The trial version of Affinity for Mac

[Jan Jangsäter]

What to do with the trial version when I bought the full version? Does it still works after it has expire or is it just to delete it? Or does the full version use parts of the trial one? //Jan

[JFisher]

Hi Jan Jangsäter

Welcome to the forum :)

The trial is a separate app that will expire 10 days after you install it, feel free to remove the trial now you have the full version :)

[R C-R]

Regarding removal of versions of Affinity apps (trial, beta, whatever), since there is no uninstaller app, it seems that just dragging the app to the trash & emptying it leaves the app's per user support folders in ~/Library/Containers untouched.

 

So for example, after I deleted an expired Designer beta, I still had a ~/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinitydesigner.beta folder, & likewise after deleting an expired Photo beta, I still had a ~/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinityphoto.beta folder. If this Mac had more than one user, presumably there would be a similar folder for each of them in their ~/Library/Containers folders as well. I know these folders & their contents won't cause any problems if left alone, but they could use a significant if not huge amount of file space, so it may be worth removing them as well if file space is a concern.

 

This brings up several questions:

 

1. Does the trial version have its own per user com.seriflabs.affinityphoto.trial folder that could or should be removed if file space is an issue?

2. If so, does the full version use anything from the trial version containers folder(s) when it is installed?

3. I know that new betas (usually) overwrite/update the contents of any existing beta container folders, but similar to 2 above, do they preserve anything (user prefs, brush presets, whatever) from the older beta when they do that? IOW, is there any benefit from leaving an expired beta's container folder in place if I plan on installing another beta later on?

[anon1]

Where is the file stored that indicates that I already experienced the trial?

[Alfred]

I know that new betas (usually) overwrite/update the contents of any existing beta container folders, but similar to 2 above, do they preserve anything (user prefs, brush presets, whatever) from the older beta when they do that? IOW, is there any benefit from leaving an expired beta's container folder in place if I plan on installing another beta later on?

 

I don't know whether the same applies to Mac installations, but when I installed the first customer betas for the Windows apps I found things like brushes that I hadn't seen since the public betas.

[MEB]

Hi Jan Jangsäter,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

When you uninstall an Affinity app dragging the app to the trash all the remaining support folders will remain on disk. This is valid for all variants - MAS, Betas and Trials. All of them use independent folders so they don't affect each other when you uninstall one of them. If you want to remove them all i advise you to use a third party utility like AppDelete which is able to detect them - from the Library/Containers folders to additional files stored in other locations.

[R C-R]

Where is the file stored that indicates that I already experienced the trial?

Gee, I wonder why you would want to know that ...  :rolleyes:

 

More seriously, I doubt the date you started using the trial is stored in a way that can be changed to extend the ten day trial period. Long ago, developers figured out ways to prevent that kind of hack from working (although if you are willing to reset the system clock & accept all the issues that will cause, you could probably keep using it).

[R C-R]

If you want to remove them all i advise you to use a third party utility like AppDelete which is able to detect them - from the Library/Containers folders to additional files stored in other locations.

In general, I suggest using any OS X third party "cleaner" apps with caution. They are better than they once were but they have been known to suggest things for deletion that they should not, for example support files that other apps also use, or ones that if deleted incorrectly can corrupt databases maintained by the OS.

 

That said, it should be safe enough to use one to delete the no longer needed ~/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.* folders, as long as that is all they suggest deleting.

 

Personally, I would rather do that manually, on a per user basis, particularly if the Mac has more than one user account.

[MEB]

Have you already tried it or are you just generalising? Do you know it lists all files, including their locations before deleting them so you can check their origin (path/folder)? It also don't delete the files immediately but move them to a specific folder in the Trash so you can undo these changes if necessary... If you know enough to mess with the files in Library/Containers it shouldn't be a problem to use one of those. Don't confuse them with some "optimisation" apps which are really not recommended...