HELP! Document disappeared

[Vivilama]

I am extremely frustrated and disappointed!

I think I just lost weeks of work.

No, I didn’t back up. Why? Because frankly I have never had any issues on the iPad. Also, all other vector apps do store on the iCloud. My mistake was to assume that Designer does the same. Incidentally, the option to choose iCloud seems gone in V2.

so here is what happened: 

Last night, when I closed my document and opened very old version, then closed that one, the previous project got somehow overwritten with my second project i opened. I now have two duplicates! One of them is constantly showing the loading symbol. 
 

what the heck just happened???

Edit: After further investigation it am pretty sure this is a severe bug! The document isn’t overwritten. Designer seems to see the same file twice. I renamed one and it renamed the other one as well. I moved one into a folder, and Designer crashed. When loaded Designer back up, the dubios clone was gone leaving me with only the old version of my project.  
 

image before the  crash: 

[Vivilama]

No response from the developers? 

[DM1]

On 2/26/2023 at 4:02 AM, Vivilama said:

what the heck just happened???

Hard to say without knowing your workflow. You appear to have two documents with the same name? 
You should still be able to open one of them.

Affinity creates a sandbox file. “Manually” Saving creates an external file linked to the sandbox file. The external file (if it has been created) will only update with another manual save. Autosave only updates the sandbox version. You can have the same file in two different states of progress (unless you manually save after returning to Home Screen). The (M) next to name is a reminder of need to manually save. It disappears after saving. 
You appear to have a number of unsaved files, while some are happy to work this way, I feel it is risky not to regularly save outside the app using the “Save/Save as” functions.

Recommend workflow:

1. Set autosave to 30 seconds (in preferences). Note this only updates internal version.
2. Create new or Import a document. 
3. On Home Screen tap 3 bar menu and use “Save or Save as” to create an external copy linked to internal copy. 
4. Edit as required, returning to Home Screen updates internal copy. (M) next to file name. 
5. Tap 3 bar menu and tap save. Edits are now saved to external file. (M) disappears from file name.

In the event something happens to corrupt internal file, simple open the External version and a new sandbox version is created. If you have saved manually, regularly, not too much is lost.

Also when returning to Home Screen always wait for spinning symbol to finish (saving complete) before closing or opening anything else. Big files may take a few seconds to complete.

[Vivilama]

1 hour ago, DM1 said:

Hard to say without knowing your workflow. You appear to have two documents with the same name? 
You should still be able to open one of them.

Affinity creates a sandbox file. “Manually” Saving creates an external file linked to the sandbox file. The external file (if it has been created) will only update with another manual save. Autosave only updates the sandbox version. You can have the same file in two different states of progress (unless you manually save after returning to Home Screen). The (M) next to name is a reminder of need to manually save. It disappears after saving. 
You appear to have a number of unsaved files, while some are happy to work this way, I feel it is risky not to regularly save outside the app using the “Save/Save as” functions.

Recommend workflow:

1. Set autosave to 30 seconds (in preferences). Note this only updates internal version.
2. Create new or Import a document. 
3. On Home Screen tap 3 bar menu and use “Save or Save as” to create an external copy linked to internal copy. 
4. Edit as required, returning to Home Screen updates internal copy. (M) next to file name. 
5. Tap 3 bar menu and tap save. Edits are now saved to external file. (M) disappears from file name.

In the event something happens to corrupt internal file, simple open the External version and a new sandbox version is created. If you have saved manually, regularly, not too much is lost.

Also when returning to Home Screen always wait for spinning symbol to finish (saving complete) before closing or opening anything else. Big files may take a few seconds to complete.

Well, the information provided is quite good/ important to know ( although I wish I had it yesterday) ! I didn’t know about the sandbox. 

Due all respect, from your text I kinda read that you see the issue being the user when there is definitely an issue with the app. It’s not about my workflow as I didn’t do anything but open / close the file. 
 

As you can read from my post, my file got replaced by a clone of an old file! When I then renamed one, the other also renamed. That alone is an indication for a software issue. When I moved one of the files into a folder, designer crashed and the clone disappeared. Also, as you can see in the image, there is the loading icon, which was the constantly, indicating some conflict. 

I am actually surprised on how designer handles this whole saving topic. With Blender and all the other 3D software and apps I am using, I never lost more than a minute of work. 
i never had to worry about whether my files are properly saved or not. They all save iterations of the project in the same folder where the Mai project is located. As simple as that. 
So pardon me when I disagree with your recommended workflow. 
 

where is the sandbox file located? 
does designer have a log file? There should be some clues in a log file on what happened. 

 

[Paul Mudditt]

Documents on the Affinity home screen are not like the recent files you see on the desktop (I wish they were !), they are akin to open tabs on a desktop and not a safe place to keep any of your completed work.

Convenient yes because just like on a desktop tab if you keep a file open then you have all the file history available but if anything goes wrong and the app has to close or be re-installed all your open tabs will be lost.

I expect that the apps home screen will be ditched in future versions and replaced by a recent files view which makes the workflow exactly the same as the desktop, fingers crossed.

[Vivilama]

1 hour ago, Paul Mudditt said:

Documents on the Affinity home screen are not like the recent files you see on the desktop (I wish they were !), they are akin to open tabs on a desktop and not a safe place to keep any of your completed work.

Convenient yes because just like on a desktop tab if you keep a file open then you have all the file history available but if anything goes wrong and the app has to close or be re-installed all your open tabs will be lost.

I expect that the apps home screen will be ditched in future versions and replaced by a recent files view which makes the workflow exactly the same as the desktop, fingers crossed.

Hope so.

Still, I am wondering if the developers take my post seriously. 

[Paul Mudditt]

7 minutes ago, Vivilama said:

Hope so.

Still, I am wondering if the developers take my post seriously. 

The developers have been very busy since the launch of V2, we are just users like yourself making recommendations to try and help you avoid such data losses. They will systematically comment on here soon I expect. 

[DM1]

On 2/28/2023 at 8:39 PM, Vivilama said:

Due all respect, from your text I kinda read that you see the issue being the user when there is definitely an issue with the app. It’s not about my workflow as I didn’t do anything but open / close the file. 

Not meant that way, sorry. Simply offering a workflow that has proven to limit workloss resulting from Affinities somewhat unusual and problematic method of file handling/saving.

Duplicating/cloning an existing file on returning to Home Screen is definitely not meant to occur. A bug or glitch for sure. Yours is probably the first I have seen reported, It’s certainly not common. However there are quite a few reports of Home Screen files getting corrupted in sandbox on returning to Home Screen, then being inaccessible (hence advice to save externally). 

Apple have made many changes to memory handling in iOS, and it has a habit of reallocating memory to other apps etc, which may contribute to some of the issues users have experienced with lost edits. Having said that, It’s certainly more reliable now than in V1.🙂

 

On 2/28/2023 at 8:39 PM, Vivilama said:

where is the sandbox file located? 
does designer have a log file?

Sandbox files are located in the apps internally installed folder system but the apps folders are inaccessible without a pc/Mac and specialist software that can provide access to iOS protected areas. Even if they were able to be accessed, I doubt that they are in any format the we as users could open or edit. It’s another reason why it’s a good idea to save externally (even though we really shouldn’t need to). 

Designer has a log file in Settings/Privacy/Security/analytics data… they are ips files, names starting with photo or Designer followed by a date. You can export ips files and open in a doc viewer. They may assist devs with fault finding. 

Hopefully mods will catch up soon, but I suspect these sorts of infrequent bugs are the worst variety to both replicate and resolve.