

Then again, for a brief time last night Designer was allowed to write to the Documents folder (as I noted in my last post), but this morning, before adding the apps to the allowed list, Designer was blocked again.  Go figure...

My question is why are the Affinity apps the ONLY ones that are being caught by the CFA (on my system, a problem that hasn't appeared in the 8 years I've had this system and two years I've been using Win10 Pro)?  My guess is that, perhaps, they are not signed correctly and Microsoft is putting them in the "dangerous apps bucket" because of that.  I have not done ANYTHING to my file structure that would cause ONLY those two apps to have this problem.  And I have many "freebee" apps installed that would seem to be far more likely to tick the "unsecure/watch out for randsomware" check list than only the two Affinity apps.

I ran across this thread on answers.microsoft.com in which this observation was made:

Quote

"for me, sometimes either access is blocked to %common_desktop% and other access is blocked to documents folder.  One program belongs to MSI (live update), while others are e-book readers, specifically VitalSource Bookshelf, which is program used by major publisher of university textbooks, while even another is an app known as Wolfram CDF player for interactive text provided by Pearson's mymathlab.com; another major university textbook publisher.

 

So, while anything is possible, including shoddy coding by half-ass software developers, I wonder if this statement couldn't be applied to Microsoft's developers who work on windows defender?  Maybe it's more of an issue with them not being able to include exceptions for the infinite number of apps/programs, so they make it as restrictive as possible to be effective, leaving it up to the end-user to make the necessary adjustments.  Same way how so many software companies don't do extensive testing and debugging, choosing instead to get the product to market ASAP and let their customer base figure out all the bugs.  Real professional and real customer-oriented."

-- https://bit.ly/2WYgWLG

If the Affinity apps are kicking off warnings in Microsoft Defender, then it is up to Affinity to find out why (in collaboration with MS) and fix the problem.  Then again, as the OP noted, this also appears to be a problem with MacOS, so, again, the fingers keep pointing to this being a problem with Affinity, whether a signing/install issue or application behavior problem. 

IF Affinity is doing everything perfectly, then they need to contact the Microsoft Defender people to get them to fix the issue on their end, even if it is something as simple as automatically adding the two Affinity apps to their "whitelist".

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE both apps!  I completely dropped Adobe because of these two Affinity apps (and DaVinci Resolve). 

My objection is that the appearance is for the customer to be blamed for something they have apparently done to incur this problem, when it is most likely an Affinity issue (in one way or another).  Frankly, most users just don't have the patience to try to work through an issue like this, much less to find a helpful forum like this to find a work-around for their problem.

Scott

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Hmm, I just realized something.  I had been working on the projects I had "suddenly" been having problems with for a few weeks now.  And no problems.  Then I just started having problems saving yesterday...

My realization is that I had just moved the files to the Documents folder the night before, just before going to sleep.  Then I started working with the files yesterday from the Documents folder.  And I realized I couldn't save there.  As I noted, other applications had no problems saving to the project folders (I tested). Just the Affinity apps (anywhere in the Documents) folder.

My point is that this problem didn't suddenly appear.  It was probably there all along, I just didn't notice because I was using an "unprotected" drive/folder up to that point.  So this problem has probably existed since I installed the Affinity apps last year, I just didn't notice it since I have only recently gotten back to doing photo/illustration work.

Anyway, thanks for your time and help!

Scott

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You're welcome. Glad you've got it resolved so you can keep working.

I suspect that if you look at your Defender options, especially the ones for CFA, you'll find why it has only affected the Affinity applications :)
(But from what I understand from browsing the web, CFA should give you a prompt to allow or deny the access. If it's not doing that, then either I'm wrong, or your options are set incorrectly, or Defender has a bug.)

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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