affinity converted ALL of my photoshop files to Affinity files and now others cannot open my files

[sharonr]

Hello!

I purchased your product but it has automatically gone through and converted all of my photoshop files to Affinity and now I cannot share the photoshop files with others. Plus, everytime I try to open a file I developed in Photoshop the file asks me for my Affinity key to open the file. This is a major issue that needs to be fixed right away.

Please provide fix for this issue.

[Komatös]

Hello and welcome to the forums, @sharonr

Affinity has not converted any files. I assume that you are working with Windows 10.

In Windows, only the file association for psd files was transferred to the Affinity programme you are using. The PSD files remain untouched until they are edited in the Affinity programme. And when saving, they are not saved as PSD files but as .afphoto, .afdesigner or .afpublisher. 

[sharonr]

Well, that is strange because all of my PSD files which have never been opened in Affinity ALL now have the affinity icon. When I click to open the files it asks for my affinity key to open the files. I just purchased affinity last month. The issue started within a day of the purchase.

[iconoclast]

13 minutes ago, sharonr said:

Well, that is strange because all of my PSD files which have never been opened in Affinity ALL now have the affinity icon. When I click to open the files it asks for my affinity key to open the files. I just purchased affinity last month. The issue started within a day of the purchase.

That is normal behaviour on Windows. You can associate every filetype to the app you want the filetype to be normally opened with - your prefered app. You can do this in the Presets of Windows under Standard-Apps or in the Explorer with a rightclick on such a file under Properties > Open with. Usually the file icon will change then to the icon of the certain app you chose. That doesn't mean that you can not open the files with other programs (assumed those programs support the file type). But if you doubleclick the file,  it will be opened with the chosen app.

[sharonr]

Thanks for the prompt responses but that is not resolving the issue. Since it has changed ALL of my PSD files it also remove the PSD properties as an option for association. When I googled this problem others are complaining of the same issue. 

This has turned into a nightmare as I cannot send my logos and marketing materials to others to update. I have thousands of images that are impacted.

Your logo is showing on all of the files that use to have the PSD logo. The Properties > open no longer shows PSD.

There must be a fix. I am desperate for a solution. 

[iconoclast]

Take a look into the Preferences of Windows.There is a category called "Apps". Open it and you can find there a category called "Standard Apps". There must be an entry like "Chose Standard-Apps by file type" or so ( I'm german, so I don't know the english description of it). Click on it and you will get a list of all possible file types in alphabetical order. Scroll through it to PSD. Then click on the file icon on the right and associate the program you want to the file type. But if you haven't Photoshop installed on your computer, it will not be in the list. But that doesn't matter, because it only defines your prefered program to open the filetype. The one who opens the file on his computer will be able to do that in Photoshop if he has it installed. And if he hasn't installed Affinity, he will not have the Affinity icon, I think.

By the way, my PSDs still show up with the icon of GIMP since I stopped using Photoshop. I don't need PSDs verry often, because they are the standard file format of Photoshop (PhotoShop Document) and don't have advantages for use in other programs. For professional print, I would choose TIFF as image file format.

By the way, you say that your files are converted to Affinity files? What file extension do they have? If the extensions are not displayed, you can make them visible in the Explorer under "View". There must be a checkbox for it. I would bet that they are still *.psd and not *.afphoto.

[sharonr]

Hello!

I have a subscription to PSD so it's the cloud version. Please see the attached screen prints. #5132 are files created in PSD before I purchased Affinity. After I purchased Affinity all of them were automatically changed...ALL of my psd files were changed. When I try to open the files attached screen print #5133 is what pops up. #5136 is what pops up when I try to open the files and when anyone else tries to open my files.

Your directions do not work because PSD does not show up in the file list. 

 

[walt.farrell]

First, you should configure File Explorer so it shows file extensions:

Once you have done that you should see that they are still ".psd" files.

Next, right-click on one of them and choose Open With, and then select Photoshop, and say to always use that program. Then the icons should be correct. Windows will only show one icon, and it's often the last application you installed that said it can handle that kind of file.

[sharonr]

Hello!

The directions you provided offer a partial resolution. The file extensions now show up. Thank you. I do not get the option to "always use the PSD program." And, it does not change every file. I have to do each file that was changed by Affinity and I have thousands of files. Plus, there's no option to change the icon. The Affinity icon still shows on every file including my .ai and .eps files. 

How do I do a global change for all of the files on my computer?

Where do I find the option to always use PSD?

How do I change the icons back to PSD so that others can change it. My clients need to see the PSD logo.

There must be a global fix for this. No one we've asked has said this happens globally when another application is added to a computer.

Thank you.

[iconoclast]

6 hours ago, sharonr said:

Hello!

The directions you provided offer a partial resolution. The file extensions now show up. Thank you. I do not get the option to "always use the PSD program." And, it does not change every file. I have to do each file that was changed by Affinity and I have thousands of files. Plus, there's no option to change the icon. The Affinity icon still shows on every file including my .ai and .eps files. 

How do I do a global change for all of the files on my computer?

Where do I find the option to always use PSD?

How do I change the icons back to PSD so that others can change it. My clients need to see the PSD logo.

There must be a global fix for this. No one we've asked has said this happens globally when another application is added to a computer.

Thank you.

It is not unusual that the icons change when you install another image editing or image viewing software. It happened to me for example as I tested an image editing software from Magix or even as I installed a new image viewer. But that is normally nothing to worry about, because it only means that this certain file type is associated with this certain program as your favorite software to open this file type on this certain computer. And you can usually choose another favorite program easily. I'm not sure how this works with cloudbased programs like Photoshop (possibly only if you're locked in to the Creative Cloud?). But I think this should normally also be possible, because it must be registered to your computer (at least I can see a Photoshop icon in your taskbar).

By the way, if PSDs have the Photoshop Icon on your computer, they must not have it on other computers. This depends on what program the user of the other computer defined as his favorite software for this file type.

However, the icon is not really important. If your file still has the extension *.psd, it wil still be a PSD. You only need to make the extension visible to be secure. The installation of Affinity Photo will not have converted any file. To really convert all files would take some time. And they would have different file extensions then.

And as I already said, possibly PSD isn't the best choice for your needs, if you edit your files in Affinity Photo, because it is the file type for documents you work on in Photoshop (like *.afphoto is in Affinity Photo and XCF is in GIMP). It is a file type Adobe owns the copyright, and possibly this file type has some functionallity other programs than Photoshop don't support. But I'm not sure about that. I would prefer TIFFs for professional print and JPEGs and PNGs (for images with transparencies) for use on the web.

[emmrecs01]

@sharonr

Just to possibly add a little more confusion to this (sorry!); the screenshots you attached to an earlier reply include the one of the message about entering your Product Key, and you asked why this message keeps appearing.  

The answer is because you have not entered the Product Key which Serif/Affinity would have supplied to you, both in a confirmation email and via your personal account if you purchased the app direct from Serif.  However, if, for some reason, you purchased the app at the Windows Store but downloaded and installed the Serif Store Trial version, you need to remove the Serif Store version and download and install from the Windows Store.  The two versions are, for licensing purposes only, completely independent.

HTH

Jeff

[walt.farrell]

13 hours ago, sharonr said:

The directions you provided offer a partial resolution. The file extensions now show up. Thank you. I do not get the option to "always use the PSD program." And, it does not change every file. I have to do each file that was changed by Affinity and I have thousands of files

Sorry. After right-clicking and choosing "Open with", choose the entry at the bottom to "Find another app". That next dialog will have the option to always use that application.

That should, I think, change the default application for all files with that filetype. But if it doesn't, then open Windows Settings, and click on Apps. Then on the left, click on Default Apps, and then scroll down to Choose Default Apps by File Type, then scroll down to .psd and click on the application name to get the list to choose from.

[sharonr]

Hello!

THANK YOU! Your last set of instructions was the fix I needed. It changed most file but the few it did not change is small. I can handle doing those individually.  

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!  I'm doing my happy dance! 🙂 

[Kris123456]

Thank you for the fix. I had the same exact issue. All of the files saved as psd suddenly had affinity icons. I understand they still work as psd, but seeing wrong icons bother me. 

 

Much appreciated!

[James Biedenharn]

Same issue. 

No Idea how Affinity took over all .PSD files as usually windows or the app ask if you want to set the file type to be associated with a new app.

Having to uninstall Affinity and update PS in hopes that the update will add the PS option to the list of apps available to associate a file with as it is NOT an available option even with show more option is selected. It is not in the windows list as options in the default app actions. 
 

This is a major Pain in the A()*& and I will not be installing Affinity again until this is confirmed fixed.

[Dan C]

Hi @James Biedenharn,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums

Sorry to hear you're having trouble - when installing Affinity the app does change certain file types, such as .PSD to default to the Affinity app, my apologies if this is unwanted behaviour for you.

However, you should simply be able to right click on your PSD files, select Open With, Choose Another App and then select Photoshop in the window that opens.

If Photoshop doesn't appear here, this would indicate an issue with the Adobe app itself and not Affinity, as we have no control over the apps that are listed in this menu, it is entirely controlled by Windows and the specific installed app you want to select - put simply, Affinity could not force Photoshop to appear, or not appear in this list, it is purely down to the Photoshop app to show here.

I hope this clears things up!

[iconoclast]

To make it clear, this is not unusual behavior. Many apps do this (as far as I remember GIMP, Adobe Apps, Corel Apps, Magix Apps, even some Image Viewers like IrfanView). It is not that they change anything in the files, the files will only be associated with the Affinity Apps, to be preferably opened by them in the future. Even that the file icon changes is totally normal. You can easily change that in the Preferences of your Operating System (or the way Dan told you) and associate certain file types to the app you want them to be opened with usually.