Save was successful, but access to the file was lost. The document must now be closed

[Xpresdtp]

This is happening in all three Affinity applications and is very very frustrating. This started after the latest update a few days ago. I tried removing and reinstalling Publisher, still happening. I have tried resetting all, still happening. I have used these programs for years, V1 and V2 and never had an issue, but now, this is killing my ability to do pretty much anything without multiple and repeated processes. The save fails 75%-85% of the time. Doesn't matter if I am working in Photo or Designer or Publisher, the app gives this pop up, closes my file, and creates an Affinity Publisher backup file which replaces the original file completely, regardless of Photo Designer or Publisher. It can only be opened by going to the file directly and double clicking on the backup file, which then opens Publisher. I have to then copy all my layers and open the correct application, paste all the layers, then save, but I have to create the file name again as it has been replaced by this Publisher backup file. I am on Mac Ventura 13.5.2, latests versions of Affinity 2. I have deleted all V1 apps and reset all of V2. PLEASE HELP!!!!!

[thomaso]

Hi @Xpresdtp,
welcome to the forums!

This sounds indeed very disturbing, in particular since you hadn't experienced such issues in V1 and V2 before … while V2.2. was announced to get new solutions implemented to prevent from those situations of corrupted files and data loss.

4 hours ago, Xpresdtp said:

creates an Affinity Publisher backup file which replaces the original file completely, regardless of Photo Designer or Publisher. It can only be opened by going to the file directly and double clicking on the backup file, which then opens Publisher.

How do you mean it "replaces the original file completely"? Does it overwrite / delete the 'original' .afdesign or .afphoto file with an .afpub?

For opening: You could try to …
• rename the suffix ".afpub" with the wanted file type.
• open via the "Open…" menu of the wanted app.
• open via right-click -> "Open with…" (mac).

[R C-R]

@Xpresdtp, where are you saving the file to? Is it to the internal drive, an external one connected by USB or such, or some cloud location?

If not the internal drive, it may be the result of the new V2.2 feature designed to prevent data loss when access to the file stored on external or cloud storage devices is (or may be?) lost.

[Xpresdtp]

7 hours ago, thomaso said:

Hi @Xpresdtp,
welcome to the forums!

This sounds indeed very disturbing, in particular since you hadn't experienced such issues in V1 and V2 before … while V2.2. was announced to get new solutions implemented to prevent from those situations of corrupted files and data loss.

How do you mean it "replaces the original file completely"? Does it overwrite / delete the 'original' .afdesign or .afphoto file with an .afpub?

For opening: You could try to …
• rename the suffix ".afpub" with the wanted file type.
• open via the "Open…" menu of the wanted app.
• open via right-click -> "Open with…" (mac).

Yes, it replaces my Designer file with a Publisher backup file. It is indeed saved, but if I want to continue as a Designer file, I have to double click on it to open it, it opens in publisher, then copy and paste all layers back into Designer. It will then save. I read something about a fix in older versions where it did this even saving outside the drive the application is on. Which I am saving to an external GDrive. It will save the first time, but any save after initial will result in the Publisher backup. At least it’s not crashing 😂 but this is not efficient work flow at all, I have to recreate a new Designer file paste, safe, it will, because it appears it’s the first save. Make sense?! I always have saved to annother drive. I like to keep my anpps on one, work and save all files onto the other,  and never ever had this issue, any issues really. It was definitely after the 2.2 update. 

[Xpresdtp]

It’s def that I’m saving it to a usb G drive but I’m hoping there’s a setting or fix cuz it’s just not possible to save to my internal drive. 

[Xpresdtp]

6 hours ago, R C-R said:

@Xpresdtp, where are you saving the file to? Is it to the internal drive, an external one connected by USB or such, or some cloud location?

If not the internal drive, it may be the result of the new V2.2 feature designed to prevent data loss when access to the file stored on external or cloud storage devices is (or may be?) lost.

Yes an external GDrive usb which is how I’ve always worked, saving and storing all files into the big GDrive. That’s def the issue, but is there a workaround ? My internal drive is simply not large enough to house all my files. 

[carl123]

5 hours ago, Xpresdtp said:

Yes, it replaces my Designer file with a Publisher backup file. It is indeed saved, but if I want to continue as a Designer file, I have to double click on it to open it, it opens in publisher, then copy and paste all layers back into Designer.

If it opens in Publisher, can't you just do a File > Edit in Designer at that point, rather than copy and pasting?

[Xpresdtp]

7 hours ago, carl123 said:

If it opens in Publisher, can't you just do a File > Edit in Designer at that point, rather than copy and pasting?

Good morning. Yes, I can, however, it stall keeps it as the Publisher backup file, which I don't want. Oddly, I can recreate a new Designer file, save it to that folder on the Drive, all ok. I tried for kicks and giggles this morning to just create a new Designer file. I wanted to test something else. and it will not even allow me to create a brand new Designer file and save it to a drive outside Affinity. That should not be. I could only save to the desktop or my main drive where the apps are stored. To save time, many times, I just open an existing file, use what I need from it, then "save as", which at least it keeps it on the Drive. Now, I cannot even create a new blank from scratch Designer or Photo file unless I want to save it on my main?!?!? Hopefully this is a flaw in programming. I don't save to the cloud but wonder how that would work if I did?

[Xpresdtp]

I'm hoping somehow, somewhere I can "allow permissions" to save to an outside drive? I'm not sure how to do that tho 

[loukash]

On 9/24/2023 at 2:14 AM, Xpresdtp said:

if I want to continue as a Designer file, I have to double click on it to open it, it opens in publisher, then copy and paste all layers back into Designer.

To make it a "Designer file" permanently, all you need to do is to change the file suffix from *.afpub to *.afdesign. That's the whole difference, without even opening the document. The document format itself is technically identical for the whole Affinity suite.

[Xpresdtp]

Thank you for your response:) Unfortunately, I save multiple times during a long project, it creates a new Publisher backup file each and every time. I would have to go into the file folders directly to delete all the extra backups and reassign the finished file. I am unable to open the backup files from within any of the apps, I have to go directly to it in order to open it. My updated content is there under the Publisher backup, and although I could go to every file and do that, it’s just as tedious as copy and pasting the files into the correct app each save. The problem seems to be saving outside the drive of where the applications are installed. I need a way to save to the outside drive as I’ve done for years without issue. I access other files on that outside drive for new files, so paths would be messed up if I started saving elsewhere, then moved it. “Save as” I found is an option, but only works sometimes?? I haven’t figured out how or why yet. It’s a habit to hit save often to preserve my edits. After having to recreate projects, it’s embedded in me to save save save. This shouldn’t be happening but began with the update.

[carl123]

23 hours ago, Xpresdtp said:

I'm hoping somehow, somewhere I can "allow permissions" to save to an outside drive? I'm not sure how to do that tho 

I don't use Macs so don't know much about "permissions" on that OS

But saving to the USB seems to be the problem

I think the ~backup~ files are part of the new "improved" saving/recovery functions built into the 2.2 release but we don't have much any information from Serif as to how/when they are created and how they are supposed to work. So, it may take a while for forum users to work out exactly what those files are for and when/how they are invoked to recover a file. (E.g. Automatic or manual?)

For now, I think you have to find somewhere else to store your files (not the USB drive) or wait for someone with Mac knowledge who can advise you how to check/set-up the permissions correctly, if indeed that is the issue.

 

[Xpresdtp]

22 minutes ago, carl123 said:

I don't use Macs so don't know much about "permissions" on that OS

But saving to the USB seems to be the problem

I think the ~backup~ files are part of the new "improved" saving/recovery functions built into the 2.2 release but we don't have much any information from Serif as to how/when they are created and how they are supposed to work. So, it may take a while for forum users to work out exactly what those files are for and when/how they are invoked to recover a file. (E.g. Automatic or manual?)

For now, I think you have to find somewhere else to store your files (not the USB drive) or wait for someone with Mac knowledge who can advise you how to check/set-up the permissions correctly, if indeed that is the issue.

 

That seems to be exactly the issue. I have reached out to Serif as well. Hoping for some answers soon. 

[loukash]

1 hour ago, Xpresdtp said:

The problem seems to be saving outside the drive of where the applications are installed.

How is the drive formated?
I vaguely remember there were similar documented issues with drives in FAT32 or ExFAT format. (Although I thought it's been fixed long ago.)
If you're on Mac, make sure to use HFS+ or APFS formated drives – unless you need to exchange them with Windows users.

[thomaso]

On 9/24/2023 at 2:51 PM, Xpresdtp said:

I'm hoping somehow, somewhere I can "allow permissions" to save to an outside drive? I'm not sure how to do that tho 

As you mentioned, supplemented by @carl123's notes, the missing permissions seem to be a new 'feature' in v.2.2 – not a macOS-level permission, but rather that the app prohibits itself from accessing external drives. So it would need to get set within the app code or maybe one of its (proprietary) temp files.

Do you get an according message if you re-open a v2.2 document that you created locally but moved to an external drive after saving + closing the document locally?

[loukash]

21 minutes ago, thomaso said:

the app prohibits itself from accessing external drives

Hm… I just checked using a random HFS+ formated USB stick and saved an *.afpub on it. It opens fine.
Tried a random ExFAT formated USB stick: it opens fine.

What do I need to do to make it happen then…?
The HFS+ stick ignores ownership. The ExFAT stick has "custom access", i.e. basically it obviously ignores ownership as well.

[thomaso]

20 hours ago, loukash said:

Tried a random ExFAT formated USB stick: it opens fine.

What do I need to do to make it happen then…?

Possibly it needs more action & time passed? Action to cause temp and/or .autosave file(s), time to cause modification date/time confusion. I experienced similar issues ("access, lost, corrupt") in V1 with purely local storage especially if I saved a file after having it opened for days + the computer in sleep mode in the time between. Oddly when saving only, not when working.

[ Weeks go I noticed an issue with CCC (backup software, mac) that copied an entire folder for an incremental backup even if only 1 file was added. When copying was finished with new modification dates for all existing files, then all modification dates got reset to their true values. The app developer informed me about a known issue of the disk format FAT which appears to be imprecise with correct modification date handling. This limitation / issue is also described here: https://superuser.com/questions/1685706/timestamp-changes-when-copying-file-to-exfat-drive ]

[loukash]

Just now, thomaso said:

Possibly it needs more action & time passed?

I tried of course, letting it sit unsaved for maybe 10 minutes while my autosave is 60 seconds.

[thomaso]

2 minutes ago, loukash said:

I tried of course, letting it sit unsaved for maybe 10 minutes while my autosave is 60 seconds.

I think it is not that simple or regular but influenced by additional tasks in the background, e.g. of the operating system, e.g. when updating its database for "spotlight" and thus accessing a folder or checking a file that Affinity expects to access exclusively? – Since I excluded the "autosave" and "temp" folders from my hourly backup (macOS Time Machine) I don't get any of these Affinity issues any more, although I could not notice before that the issue occurred especially when a backup was running.

[loukash]

1 minute ago, thomaso said:

Since I excluded the "autosave" and "temp" folders from my hourly backup (macOS Time Machine) I don't get any of these Affinity issues any more

Interesting!

[Xpresdtp]

Omg! That worked!!! I just turned off Time Machine and it worked!!! THANK YOU!! 

[Xpresdtp]

RESOLVED by @loukash!!! I can do manual Time Machine Backups - but turning it off and all is well  ahhh - Thank you again so much! 

[loukash]

Just now, Xpresdtp said:

RESOLVED by @loukash!!!

Um, no, that was @thomaso…  

That said, I also have hourly TM backups to Time Capsule active, yet I haven't experienced anything like this.

[thomaso]

4 minutes ago, Xpresdtp said:

RESOLVED (…) Time Machine Backups - but turning it off and all is well

I doubt it is really "resolved", even though disabling backups may seem to work for now to you. A true solution would not require such a workaround, in particular none that may cause issues somewhere else (like data loss if backups are fully disabled). As a more specific workaround you could at least limit the exclusion to Affinity folders only: macOS system preferences -> Time Machine -> Options -> '+' button to add objects.

[v_kyr]

5 hours ago, thomaso said:

The app developer informed me about a known issue of the disk format FAT which appears to be imprecise with correct modification date handling. This limitation / issue is also described here: https://superuser.com/questions/1685706/timestamp-changes-when-copying-file-to-exfat-drive ]

Which looks to be wrong for ExFAT as that has a Date/Time resolution of 10 ms. - FAT32 has a Date/Time resolution of 2 s instead!