Designer: Unable to save after embedding documents

[Neal W]

Currently encountering an issue with Affinity Designer where after embedding an .eps file or an .afdesign file into a document, an error stating "Could not save. Access to file has been lost." pops up when I attempt to save the document using "Ctrl+s".

After this, I can no longer save the file and lose any progress since the last save.

It tends not to happen if I save immediately after embedding a document, but if I embed, then edit anything before saving, the issue will often occur. 

Details: 

- Using Affinity Designer 2.5.3

- Windows 11 

- Using a Lenovo laptop with a AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU and an RTX 3060 GPU

[stokerg]

Hi @Neal Wand Welcome to the Forums,

This isn't something i can replicate. 

Does this happen if you start a New Document, embed an afdesign or EPS file and try to save it or does it only happen when editing a Saved afdesign file and embedding files into it?  If when trying editing an already saved afdesign file, where is that saved file stored?

[Neal W]

Hi stokerg,

      Thanks for the reply. As a note, I've also experienced this with the most recent Designer version (2.5.5.2636). There's nothing particularly unique about where the .afdesign files are saved; they're either in a subfolder on the Desktop or a subfolder of Documents (neither location uses any special security permissions). Embedded files within the same folder or in a separate folder from the .afdesign file have managed to trigger this error.

      In attempting to replicate the error, I came up with an example that seems to be repeatable. I attached two files, one named test.afdesign and one named syringe.afdesign. test.afdesign was originally made in Designer V2. syringe.afdesign was made in Designer V1 and re-saved in V2. Place both files in the same directory, then open test. Using 'Place', import syringe and attempt to save immediately or attempt to save after some change. In either case, you should get the error that I previously described. 

      The issue seems to be, to some extent, tied to files initially created in V1 or to V2 files containing elements that were initially made in a V1 file; when importing files of such nature into an existing V2 file, the error seems to trigger.

Syringe.afdesign Test.afdesign

[Hangman]

Hi @Neal W,

I've tested your files on both Windows and Mac following your steps and haven't been able to replicate the "Could not save. Access to file has been lost." error message...

[walt.farrell]

On 9/10/2024 at 5:07 PM, Neal W said:

they're either in a subfolder on the Desktop or a subfolder of Documents (neither location uses any special security permissions).

Do you have OneDrive or Google Drive or pCloud or any other cloud service configured to manage those folders? They are typically managed by OneDrive on Windows by default, for example.

And if they are managed by a cloud service, is the service configured to migrate everything off or to leave everything "available offline"?

[Neal W]

Thanks for the responses. 

To Walt's question, these files aren't managed by any cloud services. 

And to Hangman's response, I'm wondering then if it might be something that got messed up with my downloads of the software specifically. I might try re-installing, but this has been happening for all versions of Designer 2 I've had thus far.

[hunter_sk]

Tried, and saved the Test.afdesign file with embeded Syringe.afdesign file with no problem.

[kenmcd]

On 9/5/2024 at 7:16 AM, Neal W said:

Using Affinity Designer 2.5.3

What format did you install, and/or from where?
From a store?
Or from the downloadable file?

What version of Windows 11?
Are you an admin user?

This sounds like one of those annoying issues from using sandboxed store apps.

[Neal W]

Currently on Windows 11 Home (Version: 23H2 OS Build: 22631.4037), and I am an admin user.

This occurred when using Designer 2, downloaded from the Affinity website, either as MSIX or as MSI/exe.