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How to access data in AF from outside the software


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My Windows PC has decided to give up the ghost. Windows 8.1 is badly corrupted and I have no recovery disk. I am having my HDD out of the defunct PC installed in a new PC, as a secondary drive,  so I can access the files. This PC was my main one for Affinity Photo and I have brushes, assets, macros and swatches on this PC with no backup.

Yes I know I should have exported them and saved them, but hey, I didn't.

My question is, is there any way I can extract the above data from Photo from outside of the software?

 

Hope this makes sense.

Nigel

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You would probably want to start by copying the relevant .propcol files

You can find more information here and the included link in that post.

 

To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.

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This FAQ tells you where the various files are located, and you could copy them from your secondary drive to the corresponding locations on your new C drive after installing Photo again.

 

-- 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 17.3, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.3

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I've now reinstalled AF, using the trial package, Copied the *,propcol files from the original copy of AF.  It has worked to a certain extent, I can see the free Assets and brushes I download from AF, what I cannot see are the other brushes and assets I had downloaded from various sources. The swatches and macros are not there either.

 

I am concerned now at the amount of times I can download the software before I am excluded from downloading anymore and I cannot see anyway to enter my product key.  

 

Is it going to be easier to trail back through what I think I have and start again long hand?

 

Help!

Nigel

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1 hour ago, Nigelfromrishton said:

I am concerned now at the amount of times I can download the software before I am excluded from downloading anymore and I cannot see anyway to enter my product key. 

When you start the trial application you should see a dialog box telling you how many days are left, and offering you the option of entering your product key.

-- 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 17.3, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.3

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2 hours ago, Nigelfromrishton said:

Copied the *,propcol files from the original copy of AF.  It has worked to a certain extent, I can see the free Assets and brushes I download from AF, what I cannot see are the other brushes and assets I had downloaded from various sources. The swatches and macros are not there either.

Copying those files should get you everything. You need to do that while the application is not running, of course.

-- 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 17.3, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.3

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Hi again, I've given up after two attempts of reinstalling AF and copying down the files. Same result both times all I could see were the free downloads. Same with the macros, which I eventually found. My fault didn't load the library from studio. 

So luckily, I have located the missing brushes, swatches and images in assetts I'll just build them up slowly. 

 

Thanks again to all involved for your input.

Now onto two more software packages to restore.

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You might check Preferences, Performance, and if Hardware Acceleration is enabled, turn it off. See if that helps.

Or you might install the 1.9.1 beta alongside 1.9.0 Photo and see if that behaves better.

 

-- 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 17.3, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.3

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This is getting ridiculous, I have reinstalled AF 1.8.5. Everything seems to work OK except Assets. The assets is empty nothing there at all. But there is no category called assets. When I try to create an asset category nothing happens. 

I have uninstalled and deleted the AF folders. I have changed directory where AF is installed on. But still Assets does not work.

It seems as if the settings are set in the registry. when I install a new copy it picks up the studio setting from the previous install. Reset everything and still it assets will not create a new category. In the drop down for the asset category there is no Asset category as default.

It worked fine until I upgraded to 1.9.

I have attached  the propcol Files, please can some body have a look to see if the fault lies there?

Can some body please throw some light on this problem as it si getting very frustrating.

 

adjustments.propcol doc_spread_presets.propcol fills.propcol grid_presets.propcol macros.propcol objectstyles.propcol raster_brushes.propcol tone_map.propcol tool_settings.propcol vector_brushes.propcol

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Rename the adjustments.propcol file in C:\Users\<your-user-name>\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Photo\1.0\user and Photo will recreate a working version with the default set of assets.

Do not delete the file, just rename it. It will work properly once you have 1.9 reinstalled.

Or, rename the 1.0"" directory to "1.0 orig" or something like that, and rename it back when you reinstall 1.9.

The problem is that, just as the .afphoto files created in 1.9 are not compatible with 1.8, neither are some of the internal data files which got updated when you ran 1.9. Therefore, reversion is not as simple as installing the old program.

-- 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 17.3, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.3

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Thanks Walt, renaming the Adjustments.propcol worked. That has taken me back to where I have assets working. I am now back to my original problem that one of my assets categories called grunge crashes AF when I click on it. I could work around it.

Just done a reset on AF boot with the Ctrl key and low and behold the Assets have disappeared and now I can choose a category  and create one. Just have to start again with my Assets which I don't mind. 

 

Once again Walt thank you for your patience and help it is much appreciated. It's 20 years since I worked on computer systems and so much has changed. I long for a DOS prompt and commands I understand.

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You're welcome.

-- 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 17.3, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.3

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