Unable to open .afpub files on iPad Publisher v2

[warpoet_force]

I have many .afpub files that were created in Publisher v1 for desktop, that are saved to Google Drive. I am having trouble opening any of these files in v2 my iPad. They are greyed out on the iPad, as if they are an incompatible file. I am able to open the exported .pdf, but that is not helpful. I want to edit the original file.

I opened the files in v2 on my Mac, then saved them again, in case they needed to be saved by a more recent version of the desktop software with no change in results. Is this a glitch, or are the file types incompatible?

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

You're not the first user who has mentioned this, but I have opened files created in Publisher V1 (on Windows) in Publisher 2 on my iPad. So I know it can work.

I wonder if it's something to do with having them on Google Drive. Using the Files app, can you copy them to a local folder on your iPad and see if that helps?

If not, what is the complete filename, including the extension, that you see in Files and by using Get Info?

Can you create a small sample .afpub using your Mac, and if they fail on your iPad, share it here so we can try it?

[warpoet_force]

I appreciate the reply. I saved the file to iCloud and it opened just fine on the iPad. Thanks. 

[walt.farrell]

Excellent. That may help other users  

(But it would be good to figure out what's wrong; I would think that Google Drive would work.)

[warpoet_force]

The problem appears to be with Google Drive. I have tried multiple documents on Google Drive, but each file that I copy to iCloud works immediately. I would like to know if others are having the same problem. 

[Paul Mudditt]

Google drive seems to be the worst cloud solution and has never worked properly, Onedrive, Dropbox iCloud all work well but Google Drive is weird.

[Dan Cross]

Why am I getting so many problems with "linked resource permission denied" and the request to "authorise folder" just to get my images to show up correctly. When I looked at resource manager it all says "linked resouce sandbox error". 

[Paul Mudditt]

21 minutes ago, Dan Cross said:

Why am I getting so many problems with "linked resource permission denied" and the request to "authorise folder" just to get my images to show up correctly. When I looked at resource manager it all says "linked resouce sandbox error". 

Might be worth checking permissions have been enabled correctly under settings - privacy & security - files and photos

[Dan Cross]

3 hours ago, Paul Mudditt said:

Might be worth checking permissions have been enabled correctly under settings - privacy & security - files and photos

I appreciate the suggestion, and I did double check it. Alas, that was not the solution because all of my files and folders settings are fully authorized. 

[Paul Mudditt]

3 hours ago, Dan Cross said:

I appreciate the suggestion, and I did double check it. Alas, that was not the solution because all of my files and folders settings are fully authorized. 

Maybe a few more details of your setup will help, external drive maybe? google drive rather than iCloud? insufficient free space on iPad because iCloud not bring used? linked files have been offloaded by iCloud?

[Paul Mudditt]

8 hours ago, Dan Cross said:

Why am I getting so many problems with "linked resource permission denied" and the request to "authorise folder" just to get my images to show up correctly. When I looked at resource manager it all says "linked resouce sandbox error". 

Are you opening from the files app as opposed to using the apps open interface? 

If so then it is the IOS/iPadOS file association issue. You likely have opened a .afpub file in Designer V1 app previously?

Create and use a shortcut like this to open in Publisher V2 etc In the files app press and hold on the file until the pop up menu appears, then select share and browse to the appropriate shortcut. The file will then open in V2 app.

Once you have used it once, IOS/iPadOS remembers that you used the V2 app to load the file and will continue to do that and you don’t need to use the shortcut until you have used an Open in V1 shortcut which reverses the change !

 

 

 

[Dan Cross]

I got this far and am having trouble figuring out how you got the line of “Open” to read “open shortcut input in Publisher 2” 

How did you get the “in Publisher 2” to appear as the default option? 

 

[walt.farrell]

As an alternative, @Dan Cross: In the Files app:

1. Long-press on a file.
2. From the menu that pops up, choose Share.
3. When I do that, there's a list of suggested apps, and on the right of that list (scroll if needed) there's a More entry.
4. That gives me a complete list of applications to choose from. Choose the proper application.

Edit: I do not know whether iPadOS will remember this choice.

[Dan Cross]

8 hours ago, Paul Mudditt said:

Maybe a few more details of your setup will help, external drive maybe? google drive rather than iCloud? insufficient free space on iPad because iCloud not bring used? linked files have been offloaded by iCloud?

No external hard drive. I have had the same problem using google drive versus icloud, and also experiencing the same issue with Dropbox. I am thinking your shortcut suggestion will work if I can get it structured correctly in Shortcuts syntax wise. That is because he file in question was originally a V1 on desktop…however, I did open and resave in in v2 of Publisher desktop first, before opening. And I did use the open dialog box from within the app itself.

[Paul Mudditt]

Do not use ‘Open App’, search for ‘Open File’

[Paul Mudditt]

9 minutes ago, Dan Cross said:

No external hard drive. I have had the same problem using google drive versus icloud, and also experiencing the same issue with Dropbox. I am thinking your shortcut suggestion will work if I can get it structured correctly in Shortcuts syntax wise. That is because he file in question was originally a V1 on desktop…however, I did open and resave in in v2 of Publisher desktop first, before opening. And I did use the open dialog box from within the app itself.

I am pretty sure your problem is caused by the wrong file extension association, fix it by creating the shortcuts as shown here.

 

[Dan Cross]

Thank you so very much!

[Dan Cross]

Unfortunatley, after I successful made the shortcut, I opened my file and still got the "linked resource permission denied" message with the "linked resource sandbox error" in preflight. Darn!

[Paul Mudditt]

2 hours ago, Dan Cross said:

Unfortunatley, after I successful made the shortcut, I opened my file and still got the "linked resource permission denied" message with the "linked resource sandbox error" in preflight. Darn!

I would get rid of Google drive from your iPad, it is the worst cloud solution. Try dropbox, onedrive or iCloud instead.

[Dan Cross]

35 minutes ago, Paul Mudditt said:

I would get rid of Google drive from your iPad, it is the worst cloud solution. Try dropbox, onedrive or iCloud instead.

I have it sync'd right now with icloud. Could the very existence of the Google Drive be affecting things somehow?

[Paul Mudditt]

1 hour ago, Dan Cross said:

I have it sync'd right now with icloud. Could the very existence of the Google Drive be affecting things somehow?

I think you may have a file linked to it somewhere so you would have to uninstall it I think to break the faulty link. Just guessing though.

[Oksana]

On 11/12/2022 at 7:23 PM, warpoet_force said:

I have many .afpub files that were created in Publisher v1 for desktop, that are saved to Google Drive. I am having trouble opening any of these files in v2 my iPad. They are greyed out on the iPad, as if they are an incompatible file. I am able to open the exported .pdf, but that is not helpful. I want to edit the original file.

I opened the files in v2 on my Mac, then saved them again, in case they needed to be saved by a more recent version of the desktop software with no change in results. Is this a glitch, or are the file types incompatible?

I have identical problem. This is an issue for me, as google drive is the main storage cloud I use for everything, and it works fine for me with all other apps. Would be important for affinity to sort this out. 
 

Here is info  I found about this problem online for another app (Clicker / DocsPlus):

“This is an issue with the Google Drive service itself.

There are many ways to upload a file to Google Drive. Depending on the method used, Google Drive may classify a Clicker / DocsPlus file as a different type. This causes the file to appear dimmed and unopenable in our apps.

We've updated our software to reduce the chances of this happening. However, older files may still be affected.”

 

Edited December 28, 2022 by Oksana
More info added