iPad Designer & Photo: ensuring files are saved at the Files app level

[VectorCat]

If a file in the "tiles" preview section of these apps has been Saved from the hamburger menu on each file, has that file been written to the Files app? 

I'm about to reformat the iPad but before I do so, I need to make absolutely sure that I have all of my files backed up and can manupulate them individually on my back up on my Mac. I need file-level control; the "all or nothing" iTunes backup is inadequate for this goal.

 

Before I zero out the iPad, I need to make certain that I have all of my files backed up in such a way that I have the files as individual files and not locked away in a mass iTunes back up.

 

Thank you!

 

[NotMyFault]

To be sure, you must copy/move the files out of the Photo or Designer folder into a separate folder. This can be done with the files app.

If you move / copy them to an iCloud folder, you can check them on any device that is iCloud enabled (or via browser on any device).

Please be aware that some users ran into issues when directly storing / opening files from cloud locations (iCloud, OneDrive, Dropbox) in Affinity Apps, this lead to corrupted files in rare cases. It never happened to me.

So best practice is:

• While you are actively working on documents, store them in a folder under location "On my iPad", e.g. "My Affinity Files". Do not save in the default "Sandbox" location "On my iPad" / "Affinity Photo", "Affinity Designer" anything of value.
• For permanent storage, move or copy (e.g. "Save As" in Photo) them to a folder under a cloud location, e.g. "iCloud Drive", "One Drive", Amazon Drive", Dropbox", "Google Drive" etc.
• If you open a file from a cloud location, do not save it to the same location to avoid file corruption. Always make a copy.

It might work for you to save into the default folders for years without issues. But do not complain about corrupted or lost files if something goes wrong.

[VectorCat]

that all matches what I do, minus the cloud part. so, I'm going to have to confirm that my art files are in the Files app, each file at a time?

[NotMyFault]

44 minutes ago, VectorCat said:

that all matches what I do, minus the cloud part. so, I'm going to have to confirm that my art files are in the Files app, each file at a time?

well you said:

2 hours ago, VectorCat said:

I need to make absolutely sure that I have all of my files backed up and can manupulate them individually on my back up on my Mac

The iPad backup does not allow to extract individual files. It is all or nothing restore. If you want to be able to open individual files, you must copy them to another device, or to a cloud service which allows to access individual files. iPad backups do not provide that fine granular access.

If you restored your iPad, you will be able to access files individually again, if files have been stored in user-created folders. Files in App sandboxes may get lost. If you are going to a full backup / restore process, please create some test files stored intentionally in the sandbox folders, and check if they get correctly restored. Curious to hear about your results.

[DM1]

6 hours ago, VectorCat said:

If a file in the "tiles" preview section of these apps has been Saved from the hamburger menu on each file, has that file been written to the Files app? 

If saved from hamburger menu, they will be stored outside sandbox in the default affinity folder. If default storage is local (on iPad) this default folder and all content will be deleted when the app is deleted. If default storage is iCloud the folder and content on iCloud will not be deleted. If you want to keep your files i’s a simple matter to copy the default local folder content to a different location before deleting the app.