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Where are export presets stored?


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Hi,

In the export-dialog I created my own presets to use for some fileformats. Now I'd like to use those settings on multiple machines without having to set them manually on each machine. Also I'd like to backup these presets.

So I want to copy and paste the settingsfiles with these file-export-options-presets to do this.

Affinity (Designer/Photo/Publisher) don't seem to have something in the interface to save these to files, so I was looking for the actual preset-files on disc inside ~\AppData\Affinity (and program files), but so far couldn't find them.

Anybody has an idea where these export-presets are stored on disc?

 

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This post by moderator @Leigh is a good general source for the location of settings files, but it does not specifically mention the location for the export presets. However, from browsing through the indicated Mac ~/Library/Container/ folder for Designer & Photo, my best guess is the respective file_export_options.dat file is the one that stores those settings.

I have no idea where the corresponding file for any of the betas (Publisher public & Designer & Photo customer included) might store that data, because at least on my Mac all the per user beta stuff I can find is in ~/Library/Application Support subfolders with the app name (like "Affinity Designer Beta") & there is no file_export_options.dat file in any of them.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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18 hours ago, R C-R said:

This post by moderator @Leigh is a good general source for the location of settings files, but it does not specifically mention the location for the export presets. However, from browsing through the indicated Mac ~/Library/Container/ folder for Designer & Photo, my best guess is the respective file_export_options.dat file is the one that stores those settings.

I have no idea where the corresponding file for any of the betas (Publisher public & Designer & Photo customer included) might store that data, because at least on my Mac all the per user beta stuff I can find is in ~/Library/Application Support subfolders with the app name (like "Affinity Designer Beta") & there is no file_export_options.dat file in any of them.

Thanks for this @R C-R. That's a nice list to have, to know what resets really reset.

I already found that location on disc. Good to know for sure now though the file presets are stored in file_export_options.dat.

Although I was hoping for something with an Affinity extension or xml or json. Because than we would know we could rely on moving and backup these kind of files and don't contain other information. Now we just know it's a binary file with at least our file-export-presets in it, but don't know if these files will stay compatible with newer versions and we are not able to move presets as single files, so we have to overwrite everything at once on a different computer (and don't know for sure if it's only presets inside).

And what happens to the internal bytestructure of these files when Serif adds another file-setting to the program? They are probably incompatible than. But we don't know.

That's not the case if it was a json-file or xml. Or if Serif decided to make these files exchangable, like palets for example.

Anyway, at least for this version I'm pretty sure with this I can copy the presets now without problems. So thanks!

I'll make a feature request to make these presets exportable.

 

18 hours ago, R C-R said:

I have no idea where the corresponding file for any of the betas (Publisher public & Designer & Photo customer included) might store that data, because at least on my Mac all the per user beta stuff I can find is in ~/Library/Application Support subfolders with the app name (like "Affinity Designer Beta") 

On Windows there are two folders inside AppData, a '1.0'-folder and a '1.0 (Beta)'-folder, so on Windows it's obvious which contains the files for the beta. Maybe Mac has some similar construction or maybe just a little different?

18 hours ago, R C-R said:

there is no file_export_options.dat file in any of them.

Did you make export presets? In the post from Leigh he says that if you don't have any export presets the file doesn't exist. It only is there if you have export presets.

 

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29 minutes ago, Friksel said:

Good to know for sure now though the file presets are stored in file_export_options.dat.

So are you saying that you somehow verified that is where they are (all) stored, or possibly that you were successful in copying that file from one computer to another without issues?

32 minutes ago, Friksel said:

On Windows there are two folders inside AppData, a '1.0'-folder and a '1.0 (Beta)'-folder, so on Windows it's obvious which contains the files for the beta. Maybe Mac has some similar construction or maybe just a little different?

On Macs it is significantly different. The beta settings are in a subfolder in the per user Library > Application Support folder, while the non-beta ones are in one of the per user Library 'Containers' subfolders. So for example for Affinity Photo, in Unix notation the paths are:

  • for the retail apps the path is ~/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinityphoto/Data/Library/Application Support/
  • for the betas it is ~/Library/Application Support/Affinity Photo Beta

The first also uses Apple's preferred Uniform Type Identifier syntax (sometimes informally referred to as 'reverse URL' notation) for the app name (highlighted in red), while the beta just uses the (non-localized?) app name.

58 minutes ago, Friksel said:

Did you make export presets? In the post from Leigh he says that if you don't have any export presets the file doesn't exist. It only is there if you have export presets.

I can't remember if I ever did that for the Designer or Photo betas. I can't check now because I less than an hour ago I installed the just released Mac 1.7.1 versions of both apps so the betas will no longer open. Time permitting, I will try it with the Mac Publisher beta, but that is about to become a moot point for me because I pre-ordered the retail version & if all goes according to plan I will install that two days from now. :)

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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41 minutes ago, R C-R said:

So are you saying that you somehow verified that is where they are (all) stored, or possibly that you were successful in copying that file from one computer to another without issues?

No, neither of those. I read the post you linked to and it stated:

Quote

This will delete any custom File Export presets made in File > Export and the Export Persona.
These settings are stored in: file_export_options.dat (  If you have no custom presets this file will not exist )

So that looks like to me the presets are stored inside that file. But still there's not much I will do with it, because who knows what other (related) settings are in there and they are probably not compatible between versions.

Hope Serif will make an export though. That would be much appreciated!

 

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On 6/17/2019 at 2:05 PM, R C-R said:

On Macs it is significantly different. The beta settings are in a subfolder in the per user Library > Application Support folder, while the non-beta ones are in one of the per user Library 'Containers' subfolders. So for example for Affinity Photo, in Unix notation the paths are:

  • for the retail apps the path is ~/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinityphoto/Data/Library/Application Support/
  • for the betas it is ~/Library/Application Support/Affinity Photo Beta

FWIW, I just installed the retail version of Affinity Publisher (bought from the Affinity Store) & noticed that it also stores all the per user stuff in a sub-folder of the ~/Library > Application/ folder, this one named "Affinity Publisher."

So in this respect it is like the betas.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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  • 2 years later...

Trying to find storage location of Export Presets file (file_export_options.dat) in Big Sur (11.3) for Designer 1.9.3. I'm not finding it in previously referenced locations.

My thanks to anyone that can get me to the right folder, and apologies if the information is elsewhere in the forum.

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On 6/25/2021 at 12:34 PM, Evening Films said:

Trying to find storage location of Export Presets file (file_export_options.dat) in Big Sur (11.3) for Designer 1.9.3. I'm not finding it in previously referenced locations.

In case anyone has the same question, after a lot of digging, I located the AD export presets file here:

User/Library/Containers/Affinity Designer/Data/Library/Application Support/user/file_export_options.dat

This is on a new M1 iMac, OS 11.3, Designer 1.9.3

I copied my file_export_options file from my previous computer (MBP, Catalina OS, Designer 1.9.2) into the above location, and all of my custom presets were available. I spot checked a couple of them, and they seem to be functional.

 

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4 minutes ago, Evening Films said:

In case anyone has the same question, after a lot of digging, I located the AD export presets file here:

The exact location depends on which store you bought the app from.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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