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File save folder location


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In the 7 years I've been using APhoto I've watched with sadness and some frustration as it fell further and further behind its competition. One can speculate endlessly about the reasons this was allowed to happen. My own speculation is that Affinity is not much interested in the photo editing community. The company concentrates on desktop publishing. There has never been any voting about such decisions. We have often been told that Affinity directions are not decided by vote tallies.

Fortunately for us photo enthusiasts, inexpensive, competing products have surpassed APhoto for non-destructive editing using modern computer techniques. Many may find compelling reasons to try those competing products. Whether or not there is any compelling reason to continue with APhoto is unclear. Clarity may come with the next major release, as I discussed recently at

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/206072-affinity-does-not-provide-quality-it-is-time-to-part-with-serif/page/2/#comment-1238379

 

Affinity Photo 2.5.5 (MSI) and 1.10.6; Affinity Publisher 2.5.5 (MSI) and 1.10.6. Windows 10 Home x64 version 22H2.
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1 minute ago, Granddaddy said:

My own speculation is that Affinity is not much interested in the photo editing community.

What makes you think that? All 3 of the Affinity desktop apps lack this feature; it is not just something that affects those editing photos but everyone using any of the 3 for just about any purpose.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.5.5 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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ll 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Curiously enough, I have a feeling that the digital painters are not the target group too :D

Nevertheless, though I miss some other features too, to me this is not a deal breaker. But it spoils every day workflow, especially if you work with different projects, folders. And from the users point of view, change this setting should be easier then to break .psd file format architecture. 

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But one of the sales points is that the three applications work together. But with the weird saving location it triples the complexity of where the file "might" be saved this time. I have found no pattern to where the automatic save goes. I have to choose the location every time so can only use "save as". The result is that I don't save often enough. Maybe I'll have to put all affinity files in one folder and see if that works any better.

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10 minutes ago, Sharon Villines said:

I have found no pattern to where the automatic save goes.

It always defaults to the folder a file was last opened from.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.5.5 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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ll 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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No, it doesn't. I'm careful to open the file from where it is located or from recently opened files, and it can save on the moon for all I know. It makes it hard to be sure I am opening the last revision. And I save frequently when working on an image. I save each state.

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3 hours ago, Sharon Villines said:

No, it doesn't. I'm careful to open the file from where it is located or from recently opened files, and it can save on the moon for all I know.

Try this: create & save a simple file Affinity can open to the desktop, & then open it with your Affinity app. Make a small change to it & use File > Save. Now close the file. Create a new file in Affinity & use File > Save. 

What folder does it show in the Save dialog?

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.5.5 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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ll 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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That did work.

The problem comes when opening an existing file, making changes, and trying to save it with a state number — SameName-2, SameName-3. The folder that opens is the Desktop Folder, not the folder from which I opened the file. I have to go find it again.

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8 minutes ago, Sharon Villines said:

The problem comes when opening an existing file, making changes, and trying to save it with a state number — SameName-2, SameName-3.

When you say "save" do you mean File > Save as... or something else?

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.5.5 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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ll 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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16 minutes ago, Sharon Villines said:

It has to be save-as in order to change the name. 

When you do that, what folder is shown in the window that opens? Is it the folder the existing file is in or some other folder?

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.5.5 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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ll 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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10 hours ago, Sharon Villines said:

If the name is changed another folder opens. I see no pattern in what that folder is.

Sorry; I'm not sure what you mean by that. Can you provide a screen recording?

 

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

This is the one feature that drives me to find an alternative to Affinity. I feel like I spend my life changing the location so a file saves correctly or spending hours looking for files when I forget. I've been using computers since 1983 and have never had this problem with another software program. That's what makes it so odd. There is the way software works and then there is Affinity.

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10 minutes ago, Loek said:

+1

And me.

Loek

Please refer to this earlier post & the linked discussions about there being no point in posting a "+1" comment to topics like this one in the Questions forum. These comments should be posted in the Feedback & Suggestions forum where the developers will see them.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.5.5 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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ll 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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On 6/25/2024 at 9:40 AM, R C-R said:

It always defaults to the folder a file was last opened from.

No, it doesn't. If you choose save as it seems to choose a folder randomly. If you change the name, it doesn't choose the folder you have been working in. If I have been working and saving to the same folder for 6 hours and then save as to change the name it will not save to the same folder unless I tell it to.

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21 minutes ago, Sharon Villines said:

If you choose save as it seems to choose a folder randomly.

Not for me. It is always defaults to the last folder I saved a file to. 

29 minutes ago, Sharon Villines said:

If you change the name, it doesn't choose the folder you have been working in.

Correct. It just defaults to the last folder a file was saved to, so it has nothing to do with the folder you opened your file from. This I think is what some many users have been complaining about.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.5.5 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
A
ll 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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46 minutes ago, Sharon Villines said:

I save the file as it is to a folder, then try to save it with a new name to the same folder and it will go to a folder I might have saved in yesterday in a different program.

By "save with a new name" I assume you mean using Save as, but I cannot duplicate that behavior on my Mac with Save or Save as.

EDIT: Please try this quick test:

  1. Create a new empty folder somewhere like on the Desktop or wherever is convenient. Give it a simple name like "test."
  2. Create a new Affinity doc, add something to it & save it to this folder. Close that doc.
  3. Open another doc from some other folder & Select "Save as..." 

What folder is shown in the Save as dialog, "test" or some other folder?

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.5.5 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
A
ll 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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On Windows it is like R C-R wrote for Mac. It is the last "save to location" that is used even when a file was opened from another location.

And it gets even worse. E.g. in the preferences / color is a setting to load a ocio config file. So to this specific file is a specific location assigned. But if you save a normal document to a different location and later on go back to the color preferences and click the ocio browse button, it also opens to the last document save location and not the ocio location.

But this has been reported years ago and comes up again and again in the forum - but does not seem to trigger any urge on the Canva side to change it. Regardless of how many users tell them how bad this "design decision" is.

It is not the end of the world but one of the various moments where I think "man, it can be so frustrating to use Affinity software".

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