delete .afpub files from computer

[Philip Reeves]

I am trying to tidy up my MacBook air.  I can't seem to delete .afpub documents.  I found one document on Place and sent it to the lion, but the other one doesn't show up in Place, nor can I find in the Finder or iCloud.

I would be grateful for any help!

[Philip Reeves]

I meant "sent it to the Bin"!!!  I wish I could have sent it to the lion!

[Old Bruce]

23 minutes ago, Philip Reeves said:

I meant "sent it to the Bin"!!!  I wish I could have sent it to the lion!

Weirdest typo in a long time. I figure autocorrect or autocomplete is to blame.

Anyway,

Maybe "the other one" has already been deleted?  If you know when you made it you could search for it using .afpub (remember to use the dot . in the .afpub) in the find section and created date of what ever. 

[thomaso]

39 minutes ago, Philip Reeves said:

but the other one doesn't show up in Place, nor can I find in the Finder or iCloud.

Then what makes you think that it (still) exists? Maybe renamed?
(If from the list of recently opened files: this only says that it existed in the moment it was "recently" opened.)

In my experience the macOS spotlight search is often not reliable (just doesn't find existing items / doesn't search in all folders even if "system file" is activated for a search), so I prefer "Find Any File" instead.

[Old Bruce]

2 hours ago, thomaso said:

In my experience the macOS spotlight search is often not reliable

I think it is Damned Near Useless, especially when compared to the find dialog in OS 8. and 9.

[thomaso]

11 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I think it is Damned Near Useless

… didn't you recommend it with your screenshot above?

[Old Bruce]

6 minutes ago, thomaso said:

… didn't you recommend it with your screenshot above?

Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.

I can still be bitter about .... pretty much everything. But I think the old System 8 find dialog was a brilliant piece of software from a usability point of view. Why it isn't possible to pack that utility into a UNIX based system puzzles me.

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, Old Bruce said:

Why it isn't possible to pack that utility into a UNIX based system puzzles me.

It would be possible but seems not to meet Apple's tendency to simplify via restrictions. Consider the increasing number of items either inaccessible or reduced flexible for the user. The hidden user library folder was just one early start, the entirely invisible disk/folder structure in iPads an obvious step further, the Sandbox a next etc., all also in the sake of security. Not to mention the Aperture.app versus the Photo.app (which obviously is able to attract users with certain requirements of "all-in-one" and no interest in the file structure).

But it's rather unlikely that Philip Reeves had saved an Affinity document in one of those folders, I assume it's rather a forgotten path and/or name.

[Old Bruce]

6 minutes ago, thomaso said:

I assume it's rather a forgotten path and/or name.

Here is a thought @Philip Reeves

BBEdit allows me to save files with a leading . (dot/period/full stop) thus rendering them invisible in the finder. So you would have to search for invisible files, and sorry but I can't remember where in the Finder's Find window that feature is.

[thomaso]

3 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I can't remember where in the Finder's Find window that feature is.

You need to add it to the search parameters once by clicking on the last menu item, this opens a looong list of checkable options in alphabetical order. But "visibility" isn't under "v" or "i", in my German macOS this option has the unexpected name "Datei ist unsichtbar" (file is invisible), so it's to me under "d".

To make such invisible files visible in a finder window you can click cmd-shift-period at any time. It toggles, and it doesn't show a difference if the current folder doesn't contain an according item.

[iconoclast]

23 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Here is a thought @Philip Reeves

BBEdit allows me to save files with a leading . (dot/period/full stop) thus rendering them invisible in the finder. So you would have to search for invisible files, and sorry but I can't remember where in the Finder's Find window that feature is.

To find hidden files in a folder, open Finder and press Command + Shift + .

- Without guarantee.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

You need to add it to the search parameters once by clicking on the last menu item, this opens a looong list of checkable options in alphabetical order.

Any items in that long list that you use often can be added to the menu by clicking the box in the "In Menu" column. The searches can also be saved as "Smart folders" which optionally can be added to the Finder sidebar or placed wherever seems convenient. To see them all in one place, it is even possible to create a saved search with the single criterion Kind > is > Other > "Saved Search Query" -- I have 27 saved searches I can access this way very quickly.

It is also possible to add any/all/none logic to the criteria & to construct "raw queries" using a simple symtax.