Affinity Designer V2 saved last session's edits while open but discarded them once the app closed

[iumbra]

I did a bunch of edits on dozens of layers, which I then exported as a pdf and also individual images through export persona. During the process, I also made a copy of the affinity file, then continued editing, saved the original project (File > Save), then opened the forked one, edited that, saved it (I was saving the project several times in between my edits, via menu.) Today I wanted to continue working on it, but all my yesterdays edits are gone. I cannot imagine how that could happen, as the time of the files having been modified is the late night time from yesterday, the time after I made those edits. How could they all disappear from both affinity files?

I believe that the last edits disappeared only after I finally closed Affinity Designer app, because I switched between the two projects I worked on a few times - I saved one, closed it, opened the other, and the edits were indeed there. They however disappeared - all and on both projects - over night, that is, after I closed the app, apparently.

Steps I took:

1. I opened previously saved affinity project A
2. I did some edits on it and saved it by going to the menu > File > Save project
3. I made its copy in Finder under the name B
4. I continued editing project A
5. I exported its layers into a pdf
6. I closed A and opened project B
7. I made some edits, exported the layers to individual png images and saved the project
8. I closed Affinity (there was no warning about unsaved edits, I made sure I saved the project before closing it)
9. This morning I open A and it looks exactly as I left it BEFORE yesterday's edits - all I did yesterday is lost. Same for project B.

System:  macOS Ventura 13.6.4  RAM 16 GB Processor 3,1 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5

Affinity Designer 2.4.0

[walt.farrell]

At step 6 you say you closed A. You did not say that you saved it, which should mean that you would lose anything you did in step 4. Of course, there should have also been a warning prompt. 

Can you clarify that, please?

Also, at step 2 you say you used File > Save project. I'm curious about that, as I don't think that menu item exists. There's Save, and Save as, and Save as Package. Do you mean one of those instead? If you do mean Save as Package, then you would not open A again to find yesterday's work. You would open whatever .afpackage file you created yesterday during step 2.

[iumbra]

Hi,

Thanks for checking.

You are right, the menu is Edit > Save, I wanted to make sure it was clear that I saved the affinity file - the whole project, not just exported something out of it, but the menu items is indeed just "Save", sorry about that-

In the initial paragraph I mention that I saved the affinity file (I called it a "project") prior closing it, and again in step 2 I mention I saved it. I should have mentioned it again in step 6 because yes, I saved the affinity file every time I did major edits plus before closing it. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear enough about this.

Note that if it was as you suggest - that I only saved the project mid-way and then not again (before final closing), then I would find it today with some of the edits from yesterday's work. But in fact, it looks exactly as it looked when I started working on it yesterday, so nothing got saved at all. But as I already confirmed, I saved the affinity file several times and also prior closing it as I am used to do on every project I do.

 

PS: just to make it clear, I did what you asked and double-checked the folder etc to make sure I am not overlooking anything.

 

[walt.farrell]

Thanks for confirming. At this point I have no idea what might have happened, except that if you got a Finder dialog during any of the Save operations you might have saved in a directory you didn't expect. So you might search elsewhere for that file name.

[walt.farrell]

Or try a Save As to see what directory comes up, and look in there.

[iumbra]

I'm sure it was the file in the directory I then opened the other day because a) I opened it from there and saved it (not saved as sth new) and b) the time of the file having been last modified shows indeed the time I finished working on the file - so if Finder says the file was modified at 22:48, and if that was the time I finished editing, surely it must have had reason to rewrite this piece of metadata. If I did not, for some reason, save the file, the timestamp would not get updated. All in all, I'm positive about me saving the file, I know the file was saved to the intended folder and Finder shows the affinity file was last updated at 22:48 which was indeed the time I saved it and closed the app. I found this right first thing in the morning so my recollections about what I did are still pretty clear. I have no idea how could affinity discard the changes when the app closed, but this is exactly what seems to have happened - once the app closed, the changes that seemed to get written got deleted - I believe this should get examined further as the last thing that anyone needs is not being able to trust their affinity project will hold the last edits no matter what.