Unable to open files

[mike21]

I have saved a number of images under "save as", which gives them an afphoto suffix, and also saved the same images under "export" as jpg. Recently some of them will not re-open in Affinity (or with any viewer program) with the message "file type not supported". The icon in explorer for the afphoto images is the correct one, but for the jpegs it is the same mountain scene for every one, instead of a thumbnail image of the actual photo. The file byte sizes all appear to be typical of what they should be. I now have to test everything before closing each file. What is the solution. The version is 1.6.1.93, which I believe is the latest.

[walt.farrell]

Can you attach a screenshot of an Explorer window so we can see what it's showing? Please make sure that your View settings for the folder say to display file types, too.

Also, you will only see previews if you have configured the window's View style to one that includes the word "tile" or "icon" (try large or medium icon, to be safe). You won't get previews if you have asked for "details".

[mike21]

Two screenshots attached, one that works and one that does not. I could not get one shot that showed them both, together with the details you wanted.

[mike21]

Sorry - one of the screenshots was the wrong one. The one with just the logo does not work, the one with the image and small logo in the corner does work.

[walt.farrell]

Are you talking about your .afphoto files, some of which show the preview and some of which don't? Or do you have this problem with the .jpg files, too?

[mike21]

If one fails they both fail. An example of the failure is the afphoto image that shows as a large red icon and it's associated jpeg which shows as a mountain scene. The ones that work both show the actual image, with the afphoto image having the affinity logo bottom right. I have tried deleting the file name and re-entering it but it makes no difference. Maybe I need to delete the program and re-install. I have tried to attach a jpeg file that illustrated the problem, but each time the upload failed, even though the size was only 1.1 MB - well below the limit; maybe because the file is corrupt.

[walt.farrell]

For the cases where neither shows the preview, make sure your view options are set properly. Try large icons, to be sure.

If you have that selected, and the .jpg files don't show a preview, I don't know what's wrong. Your initial post also mentioned you couldn't open those files, so maybe they are corrupt. You could zip one of them and upload it here as an attachment, which might let us see what's wrong with it.

Whether you'll see a preview of the .afphoto files may depend on the preferences you had set when you saved the .afphoto files. In your Affinity Photo preferences (Edit->Preferences), on the General tab, there's a checkbox for "save thumbnails with documents." If you don't have that checked, then when you save a .afphoto file I don't think Windows will be able to show a preview for that file.

[IanSG]

3 hours ago, mike21 said:

Recently some of them will not re-open in Affinity (or with any viewer program) with the message "file type not supported".

To be clear, are you saying they used to open and now they don't?

[mike21]

I think that maybe some of the jpegs have opened in the past, but I cannot be sure. I would not have tried the afphoto files until a couple of days ago when I wanted to make some more adjustments.

[mike21]

I have checked preferences and save thumbnails was already checked, presumably by default. The ones which will not open in Affinity do not display a thumbnail, the ones that do display the thumbnail will open in Affinity

[IanSG]

My original assumption was that you were opening an image file, editing it and then saving AP and jpeg versions.  Problem is that all the files you're having problems with were modified at the same time, and there probably wouldn't have been time to do that for multiple files.  Any thoughts? Maybe the files were copied from somewhere?

[mike21]

Your original assumption is correct. The files were saved on different days - Windows Explorer puts the date of the last attempt to open rather than leaving it as the date saved. I think that maybe I did not leave sufficient time for the afphoto version to be properly saved before I saved the jpeg version, which I probably closed before that also had time to properly save. I will watch this in future - I think that is the problem/solution. If that does not work I will re-install Affinity. Thanks for your help.

[IanSG]

1 hour ago, mike21 said:

Windows Explorer puts the date of the last attempt to open rather than leaving it as the date saved.

That's a surprise!  It doesn't do that on my system - opening a file doesn't change the modified date.  I've tried files of the wrong type and I've tried files of the wrong type but the right extension to force the "file type not supported" situation, but the modified date doesn't change.  That's what I'd expect to happen.  Does the modified date still change when you open the file?

 

1 hour ago, mike21 said:

I think that maybe I did not leave sufficient time for the afphoto version to be properly saved before I saved the jpeg version, 

That's something else I can't replicate - AP won't let me do anything until it's finished saving the .afphoto file.  Again, that's what I'd expect.

[mike21]

I have now deleted all of the files that would not load so cannot view them again. I have managed to successfully process and save new images as afphoto and jpeg so think I am O.K. I intend to remove and re-install the program just in case there is a corruption.