Failed to open document - The file includes features from a later version of Affinity.

[magdaazab]

I just created a file on my iPad where I have the 1.9.3 version, but when I try to open it on my iMac I receive an error message: Failed to open document - 
The file includes features from a later version of Affinity. the version on my iMac is the 1.8.6

But even if I click on: check for updates it doesn't find any.

 

 

Edited February 9, 2021 by magdaazab

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums, @magdaazab.

1.8 cannot open documents created in 1.9.

If you purchased from the Mac App Store you may need to:

• sign out and sign in again (making sure you use the same Apple ID you used for the original purchase). Or
• Refresh the Store (Cmd+R, perhaps?). Or
• Search for your application by name.

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Search for your application by name.

I bought AD & AP from the Mac App Store & that is the only way I could get a link to update to the 1.9 retail versions. Neither app showed up in the Updates > Available tab of the MAS app, & even after updating each from the page that found them via the search, neither one shows up in the Updates > Updated Recently section.

Very weird.

[Dan C]

Hi @magdaazab,

Welcome to the forums

As mentioned above, you need to make sure that your Mac version is up to date, to open 1.9 documents created on your iPad.

Please do let us know if you're still having trouble updating your Mac app!

[Ulysses]

In general, is there any way to for someone with v1.8 software to open documents created with v1.9 Affinity software?

This would be an important option for those of us who need to share files remotely with office colleagues who might have a different version of Affinity Designer or Photo.

For example, I even tried sharing a TIFF file with layers intact, and my workmate still couldn't open it.

[GarryP]

No.
Later versions of the software:

• may contain features that don’t exist in the earlier versions;
• may process layers/adjustments/filters/etc. differently to the earlier versions;
• etc. etc. etc.

It might be technically possible for the team to write the software in such a way that earlier versions of the software could open documents created by later versions but the software would have to compromise in some way that would lead to certain things being lost and/or changed, and you might not spot those losses/changes until it’s too late.
Either way, the person who opens the document in the earlier version won’t get the same document so you wouldn’t be sharing the same thing anyway.

Since the upgrades are free (except for 2.0) most people should be keeping their installation up-to-date with the latest version, unless they are having problems with the latest version for some reason.

[Dan C]

4 minutes ago, Ulysses said:

In general, is there any way to for someone with v1.8 software to open documents created with v1.9 Affinity software?

Unfortunately I'm not aware of any native Affinity formats that will allow this, my apologies!

You can of course export to a universal format such as PDF and import this into 1.8 - however I do understand this document will be slightly different from the native 1.9 file.

[Ulysses]

10 minutes ago, Dan C said:

Unfortunately I'm not aware of any native Affinity formats that will allow this, my apologies!

You can of course export to a universal format such as PDF and import this into 1.8 - however I do understand this document will be slightly different from the native 1.9 file.

That's exactly why I thought the TIFF file would work. Interestingly, there's nothing at all unique to this file... just a couple of Shapes and Text layers, with none of the features unique to v1.9. 

So I expected the native file (or even a layered TIFF) would open just fine, but nope.

@GarryP thanks for the input. Unfortunately, while I'm able to keep the software updated on my home office computers, I have no control over those of my corporate colleagues, where updates are much slower in coming along. This makes sharing native files impossible at this point.

[walt.farrell]

50 minutes ago, Ulysses said:

So I expected the native file (or even a layered TIFF) would open just fine, but nope.

The layers in the TIFF file are provided by embedding a native-format Affinity document, and so have the same limitations with respect to Affinity release levels as any native Affinity document would have.

[walt.farrell]

52 minutes ago, Ulysses said:

Unfortunately, while I'm able to keep the software updated on my home office computers, I have no control over those of my corporate colleagues, where updates are much slower in coming along. This makes sharing native files impossible at this point.

You will have to keep your home office computer at the same level as your colleagues' computers.

[GarryP]

Ulysses: Thanks for bringing up the fact that people sometimes need to share files with others in organisations which might have policies which don’t allow for easy/quick upgrades to software. That was something I should have considered.

You might like to ask the question – or search for an existing answer – as to how you can install multiple versions of the software on the same machine for this very reason.
If you do ask the question you will need to state where you purchased the software from (App Store or Serif website) and which OS you are using as the answer will very much depend on these.

If your machine is ‘hefty’ enough, and you have multiple copies of the OS, then you might be able to install an older version in a Virtual Machine but you will have to keep your shared documents in that VM so you don’t accidentally save them with later versions of the software (as there is no going back).
(This process could get very technical, very quickly.)

Ask around; you never know who’s had to go though it themselves and can tell you how to avoid the pitfalls.

[Ulysses]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

You will have to keep your home office computer at the same level as your colleagues' computers.

I can't go back, @walt.farrell. I won't! 😂

@GarryP that's a very good suggestion. I'll look into it in the meantime, while still hoping for some sort of backwards compatibility mode in the Affinity apps. 

[Ulysses]

This may be of interest: I can open Affinity Photo v1.10.0 files on computers with v.1.9.2 installed (Mac and PC). Thus far, I haven't used any features that may be v1.10-specific (and not shared by v1.9), if any exist at all.

[IanSG]

3 hours ago, Ulysses said:

This may be of interest: I can open Affinity Photo v1.10.0 files on computers with v.1.9.2 installed (Mac and PC). Thus far, I haven't used any features that may be v1.10-specific (and not shared by v1.9), if any exist at all.

The file format doesn't change with every point release, so that's not surprising.  It's not something I've looked at, but my recollection is that the beta versions warn you if the output files will be incompatible with the current release version.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, IanSG said:

The file format doesn't change with every point release, so that's not surprising. 

It generally does change incompatibly (not downward compatible) at major releases, and that is a large part of the reason for changing the major release number.

1. 1.5 cannot open 1.6 files.
2. 1.6 cannot open 1.7
3. 1.7 cannot open 1.8
4. 1.8 cannot open 1.9
5. 1.9 should not be able to open 1.10.0 files, but apparently it can open at least some of them.

[R C-R]

22 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

1. 1.5 cannot open 1.6 files.
2. 1.6 cannot open 1.7
3. 1.7 cannot open 1.8
4. 1.8 cannot open 1.9
5. 1.9 should not be able to open 1.10.0 files, but apparently it can open at least some of them.

I do not remember exactly which versions were involved but for at least one pair of them, the older version could open files created in the newer one if the file did not include any new features the old one did not support.

Maybe the same thing is true for the 1.9 & 1.10 pair?

[Ulysses]

4 hours ago, R C-R said:

I do not remember exactly which versions were involved but for at least one pair of them, the older version could open files created in the newer one if the file did not include any new features the old one did not support.

Maybe the same thing is true for the 1.9 & 1.10 pair?

At least in my tests some months ago with v1.8 and 1.9, version 1.8 could not open any v1.9 file even if that file was a simple single-layer .AFPHOTO file none of v1.9 features. It was not only a surprise, but it also made some corporate work more difficult (since at that time their AP installations were all older versions than what I use in my home studio.

It's nice to know that (at least for now) there seems to be compatibility between v1.9 and v1.10. I'll keep holding my breath that this remains the case. 🙃