iPad storage totally filled with Affinity Designer files

[rockclimber]

I have been having issues with Affinity Designer "files" totally filling my iPad storage for years and have reported it multiple times. I only keep 1 or 2 documents in the "sandbox" and save often, but once again this has sneaked up on me and I have lost 3 hours of work.  I understood this was fixed in V2, but nothing seems to have changed.  For me this is a large and fundamental flaw in Affinity Designer, an app that is otherwise awesomely sophisticated.

 

[Alfred]

5 hours ago, rockclimber said:

I only keep 1 or 2 documents in the "sandbox" and save often

What other location(s) do you use for your Affinity documents? Do you open updated documents from there, or do you always work from the sandboxed versions?

[rockclimber]

On 4/10/2025 at 2:21 AM, Alfred said:

What other location(s) do you use for your Affinity documents? Do you open updated documents from there, or do you always work from the sandboxed versions?

I save my documents to the iCloud, but I generally work from sandboxed versions. Could it be that every time I exit a document, it’s not overwriting the previous sandbox version?

[Alfred]

42 minutes ago, rockclimber said:

I save my documents to the iCloud, but I generally work from sandboxed versions. Could it be that every time I exit a document, it’s not overwriting the previous sandbox version?

I wouldn’t expect that to happen automatically unless you have a backup system which does it for you (otherwise we’d never have users panicking about having overwritten their working documents).

[NathanC]

Hi @rockclimber,

There was an issue logged under AF-233 relating to the iPad apps 'Holding' on to a large amount of internal storage space after closing files in the app sandbox, however this was investigated and fixed in 2.6.0, see your original thread below with an update from the info bot when this was fixed.

To confirm, have you checked that your app is updated to the latest version available? I'd probably suggest removing and re-installing the app again just to reset the cache entirely and see if the issue persists moving forward.

If you can still replicate this and observe the app holding on to large portions of 'Documents & Data' storage space with all documents closed in the sandbox, we'd be grateful if you could supply more information and a sample file.

Thanks

[rockclimber]

On 4/13/2025 at 5:29 AM, rockclimber said:

I save my documents to the iCloud, but I generally work from sandboxed versions. Could it be that every time I exit a document, it’s not overwriting the previous sandbox version?

Just now, I opened a 20MB document from the sandbox, edited the document, returned to the sandbox, and saved my latest version to the iCloud. The Data and Documents storage in my iPad increased from 4.74GB to 8.95 GB as a result of these actions.  In the last 3 weeks, I have deleted and reloaded AD twice, and each time the data and documents storage level was over 100 GB. Could it be an issue with my iPad?
 

 

LEROY REV05c blobs 300.afdesign

[Alfred]

8 minutes ago, rockclimber said:

Could it be an issue with my iPad?

It could be, but I’ve never used an iPad with more than 128 GB total storage capacity, so I’m really not in a position to offer you a solution.

[Bound by Beans]

15 hours ago, rockclimber said:

Could it be an issue with my iPad?

LEROY REV05c blobs 300.afdesign 19.04 MB · 0 downloads

I find that hard to believe — that’s up to Serif to clarify. Which version of Designer are you running now, 2.6.2?

[rockclimber]

I’m using 2.6.2.3228. The filling of the iPad memory has to be an artifact as the memory allocations are orders of magnitude higher than the document sizes. 

[Bound by Beans]

On 4/18/2025 at 5:16 PM, rockclimber said:

I’m using 2.6.2.3228. The filling of the iPad memory has to be an artifact as the memory allocations are orders of magnitude higher than the document sizes. 

I suspect it has something to do with memory allocation and perhaps temp files in the sandbox, though I don’t have any exact knowledge. My impression has always been that Affinity uses system memory rather recklessly, without its own memory management policies or advanced memory management tricks — and I’ve read many posts here from users frustrated with how Affinity greedily consumes both disk space and RAM.

My assumption is based on your document. It shows 38,735 objects — possibly more — and I think any iPad would be pushed to its limits with such a complex document. iPads are powerful on paper, but in practice they're built with compromises and limitations.

Anyway, Serif should have an idea of what’s going on. 🙂

[NathanC]

Many thanks. Using your file, I've observed the following on my iPad:

1. The app currently sits at 8.7MB storage in 'Documents & Data' with nothing open in Designer 2's 'Live Docs'
2. Opened your .afdesign file, moved some objects around, returned to the home screen and then saved it to iCloud
3. Quit Designer 2 and checked the 'Documents & Data' storage again, and it went up to 301.6MB since I have the document active in the sandbox
4. Re-opened Designer 2 and closed the active document, clearing the sandbox and closed Designer 2
5. Checked 'Documents & Data' storage again, the storage dropped back down significantly to 8.8MB, a negligible 0.1MB increase over the start point.

This coincides with the fix (AF-233), as previously, this storage space wasn't reclaimed, and it would have likely stayed at 301.6mb. Are you keeping the files open in the app's 'Live Docs' sandbox? If so, this would explain why the 'Documents & Data' storage is still high.