Affinity File Help

[Aust15]

For the past month I've been making all my designs on a file, then I learned you can save the file in case anything goes wrong. So I did, throughout this month I've spent days into this file and each time while closing out I would click save changes. I don't know what made me do this today, but I went ahead and save to overwrite that file. So now the file I had been making changes to is now saved on 2/26 now while making edits I spent 30 minutes on. I didn't like it so I clicked exit and not to save changes. Now I have no idea why when I get back onto my file I am taken back to where I was months ago. How can I save and update the file and in one fell swoop everything go away. More importantly the question I have is does some genius know how to retrieve that or is there some history feature? Low key sick asf right now, any help would be awesome thanks! 

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums @Aust15

Have I understood this correctly: You have, until recently, been keeping the application open for (around) a month without ever saving the document you are working on?

Also, which operating system are you using the application on? (Windows, macOS or iOS?)

[Pšenda]

1 hour ago, Aust15 said:

when I get back onto my file

Try looking in the Recent files dialog (menu File, Open Recent, More...) - the folder where you saved the file should appear in the tooltip of the relevant file. Maybe the folders or files got mixed up.

[Aust15]

1 hour ago, GarryP said:

Welcome to the forums @Aust15

Have I understood this correctly: You have, until recently, been keeping the application open for (around) a month without ever saving the document you are working on?

Also, which operating system are you using the application on? (Windows, macOS or iOS?)

I haven't kept it open for a month, about a month ago I had first learned to save it so it is saved as an "AfDesignfile" in my downloads. when I would close off of it I would always click save changes. And it would progressively update the file for me that way. I've done that countless of days and times until today when I click not save for today for the hours work I did. However, it instead is now taking me back to when I first originally created the download. 

 

What confuses me is that before I even clicked not save I did something for it to overwrite the save. Meaning that file I created a month ago is now dated as 2/26. And yet it is showing me my work from when I first downloaded the file. 

 

I am on windows

[Aust15]

22 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

Try looking in the Recent files dialog (menu File, Open Recent, More...) - the folder where you saved the file should appear in the tooltip of the relevant file. Maybe the folders or files got mixed up.

They aren't mixed up they are the same file, when I click recent files it takes me to my work from a month ago, check my reply to GarryP for a little more information on it! 

[Ron P.]

Anytime you use Save as, the apps will prompt you for naming and location. Once you save an affinity document (afdesign,afphoto,afpub), then just choosing to Save will automatically over-right the last saved. So when you chose not to save and then re-opened that file, you should have been presented with all work done up to the last Save. 

Is it possible with this project, early on, you could have selected Save as, and Affinity used a different location to save that file. Or could be sometime in between. What I'm suggesting is the most recently saved file is located somewhere on your system, and you might not be opening it, but the older version. By chance to you save to a network, external drive, cloud drive? Have you checked those?

[Pšenda]

1 minute ago, Ron P. said:

but the older version

41 minutes ago, Aust15 said:

is now dated as 2/26

 

[Aust15]

4 minutes ago, Ron P. said:

Anytime you use Save as, the apps will prompt you for naming and location. Once you save an affinity document (afdesign,afphoto,afpub), then just choosing to Save will automatically over-right the last saved. So when you chose not to save and then re-opened that file, you should have been presented with all work done up to the last Save. 

Is it possible with this project, early on, you could have selected Save as, and Affinity used a different location to save that file. Or could be sometime in between. What I'm suggesting is the most recently saved file is located somewhere on your system, and you might not be opening it, but the older version. By chance to you save to a network, external drive, cloud drive? Have you checked those?

I don't recall ever saving it to any of what you listed. I wouldn't even know where to check for cloud drive or anything to be honest.

[Ron P.]

Well I haven't investigated if Affinity apps could apply a time/date stamp to the file when it is accessed. That could account for the current date.

Since OP was saving their work, it just makes no sense how everything done just vanished. I really don't think that the app deleted all current content, except some that is a month old. Could it be possible some content was linked and those linked objects/files are now missing?

[Aust15]

4 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

 

Yes that's why this has me lost. Saved as 2/26 but is not updated.

[Aust15]

1 minute ago, Ron P. said:

Well I haven't investigated if Affinity apps could apply a time/date stamp to the file when it is accessed. That could account for the current date.

Since OP was saving their work, it just makes no sense how everything done just vanished. I really don't think that the app deleted all current content, except some that is a month old. Could it be possible some content was linked and those linked objects/files are now missing?

I don't think so, about a month ago I had first learned to save it so it is saved as an "AfDesignfile" in my downloads. when I would close off of it I would always click save changes. And it would progressively update the file for me that way. I've done that countless of days and times until today when I click not save for today for the hours work I did. However, it instead is now taking me back to when I first originally created the download. 

[Ron P.]

Ok, we need some information so we don't go in circles guessing.

• What OS and Version are you using?
• You say you save it in your Downloads?
• Have you checked what Psenda posted earlier about the Recent Files dialog?

  1 hour ago, Pšenda said:

  Try looking in the Recent files dialog (menu File, Open Recent, More...) - the folder where you saved the file should appear in the tooltip of the relevant file. Maybe the folders or files got mixed up.

  Could you possibly attach the afdesign file so we can investigate it further? If privacy is an issue, you can wait and Serif staff can provide a dropbox link.

[Aust15]

3 minutes ago, Ron P. said:

Ok, we need some information so we don't go in circles guessing.

• What OS and Version are you using?
• You say you save it in your Downloads?
• Have you checked what Psenda posted earlier about the Recent Files dialog?

  Could you possibly attach the afdesign file so we can investigate it further? If privacy is an issue, you can wait and Serif staff can provide a dropbox link.

I am using Windows, yes it’s in my downloads. When I go to recent files of the file i’m using, it takes me to the same file but with edits from a month ago.

[Ron P.]

Ok, got it. I've been trying to replicate this, however can not. Saving the file, overwriting the previous, should give you your last saved version, OR present you with the corrupt file warning. Essentially what you're describing is a corrupt file, and you probably will not be able to open it.

At this point I would proceed with searching my entire system for that file and files similar. I don't know how many you may have, but I would just do a generic search for all afdesign files. In your search bar type in *.afdesign. I still think your most current file is on your system somewhere, unless it's been deleted.

Oh that reminds me, do you have any software that would cleanup, delete files, like CCleaner? There's others but that one is more popular.

[Aust15]

1 minute ago, Ron P. said:

Ok, got it. I've been trying to replicate this, however can not. Saving the file, overwriting the previous, should give you your last saved version, OR present you with the corrupt file warning. Essentially what you're describing is a corrupt file, and you probably will not be able to open it.

At this point I would proceed with searching my entire system for that file and files similar. I don't know how many you may have, but I would just do a generic search for all afdesign files. In your search bar type in *.afdesign. I still think your most current file is on your system somewhere, unless it's been deleted.

Oh that reminds me, do you have any software that would cleanup, delete files, like CCleaner? There's others but that one is more popular.

I don’t have any software like that. Could it be possible, that I saved the file from a month ago, and since have been doing work and clicking the x and when asked to save the changes I clicked yes every time. And now that I’ve clicked not to save it has taken everything away? And somehow instead of overwriting my save of the original download I had I just downloaded the same original file from before? 
 

if that is possible is there anything I can do about saving changes all the way until now and then clicking not save and it taking away everything? 

[thomaso]

33 minutes ago, Aust15 said:

Saved as 2/26 but is not updated.

18 minutes ago, Aust15 said:

When I go to recent files of the file i’m using, it takes me to the same file but with edits from a month ago.

Indeed quite confusing. – If you have Affinity Publisher: Can you open your .afdesign in APub –> go to the Fields panel –> choose "Document Statistics" and post a screenshot? Like this:

4 minutes ago, Aust15 said:

Could it be possible, that I saved the file from a month ago, and since have been doing work and clicking the x and when asked to save the changes I clicked yes every time. And now that I’ve clicked not to save it has taken everything away?

Not that I am aware of that possibility. (… and how would this know / differentiate between the most recent, the medium and the very first file content?)

Did you ever use the "Snapshot" panel?
Or did you ever activate "Save History with Document"?

[Aust15]

4 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Indeed quite confusing. – If you have Affinity Publisher: Can you open your .afdesign in APub –> go to the Fields panel –> choose "Document Statistics" and post a screenshot? Like this:

Not that I am aware of that possibility. (… and how would this know / differentiate between the most recent, the medium and the very first file content?)

Did you ever use the "Snapshot" panel?
Or did you ever activate "Save History with Document"?

No I am not familiar with snapshot or save history with document.  Trying to find document statistics but i’m not Familiar with APub and cannot find the fields panel.

[Alfred]

56 minutes ago, Ron P. said:

Well I haven't investigated if Affinity apps could apply a time/date stamp to the file when it is accessed. That could account for the current date.

As you probably know, it’s standard behaviour for Windows to record timestamps for a file being created, modified, or accessed (viewable on the General tab of the window that pops up when you right-click on a file and choose ‘Properties’ from the context menu) but the current date shown in File Explorer and elsewhere is the ‘Modified’ date, not the ‘Accessed’ date. I can’t imagine the Affinity apps being designed to override this.

[Ron P.]

Yes I do. This is what I discovered, Affinity's Time Stamp does not match what File Explorer shows.

Affinity Designer Recent Files-List Mode

Windows File Explorer

I realize the date is not being altered, however notice the big time difference. Don't know if Windows is at fault or if Affinity is.

[Alfred]

7 minutes ago, Ron P. said:

I realize the date is not being altered, however notice the big time difference.

Interesting! The timestamp in Windows File Explorer is six hours behind the timestamp in the Affinity app’s MRU list, presumably because you’re on Central Time in the US (and therefore six hours behind GMT/UTC).

[henryanthony]

@Aust15 Hi! Are you familiar with Windows File Explorer? It allows you to search your computer or any folder for specific file extensions and other criteria. In the case of my attached screen shot, I was searching for .afphoto files in a folder named "Color". It should help you find any "afdesign" files on your system.

[Aust15]

18 minutes ago, henryanthony said:

@Aust15 Hi! Are you familiar with Windows File Explorer? It allows you to search your computer or any folder for specific file extensions and other criteria. In the case of my attached screen shot, I was searching for .afphoto files in a folder named "Color". It should help you find any "afdesign" files on your system.

Yes, I only have one file and I’ve used it ever since I made it. 

[Aust15]

47 minutes ago, Ron P. said:

Yes I do. This is what I discovered, Affinity's Time Stamp does not match what File Explorer shows.

Affinity Designer Recent Files-List Mode

Windows File Explorer

I realize the date is not being altered, however notice the big time difference. Don't know if Windows is at fault or if Affinity is.

Hey Ron I think I’ve found the issue. It appears that the time that this occurred was the same time the new save occurred. It looks like somehow in some way it managed to not save everything within the file but just saved the original save. Since I had been just accepting changes made in the app instead of saving it on the file. 
 

i guess the issue now is I have one file to access my designs on and it as of 6:26 A:M has been saved back to it’s original place. Is there any way on windows to delete that save or any possible solutions to recover what was there before that save occurred?

[Ron P.]

If that's what happened, then sadly, no there's no way that I'm aware of, to recover what was there.

Going forward, a good workflow practice is to Save Versions of your file. For example you start out, File_001.afdesign. Then when you next save, it would be File_002.afdesign, and so on. That way if something, like what has happened to you, you have a file that is closer to where you were last. There's numerous different naming conventions, like including the date in your file name, 02242024_File001.afdesign.

Also if this is your job, you rely on this for a living, then you should be backing up your files to other places. It's imperative. I don't use cloud services, but do have several external hard drives that I use.

 

[Alfred]

2 hours ago, Ron P. said:

There's numerous different naming conventions, like including the date in your file name, 02242024_File001.afdesign.

If you include the date in YYYYMMDD format instead of MMDDYYYY or DDMMYYYY, sorting the files alphabetically will put them in date order.