HUGE Quality image loss bug [WEIRD SOLUTION, BUT FIXED] & .PSD Bug Discovered - not saving edits [SOLVED]

[Affinity iPad Student]

Update Exporting as.psd file is not saving all of my edits

discovered by  @Wosven

 

my uploaded file which is below in my original, I thought was corrupted, due to @Wosven bringing a detail he noticed while trying to help me. Turns out my file is not corrupted. After my resolving my initial issue, I exported my .psd and overwrote the original… well, Affinity is not saving my work thoroughly when I export as .psd to my iCloud drive (I have 1 tb of free space) it’s not saving my edits entirely.

I even tried exporting to my cloud as a new file, with a new name, thus not overwriting the older file. To no avail, same bug. 
Seems affinity photo saved every edit, except my exposure used as a mask edit.

 

Here my initial edit, see red arrow, I inverted exposure, used it as a mask and painted back in with white soft brush to create the dark shadows on the earth lower body  

 

 

 

Here is the same image, but after import it to affinity from my iCloud, notice all the other edits intact except… exposure edit is ignored:

 

 

Could this be the bug? exposure being inverted and used as mask when you paint on it with soft brush? it’s not.. I tested it with newly created graphic. see ellipse below. 

 

Turns out it’s not an exposure edit bug. This is a good thing! I created a test ellipse which I did the same exposure effect. The same edit was imported that I exported. So I’m stumped. Looks like my earth work won’t be fully saved. 

Maybe it’s the quality of images above? within the 2000 & 3000 resolution.

 

Update Fixed Image

10 or 11 hours later resolved it by accident.

I deleted one of the affected layers by accident. Then I double tapped finger to undo my accidental delete -> this returned my layer, but most importantly brought back all its quality. I repeated this step for all the other layers and this fixed them as well. Everything back to super quality. 

 

 

Original Post

Randomly got hit with a mighty quality loss of images. Happened instantly, when I tapped on a layer I was about to edit. All layers affected, caught the monster loss - instantly. This is a random bug that occurs occasionally.

I must say… extremely disappointing. Hits me while I was studying.

 

Troubleshooting Steps I have taken:

• Close out project it, relaunch it. 
• Remove mask of affected layer and then reapply it (this works sometimes, somehow refreshes the pixels and brings back the quality)
• Close out Affinity Photo and relaunch it
• Closed out my safari browser, email, youtube that were opened in the background 
• Rebooting iPad did not work

See my iPad specs & affinity version in sig below.

I have attached the .psd below 👇 

 

Before Quality Loss:

 

Quality Loss

 

Removing mask then reapplying mask, worked for one layer but not the others affected by quality loss:

 

quality loss - surreal earth.psd

[Wosven]

@Affinity iPad Student

Do you use linked resources or you always embed them? (I suppose you rasterised them before posting the file?)

If they are linked, there're problems with images appearing blurred since it's the way the apps tell us they are missing or needing to be updated in the Resource panel (View > Resource Manager).

[Wosven]

And another question: does the Earth heavy shadow layer does this effect (too dark), or it's a bug between iPad and Windows' AP?

[Affinity iPad Student]

@Wosven

Thank you for the responses. Answering your questions.

Linked Resources or Embeded? Not sure if I understand your question. I think I do. I downloaded the images directly to my iPad from their website sources. Pexels, Unsplash etc.. Thank you for the linked images bug (will steer clear away from linked images)

Rasterize before posting file? To my knowledge I did not rasterize to avoid quality loss of image.

Heavy Earth Shadow Bug? That was me creating an exposure, that I purposely made dark, then inverted the exposure so I can soft brush in a shadow. The file should had reflected that. I have no idea why it downloaded for you test way… looks like my file was potentially corrupted. 

 

The good news - I fixed the problem just now, (1am my time) but you helped me discover another one. See my opening post.. I have updated it.

 

 

[Wosven]

41 minutes ago, Affinity iPad Student said:

See my opening post.. I have updated it.

You should have posted below, not modified the original one, it's more logical and less confusing.

About embedded/linked resources, from AP's help:

• Embedding
  A copy of the original file is embedded into the document. As a result, there is no means of checking if the original file is modified at a later date, but the file will be kept with the document when it is moved.

• Linking
  Instead of embedding, a link is created between the document and the file on disk to allow it to update (via Resource Manager) if changed on disk. The linked file is never stored in the document.
  If one or more linked files have been moved or renamed since you last opened your document, you'll be prompted to locate the file the next time the document is opened.

• File sizes and embedding/linking
  Embedding resources means the document is portable at the expense of a greater file size—all the resources are stored in the document. Linked resources give a much smaller document file size as only link information is stored.

48 minutes ago, Affinity iPad Student said:

Rasterize before posting file?

I asked this because the layers are pixel layers, when usually placed files, from Stock or placed or dropped are "Image" layers. It's probably due to exporting as PSD file.

 

Your exposure layer isn't reconised, probably because this sort of layer doesn't exist in PS. Did you tried saving only as afphoto files?

[Affinity iPad Student]

thank you @Wosven

You are correct, would had been less confusing posting underneath my previous post. My mistake on that one, apologies for the inconvenience. noted for next time. 

Also.. thank you for the AP help breakdown, I’ll need to look further into those meanings & definitions, I’m not familiar with those concepts.

I just recently started getting better with the affinity photo app, I still don’t understand a lot of the stuff (jargon, concepts etc). 

 

Rasterizing so… from what you’re saying, exporting as a .psd file “potentially” automatically rasterizes my files? I never knew this. I’m guessing afphoto does not rasterize exported files?

I did not save this file as afphoto, but most likely the auto save feature did and stored it on my hard drive. I will run a test later and see if it’s there or I’ll save it as a afphoto and report back here. (underneath this post) 🥳 

 

Still I must make aware.. the issue is happening on my main project file, which is living inside my affinity photo ipad app. This project was never imported into affinity, I am assuming this is the .afphoto version.

 

 

[walt.farrell]

On 10/29/2021 at 6:53 AM, Affinity iPad Student said:

Still I must make aware.. the issue is happening on my main project file, which is living inside my affinity photo ipad app. This project was never imported into affinity, I am assuming this is the .afphoto version.

I do not know what format is used for the active projects in your Affinity Photo sandbox (the Photo "homepage" on your iPad). It might be .afphoto, or some other internal format. But if you started the project in Affinity Photo, and have never Opened your exported PSD file to continue working on it, then you should not have lost anything via the export process.

However, you should Save your project outside the sandbox, for safety. You can do that from the project (document menu, click Save a Copy) or from the homepage (click 3 bars below the project image, click Save). That will definitely give you a .afphoto file. You could then share that file with us by attaching it here.

[Affinity iPad Student]

@walt.farrell

Your words equal true:

Quote

“if you started the project in Affinity Photo, and have never Opened your exported PSD file to continue working on it, then you should not have lost anything via the export process”

This is exactly my situation. I will be testing later today. 

[DM1]

12 hours ago, Affinity iPad Student said:

but most likely the auto save feature did and stored it on my hard drive

Unfortunately no. Auto save only updates the sandbox file. It doesn’t create an afphoto file. You need to 'Save' to do that.
Unfortunately there is a bug with Save (in Designer), that I assume exists in Photo but haven’t tested, where Save from the Document menu updates the .afxxxx file but not the sandbox file. 🙁

[Affinity iPad Student]

@DM1

well there goes that. I look forward to testing this later. 

[Affinity iPad Student]

@walt.farrell appreciate you breaking down what sandbox means (first time I’ve come across the jargon) I also appreciate you sharing with me the reason to use save copy, I’ve always seen it, but never used it… since I’ve always exported as .psd.

 

This export as a .psd habit ingrained in me… from when I first came to these forums few years back, and I was told… .psd was the best way to go. Stuck with it since. That changes today.

I wonder how many of the hundreds of edits, I have in my icloud saved as .psd - are not fully intact with all the edits & auto rasterized, thus losing quality of the original image  (I shudder to even think) 

 

Strange to me… .afphoto is not an option within the export file type selections.

 

 

ANNDDD… that answers that, after this ordeal… I’m out on saving my files as .psd - never again. (I’m really scared for the hundreds of files I already have saved in my icloud as .psd)

I just opened up the same project that .psd was giving me issues with, this time however… I opened the project while saved as .afphoto saved in my iPad drive. HAPPY TO REPORT all my edits & quality intact. 

 

100% Intact i

 

 

[Affinity iPad Student]

This issue has not been solved.. but resolved. To recap:

 

1. HUGE loss of image quality bug

This occurred in the sandbox and is actually affinity photo being buggy (this was not an imported .psd file)

@walt.farrell Thank you for the sandbox terminology!

This file was created in the affinity sandbox and lived in the sandbox. At the moment, the only way I am aware to temporarily fix this image quality loss issue is to..

1. Remove mask *uncheck it*, then re-apply it.
2. Delete the layer and then undo delete.

Sometimes it takes a few deletes and undo’s to fix, same goes with reapply mask technique.

 

As I was finishing up my project yesterday every time I added a new effect quality loss bug would kick in, and I would have to go back to deleting layers and undoing the delete after.  Here is the .afphoto file:

mdmz - surreal earth_tut.afphoto

 

2. .psd export & import bug

Will chew up your edit saves, and spit them out in bubbles!

It does not care about the effort or hours you put into your edits. It will disrespect you *quitely*

As soon as you import your .psd work, that’s when the disrespect hits you. Your stuff all rasterized and your edit not there.

If knew already this good for you - for people in my boat and not knowing -> buyer beware. 

[Paul Mudditt]

4 hours ago, Affinity iPad Student said:

This issue has not been solved.. but resolved. To recap:

 

1. HUGE loss of image quality bug

This occurred in the sandbox and is actually affinity photo being buggy (this was not an imported .psd file)

@walt.farrell Thank you for the sandbox terminology!

This file was created in the affinity sandbox and lived in the sandbox. At the moment, the only way I am aware to temporarily fix this image quality loss issue is to..

1. Remove mask *uncheck it*, then re-apply it.
2. Delete the layer and then undo delete.

Sometimes it takes a few deletes and undo’s to fix, same goes with reapply mask technique.

 

As I was finishing up my project yesterday every time I added a new effect quality loss bug would kick in, and I would have to go back to deleting layers and undoing the delete after.  Here is the .afphoto file:

mdmz - surreal earth_tut.afphoto

 

2. .psd export & import bug

Will chew up your edit saves, and spit them out in bubbles!

It does not care about the effort or hours you put into your edits. It will disrespect you *quitely*

As soon as you import your .psd work, that’s when the disrespect hits you. Your stuff all rasterized and your edit not there.

If knew already this good for you - for people in my boat and not knowing -> buyer beware. 

 

You must remember that some of the effects you can create in Affinity are not definable in Adobe PSD hence when you EXPORT to a DIFFERENT system you must expect loss of INFORMATION if the feature does not have a COMPARABLE conversion available.

You should save in Affinity native afphoto format if you create something in Affinity Photo in the same way that you should save in Adobe native PSD format if you create something in Adobe. 

The addition of a PSD export is just a minor added feature in Affinity. A cross platform feature that Adobe do not do as there is no comparable Export in afphoto format in Adobe.

[Affinity iPad Student]

@Paul Mudditt

yep, I didn't know that at the time due to what I learned on here in affinity forums a few years back regarding .psd.

I pretty much expressed, what you just explained in a different way in here but coming from a lower level of understanding.

I am just now, after this incident- coming into the understanding of these file types and the data technicalities involved with them.