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open-in-place with NAS (Synology)


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I'm trying to get the new functionality open-in-place (AP 1.6.7) to work and want to open a JPG directly on my NAS (Synology), edit it and save it back in the original location (i.e. overwrite the existing file on the NAS). So I "open from cloud", select the file on the NAS via the files app (through location either "DS file" or "FileBrowser Biz", i.e. the document provider, which provides access the NAS), edit the picture, and finally choose "Save" from the "burger menu" in the overview/welcome screen, just like the tutorial video showed. It all looks good, except, that the file on the NAS is not updated with the changes and I have no idea, where the "Save" action puts the file. My guess is that it's not saved at all.

Any ideas what is wrong with this approach? Is this functionality (saving back to original location) only working with the iCloud drive location? (I was hoping it was generic, for all locations available in the files app...)

Thank you for any feedback!

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Do you have Save to iCloud selected in settings General Preferences? When I tried that and used Save, my file was saved to iCloud. If so, change Setting to 'On my iPad'. This allows me to save to my wireless drive.

M1 IPad Air 10.9/256GB   lpadOS 17.1.1 Apple Pencil (2nd gen).
Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Affinity Design 1.10.5 
Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2, Affinity Photo 2 and betas.

Official Online iPad Help documents (multi-lingual) here: https://affinity.https://affinity.help/ 

 

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In my general preferences the „Save Location“ ist set to „On my iPad“, which doesn‘t save the changes through to my NAS. Didn‘t try the „iCoud Drive“ setting yet, but I woul assume, that in this case a new file/copy on iCloud Drive is created.

 

Looks like for some people the feature works, and for others it doesn‘t. Maybe it depends on the implementation of the storage provider, which is used by the Files app of iOS, in my case Synology (DS File) and Stratospherix (FileBrowser for Business).

 

Just another thought... I‘m editing a JPG. Is that supported for saving the changes back to the network drive, or is that only working with .afphoto files? The description in the release notes sounds like the feature of saving your changes to the file opend from cloud should work with all file types.

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Welcome to the forum defean :)

 

I have a Synology NAS at home too, so I will give this a try over the weekend to see how it works. However, i've stopped using the Synology DS apps on my phone because they were flakey and slow.

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What I have found that works is to open an image (jpg etc) and use Save a Copy to create a .afphoto file which can be saved to NAS or anywhere. Now when you Open the .afphoto file from your NAS (using Open from Cloud), edit and Save (3bars On Project screen) the edits are updated to the NAS.

if you open a jpg and Save (3bars) it saves to local storage or iCloud based on Preferences.

Your can Export the edited jpg file but in my experience this creates a copy of the edited original (in whatever format you choose to Export and wherever you choose to Export to).

M1 IPad Air 10.9/256GB   lpadOS 17.1.1 Apple Pencil (2nd gen).
Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Affinity Design 1.10.5 
Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2, Affinity Photo 2 and betas.

Official Online iPad Help documents (multi-lingual) here: https://affinity.https://affinity.help/ 

 

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2 hours ago, Leigh said:

However, i've stopped using the Synology DS apps on my phone because they were flakey and slow.

 

Hi Leigh, thank you for the warm welcome! :)

 

It would be great to hear how it works out for you! I completely agree regarding the DS apps. Once those apps where a reason for buying from that company, but at the moment the apps are not well maintained and out of date (no full iOS 11 files integration so far). That‘s why I‘ve started to use „FileBrowser for Business“, which is highly regarded for its iOS 11 files integration. But even with that storage provider the open/save-in-place it doesn‘t work for me.

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Dang it!!!

I’ve done everything according to all of @DM1 suggestions and have watched the interworking tutorial 3 times. I’ve been battling with this since yesterday. I’ve tried the “On my iPad setting”, the iCloud setting... I’ve tried deleting the old Affinity iCloud folder that was created by desktop Affinity Photo. I’ve tried going through Goodreader instead. I’ve tried saving a copy first, etc.

 

Every now and then it’ll work as expected. Then the very next time I try the exact same thing, it won’t work. Or, I’ll get just a blank white screen when trying to open from cloud. Or, I’ll get an error that says photo can’t communicate with “helper software”

 

Do I really have to save a copy of everything, then delete, reinstall, then reimport ALL of my brushes and macros all over again just to find it basically doesn’t work as it’s supposed to?! AGAIN!!!??? %@#$&#$@#@

 

Affinity coding chaps... this is REALLY starting to get old.

 

I’m sorry to be all negative again, but I bought into this at launch. I bought a new iPad Pro to run this... sometimes it works just fine, but I had high hopes this update would be “the one” where I could finally start using Photo as a professional tool. So far, it’s mostly just cost me A LOT of extra money and time troubleshooting, without much actual photo editing to show for it.

 

Honestly, the last time (recently) that I had a bunch of images that needed to be edited on the road, I just went back to my old solid standby Snapseed for all the editing. 

 

Ok, off to spend the next couple of hours starting all over once again, though... I’m about to throw in the towel on the dream of Photoshop level photo editing on the iPad :(

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Backed up all my work files. Deleted Photo. Reinstalled. Reinstalled all brushes and macros... and started over. 

 

This still isn't working for me consistently at all. Sometimes it works, sometimes I get a white screen. Sometimes Photo shows ALL of my folders in my Files App to be completely empty, including all of the clouds services. When it does this I have to restart and start all over. 

I think I'm going to just accept that this save in place feature isn't quite ready for prime time. It's not even working correctly between desktop Affinity Photo and iPad Photo... doing everything EXACTLY the way it's described in the tutorial video. I got it to work once, and that was with the iCloud Drive setting vs the On my iPad setting. But, that only worked once. Failed 3 times after that. 

I'm running iOS 11.2.6, maybe that update trashed the Files app? Or, maybe 1.6.7 isn't compatible with iOS 11.2.6? 

Don't know. But I wasted hours last night, and the better part of today trying to troubleshoot why this isn't working and why it seems so buggy interacting with the Files app, etc. Giving up for now and resigning to the fact that maybe next update this stuff will work. I can't waste anymore time on this app. Pity, because I really DO love the app. I just can't use it if getting stuff in to, out of, and saved... is going to be this buggy.

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Out of everything I've tried... there's one scenario that DOES seem to work somewhat consistently. 

Set Photo General setting to "On my iPad". Open image from anywhere, then "save as copy" into either the Photo folder within "On my iPad". OR, if I'm going to trade file edits between desktop Affinity Photo and iPad Photo... save as a copy to a folder in my GoodReader folder. I use the GoodReader app for a few things, but mostly to interface with my SMB RavPower device. 

If I "save a copy" into the GoodReader folder that's within the iCloud Drive section... I can then open it via my desktop Photo app, make a few edits, then save. If I want to open that desktop edited file in iPad Photo, I need to quit out of the app if it's still open, then relaunch it. At this point I can see the desktop edited version and open that on the iPad to edit. This works fairly consistently visa-versa. 

If I then try to change the setting in General Settings to "iCloud Drive" from "On my iPad", this is where things get really buggy. Seems like you have to pick one or the other and stick with it. 

 

Based on what I've seen so far... I'd guess there's a combination of things causing problems. These may be related strictly to the Files app, or Photo... or whatever "helper software" is being used to interface between the two. I think there may be some timing issue going on, ie. the user thinks the file is saved because it doesn't look like it's "saving" anymore, so the user closes the file that's still actually being saved. I don't know enough about how this stuff is programmed to speculate on this much... but I've noticed if I wait longer between saving, closing, opening from cloud, etc. I get more successes than app failures that way. 

And, I've found no way to "save in place" using Dropbox. Seems like someone said that was possible, but it's never worked for me at all in any of the troubleshooting I've been doing. I can open from Dropbox, and save files back to Dropbox... but the "save in place" feature seems to strictly for use within iCloud Drive or On my iPad. 

All that being said, the scenario using GoodReader is acceptable for now. It achieves the same goal ultimately. And it appears fairly stable doing it that way. I've found that after I've changed the General settings from "On my iPad" to "iCloud Drive", Photo creates an Affinity folder within the iCloud Drive. Using the "On my iPad" with GoodReader combo that I outlined above... it appears that I need to delete the Affinity folder that Photo created. I'm guessing that Photo gets confused if there's both a "Photo" folder in the "On my iPad" section AND an "Affinity" folder within the iCloud Drive section. 

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I use Documents in the way you are using GoodReader. That seems to work.

I tried opening in with Dropbox and save as and flatten before saving. The save dialogue indicated my original afphoto file on Dropbox was updated but after deleting from AP and reopening from Dropbox the edits were gone. I was sure this feature  worked previously in Dropbox  but I updated Dropbox very recently which may have broken it? Help file says it should work.

 

 

CA8598FC-FE76-44D2-B15A-EFC351BC1DCD.png

M1 IPad Air 10.9/256GB   lpadOS 17.1.1 Apple Pencil (2nd gen).
Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Affinity Design 1.10.5 
Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2, Affinity Photo 2 and betas.

Official Online iPad Help documents (multi-lingual) here: https://affinity.https://affinity.help/ 

 

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30 minutes ago, DM1 said:

I use Documents in the way you are using GoodReader. That seems to work.

I tried opening in with Dropbox and save as and flatten before saving. The save dialogue indicated my original afphoto file on Dropbox was updated but after deleting from AP and reopening from Dropbox the edits were gone. I was sure this feature  worked previously in Dropbox  but I updated Dropbox very recently which may have broken it? Help file says it should work.

 

 

CA8598FC-FE76-44D2-B15A-EFC351BC1DCD.png

 

My testing/frantic troubleshooting was all over the place at one point, but I vaguely remember a save in place working with Dropbox once. Then, everything kind of went to hell (weird Files behavior and more of the trouble with helping software dialogue box) with trying to make Dropbox work, so I abandoned the effort.

 

I was to the brink of completely giving up on this, until I realized the Goodreader angle seemed to be far less problematic. Stable even. 

 

Decided I would just stick with what appears to work for now, and follow along with what others experience... until perhaps it gets sorted out in another update. Could easily be Apple’s Files app that’s the culprit too. Hard to say at this point, but I’m not having any other issues with the Files app when using other apps like LumaFusion, etc. So, I think it has to have something to do with Affinity’s implementation. My best guess is something gone awry with whatever this “helper application” is that’s referenced in the failure pop-up boxes.

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I am having similar issues with dropbox regarding open from cloud/save. As an FYI, the Save Location in preferences has no relevance to open from cloud. The Save Location is used when saving (via arrow in upper left corner) after editing an image which was imported (from cloud or photos app). The image is either saved on your iPad or in iCloud.

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11 hours ago, pjglad said:

 

I am having similar issues with dropbox regarding open from cloud/save.

 

Yep, definitely faulty. I think the recent Dropbox update broke this

M1 IPad Air 10.9/256GB   lpadOS 17.1.1 Apple Pencil (2nd gen).
Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Affinity Design 1.10.5 
Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2, Affinity Photo 2 and betas.

Official Online iPad Help documents (multi-lingual) here: https://affinity.https://affinity.help/ 

 

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So, I tried the DS file app over the weekend and I'm getting the same issue. Open a file from the DS File, make changes and then save. The changes are not saved back to the original file. As DM1 mentions above, we're getting the same issue with Dropbox - this is logged with our developers to investigate. I will also add a note mentioning that DS File is also giving the same issue.

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5 hours ago, Leigh said:

I will also add a note mentioning that DS File is also giving the same issue.

 

Thank you! Could you also add, that „FileBrowser for Business“ by Stratospherix is showing the same problem. This iOS app is highly regarded for it‘s iOS 11 files inregration. Maybe it can be used as a reference. DS File is probably not implementing the new iOS 11 files standard and therefore might not work, but that‘s only an assumption.

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18 hours ago, defean said:

 

Thank you! Could you also add, that „FileBrowser for Business“ by Stratospherix is showing the same problem. This iOS app is highly regarded for it‘s iOS 11 files inregration. Maybe it can be used as a reference. DS File is probably not implementing the new iOS 11 files standard and therefore might not work, but that‘s only an assumption.

 

Have added that to the note too :)

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Open and save from cloud is still working with Documents by Readdle. :)

M1 IPad Air 10.9/256GB   lpadOS 17.1.1 Apple Pencil (2nd gen).
Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Affinity Design 1.10.5 
Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2, Affinity Photo 2 and betas.

Official Online iPad Help documents (multi-lingual) here: https://affinity.https://affinity.help/ 

 

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5 hours ago, DM1 said:

Open and save from cloud is still working with Documents by Readdle. :)

 

I tried Readdles Documents too, but I didn‘t find a way to use it for accessing documents on a network drive. To me it seemed, that if you select    Open from cloud (Affinity) > Files (locations) > Documents (Readdle), you can only choose local files, which are stored in the Document app (locally on the iPad), but you can‘t use the network locations configured in the Documents app. Is that correct, or did I miss a config option, which makes the network locations available in the Readdle Documents app?

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@defeanThat is correct. You cannot directly open cloud files attached to Documents using AP, but you shouldn’t really need to as AP  (when working correctly) can directly access those clouds anyway. My suggestion is a workaround for not being able to save edits from open in cloud to Dropbox.

In the current situation (can't open in place and save the changes to Dropbox, Google etc) Documents offers a workaround. Documents can access these file directly. Copy or move required files to a folder in Documents. AP can still open in and save edits directly to Documents. When finished editing, move completed files back to Cloud using documents.

My IPad has 512GB storage so I tend to use Documents as my working storage and backup finished files to my nas.

M1 IPad Air 10.9/256GB   lpadOS 17.1.1 Apple Pencil (2nd gen).
Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Affinity Design 1.10.5 
Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2, Affinity Photo 2 and betas.

Official Online iPad Help documents (multi-lingual) here: https://affinity.https://affinity.help/ 

 

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