File changes format from .afphoto to .afpub without warning

[Nike]

Hello,

I find it very irritating that files which were edited with Affinity Photo and saved in .afphoto format are suddenly displayed as Affinity Publisher files, i.e. with the .afpub extension and associated symbol. When I click on the file, it automatically opens in the publisher software. But I 100% never opened and saved the file in question in Affinity Publisher. The whole thing gets even stranger: When I view the properties of the file, it shows up as an Affinity photo file! (See photo evidence). This is all totally weird.

[walt.farrell]

2 minutes ago, Nike said:

i.e. with the .afpub extension and associated symbol.

You have not shown us anything that shows the extension changing. 

In File Explorer, a file will have a file-type icon (which has changed in your screenshot), and a file-type description (which has changed), but the actual extension as you can see from the Properties dialog is still .afphoto.

I generally recommend configuring File Explorer's View options to always show the actual extensions (not just the file-type icon and file-type description) so you can be sure what your file names are.

As for why this is happening:

1. All 3 file types (.afphoto, .afpub, .afdesign) are fully interchangeable and usable in any of the 3 Affinity applications. Any of the applications can Open those files, or update them or create them.
2. Windows can only display 1 file-type icon and description, though, and so when multiple applications have registered themselves as capable of Opening the file, Windows just picks one of them. Probably the last one you've installed, I think, but I'm not sure I've ever seen something consistent.

[Nike]

Thank you very much for your response!

As you can see on the screenshot (I have attached a close up now) this is shown here as a publisher-file.

[Nike]

And the document  opens automatically in the Publisher-software, which is also installed on my computer

[walt.farrell]

Yes, it is shown as a Publisher file (icon, and file-type description, but if you tell File Explorer to display the extension what does it show? 

In any case, as I said, when Windows has several applications that can Open a file, it simply picks one of them to show in the icon and description fields. And yes, that is also the one it will use when you try to Open the file from File Explorer. 

To keep from becoming confused by this behavior that Windows imposes, I recommend always trying Windows to display the extension. That's the only guaranteed way that you will know. 

And if Windows has picked the wrong icon, then instead of double-clicking the file to Open it, you can right-click and choose Open With instead.

[Dan C]

Thanks for your post @Nike!

As Walt has mentioned above, the reason that the .afphoto files are shown as 'Affinity Publisher file', using the Affinity Publisher icon is due to the Default app set to open .afphoto files on your PC, through Windows settings.

Please right click on an .afphoto file in Windows Explorer and select Open With > Choose Another App. In the dialog that opens, scroll through the list until you see Affinity Photo (or Affinity Photo 2, depending on which version you have installed).
Select the app in the list and then check the 'Always use this app to open .afphoto files' option, now press OK.

You should find this .afphoto now opens in Affinity Photo, and the icons etc are changed to Affinity Photo in Windows Explorer, as expected.

I hope this clears things up

[Nike]

Many thanks! This actually works as described, great!😊