Export .afdesign Files

[Goosekeeper]

I’m trying to migrate a bunch of designs to another iPad and want to export the most raw, true files I can. 

I tried dragging straight from AFDesigner to Dropbox and do get .afdesign files but the file names are changed. Normal export make me change the file extensions. Tried airdrop but it doesn’t give Affinity Designer as an Open In option. 

Is there a way to get .afdesign files from one device to another without having to manually rename each one? Thanks, for looking. 

[Dan C]

Hi Goosekeeper

If you have an iCloud account shared between the two iPads, you could open Affinity Designers settings on the iPad that contains all of your work, and change the Default Save Location to iCloud. Then, select the three tiered menu option next to each open document on your iPad and select Save. This will save each file as an .afdesign file directly to your iCloud, if they are all called 'untitled' then each time you save another it should incrementally add a number to the end of each document, as to not overwrite the last. If your files are already named, the name should not be changed through this procedure.

You can now go to your new iPad and import all of your work from the cloud, using the + icon on the homescreen. I hope this helps!

[DM1]

The new iOS Shortcuts app has a 'Copy across Devices' shortcut available in Gallery. I haven't tried it but it may do what you need. It will copy ANY file. You just need to work out how to actually access this copy on the other device. 

[Artacyn]

I am also trying to export an afdesign file from my ipad pro to save it on an external hard drive. So that I can re-access it again later to work on it rom my pc that has another affinity design program on it.

I want to reopen it on a pc instead of my ipad pro. How can I save this file to get it onto another computer using another affinity design program?

[DM1]

When you Save your file you are creating a .afdesign file (Affinity’s proprietary format). The files location will be the Designer folder on your iPad or on iCloud. You can use Files app to copy/move the file from your iPad to another location. If on iCloud you can open directly from pc affinity version with Open from Cloud.

[Dan C]

Hi @Artacyn,

Welcome to the forums

17 hours ago, Artacyn said:

I want to reopen it on a pc instead of my ipad pro. How can I save this file to get it onto another computer using another affinity design program?

You may want to check out the following article on Spotlight, which walks you through this process -

https://affinityspotlight.com/article/how-to-switch-seamlessly-between-affinity-on-desktop-and-ipad/

I hope this helps!