[Solved] Unable To Save

[Comatose]

Have updated to 1.7.1 this morning. I have edited a jpg and wish to save the file using layers, thus saving to native file. Same issue when exporting files.

Wish to save to Photos Folder on Win10 1903 (or any other folder)

Click save as, assign a file name and I get ""File not found. Check file name and try again""

I can however save the file to my Downloads Folder, but no other. I prefer to save working files to my desktop rather than a folder, but I'm not fussed if I have to use a dedicated folder.

It is as if Photo is not seeing folders / folder locations other than my Downloads Folder. All other apps I am using in terms of writing, are working fine. I have not tried Designer yet.

Please note this is a Windows Issue in security - turn off controlled folders and the issue is solved. (thanks for the forum)

Edited July 5, 2019 by Comatose
Solved

[Patrick Connor]

@Comatose

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums

Thanks for coming straight back with your work around. I hope this thread can point others in the same direction of looking to controlled folders. We should still try to emulate this and find out if the software can avoid this or more likely give a better error message

[Ben]

It's not really a work around - if you have Windows security turned on, you need to whitelist folders or applications.  I think you can add Affinity to the whitelist to allow it to write to access limited folders.

 

The error that manifests as a result of folder control is a little non-descript and occurs at a fairly poor moment.  The error reporting for this should be improved in 1.7.2.

[Alfred]

9 minutes ago, Ben said:

The error that manifests as a result of folder control is a little non-descript and occurs at a fairly poor moment.

When would be a good moment for the error to occur? 

[Ben]

1 hour ago, Alfred said:

When would be a good moment for the error to occur? 

Not after you've successfully opened the file for writing, then it tells you half way through the first write that actually it's not going to let you use that file after all with a spurious error that looks like your drive has died.

[- S -]

On 7/5/2019 at 1:52 PM, Patrick Connor said:

Thanks for coming straight back with your work around. I hope this thread can point others in the same direction of looking to controlled folders. We should still try to emulate this and find out if the software can avoid this or more likely give a better error message

I've previously posted about 'Controlled Folder Access' in the below thread:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/62259-cannot-save-files/&do=findComment&comment=323174

When Controlled Folder Access has been enabled and it blocks writing to file, in addition to the File Explorer error and Affinity error, it should also display a Windows notification in the bottom-right of the screen and also keep the notification in the Windows Action Centre.  I'm not sure why it hasn't in the OP's case.

 

On 7/8/2019 at 11:25 AM, Ben said:

…The error that manifests as a result of folder control is a little non-descript and occurs at a fairly poor moment.  The error reporting for this should be improved in 1.7.2. 

On 7/8/2019 at 12:56 PM, Ben said:

Not after you've successfully opened the file for writing, then it tells you half way through the first write that actually it's not going to let you use that file after all with a spurious error that looks like your drive has died.

Without derailing the thread too much, if you open a read-only *.tif file, Affinity Photo also does this. 

I've reported it a couple of times before (for example HERE), and although it now shows 'Read-Only' in the title bar, Affinity Photo still doesn't handle the file properly (see below):

 

I like how VS Code handles this.  When you open a read-only file and try saving it, it tells the user that it's read-only and gives four options:

Overwrite - Removes the read-only file attribute and allows the user to overwrite the file in place

Save As - Brings up the 'Save As' dialogue and allows the user to save it as something else

Discard - Discard changes, reverting file back to it's original state

X - Close dialogue box without doing anything

 

[Ben]

Choosing "Overwrite" won't work on files/directories that have restricted permissions.  Windows Defender screws around with file access outside of the regular permissions settings.  You can't just force through overwriting the file.

The error messages you currently see in Designer and Photo were due to us not having had to deal with the specific errors/failures that Windows Defender creates.  Changes have been made that will get release in 1.7.2 or 1.7.3 to manage these other issues.

[- S -]

2 hours ago, Ben said:

Choosing "Overwrite" won't work on files/directories that have restricted permissions.  Windows Defender screws around with file access outside of the regular permissions settings.  You can't just force through overwriting the file.

The error messages you currently see in Designer and Photo were due to us not having had to deal with the specific errors/failures that Windows Defender creates.  Changes have been made that will get release in 1.7.2 or 1.7.3 to manage these other issues.

I think you're misunderstanding my post.  

The first part where I quoted Patrick was to do with Controlled Folder Access.  

The second part was in reply to your comments.  I was pointing out that if you open a read-only *.tif file, the error message Affinity Photo produces is also a little non-descript, occurs at a fairly poor moment and it tells you half way through the first write that actually it's not going to let you use that file after all (it force closes the file without saving).  Therefore I think it's also something that needs addressing if you're currently in the process of improving error reporting for file write errors.  

I wasn't suggesting 'Overwrite' for files and folders protected by Controlled Folder Access, but 'Overwrite' and 'Save As' for read-only files; instead of the error message as displayed in my first screenshot above, which just has a 'Close' button.