Export Assets - Affinity Designer (Problem)

[fjunk]

 To export assets:

1. Choose the category you want to export from the pop-up menu.
2. Click Panel Preferences and choose Export Assets.
3. Type a name for the exported file, choose the disk location you want to save it to and click Save.

That's supposed to be all there is to it.

So, I follow the super simple instructions and...

NOTHING happens.  Several times.  Several locations.

Closed and restarted my system (MacOS - BigSur Laptop). Closed and restarted Affinity Designer.

Nothing.

Any ideas why or what else I might try?

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, fjunk said:

So, I follow the super simple instructions and...

NOTHING happens. 

What location are you trying to save the assets file to?

When you say nothing happens, do you mean you can click the "Save" button & the window does not close, it closes but you cannot find a file in any lo=cation with the name you gave to the assets file, or something else?

[fjunk]

I mean "it closes but I cannot find the file" in the specific location where i tried to save it.  There are no error messages, no activity indicators, just ok, request noted and then nothing.  Tried saving to the hard drive, to the cloud.  

To remove any ambiguity, I created folders on the hard drive and on the Cloud named "Save_Here".  New folders, nothing in them.  If it saved at all, there would be something there - not on the Cloud, not on the hard drive... nothing.

[carl123]

1 hour ago, fjunk said:

Closed and restarted Affinity Designer.

How are you looking for the assets file?

File > Open in Designer will not (normally) show the file

Try File Manager or the Mac equivalent

 

[fjunk]

I realize you're trying to be helpful.  And I appreciate that.

This is supposed to be a simple, straightforward process.  Much like saving any other Designer, Photo process.  I've done this before.  The file extension is ".afassets".  So if I save a file "Assorted_Symbols".  It should save as "Assorted_Symbols.afassets" if it saves at all.

Here's what I'm seeing instead in "Finder" the Mac File Manager:

 

Here's the saving of an Affinity Photo document same location:


Here's saving the same file as an Affinity Designer document:
 

Now why would it save one file but not another to the same location yet inform me that I "do not have permission to create a file in that location."

This is an ongoing problem which I have mentioned here before and it's STILL a problem but ONLY for Affinity Designer.

Here's the exact same file using a different program - same location (saved and reopened):

Something ain't right.

 

[fjunk]

Good News!  

Having uninstalled and reinstalled Affinity Designer and deleting the old app, I can now save and open files.

EVERYTHING I had is GONE!!!!

So there's that.
 

[fjunk]

I'm done.

Whatever I'd like to do with Affinity Designer is useless if I can't, at a minimum:

1) Save a file
2) Open a file

Much as I can with EVERY other application EXCEPT Affinity Designer.

Nevermind that I SHOULD be able to.  I'm unable to.

 

[Wosven]

37 minutes ago, fjunk said:

EVERYTHING I had is GONE!!!!

Do you means you've lost all the assets, brushes, etc. you had?

[fjunk]

Yes.  I've lost ALL the assets, brushes, etc I had.

It's 735 MB install.

The App i deleted was 2.37 GB in size, meaning, likely, everything was self contained in the app.

But, if I can't save or open, import or export, who cares if it's lost.  It's still inaccessible and might as well be.
 

Without an ability to save or open, import or export, the ability to backup the files is gone anyways.

For all I like about this program and what it can do - ONE star.

If you never have this problem, good for you.  If you do...  good luck.

Apple didn't have an answer.  Neither does Affinity.  I've asked.

NO OTHER PROGRAM on my system has this problem.  ONLY Affinity.

For what it's worth.

P.S.  After all that, the uninstall, delete, reinstall, it still didn't fix the problem

[Wosven]

That's a lack of forsight to not offer to keep some settings or items like the ones we create when uninstalling the apps. Somme even propose t keep the settings.

I'm sorry for you.

[thomaso]

Though I am not experienced in using a Cloud for files in work I wonder whether your save path should be as shown in your screenshot. It seems you tried to save into your user Library folder (which by default is inaccessible to mac users). Aside this Library folder path, since there are various forum reports about issues with Affinity related files when saved on network or cloud volumes you might try to save on your local disk first.

[fjunk]

"your user Library folder"

I tried saving to the hard drive where everything else is saved.  I've tried saving to the iCloud storage.  I've tried saving to an external drive.
 

There are only so many places to try to save before it stops being about me and where I'm saving files and about either Apple and its process or Affinity and theirs.

Having talked (at least here in the forum about this) to Affinity users and Apple support, I've at least tried to resolve this to the best of my, and others who've offered their help ability.

I save to iCloud (which is virtual) and because I had problems with that, I saved locally to a folder I named "iCloud" just as a reminder that these files came from virtual storage.  Now, I save little if anything in virtual storage mostly because I keep bumping up against their measly limits for which they then offer me the opportunity to buy more virtual storage.  As with Apple their business model (and a shared sentiment now) is not the ability to buy something or have something outright as much as the constant push for upgrades or on their App store "In App Purchases" which used to simply be called "crippleware" in which you can do everything less than what matters unless you upgrade.  An inability to save is one thing, but, a good number of these fall short of functionality - intentionally as an incentive to upgrade.  I will buy a good product ONCE.  And they're there, but nowhere near those that offer try now, buy later offers disguised as "Free Downloads" which on the internet isn't just about everything?  The iPad doesn't even have a decent font manager unlike that which is native to the Macs, Linux, and Windows.  Instead you can go to the App store and find free or fee font systems.  There's not even a decent bulk install or uninstall application for fonts.

What stops me from using most software these days is that they're migrating over to subscription based systems.  That's like leasing a car.  You spend a lot of money and in the end it's not yours.  A friend of mine uses the Adobe system and they hold him hostage by promising to undo whatever he does that is interwoven with their products.  Literally, use it or lose it.

Affinity offers some really great applications and I've had immense fun creating using them, but, an inability to save, open, import or export files "no matter where" and I'm less interested in where I'd like to, than what works. I was able to.  That says that I must've been doing something right or it wouldn't have let me.  Unless it's that poorly written that it will.  And judging by what it does and how it's organized I'm not persuaded that that would be the case.

EVERYTHING else is stored alongside where the folder is that I'd like to save Affinity files to.  And EVERY OTHER program has no problems writing to or loading from those locations.

Why would EVERY OTHER program have no problem, but Affinity?

Simple Tech 101, is it any / everything you try to do?  Is it any / everywhere you try to do it?  If not, maybe it's not a system problem, maybe it's a localized (maybe even app specific) problem.

[R C-R]

I suggest that only as a test you try saving the "Assorted_Symbols.afassets" file directly to the local Desktop folder, so if it works you should see it there. If you do not, try relaunching Finder (via the Force Quit item on the Apple menu).

6 hours ago, fjunk said:

Yes.  I've lost ALL the assets, brushes, etc I had.

It's 735 MB install.

The App i deleted was 2.37 GB in size, meaning, likely, everything was self contained in the app.

I can confirm that the app itself after installation should be about 2.37 GB (it's 2.35GB on my Mac) but it does not contain a user's assets, brushes, etc. Those items are stored per user, so in folders in each user account's Library folder in that user's home folder. This folder is normally hidden but you can open it via the Finder > Go > Go to Folder menu item by entering ~/Library in the box that pops up & clicking the Go button.

The exact file path to the folder storing these items varies depending on which store you bought the app from. If you bought from the Mac App Store, look in the folder named Containers for a folder named com.seriflabs.affinitydesigner. If it came from the Affinity Store, it will be in a subfolder of the Application Support folder named Affinity Designer. Within this folder you should see a complex folder structure & deeply nested in it a "User" folder with a variety of files with the .propcol or .dat file extension. This is where the per user brushes, assets, & so on are stored, not in the root level Application/Affinity Designer folder.

So the first thing to do is figure out why the reinstalled Affinity Designer.app (which should be in the root level Applications folder) is just 735 MB. It could be that is just the size of the installer file, which might mean you have not yet actually reinstalled the app or are not looking in the right place for it.

[fjunk]

The iCloud Folder I created is on the Desktop.  But, you're right, it's not the Desktop.  For the sake of testing, I'll try that.

This is, explicitly, the "Library" folder I'm finding based on your goto:

/Users/pharisee/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinitydesigner/Data/Library

There's nothing in there on Assets.  Affinity Photo, which I have not uninstalled, still has many of the same Assets.  I didn't see anything under that folder either. So, I may be looking in the wrong location.

What I've done:

Exported from Affinity Photos to Desktop.  Installed from Desktop.  That worked.  Exported to Desktop/iCloud/Save_Here that worked.  Tried to import to Designer.  That failed.  Saved to Desktop instead.  Tried importing from Desktop.  That failed.

Results are inconsistent.

Am also running an experiment from an iPad (2021 - Latest version) to see how that works.  Have Designer as well as Photo installed there.

_
Update:

Created 18 subcategories to main category from libraries of a separate program (Amadine) purchased from the App Store.  Exported from Designer (iPad).  Saved to iCloud (Virtual) - Save_Here folder.  That worked.  File is a whopping 10.9 MB in size.  Not exactly a space hog - SVG files.  Imported from that location to Affinity Photo - Mac Laptop.  That worked fine.

Results continue to be inconsistent.

I would hope by all standards that this is a fair / comprehensive test.

 

 

[fjunk]

36 minutes ago, R C-R said:

So the first thing to do is figure out why the reinstalled Affinity Designer.app (which should be in the root level Applications folder) is just 735 MB. It could be that is just the size of the installer file, which might mean you have not yet actually reinstalled the app or are not looking in the right place for it.

The installer is 735 MB.  Installed - to the Applications folder - the .app is 2.53 GB.

[fjunk]

A complete uninstall using "CleanMyMac" apparently deleted the files in the Library location as well.  All it's showing now are the assets files recently installed.

[R C-R]

8 minutes ago, fjunk said:

/Users/pharisee/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinitydesigner/Data/Library

There's nothing in there on Assets.  Affinity Photo, which I have not uninstalled, still has many of the same Assets.  I didn't see anything under that folder either. So, I may be looking in the wrong location.

Within /Users/pharisee/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinitydesigner/Data/Library there should be an "Application Support" folder & within that a "user" folder, so the full path name is /Users/pharisee/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinitydesigner/Data/Library/Application Support/user/. It is in that folder that you should find the *.propcol & *.dat files, including one named assets.propcol, which is where the assets are stored.

17 minutes ago, fjunk said:

What I've done:

Please try to launch AD. If it opens, create a new document, add any sort of object to it. Open the Assets panel, create a new asset category, name it something like "Test," select the object you created, & add it to the newly created category. Try exporting this new category directly to the desktop.

Please let us know what happens.

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, fjunk said:

A complete uninstall using "CleanMyMac" apparently deleted the files in the Library location as well.  All it's showing now are the assets files recently installed.

That is unfortunate but would explain why your assets are gone. It is also why I never use utilities like "CleanMyMac" & suggest that others avoid them as well, or if they feel they must use them, to make sure they have good backups of anything & everything these things might consider 'cleaning' from the system.

[fjunk]

I opened a new file (Letter 8.5x11 - Portrait).  Created a 5 point star.  Saved it to a new category: Test_Assets.  And within that category, a subcategory: Star.

Exported per standard procedure to the Desktop.  Deleted it. Went to the Desktop, it wasn't there.  Recreated it.  Went back to the Desktop, rather than deleting it first.  It isn't there.  

[fjunk]

8 minutes ago, R C-R said:

That is unfortunate but would explain why your assets are gone. It is also why I never use utilities like "CleanMyMac" & suggest that others avoid them as well, or if they feel they must use them, to make sure they have good backups of anything & everything these things might consider 'cleaning' from the system.

It would've been helpful to know not only that, but of the location you just laid out.  It would've been useful back when I first brought up this problem.

That's hindsight.  

 

[fjunk]

Repeated process of new file, creating asset, saving and restoring in Affinity Photo - to Desktop.

That worked.

[R C-R]

5 minutes ago, fjunk said:

I opened a new file (Letter 8.5x11 - Portrait).  Created a 5 point star.  Saved it to a new category: Test_Assets.  And within that category, a subcategory: Star.

Exported per standard procedure to the Desktop.  Deleted it. Went to the Desktop, it wasn't there.  Recreated it.  Went back to the Desktop, rather than deleting it first.  It isn't there.  

I assume you did this in AD, right? If so, all I can think of that might help is to relaunch Finder like I mentioned earlier, & see if the file appears on the desktop. If that doesn't do it, maybe try running Disk Utility's First Aid on your startup drive to make sure everything in the file system is OK.

9 minutes ago, fjunk said:

It would've been helpful to know not only that, but of the location you just laid out. 

It did not occur to me to ask if you used "CleanMyMac" when this discussion started. Once you mentioned that you did, it became obvious why your assets went missing.

[fjunk]

 

16 minutes ago, fjunk said:

It would've been helpful to know not only that, but of the location you just laid out.  It would've been useful back when I first brought up this problem.

That's hindsight.  

 

Clarification.  I wasn't referring to this conversation.  I was referring to this one:
 

 

[R C-R]

15 minutes ago, fjunk said:

Clarification.  I wasn't referring to this conversation.  I was referring to this one:

That seems like a somewhat different issue, since it mentions a problem you have (or had?) with both AP & AD. Regardless, it is always a good idea to include as much info as you can about what you have done that other users might not know about.

Anyway, if nothing else helps with this AD (only?) exporting assets issue, you might try resetting AD to factory defaults. Normally, you would want to backup all your custom assets, brushes, & so one first, because this reset will remove them, but since you already did that with CleanMyMac, it won't matter much.

But please, before doing that reset, try relaunching Finder & running Disk Utility.

[fjunk]

17 minutes ago, R C-R said:

But please, before doing that reset, try relaunching Finder & running Disk Utility.

I went to launcher instead and am running "First Aid" on this drive.

And, it's not a separate problem as much as an ongoing problem.  It never stopped for Affinity Designer.  It's just that it was also Affinity Photo as well at the time.

It wasn't resolved then and it's currently unresolved.