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Managing .afphoto files inside the iPad app


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As I begin to accumulate lots and lots of files in Affinity Photo for iPad, I'm wondering if there is any way to look at the files and edit them in bulk--delete them, display their filesize, or easily archive/batch export them as .afphoto files (I know that iOS 11 will change--improve?-- some of this.) The app doesn't support 'App file sharing' where we can see and add to/delete files in iTunes...I guess I'm just wondering what the suggested workflow is (short and long term) when you have dozens of .afphoto files in the app.

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  • Staff

Hi jcburns,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Are you referring to the files inside Affinity Photo Welcome screen or on iCloud Drive?

Assuming it's the first, currently you can only delete one by one. Files stored there (automatically by the program) are not accessible outside the app.

Regarding native afphoto files saved to iCloud Drive, you can manage them using the iCloud Drive app on your iPad (including deleting several files simultaneously).

This is just the initial release of the program. I don't think we can talk about a long term workflow yet since there will be improvements here - some implemented directly in the app and others brought by iOS11.

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MEB, thanks for welcoming me, but I've been here quite a long time. And yes, you've restated my question. And I'm well aware of how to manage iCloud Drive files, thanks.

 

What I was trying to generate was a discussion of how to deal with the files within the app--when you have dozens inside, it has a couple of problematic effects...you end up with a large amount of "black box" storage--storage you can't really assess, without more functionality.

 

I certainly understand that this is the initial release. I'm just trying to make sure that we don't go too far down the road thinking the "black box" approach is good enough. When you have a ton of files inside the app, it isn't.

 

I was also trying to get some sense of why the developers decided NOT to implement app file sharing with the initial release.

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The Welcome was due to the number of posts you have. I assumed (wrongly) that you were a new user (din't check when you have joined). Sorry about it.

Yes I was suspecting you were referring to the files inside the app, but as I said there isn't much to add about it at this point. They are inaccessible from the outside. We are aware of these limitations and are are doing our best to solve/improve these workflows in future 1.x updates. We had to prioritise some things/features over others for this initial release so there's still a few gaps to fill. Bear with us while we work on this.

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Hi MEB, good you are looking ahead and are actively prioritising future features. Hear my voice in support of jcburns. Rolling out a professional grade app for the iPad, with cross-platform feature parity advertised but lacking direct access and seamless sharing to the Affinity Photo folder on iCloud is a severe let down. This is one of the gaps to be filled, urgently.

 

Were it not for the rich feature set already available on the iPad, "Black-box" storage would be a killer. "Black-box" storage on an iOS device is usually a reliable marker for crappy apps that will be deleted immediately.

 

Count my voice, I will bear with you.

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Hi Roland von Bremen,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Thanks for your feedback. The files stored inside the Welcome Screen are inaccessible from outside but you can save a copy of the .afphoto file to iCloud. To do it go to menu document on top of the interface and select Save A Copy, then select a folder on iCloud Drive. Currently the Affinity Photo folder can't be selected (it appears greyed out - we are aware of this issue), but you can still save the afphoto file to another folder on iCloud Drive (or other cloud service you might be using).

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I have the same problem (look at my post: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/42498-afphoto-data-backup-from-ipad-to-another-medium/).

 

My afphoto-files are between 20 to 400 MB (!). The proposal to use the cloud für uploads, is for me not the right option. My download speed ist sufficient, but my upload speed is very very slow (the upload of a single bigger file can take an hour or more). Therefore I transfer bigger files from my iPad via PhotoSync or PhotoTransferApp to my PC (or vice versa). But to afphoto-files I have unfortunately no access.

I hope that this problem can be solved in the near future.

 

KoBu

Win10 HP i7 - AD (Win), AP (Win), APub (Win), AD (iPad), AP (iPad),
Affinity Photo for iPad Pro - the best app I ever had
excuse my bad English

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Hi Roland von Bremen,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Thanks for your feedback. The files stored inside the Welcome Screen are inaccessible from outside but you can save a copy of the .afphoto file to iCloud. To do it go to menu document on top of the interface and select Save A Copy, then select a folder on iCloud Drive. Currently the Affinity Photo folder can't be selected (it appears greyed out - we are aware of this issue), but you can still save the afphoto file to another folder on iCloud Drive (or other cloud service you might be using).

This is highly disappointing. The app description promised "perfect icloud drive integration". That is not perfect icloud drive integration. The app seems to be a powerful one, but until it is properly integrated into iOS workflows, I will be asking for a refund.

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Hi all, yes, Apple makes it difficult for users and developers. The missing file system is really an issue.

But there are apps like File Explorer Pro (Skyjos Co) who can add Time Capsule as a storage place.

When I want to save an Aphoto file, I save a copy, click on the button in upper left corner, I think it is called data provider (sorry, I am German). Then I select FE Pro and inside FE I am selecting Time Capsule and the right folder.

 

To open a stored file You can do that inside Affinity Photo on iPad following the same way via FE or you can go to FE and click on the file and select open with ...

 

All within your WLAN system and not in the cloud.

 

On my Mac I am using Carbon Copy Cloner and sync my Time Capsule with my Mac every view hours. No I am not using TC for Time Machine backups, there are other external Drive for this.

 

The TC is always accessible in the network which is important for this method. Could be a NAS is possible with this way as well.

 

Let me be clear, the Affinity Photo for iPad is not designed to handle many files in one go, I do not consider this nice little App as a rival for Lightroom and Photoshop.

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  • 1 month later...

Yeah Peter, but Transmit does NOT let you access the .afphoto files held 'within' the app--the black box. Same problem. And yes, I'm using SFTP and Transmit like crazy. And Panic's desktop Transmit, by the way is especially nice because it supports a lot of the cloud protocols—like Dropbox, Box.net, Amazon S3, and so on, so tossing files around there is better too.

But again, NONE of that helps with The Black Box.

(I'll start capitalizing it.)

I'm thinking Affinity Serif needs to support what's called App File Sharing (so you can see and access them from, for example, the Apps tab in iTunes) in ADDITION to the otherwise fine export capabilities.

That also gives you a better read on what you have—okay, i have 20 files, and most of them are less than 20 MB each, but THIS one is huge--I can and should delete that one (after backing it up elsewhere.)

 

Having the filesizes listed in Photo's files view window (or in a popup, or in the list view version) would also be useful.

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