Photos Extension - 16MB change limit exceeded

[F_WRLCK]

"16MB change limit exceeded -- document will be flattened"

 

What does this mean? I notice that, if I re-edit a file using the Photos extension, I have to start over in Develop. Is there a way to save my layered document off to the side? Affinity documents are quite large, I can't imagine one less than 16MB.

[Lee D]

Hi F_WRLCK,

 

Once you have done adjusting your image in Affinity Photo, if you think you may receive the message 16MB change limit exceeded - document will be flattened) you can always use File > Save As and save in an Affinity format (afphoto), then close the file in Photo to update the one in Photos. You can either select Save, so it flattens or Cancel, as the file is saved in our format Apple Photo's can't affect it.

[F_WRLCK]

So far, this has been every photo I've tried. Just develop and add levels/curves layers. Is that expected?

[Lee D]

It can depend on the original RAW images, some of these can be large to begin with and also the adjustments being made in Affinity. If you save in our file format, the files are quite large as they are designed to be quick at opening and not for compression, but other elements such as embedded documents or saved history can also add to the overall file size

[F_WRLCK]

Correct, my ORFs are about 16MB to begin with and yeah, my Affinity photo files are massive. I just assumed that what was being sent back to photos was just a set of masks and layer settings and not the whole affinity file. As it is, this extension is always going to flatten the file and so won't be amazingly useful next to something like the External Editors plugin, where you can reopen the modified file and make further edits as needed.

[F_WRLCK]

Hi F_WRLCK,

 

Once you have done adjusting your image in Affinity Photo, if you think you may receive the message 16MB change limit exceeded - document will be flattened) you can always use File > Save As and save in an Affinity format (afphoto), then close the file in Photo to update the one in Photos. You can either select Save, so it flattens or Cancel, as the file is saved in our format Apple Photo's can't affect it.

 

For the record, this does not work. The "Save As..." dialog is greyed out when editing through the extension. Without the ability to save an afphoto file, I'm not sure why you bothered with this extension.

[Night Rider]

For the record, this does not work. The "Save As..." dialog is greyed out when editing through the extension. Without the ability to save an afphoto file, I'm not sure why you bothered with this extension.

 

It's indeed greyed out. Exporting the file as a psd file could be an alternative.

[R C-R]

It is greyed out on my system too. I suspect this has something to do with how Apple intends the Photos app to work with external editors -- they want the edited file always to be passed back to that app so the edit can either be applied or canceled in Photos, thus keeping all the Photos library support files properly updated & free of sync conflicts.

 

Allowing the external editor to save the file to a different format without also passing it back could leave Apple's app in an indefinite state, causing problems. That doesn't completely rule out a "Save As" option in AP, but it makes the programming logic difficult since there needs to be some way to guarantee the edit is passed back to Photos even when Save As is used.

[F_WRLCK]

It's indeed greyed out. Exporting the file as a psd file could be an alternative.

 

That's interesting, I hadn't thought of that. That could be useful for people who don't like or don't want to pay for the External Editors plugin.

 

 

It is greyed out on my system too. I suspect this has something to do with how Apple intends the Photos app to work with external editors -- they want the edited file always to be passed back to that app so the edit can either be applied or canceled in Photos, thus keeping all the Photos library support files properly updated & free of sync conflicts.

 

Allowing the external editor to save the file to a different format without also passing it back could leave Apple's app in an indefinite state, causing problems. That doesn't completely rule out a "Save As" option in AP, but it makes the programming logic difficult since there needs to be some way to guarantee the edit is passed back to Photos even when Save As is used.

 

Maybe, but without knowing more we're just theorycrafting. I kind of doubt this is the case because external programs can crash and it would be pretty horrifying if doing so could corrupt your Photos database. 

[ggambaro]

I have the same problem. Photo plug in is amazing because you can edit RAW files in affinity and still use Photo for catalog and cloud syncro.

My RAF (Fuji) RAW files are 50Mb on average.

Everything seems to work fine if I use the 'develop' plug-in from Photo.

Indeed if I choose to 'EDIT in Affinity', when i come back to Photo I get the message about the 16Mb and that the file will be flattened.

 

The question is: does this flatten layers only? Or does this impacts on image quality?

 

Thanks you

[Andrew Banda]

I'm experiencing the same  "16MB change limit exceeded -- document will be flattened" problem while attempting to use the "edit in Affinity Photo" extension in Apple Photos. This happens to every photo from a modern high resolution camera, making the extension unusable. The workaround involves exporting the raw image, manually opening that in Affinity Photo, saving the .afphoto file separately because .afphoto cannot be imported into Apple Photos, and exporting a jpeg to be put back into Apple Photos. The master file is then stored outside photo organization software Apple Photos, with the original raw and the jpeg stored as two items in Apple Photos. The whole process is messy and tedious. If only the Apple Photos 16MB change limit could be lifted! 

[F_WRLCK]

You can also use the "External Editors" plugin to round trip through Affinity, which will let you save your .afphoto file. This isn't ideal, but it gets the job done.

It would be nice if there were a slimmer file format that just records the adjustments applied or the filesystem location of the .ahphoto file for the plugin, but I'm guessing that's enough of a niche use case that we're not likely to see it. I've also considered just doing image selection outside Photos and only importing finished photos, but that kind of defeats the "edit anywhere" thing that I have now, so I'm reluctant.

[Alphega]

Hi, I am getting this still now in 2024. I was about to buy Affinity as it looks brilliant and the extension plug in with Apple is exactly what I want, as another user here commented, where we can use MAcPhotos as our Raw repository and for any simple edits and for more complex things, export it to Affinity and use the power of layers and masks. It appears in the last 4 years no progress on this issue? As one person asked, what does flattened really mean. I am assuming that it means that the layers are merged back into the Mac RAW file somehow. Does this degrade image quality...