affinity designer file disappeared

[Helena B.]

Hello,

 

I designed a file in Aff. Designer. A file with many layers and artboards. The file was properly saved to my computer (MacBook pro).
I then placed (linked) some of the artboards from that Aff. Designer document into the new AFF. Publisher document that I created. I saved everything and returned to work after a while (half an hour). I reopened Aff. Publisher and the link to AFF. Designer document was missing! I tried to relink, but the file was not there! I opened Aff. Designer and tried to open the file: first in recent files, nothing. Then in my folder: again nothing. I searched Bin, the whole disc and iCloud with Terminal. Nothing. Please help me, it was a lot of work.

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums @Helena B.

Can you show us a full-screen screenshot showing the Resource Manager with one of the missing resources selected and visible in the Layers Panel – like in my attached image?

In the Resources manager (menu “Window → Resources Manager”), you can select a resource and then press the “Locate in Document” button to do this.

 

[Helena B.]

[Helena B.]

[Helena B.]

[GarryP]

Thanks for the screenshots.

I notice that you have linked the same resource twice but one of them says it’s of type “Affinity Designer 2” at 597.88 kB and the other is of type “Affinity” (at 597.54 kB) – I would have expected them to be the same. I don’t know why they should be different but I’m not an expert in this area.

The Affinity applications should have no capability to delete files outside of their ‘sandboxes’ so I don’t see how they could have deleted anything.

Do you have anything like Time Machine running which you could look at for some kind of file history?

(If this is a macOS-only-related problem then I can’t be of much further help.)

[Helena B.]

Unfortunately, i do not have time machine.

[Helena B.]

I linked one affinity designer document: HB_LOGO.afdesign. But, I used two different artboards. And intended to link many more artboards of the same document into the aff. Publisher document, that I have a problem with. This was my normal workflow in Adobe Illustrator before I switched to Affinity less than a year ago.

[GarryP]

17 minutes ago, Helena B. said:

I linked one affinity designer document: HB_LOGO.afdesign. But, I used two different artboards.

That might explain the discrepancy but I couldn’t say for sure, but someone else might be able to.

Are you absolutely sure that you are looking in the right place for the file and not somewhere that looks like it from a folder structure point-of-view?

Are there other machines connected to yours? Could the deletion request have come from one of those?

Is there anyone else there that could have 'accidentally' accessed the machine?

Is there some kind of ‘clean-up process’ running in the background?

Is there a cat, dog, particularly heavy bird or other animal which could have landed on your keyboard?

Can you guess that I’m ‘grasping at straws’ now?

I think all I can ask now is: “Would it take you longer to re-create the file than it would take to try and find out what happened?”

[Helena B.]

Hi, Garry. Thank you for your effort. I appreciate it.

I guess I will build a brand-new document. And this time and from now on I'll make copies along the way when working with Affinity.

None of the reasons you suggested are not possible. 

The folder is right, I am the only person working on my only one, not connected computer, nothing else was running along clenaing-wise. And if I accidentally deleted the file it would be in the bin, right? But it was not. Nor anywhere else in my comp.

I learn every day, so any bug- or trick knowledge according to Affinity is precious to me, that this won't happen again.

Best, 
Helena

[Helena B.]

"None of the reasons you suggested are possible."

[R C-R]

6 hours ago, Helena B. said:

I learn every day, so any bug- or trick knowledge according to Affinity is precious to me, that this won't happen again.

Be that as it may, as @GarryP said, there is no way for Affinity apps to delete files so if they are truly gone something else must have done that.

[Lane]

If they are stored on iCloud, I and others have had an incident where a bunch of files simply vanished. Nothing left behind. Not deleted and in the trash. Just gone. Never the folders. Just some files inside folders. I now have a time machine backup to counter this.