Affinity Changed all my NEF files to DSC

[Bryan Henderson]

I  downloaded and tried Affinity a couple of weeks ago.  Christmas came and now new years eve.  I took some Christmas pictures with my Nikon Z7 and moved them to my computer.  I opened Lightroom and tried to import.  It could not see any pictures in my incoming folder.  All of my pictures were converted to an "Affinity logo dot DSC" and the file number.  I checked my other picture folders.  The NEFs are all renamed.  It even renamed the files in my QXD card when I move the files from my card to the computer.  Interestingly, when I upload them here  it shows NEF.  How do I fix this.  If it cant be done easily I have a huge problem.  It appears that thousands of my picture files are renamed.  Many of them are precious.

Bryan

_DSC1452.NEF

[R C-R]

I think what you are describing are two different things:

1. The Affinity logo is displayed because each file type extension is associated with a default application that will open it if you double-click on the file, in this case most likely Affinity Photo. But you can change the default to some other app, or just use "Open with" to open it in any app that can handle that format.
2. DSC or some other letters plus a number is a common file naming convention in the Design rule for Camera File system (DCF) that most cameras use. For example, Nikon often uses a "DSCN" prefix as an abbreviation for Digital Still Camera-Nikon for its point & shoot models.

Neither of them means the file type or its contents have been changed, not by Affinity or any other app.

[v_kyr]

That sounds strange, on which OS (operating system) did you tried that with APh? - Actually a Nikon Z7 would only be usable with an APh Mac version under macOS Mojave and the Apple RAW engine at all here.

The above attached "_DSC1452.NEF" is a common Nikon image naming convention beside using an "_" (underscore) sign at first here. If the files look all like that (just with an underscore sign in front) it's an easy task to batch rename them with some OS related script.

[Bryan Henderson]

I am using a Windows 10 PC.  I have an M2 drive that I use for processing and then store on a backed up 4tb portable drive.  Everything on all drives has been changed to the Affinity logo. I don't want to use Affinity as my primary development program.  The Affinity logo then underscore and the DSC#### is all that is shown as my file name.  NEF is no longer displayed.  I do not want this.  How can I stop it and reverse what has happened?  

[Bryan Henderson]

There is an Affinity for Windows available and that is what I downloaded and used.  I generally sit down to develop a few hundred photos at a time.  It became apparent very quickly that Affinity is to slow for what I do.  I would like to use it for other things but will delete the program if this can not be reversed.

[walt.farrell]

Affinity Photo has registered itself as an application to handle those file types, which has caused Windows to change the icons. 

As R C-R mentioned above, that should not stop other applications from working with the files. Open the other application, and use it's File > Open dialog.

Or right-click in Explorer, choose Open With, and select the other supplication. If you want the other soliciting to become the default then select the option to always use that domination, and Windows will change the icons.

[Bryan Henderson]

Thanks.  I got them all back to NEF.  I did not select Affinity to open all my NEF files.  If they have the program set up to make Affinity the automatic selection,  they should change it to leave it alone.  I have been pretty heavy into photography for about 5 years and have never seen another program do this.

[John Rostron]

What may have happened is that, on installation, Affinity offered itself as the default program and you accepted this without realizing it. I have done this myself on occasion with other software.

The Affinity logo icon is not part of the name. There is a space between the icon and the name. Whether the suffix (.NEF)  is displayed or not is an option controlled by Windows, not Affinity. I think it comes under Folder Options.

John

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Bryan Henderson said:

If they have the program set up to make Affinity the automatic selection,  they should change it to leave it alone.

The operating system ("OS" for short) automatically tries to assign some application program ("app" for short) to open all documents of each file type (like JPEG, NEF, & so on) by default. This app is the one that opens a document file if you double-click on it, which is why it is called the default. But has already been explained, it is not necessarily the only app that can open that type of document file.

The way this works is a bit complicated but in slightly simplified terms, what happens is the OS asks each app installed on the computer to notify it about the document file types it can open. If no app claims it can open a particular file type, no default app will be assigned to that file type. If an app that claims it can open that file type is installed later on, the OS automatically makes it the default for that file type. Similarly, if the only app that claims it can open a particular file type is uninstalled, there no longer is a default for that file type.

When more than one app claims it can open a particular file type, the details of which one is assigned as the default varies depending on the OS. Typically, there are some defaults assigned for common file types already built into the OS (default defaults, so to speak), but users can still change any default app assignment to some other app if they want. The OS usually provides a simple way to do this, like with the 'always open with' option mentioned earlier.

Anyway, the tl;dr version is:

1. Affinity is not doing this; the operating system is
2. This does not change the file type, the file extension, or the contents of the file in any way
3. When you see an app icon displayed on document files, is not part of the file; it is just the one the OS uses to tell you it is the default app for that file type

[walt.farrell]

4 hours ago, John Rostron said:

What may have happened is that, on installation, Affinity offered itself as the default program and you accepted this without realizing it.

The Affinity applications do not ask the user; they just register themselves to handle certain file types.

I have other applications that do ask, and/or that provide a Preferences setting. I prefer that approach, and it would evidently be less confusing for some users.

[v_kyr]

8 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

The Affinity applications do not ask the user; they just register themselves to handle certain file types.

Well that's no good behavior, other apps do usually offer to assign this explicitely (for example IrfanView in order to just name one of these). However one can also name on Win a default app to use for certain file formats, even if other apps overwrite this.

[R C-R]

41 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

The Affinity applications do not ask the user; they just register themselves to handle certain file types.

Are you sure they do this, other than when no other app has previously been registered to handle that file type, either by prior user action or by the OS itself?

I am not a Windows user so I am not sure of how it works in that OS but on Macs, the Affinity apps do not change a default app previously assigned to any file type. The Mac OS will automatically assign to an Affinity app any file type that Affinity app claims it can open, but only for file types that do not already have another app assigned to that file type.

Where it gets a little tricky is some apps do not inform the OS of every (or sometimes any) file type they can open, so the OS does not assign them to those file types, effectively making the first app installed that does claim to be able to open that file type the default.

[John Rostron]

My recollection is that, when I first installed Affinity Photo, about two years ago, it did ask me if it should be the default app for various file types. However, I could be wrong in this. Certainly when I have updated and installed new versions, it has not asked this, which is the behaviour that I would expect.

If Affinity does not ask this for a new install, then I would agree that it should and I have posted a Feature Request.

John

[R C-R]

FWIW, on a careful rereading of Walt's post, I noticed that what he actually said was "the Affinity apps register themselves to handle certain file types."

That is the correct behavior -- every app should make available to the OS the file types it can open. (Technically, it is the OS & not the app that does this -- the app just provides that info when the OS asks for it.)

But asking or otherwise convincing the OS to change the default app for any file type already assigned to some other app is different, & if that is happening on Windows something is definitely wrong & needs to be fixed.

[v_kyr]

• How to Change File Associations in Windows

• How to change file associations in Windows 10

• Change default programs in Windows 10 (MS)

• Windows 10: Change the Default Programs for Opening Files

• ... and so boring on ...

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, R C-R said:

FWIW, on a careful rereading of Walt's post, I noticed that what he actually said was "the Affinity apps register themselves to handle certain file types."

That is the correct behavior -- every app should make available to the OS the file types it can open. (Technically, it is the OS & not the app that does this -- the app just provides that info when the OS asks for it.)

But asking or otherwise convincing the OS to change the default app for any file type already assigned to some other app is different, & if that is happening on Windows something is definitely wrong & needs to be fixed.

It's a bit odd, actually.

I see that Affinity Designer beta is the default handler for .afdesign files, and Affinity Publisher is the default handler for .afpub and (for some reason) .afphoto files.

Also:

• Publisher is the default handler for .jp2 files
• Photo is the default handler for .eps files
• Photo beta is the default handler for .exr files
• Designer is the default handler for .psd files

I do not think I set those last 4 defaults, but I suppose I may have done so accidentally. For those last 4 I do have other programs installed that could handle them, and "Open with..." from Explorer lists several for each of them.

 

[R C-R]

18 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

It's a bit odd, actually.

I suspect it comes down to the details of how the OS interacts with the installed apps to determine what the default handler should be. The OS tries to be 'smart' about that to avoid pestering users with choices they may not always want or need to make, but there are several reasons that might not work as well as expected.