Studio Preset & Some Config Doesn't Transfer to Latest Update (Affinity Designer 2)

[ibrahimahmad.id]

Hi, I just installed the latest (2.5.3) Affinity Designer 2 version intended to update from 2.1.0 version. If I remember it right, the older version was installed using EXE installer, while the latest version I just installed used the MSIX installer; so both installation installed in different folder (Program Files/ for EXE & Program Files/WindowsApps for MSIX), hence the latest update did not replace the older version, and I still can run both version (though I can't run both instance at the same time)

 

However it seems that the Studio layout did not transfer to this latest version, I did save my Studio as preset as well but don't see it listed on the latest version. Other config like User Interface or anything on Settings also didn't transfer to the latest version. Graphic Assets and Global Palette seems to transfer normally but I notice some Global Palette missing on the latest version.

 

AFAIK, Affinity config was saved in %appdata%/Affinity, and any version of any Affinity softwares intallation save & read config from this same folder. If I open my old 2.1.0 installation, everything is all dandy, so I'm just confused why the latest 2.5.3 version installed using MSIX seems to not read all the config.

 

Is this an expected issue when updating with different installation package (EXE -> MSIX)? Should I just install the EXE version? I noticed that the latest MSIX installation have a much lower installation size compared to my 2.1.0 installed with EXE, what's up with that?

 

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums @ibrahimahmad.id

It’s my understanding that the EXE installations and MSIX installations are different applications (installed in different places in different ways) so installing a newer version of, for example, the MSIX version, rather than simply updating the existing EXE version, will not bring your set-up across because they are not the same application.

In other words, by installing the 2.5.3 MSIX version when you already have the 2.1.0 EXE version installed, you will get two different applications with the same name, and probably a whole lot of bother later on.

You should only be using either the EXE versions or the MSIX versions, not a mix of the two.

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, ibrahimahmad.id said:

AFAIK, Affinity config was saved in %appdata%/Affinity, and any version of any Affinity softwares intallation save & read config from this same folder

Your understanding is incorrect. MSIX versions use %userprofile%\.affinity not %appdata%\affinity as you thought.

That is the underlying cause of what you've reported, I think. But it is a little more complex than that, because if you had started with MSIX, then later installed using the MSI/EXE, the MSI/EXE installation would have detected the previous MSIX installation and performed some additional processing to setup hard-links in the Windows file system so the two installations would share the same data.

That doesn't happen (as far as I know) if you start with the MSI/EXE and later add the MSIX.

[ibrahimahmad.id]

Thank you both @walt.farrell @GarryP for the explanation. I installed the EXE version and everything carried out smoothly.

Though, I find it curious that despite started with 2.1.0 version which was installed using EXE and config saved on %appdata%\affinity (and to be clear I never installed Affinity MSIX beforehand), when I installed the 2.5.3 MSIX package, most of the config did transferred to the updated MSIX installation, which means that the MSIX installation somehow did detect the EXE installation and attempt to copy its config to %userprofile%\.affinity . However the difference in available files and its sizes may suggest that EXE -> MSIX config file transfer/conversion was not done properly. Notable example is the assets.propcol file which contains the graphic assets and I guess swatches as well. That would explain why there are some swatches/assets missing when I tried the MSIX intallation.

Well idk, it's probably developer sheaningans at this point. I'm glad my issue resolved by installing the EXE. Thanks lads.

[walt.farrell]

6 hours ago, ibrahimahmad.id said:

when I installed the 2.5.3 MSIX package, most of the config did transferred to the updated MSIX installation, which means that the MSIX installation somehow did detect the EXE installation and attempt to copy its config to %userprofile%\.affinity . However the difference in available files and its sizes may suggest that EXE -> MSIX config file transfer/conversion was not done properly.

It's not a copy/conversion, and I'm pretty sure it's only done when installing MSIX first, then MSI/EXE. But I have not done extensive experimentation with that.

When done in that order (MSIX first, then MSI/EXE) the actual files or directories are physically shared by using hard-links in the file system. Their content, file names, file dates, etc. are identical even though they appear to have different path names.