Affinity Publisher overwrites edited documents

[lilien_sp]

hey all! 

I have a quite urgent question: 

Today I opened mit afpub file and was surprised that all the linked documents that I have edited many times in publisher are suddenly being overwritten with the original linked documents (all editing gone). This happens a few seconds after opening the file. So in the first seconds you can still see all the edited documents but they are being replaced with the "old" version soon. 

Is there any way I can stop the replacing with the original documents and keep mit edited ones? 🥺

I still have hope because during the first seconds the edited documents are still visible. but I don't know how to keep them...

This has never opened before. I have worked several days on that file and this has never happened before but I have a deadline today...

 

THANK YOU 

 

 

Edited January 20, 2022 by lilien_sp

[lilien_sp]

Oh and this happened right after the latest update to 1.10.4

[carl123]

In...

Edit > Preferences > General

Is the option "Automatically update linked resources when modified externally" on or off

If on try switching it off and report what happens

[lilien_sp]

thanks for reaching out!! 
unfortunately it's already turned off...

[carl123]

Check Document > Resource Manager and see what is says in the Placement column for one of the "faulty" documents

[lilien_sp]

it says in 5/6 cases "linked" and for 1/6 it says "remote" 

[carl123]

Not sure what sort of linked documents you are working with but check the folder path in Resource Manager for one of them then goto that folder open the document and ensure it is one you have updated

Also, are you working with any sort of synced content e.g. OneDrive

[lilien_sp]

the problem is: the documents (affinity designer) are in sync with the original source, but all the changes I've made on that linked documents via publisher are gone. 

I'm using iCloud Drive. 

[carl123]

OK, I don't know iCloud or Macs so I'll let someone else try to help you.

Besides, my bacon is just about cooked now and bacon waits for no man

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, lilien_sp said:

the problem is: the documents (affinity designer) are in sync with the original source, but all the changes I've made on that linked documents via publisher are gone. 

I'm using iCloud Drive. 

If you have Placed a Linked document and you make changes in Publisher, you are changing the original document. You do not have a separate copy of the document in Publisher. Similarly, if you make changes to the Linked document outside of Publisher, and then Update it in Publisher, you get those changes.

If you want to keep your changes local to Publisher, you need to use Embedded documents, not Linked documents.

[lilien_sp]

thank you @walt.farrell! Yes, this is the core-issue I guess. 

The problem is: I have used embedded documents. And in older versions of that file, the documents are still embedded. But for whatever reason now the placement of the same documents that should be embedded has changed to linked/remote without me knowingly doing that. 

I tried to change the placement back to embedded but that doesn't bring back the changes I've made. 

 I'm sorry this is all so confusing it's probably just mercury retrograde.

[thomaso]

5 hours ago, lilien_sp said:

all the linked documents that I have edited many times in publisher are suddenly being overwritten with the original linked documents (all editing gone).

If I double-click + edit in APub a linked resource, e.g. an .afdesign document, then I get asked whether I want to save my changes done to this linked resource when closing its window after my editing inside APub. – Didn't you get this dialog?

[walt.farrell]

13 minutes ago, thomaso said:

If I double-click + edit in APub a linked resource, e.g. an .afdesign document, then I get asked whether I want to save my changes done to this linked resource when closing its window after my editing inside APub. – Didn't you get this dialog?

Lilien_sp has mentioned (most recently) using Embedded documents, though earlier they mentioned Linked. In any case, you wouldn't get that dialog for an Embedded document. You would simply close the editing tab, and the changes are saved automatically in the parent document.

[thomaso]

3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

In any case, you wouldn't get that dialog for an Embedded document.

So what? The fact that the OP experience the issue would mean the affected resources are NOT embedded. That's why I mentioned this, because for embedded documents this issue would not occur. Or there is a bug and we all are forced to fail ;•)

[walt.farrell]

30 minutes ago, thomaso said:

The fact that the OP experience the issue would mean the affected resources are NOT embedded.

Yes, that's one thing it could mean, and probably the most likely.

And in that case, they probably got the dialog you mentioned, and responded Save, or the loss of changes would have been obvious immediately.

[thomaso]

On 1/20/2022 at 10:42 AM, lilien_sp said:

I'm using iCloud Drive. 

I haven't noticed the iCloud before. Now this seems to be a culprit.

There are quite a few reports and Serif's recommendations not to store Affinity documents or linked resources on external disks (e.g. NAS or Cloud) while working with them but as copy only of closed Affinity documents.

If you saved your edits done in APub to the linked resources without issues their files will contain the changes. Do they appear correct if you open their files directly from the iCloud (not as linked inside APub)?

By the way: Not sure if it matters or may be related: In your 1st post appears an embedded video, showing 1 second of white space only. Should we see something else there?

[lilien_sp]

I never got the dialog because all the documents I edited were in fact embedded. 

one day later (I’ve run the update to 1.10.4 in between) my resources were suddenly placed as linked/remote. So all the progress has been lost, but is still visible in the first few seconds after opening the file (?!) and then switches back to the now linked document. 

[lilien_sp]

I made another video where you can see how the documents change back to the linked source

 

[thomaso]

14 minutes ago, lilien_sp said:

all the documents I edited were in fact embedded

Do you notice that your info turns in this thread gradually from "all linked" to "all embedded"?

7 minutes ago, lilien_sp said:

I made another video where you can see how the documents change back to the linked source

No. Now I see 6 sec white and hear a woman saying: "die Platz haben und gut ausschauen wollen … zum Beispiel da auch Klügerrollen und et cetera".