Updating seems to cause purchased brushes to disappear?

[ladlon]

I just installed the latest update patch, and it reminded me that it seems like doing so often removes any non-default brushes I had previously installed... possibly even custom categories I may have made.

I can't fully verify it now, although my lastest update install seems to have done so (although it left the most recent one I installed).  I don't recall if that particular installation (pre-recent update) had the purchased brushes installed... I believe it did.

Is this a known thing?  Is there something I can do to prevent/combat this?

I did my recent update on my 'secondary' installation (on my non-work machine)... So, before I do it on my 'work' matchine (where I have a lot of additional brushes installed, as well as custom categories), I want to be sure of this.

Is there a Affinity folder where these installations are stored, which I could copy somewhere as a backup, in case they too get wiped?

Affinity Photo/Designer, Win7Pro (Premium on the machine I just did the latest update on).

[walt.farrell]

For Windows 7, they are stored in various files with the extension .propcol in %Appdata%\Affinity\Photo\1.0\user and you can find some more information here:

 

[ladlon]

Thanks for that, Walt.  It really seems like that gets nuked (or partially) when you do an update.  It shouldn't, but it seems like it does.

I wonder if I can just copy the contents of that (as a backup, or also to add to an install in another machine, so they both have the same brushes I have collected/purchased.

I'm actually afraid of updating the installs on my work machine, as I have set up some custom categories (...basically a collection of my favorite brushes).   I don't want to have to set that all up again...

[walt.farrell]

10 minutes ago, ladlon said:

I wonder if I can just copy the contents of that (as a backup, or also to add to an install in another machine, so they both have the same brushes I have collected/purchased.

Yes, that should work. At least as long as you don't try to use the files on an older version of your Affinity application, as they're generally only upward-compatible (1.8 can use 1.7 files, but 1.7 can't use 1.8 files).

[ladlon]

Would copying the contents of those user folders (and then pasting that in an updated install or other install) also install all the non-default brushes, or is that some other folder?

My non-work version/installation is now the latest update (...it's the one I just did).  My work one is the previous version (not updated yet).

I wanted to update the photo/designer on the work machine, but now want to back up the configs, layouts, brush installations, and custom categories before doing so, in case it trashes them during the install.

As well, I am hoping I can use that backup on the non-work installation that I just upgraded (and seemingly partially wiped the brush installations/setups of).

[walt.farrell]

16 hours ago, ladlon said:

Would copying the contents of those user folders (and then pasting that in an updated install or other install) also install all the non-default brushes, or is that some other folder?

They're all in the same folder (as, I think, indicated in the FAQ article I referenced above).

Feel free to try playing around; as long as you keep a backup copy of the files (or renamed version of the directory) you really shouldn't be able to hurt anything as it's easy to restore all your preference files if your experiments fail

[ladlon]

Well, there certainly seems to be files related to brushes there, but since you can't see the content of them, it's hard to know for sure if they are just for the settings of the vanilla brushes... or even if all they are is an inventory of installed brushes (but not whether copying that file to the User directory will actually INSTALL the additional brushes).  I didn't notice if there was a file associated with custom categories, either... but I may have missed it.  That all said, there may be other files (configs, whatever) outside of the user folder that are required, too.  Too many unknowns...

 

I'm also curious if copying those files into the User folder of ANOTHER Affinity installation (on another machine) would not only set that machine up with the same settings, custom categories, etc, but also install the additional brushes in there as well.

[walt.farrell]

Everything relevant to all your brushes is contained in the raster_brushes.propcol file, or the vector_brushes.propcol file.

If a brush is installed it's in that file; if not, it isn't. That applies to all the brushes and all aspects of them.

[atlrob]

Can anyone comment on the WHY this is happening and will it be fixed?

[ladlon]

@atlrob: Hi, did you have this happen to you, too?  I can't say for absolute sure if it did with my update, as I only noticed it after installing, and wasn't entirely sure what stuff I had installed previously... although I'm fairly certain that I had several purchased brush packs installed.  Oddly enough, the most recent brush pack I purchased/installed is still there!  But all the others are gone.  If YOU had it happen too, then that pretrty much confirms it.  I've written directly to Affinity, and hope to hear from them.  I'll post here if I hear anything.

[atlrob]

Yes it did happen.  I will await your response from Afinity

[ladlon]

Did that happen for you just on the latest update, or has it happened before?

I have the feeling it has happened before for me.  It's one of those things I didn't notice right away, and then I was not entirely sure what WAS originally there, so I couldn't tell exactly what all was affected.

I'll definitely let you know what I have from support.

[stokerg]

Hi @ladlon and @atlrob

Affinity shouldn't be removing any brushes when installing the update and on checking our Windows 10 test machine, the brushes are still present after the update has been installed.

Are you both running Windows 7?

[ladlon]

@stokerg: Yes, Win7Pro (See my initial post above)

@altrob: Support confirms it SHOULDN'T, ...'unless the files are corrupt and the installer needs to replace them - hoever there's no warning or log if this happens...'.  They also confirm that copying and pasting the content of the AppData folder will serve as full re-configuring/installation of any modifications or additional assets (settings get set, additional assets get installed, etc).  They pointed out a post that outlines this procedure (used when beta users were transfered over to the retail version of Publisher):

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/89539-copying-over-user-data-from-beta-to-retail/

I'm going to copy the folder from my 'work' (un-updated) Affinity install to my newly updated (and 'brush erased') install, and verify that works, as well as use that copying to create a backup to apply to the 'work' install, should something get deleted.

I believe my previous updating erased some of the brushes, too.

[walt.farrell]

4 minutes ago, ladlon said:

I believe my previous updating erased some of the brushes, too.

The update from 1.7 to 1.8 intentionally removed some brushes, but should have affected only Serif-supplied brushes. It should not have removed any you had purchased.

More information in this AffinitySpotlight article: https://affinityspotlight.com/article/get-legacy-affinity-brushes/