The file type is not supported...

[3DJ]

I spent considerable time last night on a design and when I opened it up today, I got "The file type is not supported." I think this may be the straw that kills Affinity for me. I have had things on iPad not save before, but to lose a complete file of professional work... Not good. I am so pissed off right now. I should have done the damn thing in Illustrator since I had to jump to ai to make some arched type in an envelope anyway. Sad day for me as I have really enjoyed working in affinity especially on my iPad, but I cant do this if I cant depend on the file saving and opening. 

 

Does anyone know of any tricks to try? I tried opening in Photo, no luck there either.

FullLength_01.afdesign

[Gear maker]

3DJ sorry for the problem.  I couldn't get the file to be accepted either.  I haven't seen this problem on any of my drawings.  Unfortunately with the holidays upon us you might not be able to get an answer from Affinity people for a few days.  I don't know if there is anything they can do, but maybe...

[3DJ]

Thanks for taking a look. I'm figuring that I will be starting from scratch, I have a back up file but its from much earlier in the process. Does not give me the warm fuzzies working in Affinity now.

 

[firstdefence]

Out of curiosity was the file from an external device/network?

 

[3DJ]

I had it in icloud

 

[3DJ]

Actually I had it in creative cloud

[firstdefence]

That might have been why it corrupted, seems to happen a fair bit when files are opened from external sources.

[3DJ]

Is there a back up directory for affinity? I'm on a Mac, I only see a folder for publisher in the Library>Application Support...

 

[3DJ]

23 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

That might have been why it corrupted, seems to happen a fair bit when files are opened from external sources.

I thought that problem went away in the late 90's LOL. Especially with all the cloud services these days, that is a problem that seems should be HIGH on the fix list then.

[Old Bruce]

24 minutes ago, 3DJ said:

I thought that problem went away in the late 90's LOL. Especially with all the cloud services these days, that is a problem that seems should be HIGH on the fix list then.

Who knows what Adobe gets up to with the files stored in their cloud.

I just don't trust clouds, if they are not simply raining on me they are actually trying to kill me with bolts of lightning.

[thomaso]

21 minutes ago, 3DJ said:

Is there a back up directory for affinity? I'm on a Mac, I only see a folder for publisher in the Library>Application Support...

Yes, the Affinity folders inside this user library can contain backup data in the folder "autosave", usually only for currently opened documents, though I found files there after an app crash. Can be worth a trial: if it contains an .autosave document it possibly opens in APub after you changed its suffix into .afpub. (Doesn't work always / They may contain delta differences only)

[thomaso]

7 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I just don't trust clouds, if they are not simply raining on me they are actually trying to kill me with bolts of lightning.

Weather is bad enough even without clouds:

https://www.macrumors.com/2020/11/15/apple-privacy-macos-app-authenticaion/

[3DJ]

44 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Yes, the Affinity folders inside this user library can contain backup data in the folder "autosave", usually only for currently opened documents, though I found files there after an app crash. Can be worth a trial: if it contains an .autosave document it possibly opens in APub after you changed its suffix into .afpub. (Doesn't work always / They may contain delta differences only)

Thanks Thomaso, I cant seem to find the auto save folder anywhere. I had tried afphoto file without luck, didn’t think to try the afpub, just gave it a go and nothing.

 

Another strange thing, quick look shows the data is there...

 

 

[firstdefence]

These are the locations for most of affinity data files.

Quote

macOS:

Affinity Store version: 
Affinity Photo: ~/Library/Application Support/Affinity Photo/user/
Affinity Designer: ~/Library/Application Support/Affinity Designer/user/
Affinity Publisher: ~/Library/Application Support/Affinity Publisher/user/
 
Mac App Store version: 
Affinity Photo: ~/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinityphoto/Data/Library/Application Support/user/
Affinity Designer: ~/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinitydesigner/Data/Library/Application Support/user/
Affinity Publisher: ~/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinitypublisher/Data/Library/Application Support/user/
 
Mac App Store version ( Big Sur ) :
Affinity Photo: ~/Library/Containers/Affinity Photo/Data/Library/Application Support/user/
Affinity Designer: ~/Library/Containers/Affinity Designer/Data/Library/Application Support/user/
Affinity Publisher: ~/Library/Containers/Affinity Publisher/Data/Library/Application Support/user/
Windows:

Affinity Store version:
Affinity Photo: %appdata%\Affinity\Photo\1.0\user\
Affinity Designer: %appdata%\Affinity\Designer\1.0\user\
Affinity Publisher: %appdata%\Affinity\Publisher\1.0\user\
 
Microsoft Store version: 
Affinity Photo: %appdata%\Affinity\Photo\1.0 (Store)\user\
Affinity Designer: %appdata%\Affinity\Designer\1.0 (Store)\user\
Affinity Publisher: %appdata%\Affinity\Publisher\1.0 (Store)\user\
 

 

[3DJ]

Thanks FirstDefence! Bummer I dont see any old files in there. I am so bummed about this.

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, 3DJ said:

I cant seem to find the auto save folder anywhere.

You really don't see the autosave folder ?

1 hour ago, 3DJ said:

Another strange thing, quick look shows the data is there...

How comes? Quicklook needs a file or folder to display a content preview. Can you upload a screenshot of Quicklook + its related Finder window?

[firstdefence]

Also take a look here: /Users/your username/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinityphoto/Data/Library/Application Support

There should be an autosave folder there, you can double click on an auto save file and tell finder to open with Affinity Photo, you will likely have to select all applications not recommended. when looking for an app to open the autosave file.

[3DJ]

2 hours ago, thomaso said:

You really don't see the autosave folder ?

How comes? Quicklook needs a file or folder to display a content preview. Can you upload a screenshot of Quicklook + its related Finder window?

I do see it now that I had FirstDefence's post with where... not in the usual spot because it was from the app store.

 

See there's 3 artboards that show with quicklook. 

[3DJ]

1 hour ago, firstdefence said:

Also take a look here: /Users/your username/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinityphoto/Data/Library/Application Support

There should be an autosave folder there, you can double click on an auto save file and tell finder to open with Affinity Photo, you will likely have to select all applications not recommended. when looking for an app to open the autosave file.

Yep, thanks, found it but everything appears to be from earlier today and not last night.

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, 3DJ said:

found it but everything appears to be from earlier today and not last night.

One more chance: if you have your macOS Time Machine activated you can restore older content of this autosave folder in the 'snapshots' (~ 1 hourly state for the last 24 hours).

[thomaso]

3 hours ago, firstdefence said:

Also take a look here: /Users/your username/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinityphoto/Data/Library/Application Support

@firstdefence, in my understanding this is nearly the same path as you quoted in the list above. The "~" is used by macOS as abbreviation for "users/username".

Whereas the paths in your list above end with the Affinity user folder, though other user files are stored outside of that user folder (the autosave folder included as you added), for instance these highlighted prefs:

[3DJ]

25 minutes ago, thomaso said:

One more chance: if you have your macOS Time Machine activated you can restore older content of this autosave folder in the 'snapshots' (~ 1 hourly state for the last 24 hours).

Yep. I was thinking of that. You know I turned it off last week because it kept throwing errors on backing up. Lol. Can’t make this stuff up. It’s not kicking out the oldest back ups as it should to make room. I didn’t sweat it much because I also have a daily off site back up. Maybe I can check there! 
 

thanks! 
Merry Christmas to everyone or whatever holiday is dear to you this time of year. 

[thomaso]

9 minutes ago, 3DJ said:

I turned it off last week because it kept throwing errors on backing up. Lol. Can’t make this stuff up. It’s not kicking out the oldest back ups as it should to make room. I didn’t sweat it much because I also have a daily off site back up.

Then it might be the easiest to reformat the backup disk + start with a new backup. – In case you want to dive into troubleshooting:
https://eclecticlight.co/2017/02/16/diagnosing-and-treating-time-machine-problems-in-terminal/

Or this (archived) site – which is even older / possibly doesn't fit in all details to your current macOS:
http://oldtoad.net/pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

P.S.: your QuickLook previews show an embedded image, created by Affinity when saving a document – they don't necessarily reflect the actual content, especially if corrupted.

[firstdefence]

6 hours ago, thomaso said:

@firstdefence, in my understanding this is nearly the same path as you quoted in the list above. The "~" is used by macOS as abbreviation for "users/username".

Whereas the paths in your list above end with the Affinity user folder, though other user files are stored outside of that user folder (the autosave folder included as you added), for instance these highlighted prefs:

In the first post I should have mentioned stepping back a folder on the path to /application support but I figured 3DJ would nosey around a bit lol! 

Thought a more complete path would help others understand where these files are, would be nice to have a link to these folders from within Affinity Photo, well all of the apps.

I had a glitchy Time Capsule, the older square version, I narrowed the cause down to a suspected dry joint on the board. I found a post from a Russian guy who effectively shows you how to "cook" the circuitboard to eliminate the dry joints, a kind of a job-lot approach. It was, to say the least, a leap of faith and a very trepidatious 90 mins. Needless to say I was skeptical but hopeful and to my surprise it actually solved the issue  - I've still got it and it's working well.

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, firstdefence said:

I should have mentioned stepping back a folder on the path

I just mentioned that detail because your list seems to be a quoted copy of another post – possibly of a mod? – which might be more helpful if it gets altered to clarify / include the access to other user related settings, in particular with v9.x (currently as beta) with its additional folder "presets" (window / panel arrangements).

2 hours ago, firstdefence said:

I had a glitchy Time Capsule, the older square version, I narrowed the cause down to a suspected dry joint on the board. I found a post from a Russian guy who effectively shows you how to "cook" the circuitboard

That's interesting, I still have an old flat capsule which stopped booting. If you still have the link, especially how to disassemble this ancient capsule, I would appreciate it. – Three years ago I was baking the motherboard of my 2011 macbookPro because of a common display issue. Apple had a free repair program for that model which I needed twice within ~6 years, finally they quit the program and I found that baking recipe, today this mac is still running (though it recently showed a vertical line on its display and refuses connection with an external monitor).

However, the description of 3DJ doesn't sound like an hardware issue, rather like a corrupted backup image. I experienced once issues (backup duration, error messages) during backups, spend days trying to fix it but never successfully. Even individual mail support by the team of TinkerToolSystem didn't solve the issue. Nowadays I simply would delete such an affected backup and start with an entirely new one.