Install of Affinity's latest Beta update just deleted my settings

[Wayne Burrows]

Hello All,

Is there a way to save your account’s profile with all of your settings intact? I just finished installing the most recent update ((which can't be automatically done any longer from within the app for some irritating reason and now forces you to go to their website to download the file all over again to reinstall it from scratch – which is aggravating as @#%%^!!!!)) just revamped ALL of my account settings back to DEFAULT. So among other things, I now I have to go back into ‘Customize Tools’ and set everything up all over again as if this is my first time purchasing the software. Needless to say, I am NOT happy!

 

 

If setting up a profile isn’t possible, could somebody PLEASE tell me if I did something wrong with this latest update so that I will never have to go through this ever again. The last time I installed the update about a month or so ago, this did not happen. So IDK if I went through the process differently this time somehow, or this is Affinity’s new SOP when it comes to installing their updates. Thanks.

WB

[MikeTO]

Since you were unable to install the update and had to download the full installer, is it possible that you had the MSIX version installed and now installed EXE version or vice versa? Ensure you have installed the same version as before.

Good luck.

[walt.farrell]

20 minutes ago, Wayne Burrows said:

(which can't be automatically done any longer from within the app for some irritating reason and now forces you to go to their website to download the file all over again to reinstall it from scratch – which is aggravating as @#%%^!!!!)

I (and I think most other users of the beta) have had no problem updating from the 2.4.2 beta to the 2.5.0 beta. Perhaps we should look at the issue had with the update in more detail? 

Please provide more information.

[Wayne Burrows]

21 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

is it possible that you had the MSIX version installed and now installed EXE version or vice versa?

In the back of my mind, that is exactly what I was thinking that could have happened. Now that you bring it up, that is probably what I did. I DLd and installed the MSIX this time around, so I probably did use the EXE last time. Ugh... I have no doubts that this new process was implemented for a good reason, but I really wish they could have left it as it was.

Thanks MikeTO.

WB

#LessonLearned

[Wayne Burrows]

15 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Please provide more information.

Nothing more to provide really. I downloaded the files and installed as normal. I believe @MikeTO hit it right on the head for me. I inadvertently used the MSIX file this time but probably used the EXE file the last time. Now that I know that those 2 files aren't connected in any way, I will make sure to use the MSIX downloads from here on out and hopefully I won't have to deal with this again.

WB

[walt.farrell]

32 minutes ago, Wayne Burrows said:

Now that I know that those 2 files aren't connected in any way, I will make sure to use the MSIX downloads from here on out and hopefully I won't have to deal with this again.

Looking at your description again, yes, I think you were using the EXE/MSI version before. Which would mean you made a conscious decision to switch from the default MSIX to the EXE/MSI at some point. The EXE/MSI version has always required you to manually download the installer, and manually run it, even back in V1.

But when you go to the Download page for V2 during the update process, you need to be careful to choose the EXE version again, as the MSIX version is more prominently shown.

If you were using the EXE version before, you may well want to uninstall the MSIX version you just installed, redownload, and reinstall the EXE version. Then you'll have the advantages of the EXE that you perceived before, and your old settings back.

[Wayne Burrows]

2 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

The EXE/MSI version has always required you to manually download the installer, and manually run it, even back in V1.

 Now, that didn't apply to the intermittent updates that pops up every month or so, correct? Only for an initial install, correct?

Before the most recent update a few weeks ago, I never had to leave outside of the Affinity app to go retrieve a file to get the latest version. When the notification popped up about a newer version was available, I would just simply click it and It would automatically install the latest version right then and there. I think the most that I had to do is just re-open Affinity to continue on with my work.

Being directed to Affinity's website to download the updated version file is something that I never had to do until recently.

In reference to getting my old settings back -- I will definitely do what you suggested. Thanks!! And your suggestion leads me right back to thinking about my original question (just for curiosity sake now) Is there a way to save your profile's settings? Outside of an event similar to this one, I can't really think of a reason why it would be necessary, but knowing ME... I would probably be in need of that capability somewhere down the line. 🫤

[walt.farrell]

18 minutes ago, Wayne Burrows said:

Now, that didn't apply to the intermittent updates that pops up every month or so, correct? Only for an initial install, correct?

No, every one.

In V1 you always had to go to the download page, manually download, and run the installer/updater.

In V2:

• with MSIX, you are prompted to Install or skip for now. Install automatically downloads the installer/updater, runs it, and restarts the application.
• with EXE/MSI, it's just like V1: you are prompted to Download or skip for now. Download takes you to the website where you must manually choose the correct version of the update program (MSIX, which is very prominent, or EXE which is more hidden), download it, and run it.

21 minutes ago, Wayne Burrows said:

Before the most recent update a few weeks ago, I never had to leave outside of the Affinity app to go retrieve a file to get the latest version. When the notification popped up about a newer version was available, I would just simply click it and It would automatically install the latest version right then and there. I think the most that I had to do is just re-open Affinity to continue on with my work.

So that sounds like you were using the MSIX version, which makes it strange that you lost your settings. Except that perhaps you're confused by the beta having different settings than the retail version has. The first time you ever ran a V2 beta, it would have offered to copy settings from the retail version. But only that first time. Any changes you made to your retail application settings after that would not be copied into the beta. (You can copy most of them from retail to beta using the Settings dialog in the beta, which has a Beta section that will allow you to copy the retail settings again.)

24 minutes ago, Wayne Burrows said:

Is there a way to save your profile's settings?

The MSIX versions keep their information in %USERPROFILE%\.affinity and you could backup various files or directories from there, and restore them later if you needed. The EXE versions use %AppData%\Affinity for the retail version, but something different for the beta from an experiment I just did. I need to do some more research on that before saying more.

 

[Wayne Burrows]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

So that sounds like you were using the MSIX version, which makes it strange that you lost your settings. Except that perhaps you're confused by the beta having different settings than the retail version has.

I went to uninstall the latest versions and I saw that the previous installs from the 4^th of this month were still present. (I thought that they would have just overwritten the previous versions) But as I have just discovered today, the MSIX & the EXE files act as 2 completely different entities (at least in some ways anyway).

So with that being said, I now know that I DLd and installed the EXE versions back on the 4^th. I just deleted the MSIX files that I just installed today and did as you suggested and updated using the EXEs and now everything is back to normal over here once again.

I now, do recall downloading and installing the EXEs earlier this month but can’t recall as to what made me choose those besides the MSIX DLs - but I will be sticking with EXE from here on out to make sure that this doesn't happen again. And by looking at the absolutely ridiculous difference in size, I believe that I made a mistake by choosing to use the EXE files last time. Lol

And thanks for the directories/roadmaps as well!

[walt.farrell]

7 minutes ago, Wayne Burrows said:

And by looking at the absolutely ridiculous difference in size, I believe that I made a mistake by choosing to use the EXE files last time.

Windows reports the sizes of the MSIX versions incorrectly. They are approximately the same size as the EXE/MSI versions. 

Have fun

[Wayne Burrows]

2 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Windows reports the sizes of the MSIX versions incorrectly. They are approximately the same size as the EXE/MSI versions.

Ahh, that's good to know. 👍