Worst situation I've ever run into with an app: Photo v2 won't save a file and it won't save as.

[Chris Christner]

I've been using Photo v2 on my Mac M4 Mini today and had put a lot of work into an image. Having used Photoshop for years and seen it crash right when I was nearly finished, I saved this Photo image often. As I was nearly done with it, I saved one more time and an error message appeared saying Photo couldn't save the file because it had lost lock. Well that's disappointing. So I tried to do a save as to the Desktop and that failed! I was forced to quit and restart the Mac to see whether the file could be salvaged. It cannot.

This is crazy, how can Photo be so fragile and show such disregard for my hard work?

Edited December 29, 2024 by Chris Christner
Finished my post

[Ldina]

Try navigating to your Affinity Photo auto backup folder (user/library/application support/affinity photo 2/autosave). If you see a file there with a timestamp that looks about right, change the file extension to afphoto, then try double clicking on it to see if it will open. Worth a try. 

[Chris Christner]

Thanks for the help! It sounded like good advice, but macOS 15.4 (Sequoia) does things differently so there's no affinity or affinity photo 2 folder listed in the application support folder.

[Ldina]

I'm on a MBP M4 running Sequoia and it's there for me. Did you look in your USER Library or the System Library? It's in the USER Library.

In Finder, select the "Go" menu while holding down the Opt key, which will show your user library (which is normally hidden). Then, navigate to the path mentioned in my previous post. That's where mine is. Hope that works for you.

[Chris Christner]

Thanks for pursuing it! I had to select the Library icon while holding option, not click on the library > application support option at the bottom of the panel. 

Anyway, there is an autosave folder but nothing is in it. Really appreciate your help!

[Chris Christner]

I tried reopening the file just in case it healed it self. No joy. But here's the error message it displays:

Syba 8 Bay SATA Enclosure SY-ENC50119.afphoto was created in Affinity 1. Editing it will make it unusable in the older version. Use "Save As" to preserve the original file.

The image was created today in Photo v2, not v1.

After I click Continue this displays:

Failed to open file

/Users/username/Documents/Syba 8 Bay SATA Enclosure SY-ENC50119.afphoto

The file type is not supported.

It boggles my mind that the image was there on screen and could still be edited, but it couldn't be saved.

[Ldina]

I wish I had the answer. If you still have your "un-savable" file open, I have heard some members suggest creating a new document with the same dimensions, DPI, bit depth, color space, etc. Then, select and copy all layers from your original file (Cmd-C) and paste them (Cmd-V) into the new document you created. Sometimes, that new document will save properly. Again, worth a try if you still have the trouble file open in Affinity. 

[Meliora spero]

It is truly astounding to comprehend that Serif has built Affinity on such a poor and faulty methodology - one that not only risks losing contact with YOUR data and YOUR work, as you’ve experienced, but can also corrupt its own files to the extent that they become unreadable. Goodbye. Serif's error, at your expense. A quick search will show you that this issue has been reported hundreds of times on this forum alone, and you can easily extrapolate how many more instances must have occurred to customers who are not forum members - likely 98%.

My best advice is to set up a Time Machine disk under any circumstances. It is a reliable and highly practical backup solution that performs more frequent backups the closer to the present you are working. This has significantly reduced my need to save files in multiple versions in many cases; in practice, an older copy is often sufficient. It also fosters better file organization.

I maintain several layers and types of backups for my serious, particularly professional work, but Apple's Time Machine has resolved my issues every single time.

It is truly mind-boggling that a company could consider it serious and acceptable to leave customers in a situation where a file Affinity is actively holding and displaying on your screen can be completely lost. Expecting customers to endure this day after day is astonishing. Unfortunately, I don’t have any tips for how you might recover your data - I don’t think the odds are in your favor. However, now you know that investing in (more) backups is a wise decision when using Affinity, a suite built on a foundation of meringue.

[Chris Christner]

3 minutes ago, Ldina said:

I wish I had the answer. If you still have your "un-savable" file open, I have heard some members suggest creating a new document with the same dimensions, DPI, bit depth, color space, etc. Then, select and copy all layers from your original file (Cmd-C) and paste them (Cmd-V) into the new document you created. Sometimes, that new document will save properly. Again, worth a try if you still have the trouble file open in Affinity. 

Of course, after I restarted, I thought of the things I should have done instead, such as making a screen capture so I could rebuild the file from scratch. Your suggestions would have worked better too. Unfortunately, I just started using v2 today after umpteen years of working in Photoshop, which as I've mentioned earlier has reliability problems, but even when it crashes, you still have the source file, maybe missing the last work you've done, but the file is still intact. So I was in Photoshop mode when I just restarted thinking that I could reopen the file and make the few changes that were needed. Wrong.

 

6 minutes ago, Meliora spero said:

It is truly astounding to comprehend that Serif has built Affinity on such a poor and faulty methodology - one that not only risks losing contact with YOUR data and YOUR work, as you’ve experienced, but can also corrupt its own files to the extent that they become unreadable. Goodbye. Serif's error, at your expense. A quick search will show you that this issue has been reported hundreds of times on this forum alone, and you can easily extrapolate how many more instances must have occurred to customers who are not forum members - likely 98%.

My best advice is to set up a Time Machine disk under any circumstances. It is a reliable and highly practical backup solution that performs more frequent backups the closer to the present you are working. This has significantly reduced my need to save files in multiple versions in many cases; in practice, an older copy is often sufficient. It also fosters better file organization.

I maintain several layers and types of backups for my serious, particularly professional work, but Apple's Time Machine has resolved my issues every single time.

It is truly mind-boggling that a company could consider it serious and acceptable to leave customers in a situation where a file Affinity is actively holding and displaying on your screen can be completely lost. Expecting customers to endure this day after day is astonishing. Unfortunately, I don’t have any tips for how you might recover your data - I don’t think the odds are in your favor. However, now you know that investing in (more) backups is a wise decision when using Affinity, a suite built on a foundation of meringue.

Thanks for your ijnformative but depressing post! I was hoping the problem I'm having was rare.