Impossible to select the pen tool on iPad

[MegaMiley]

I’m trying to use Affinity Designer 2.5.7 on my iPad Pro 12,9” running iOS 18.2 and I’m trying to set the default pencil tool to the Pencil tool itself but it keeps refusing to save the setting. Whenever I save it and go back it just defaults to the Move tool instead which is obviously not what I selected. 

I’ve attached a screen recording of it not saving the pen tool but being able to safe the Double Tap action without issues.

I simply want to be able to switch back and forth between the Pencil and whatever tool I had before that, currently I can only switch away from the pencil and have to manually re-activate that tool each time as it then switches between a move and box select tool currently.

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Affinity forums, @MegaMiley.

I think you have misunderstood what that Setting does. It does not set a "default tool". Rather, it says "if I am using the <select a tool>, and I double-tap the side of the Apple Pencil, then the action should be <select an action>."

So, you can set it so that when you are using the Pencil Tool (having chosen it by clicking on it in the Tools panel in the application), and you then double-tap the side of the Apple Pencil, it will perform an Undo. And I think your screen recording shows that it has remembered that setting for you.

You can choose a different double-tap action for each of the tools, and that action will be remembered. But you cannot set what Tool is active by default in the application.

[MegaMiley]

Aha, that makes a bit more sense then, should probably be made a bit more clear then in the settings. Just did a quick test by making the pencil tool go to the move tool and the move tool go to the previous tool and now it feels like it's working as expected. Thanks!

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome.

By the way, it is described in the Help, which I forgot to reference in my earlier post: https://affinity.help/designer2ipad/en-US.lproj/pages/Workspace/preferences.html