Restore all information after transfer to new device

[Agypsy]

I have just had my iPad replaced, backed up to iCloud immediately before now when I finally got Affinity to reload I have lost absolutely everything that was on there, I has opened as a new install. I had months of edits and folders, now nothing. Is there any way to find and restore them 

[DM1]

When you Save a project from the Project screen the file is stored in the default Affinity folder. You can access this folder with the Files app and move or copy the files to create a backup or 'safer' storage location. 

When you delete Affinity app you also delete the apps 'default' storage folder and any files contained in that folder. If you had set default storage to On my IPad, The Affinity app would have created an Affinity folder on your iPad and when you 'Saved' any Affinity files they would have been saved to this folder. When you delete the app, iOS deletes this folder. 

When you do a full backup of your iPad it should backup apps AND data.

You can check with the Files app to see if you have an Affinity Photo or Affinity Designer folder on your iPad or in iCloud, and whether any of your files are there.

For the future consider the following workflow (I use setting default to local iPad but it would work for iCloud too), when I create a file, with the file open I use the Document Menu, and Select Save a Copy. Unlike Saving from the Project screen, this method opens the Files app and allows me to browse to various storage locations either on my device or on a cloud server of my choice. I create a Folder system for both Photo and Designer (these are in addition to the ones created by the app).  To work on a project I use Open from Cloud, navigate to my Folders and open the file to work on. Now when I Save (Documents/Save), the edits are updated to my chosen location, rather than the apps default folder. If I delete the app (which deletes the apps folder), the additional folder(s) that I created and use for  workflow are unaffected, and so are my Affinity Files located in them.

Hopefully your files were backed up during the backup process and simply need to be restored. If you are lucky and that is the case, consider making a backup of the default folder contents at some other location.