No product key for Appstore purchases?

[MarkkuP]

Hi. I have bought all my Affinity apps (Designer and Photo for desktop and for iPad) from Appstore. They don't show up on my Affinity account and I can't get a product key for them, so I'm unable i.e. to download the 1.7 beta versions for testing. Is there any way around this, or would I have to buy them again from Serif to get my account "in order" and full access to future releases?

[jmwellborn]

I tried to purchase Designer for ipad directly from the Affinity store yesterday, and was repeatedly connected  to the Appstore, no matter how hard I tried.  No product key but I hope that when updates are available, I will be notified through the Appstore.    Bought Photo two years ago the same way.    No Beta.    Bought Designer recently through the Affinity store, and now also have the Beta.    I am thoroughly enjoying the Publisher betas (from last August right up through v.. 206) and will most definitely buy Publisher FROM THE AFFINITY STORE.   Hopefully.

[Dnola]

Same issue here.  Inquiries have resulted in a message indicating that they are closed until January 2, 2019.  Very disappointing that their primary sales avenue makes you a second class owner of their product.

[walt.farrell]

It is my impression that:

(a) The iPad versions are only available via the iOS App Store.

(b) There are no 1.7 beta versions yet for iPad. There are certainly no forum posts indicating that any are available.

I'm sure that when the betas are available they'll be made available to those who have purchased through the App Store.

[Alfred]

10 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I'm sure that when the betas are available they'll be made available to those who have purchased through the App Store.

Participation in the Affinity for iPad betas requires installation of TestFlight and a separate signup.

I haven’t seen any similar threads calling for participation in a beta testing programme for Affinity Designer on iPad, but perhaps that will change when version 1.7 is ready for testing.

[jmwellborn]

On 12/27/2018 at 1:27 PM, walt.farrell said:

It is my impression that:

(a) The iPad versions are only available via the iOS App Store.

(b) There are no 1.7 beta versions yet for iPad. There are certainly no forum posts indicating that any are available.

I'm sure that when the betas are available they'll be made available to those who have purchased through the App Store.

I wasn’t commenting on participation in a beta for ipad.  I know that there isn’t one.  Further, with only a few days use of Designer on both desktop and ipad, I wouldn’t be qualified to comment on “click the icon to open program,” so wouldn’t have the unmitigated gall to comment on either version except to say that I already love both.   What I — obviously very poorly — meant to say was that because I bought Photo in Feb. 2017 from the App store, I apparently cannot try out the Photo beta on my desktop.    (Probably not qualified to comment on that either.).    

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, jmwellborn said:

because I bought Photo in Feb. 2017 from the App store, I apparently cannot try out the Photo beta on my desktop

As I understand it, you should be able to use the Photo beta on your Mac desktop as long as you have purchased Photo for Mac from either the Mac App store or the Serif Affinity store. That is what occurred with the prior Mac betas, andmthe ability to purchase directly from Serif for the Mac versions is a very recent happening.

[jmwellborn]

On 12/30/2018 at 12:49 PM, walt.farrell said:

As I understand it, you should be able to use the Photo beta on your Mac desktop as long as you have purchased Photo for Mac from either the Mac App store or the Serif Affinity store. That is what occurred with the prior Mac betas, andmthe ability to purchase directly from Serif for the Mac versions is a very recent happening.

Who knew?    I just downloaded the Photo Beta via an official entry in another location here in AFFINITY Forums, rather than logging into the Affinity Store, and down the Beta came, happily ever after.    Nice!!!!!         

[MarkkuP]

On 12/30/2018 at 7:49 PM, walt.farrell said:

As I understand it, you should be able to use the Photo beta on your Mac desktop as long as you have purchased Photo for Mac from either the Mac App store or the Serif Affinity store. That is what occurred with the prior Mac betas, andmthe ability to purchase directly from Serif for the Mac versions is a very recent happening.

Perhaps I'm missing something here (english is not my native language), but I still don't see any way to get access to either Designer or Photo 1.7 desktop beta versions. 

They are not available in AppStore, at least I can't find them, and downloaded from Affinity/Serif both demand a product key which I don't have because I bought them from AppStore. Frustrating ...

In any case, it would be very, very nice if I could see all my Affinity purchases (desktop and iPad apps, resources, books etc.) in one location, and get the necessary "keys" to take full use of them. Maybe through some sort of registration?

[walt.farrell]

9 minutes ago, MarkkuP said:

downloaded from Affinity/Serif both demand a product key which I don't have because I bought them from AppStore. Frustrating ... 

When you installed Photo and Designer from the Mac App Store, did you let them install in the default locations using the default names? If you moved them, or changed their names in any way, the beta programs may not be able to tell you have purchased the App Store versions.

[jmwellborn]

47 minutes ago, MarkkuP said:

Perhaps I'm missing something here (english is not my native language), but I still don't see any way to get access to either Designer or Photo 1.7 desktop beta versions. 

They are not available in AppStore, at least I can't find them, and downloaded from Affinity/Serif both demand a product key which I don't have because I bought them from AppStore. Frustrating ...

In any case, it would be very, very nice if I could see all my Affinity purchases (desktop and iPad apps, resources, books etc.) in one location, and get the necessary "keys" to take full use of them. Maybe through some sort of registration?

Here is what I did.   I also bought Photo (about 2 years ago) from the Mac appstore and when trying to download the beta from the Affinity/Serif website, was refused without a product key, which I did not have because of the appstore purchase.   I found this entry in the forums (attached below) and clicked on the “download” highlighted in blue.   The beta downloaded and installed in my MAC Applications perfectly.   I am sure you can find a similar entry for Designer in another part of these forums.    I didn’t have to do that, because I recently bought Designer directly through the Affinity store, so that beta downloaded without a workaround.   Hope this helps.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, MarkkuP said:

In any case, it would be very, very nice if I could see all my Affinity purchases (desktop and iPad apps, resources, books etc.) in one location, and get the necessary "keys" to take full use of them. Maybe through some sort of registration?

That can't work, as neither Apple (nor Microsoft, for Windows) share their information with Serif. And Serif probably would not be willing to share their customer info with Apple or Microsoft.

[jmwellborn]

1 hour ago, MarkkuP said:

Perhaps I'm missing something here (english is not my native language), but I still don't see any way to get access to either Designer or Photo 1.7 desktop beta versions. 

They are not available in AppStore, at least I can't find them, and downloaded from Affinity/Serif both demand a product key which I don't have because I bought them from AppStore. Frustrating ...

In any case, it would be very, very nice if I could see all my Affinity purchases (desktop and iPad apps, resources, books etc.) in one location, and get the necessary "keys" to take full use of them. Maybe through some sort of registration?

Oops!!   I was working from my iPad, and accidentally attached the wrong screen shot.   Here is the one for Photo.  Sorry!

[MEB]

Hi MarkkuP,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
You can download the latest Affinity Designer Customer Beta for Mac from here and Affinity Photo Customer Beta from here. Remember to keep the respective Mac App Store versions installed since they are required to validate the Betas. Also make sure you have not renamed or moved them from the root of the Application folder otherwise the Beta will not find them.

[jmwellborn]

4 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi MarkkuP,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
You can download the latest Affinity Designer Customer Beta for Mac from here and Affinity Photo Customer Beta from here. Remember to keep the respective Mac App Store versions installed since they are required to validate the Betas. Also make sure you have not renamed or moved them from the root of the Application folder otherwise the Beta will not find them.

Thank you so much for sorting this out so neatly!!    As an aside, is it possible for me to PURCHASE Affinity Photo all over again from the Affinity Store?    I would really like to have everything from one source, especially as we move into integrated 1.7s between the three applications!    So far, I have Designer and Designer for iPad sorted out, and when Publisher is ready (I am on v. 206) I will definitely buy it from the Affinity Store.  On day one, I might add.   That will leave Photo out in the cold  --  I think.   I am really happy to buy Photo again, and in fact would be delighted to add a smidge to the Serif coffers.   Just don't want to gum up my MAC.  Would I need to uninstall the App store version of Photos first?   And if so, would my current Photo .afphoto files go down the drain?    

[MEB]

Hi jmwellborn,
Yes, you can purchase Affinity Photo (again) from the Affinity Store. The Mac App Store is managed by Apple (not us) - we don't know/have any info about customers to have bought our apps there - so there's no way to transfer the license between the two, but there's nothing stopping you from getting the app from our store if that's what you want. If you decide to go that route you should uninstall the Mac App Store version dragging the app from the Applications folder to the Trash. Your .afphoto files will remain on your computer where they were saved.

Glad to know you are enjoying the apps! Thanks for your support.

[MarkkuP]

Thank you all for your help! I had organized the apps and their resources in folders, and moving them back to the default location solved the problem. Great! 

[jmwellborn]

3 hours ago, MEB said:

Hi jmwellborn,
Yes, you can purchase Affinity Photo (again) from the Affinity Store. The Mac App Store is managed by Apple (not us) - we don't know/have any info about customers to have bought our apps there - so there's no way to transfer the license between the two, but there's nothing stopping you from getting the app from our store if that's what you want. If you decide to go that route you should uninstall the Mac App Store version dragging the app from the Applications folder to the Trash. Your .afphoto files will remain on your computer where they were saved.

Glad to know you are enjoying the apps! Thanks for your support.

Thank you so much!!!    I have nothing against the App Store in theory, but am so pleased that I will be able to get everything together in the Affinity Store.    First Affinity Store purchase of 2019 coming up, tomorrow morning!!  Post Trash, that is.

[jmwellborn]

On 1/2/2019 at 11:57 AM, MEB said:

Glad to know you are enjoying the apps! Thanks for your support.

Thank you again -- especially for your kind response.    It all worked like a charm.   The interesting thing is that I my Photo v. 1.6.7 purchased in 2017 from the Apple App Store indicated that there were no updates available.   Nor could one check in Preferences for automatic updates.   My fresh version of Photo, downloaded yesterday (Jan. 3.) from the Affinity Store is v. 1.6.11.   And "check for updates" is right there!!   Everything downloaded as smoothly as could be, and after a few minutes of reloading Libraries, brushes, and palettes, I am up and running.   Best thing I have done so far in 2019!!    

And please thank everybody at Affinity for their daily courtesies to all of us who browse through the Forums.   It is amazing what we can learn by reading topics that may matter to each of us.    I have a many-page personal (and very scrubby) "Help" manual for Publisher, derived from screenshots of the solutions described in these topics.   Quite battered, I might add.    So now I am back to the inpainting brush tool.   Working wonders on a rather dodgy photo of a dodgy drawing from the 1300's!!

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, jmwellborn said:

The interesting thing is that I my Photo v. 1.6.7 purchased in 2017 from the Apple App Store indicated that there were no updates available.   Nor could one check in Preferences for automatic updates.   My fresh version of Photo, downloaded yesterday (Jan. 3.) from the Affinity Store is v. 1.6.11.

Those are functionally the same version, based on the Latest Affinity releases on each platform by store list.

[RenWaller]

Have there been any updates to this? I purchased Affinity Designer through the appstore, and now I'm trying to link it with Affinity Publisher, but because I don't have a product key, it looks like I am unable? How does that work? (Now in Publisher, I can't even find where I'm supposed to enter it.)

[walt.farrell]

13 hours ago, RenWaller said:

Have there been any updates to this? I purchased Affinity Designer through the appstore, and now I'm trying to link it with Affinity Publisher, but because I don't have a product key, it looks like I am unable? How does that work? (Now in Publisher, I can't even find where I'm supposed to enter it.)

Are you sure that your copy of Designer has updated to 1.7.1? That version is required for StudioLink to work.

[RenWaller]

Thanks @walt.farrell, yes it has.