Moving files from V1 to V2

[Shiogumo]

Hi,

How do I move my files from V1 to V2 on iPad?

Specifically Designer v1 to v2.

Thanks

Edited November 15, 2022 by Shiogumo

[iuli]

Hi @Shiogumo and welcome to the forums

I think the easiest way to migrate your files to v2 is to put all your v1 stuff in a folder (everything has to be ready to be installed, out of their containers), then open AD, press the AD logo, press Import Content and navigate to the folder where you placed all the stuff you want installed. It would take a bit depending of how large your assets/brushes etc are.

I hope that makes any sense. All the best.

[Peter vB]

I use the Stage Manager and put v1 next to v2.

Make sure the 'same' folders are open.

Then push and hold on a file in v1 and slide it to v2.

This works for almost all files, but if a file is too big than you get a screen that it's saving, but  my experience is that that doesn't work.

You may have to open this combi of v1 and v2 screen a few times to get all 'small' files to the other version.

Than find out which files didn't make it and I had to save those files and open them separately in v2.

 

It's a bit of work, but this is how I managed to move my 'old' work to the new version.

 

I needed 10 hours to move my 600+ Affinity Photo files to v2, but it worked.
Moving my 400 Designer files didn't take that long, but it took a short while to find out how to move the larger files.

I don't think this is 'the' way to do it, but this is how it worked for me.
I think it's a case of trial and error. Good luck! 

 

[DM1]

1 hour ago, Peter vB said:

I needed 10 hours to move my 600+ Affinity Photo files to v2, but it worked.

Open app and on Home screens tap the 3bar menu under the project icon. Tap rename and choose a file name. Tap 3 bar menu and tap Save. Note: these steps should be performed with every new project as part of your normal workflow. (Named file is now saved to default storage folder).
 

If you haven’t previously saved your work you need to repeat the above process for all project files on the Home Screen. If filenames are not required, tapping Save without renaming first will create unnamedxx.afxxx files and increment the number with each new file saved.🙂

For Saved files: Open Files app, navigate to the Affinity folder on iPad/iCloud (depends on Preference setting for default folder), open Folder, use Select All/Move, navigate to V2 default folder (or any folder for that matter), and paste.

In V2 you can navigate to the folder and open your old files as needed. You could simply navigate to the V1 default folder as long as you remember that deleting the app at any stage deletes the default folder on iPad (and the folders contents).

IMHO I suspect the Live Document view should be considered as a strictly temporary storage location only, not as a file managent/storage system for your work. Better to have files out of the apps sandbox and stored where they can be copied/moved/backed-up for recovery purposes.

[VectorCat]

I Airdropped a Publisher project folder ( appx 1.6GB total ) from M1 Mac Mini to 2nd-Gen iPad Pro 12.9”

Opened with iPad Publisher lickety split, no squawks, no issues.. Resource Mgr alerted me to missing assets. I pointed it to the folder where they all resided, found one image, Publisher found the rest.

I’m only 20 minutes into using it..sure was worth the wait!

[DM1]

3 hours ago, VectorCat said:

I Airdropped a Publisher project folder ( appx 1.6GB total )

The issue being experienced is that many V1 users have never actually ‘saved’ their work out of iPad sandbox. 🙁

[Peter vB]

Indeed DM1.
The trouble is that some people, me included, are working with the application without ever seeing the full manual.
You just try something, it works, don't change anything haha 
Although I still think that Affinity should've done something to get your files into V2 a bit easier... I now have copies of all my files outside of the Affinity folders, but also in the  V2 appl. now.
Affinity can call it a Live Docs, it's still a gallery and I'm used to having all my files in the application.
I'm using/playing/adjusting them constantly and my iPad has enough memory, so that's not going to be a problem.

So, now I'm finally finding out what's new in V2 😛 

[Shiogumo]

Thank you everyone for the super fast response and advice. 
Drag and drop wasn’t successful so ended up saving files individually and moving them in bulk. Yeah never thought about saving them as such… thank you again!!!

[DM1]

14 hours ago, Peter vB said:

Affinity can call it a Live Docs, it's still a gallery and I'm used to having all my files in the application.

That’s fine, but if you save them they will also link to an external copy that you can access and backup. You don’t have to close Live Doc version (though it will use ram and that might effect models with only 1 or 2 Gb working ram (not to be confused with storage ram)).🙂

[VectorCat]

So, if each item in Live Docs is taking up RAM, even those with RAM to burn would be wise to keep the Live items pared to just the few active ones, correct?

[Karinds]

This is such a PITA having to save every single file individually to copy across.  Importing only allows one file at a time and not even a folder.  Why hasn’t Serif organised this much better.  If I’d have known this prior I probably wouldn’t have bothered to upgrade as now it’s just time consuming and i don’t have the time.  Is there another way to copy across and migrate your work?

[walt.farrell]

4 hours ago, Karinds said:

This is such a PITA having to save every single file individually to copy across.  Importing only allows one file at a time and not even a folder.  Why hasn’t Serif organised this much better.  If I’d have known this prior I probably wouldn’t have bothered to upgrade as now it’s just time consuming and i don’t have the time.  Is there another way to copy across and migrate your work?

Saving them outside the Sandbox (Home Page) is an important part of the normal workflow, and if you've been doing that then everything is already where you can easily access it from V2 (or move it to a better place using Files).

If you haven't been saving your work regularly, then you should probably consider adjusting your workflow anyway. But this is really about iPadOS and the way it organizes applications, not something Serif and the Affinity applications can do anything about.

[Karinds]

@walt.farrell Thank you.  I have many folders (projects) in the cloud but it’s silly that I can’t import the entire folder instead I have to recreate new folder (project) and then import every file singularly which seems dumb to me.  When can’t we have the option to import the entire project.  I have some projects with over 60 file/designs within that particular project. 

[loukash]

36 minutes ago, Karinds said:

 I have many folders (projects) in the cloud but it’s silly that I can’t import the entire folder instead I have to recreate new folder (project) and then import every file singularly which seems dumb to me.

No offense, but I really don't understand your workflow here. If your v1 documents have been saved to an iCloud or a local folder – i.e. one that is also visible in the Files app – you don't have to import anything. When in Affinity v2, just navigate to that folder and open the document you currently need.

[walt.farrell]

21 minutes ago, loukash said:

No offense, but I really don't understand your workflow here. If your v1 documents have been saved to an iCloud or a local folder – i.e. one that is also visible in the Files app – you don't have to import anything. When in Affinity v2, just navigate to that folder and open the document you currently need.

I think that @Karinds is talking about having Project folders in the sandbox. And they're right that there's no mechanism provided in the Affinity apps to create a project folder in the file system. But, of course, one can do that within the file system. And one should still be Saving the contents of the project (in the Home Screen) into the file system, just as with any other document. 

So, still, if one is properly Saving one's work, then it should already be in a usable location in the file system. But the Project folders will need to be recreated and reloaded in V2, because iPadOS does not allow the sandboxed data to be shared.

[Paul Mudditt]

20 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

I think that @Karinds is talking about having Project folders in the sandbox. And they're right that there's no mechanism provided in the Affinity apps to create a project folder in the file system. But, of course, one can do that within the file system. And one should still be Saving the contents of the project (in the Home Screen) into the file system, just as with any other document. 

So, still, if one is properly Saving one's work, then it should already be in a usable location in the file system. But the Project folders will need to be recreated and reloaded in V2, because iPadOS does not allow the sandboxed data to be shared.

Again, like the rename option that never worked properly, I think it was a bad decision to introduce project folders as it gave the impression that there was a filing system built into the app, when we know there isn't. In fact I would go further and replace the sandbox by the desktop recent files viewer instead, forcing each and every non trivial file to be saved to disk.

[DM1]

15 hours ago, Paul Mudditt said:

and replace the sandbox by the desktop recent files viewer instead

Great idea