Affinity Designer - Photo ~Lock~ file issue

[Timespider]

Application: Designer
Version: 2.5.3
Hardware acceleration  Is on

OS: Windows 11 home
Version: 23H2
Windows OS Build: 22631.3737
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Hi,
In a folder I have a lot of designer files & a few .afphoto ones, all version 2 no version 1 files.
When opening today some .afdesign & a couple of .afphoto files were blank (no thumbs).
Like an idiot I right clicked on one & selected "Open With" but selected version 1 by mistake hoping it would solve the issue, no worries I'll select V2.
After selecting the correct path (C:\Users\GGPC\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps) windows says "The file cannot be accessed by the system".
The path is correct as I can open designer from here, & have the path stored in a text file in case I forget.

Most files are okay but a lot are not & the ones that are not are newer files, it also seems to only be this one folder.

Images attached show the windows error & some of the folder files with one blank & locked others locked & a couple which are okay

Does anyone have an idea of what's going on here?
Cheers.

 

 

 

[walt.farrell]

18 minutes ago, Timespider said:

After selecting the correct path (C:\Users\GGPC\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps) windows says

You cannot access MSIX-based apps that way, unless you have messed around with folder permissions. And doing that is likely to cause other issues.They should automatically appear in the Open With dialog, though, by name. E.g., Affinity Designer 2.

Unless, when you chose Designer V1, you also checked "Always use this application", I don't think that would have caused any problems. If you did choose that option, using Open With and choosing Affinity Designer 2 as a named program from the list should work.

[Timespider]

Hi  walt.farrell 
l unfortunately did use "Always use this application" by accident (I was half asleep at the time), I random slashed it by accident.
No I haven't messed around with the permissions.

Cheers

[walt.farrell]

OK. In Windows Settings you should be able to find something for Default Apps, which will let you fix that if you can't simply use Open With again and choose the app by name.

[walt.farrell]

9 minutes ago, Timespider said:

I haven't messed around with the permissions

In that case you wouldn't have been able to navigate through the file system to find the executable in the WindowsApps directory, as Windows sets the permissions to prevent that by default. 

So I think you must have modified the permissions at some point.

[Timespider]

Thanks Walt,
I honestly have never adjusted permissions directly or purposely ever & no mucking around in the last few days.

I'll do a full system virus scan.

Cheers

[walt.farrell]

Did you ever run an app called Take Control?

[Timespider]

No

[walt.farrell]

Then you should have never been able to see that designer.exe file and specify the path to it, so I'm puzzled. But I'll ignore that for now, and hope you manage to work around your problem.

[Timespider]

Hi Walt,
are you talking about the .exe for designer 2?
I'm sure I never ran "Take Control" app, it just doesn't ring a bell.
I got that path (think I adjusted it) from this form to access a launcher for another app (as far as I remember).
The computer is only about 18 months old.

I have just noticed - this issue is only happening in windows explorer even while none of the Affinity apps are open.
If I open the same folder with Designer 2 the issue does non exist.
Bizarre

[Timespider]

I seem to have found a work around to fix this issue, so will post it in case someone else ever has the same/similar issue.

As I stated above I can open the ~lock~ files through designer as they are not locked using designers access (but I can't open them directly through windows file explorer, using that path they are locked - about 30 files) these locked files are in a random sequence not all in a date batch etc, but are recent, over the last couple of months.
The folder contains hundreds of .afdesign files over a year or so.

So in designer I've opened the files with the ~lock~ issue & resaved them & this is correcting the issue.
I didn't have to save-as a new file just saved over the top of.

Thanks Walt for your input, you are always very helpful.

[walt.farrell]

13 minutes ago, Timespider said:

As I stated above I can open the ~lock~ files

Sorry, I missed that. 

You do not and should not Open ~lock~ files at all. You can Open them with a text editor, but they are not usable Affinity files containing your data.

[walt.farrell]

FAQ:

 

 

[Timespider]

Hi Walt,
But they are my actual .afdesign files.
Accessing them through designer they are not locked & are as they should be.
So in designer I choose file-open then go to folder with issue.
Once in there there are no locked files.

However In windows explorer there are about 30 files with ~lock~ as in sample image.
The files in question are opening fine in designer & are editable & as soon as I re-save them they correct themselves in explorer.
They are all my own files & I have not locked them (don't know how to do that),
A couple of the locked ones were made yesterday, I shut down my computer then restarted today & noticed issue when browsing for different files in windows file explorer.

If after re-saving them in Designer & they are working fine is there any issue that I am not aware of & should be?
 

[walt.farrell]

10 hours ago, Timespider said:

But they are my actual .afdesign files.

Not if their names have ~lock~, as those are just lock files, not files with user data.

10 hours ago, Timespider said:

So in designer I choose file-open then go to folder with issue.
Once in there there are no locked files.

By default that File Explorer dialog will only show you files Designer can open.

10 hours ago, Timespider said:

However In windows explorer there are about 30 files with ~lock~ as in sample image.

That File Explorer window will show you everything, including files that Designer cannot open. At least, it will assuming you've configured File Explorer's options to show Hidden files, as I usually do.

Please read that FAQ. It explains the rest of what you have described in your last post.

[Timespider]

Hi Walt,
Sorry if I am sounding confusing, I did read the FAQ a few times, maybe I'm not understanding correctly.

When I say they were my actual .afdesign files I mean, when I opened file explorer the locked files were the only versions of those files that existed in the folder.
I had no Affinity apps open at that time & all files we saved previously into that folder(where were the non locked versions?). I have never seen this before, not even one locked file when no apps are open & just browsing files in explorer.
I have seen or noticed the ~lock~ while I'm working on a file in affinity & understand what that file is.

Also I ended up opening Designer with a split screen with file explorer so I could see which file to open and re-save.
I then noticed I didn't have to save the affected file just open it with designer & it then corrected itself instantly in the explorer window.

They are now all working, but I'm still unsure of what has happened here.

[walt.farrell]

29 minutes ago, Timespider said:

When I say they were my actual .afdesign files I mean, when I opened file explorer the locked files were the only versions of those files that existed in the folder.

I'm not sure what you mean by "the locked files".

Here is a screenshot from File Explorer:

The first file, whose name ends in .afdesign~lock~ is a lock file. It has no useful data for you. I will simply refer to this as the ~lock~ file, for short.

The second file, whose name ends in .afdesign, is my Designer file with my data. As there is another file with an identical name but ending in ~lock~ the .afdesign file is locked. However, that's an old ~lock~ file, and its associated .afdesign file is not actually Open. So, if I were to try to Open that .afdesign file, the Open would succeed. (And it just did, as I'm typing this.)

[Timespider]

Hi Walt, thanks for your time and input,
I only have/see the working file .afdesign or .afphoto in my folders in both explorer & designer view & always have.
I do have the other ~lock~ version when I working on a file.

In the folder and other folders right now there is only the one working editable version .afdesign or .afphoto

But yesterday was when there was no working file & only the ~lock~ file for the about 30 random files of hundreds in the folder. 
There was only one that had both & that's in the image the drafted.afphoto & drafted.afphoto~lock~ it's never usually like that unless I working on a file.