Icon displays incorrectly and file association

[befehr]

Does anyone have thoughts on why my Affinity Designer iCloud file folder show Affinity Photo icon? I see this on both my Macs and iPad. I can go in and change it manually but I thought I'd mention it here to see if anyone else has had this problem.

I had a similar problem while working with the beta version of Affinity Publisher where Affinity Photo files showed Affinity Publisher icons, and files were opening up in the wrong application. Clearly an association problem but I have never had this problem with Macs, only Windows.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Thanks in advance.

 

UPDATE: I just tried to open an Affinity Design document on my mac that was created on my iPad...it opened in Affinity Photo. Something is definitely broken.

Edited July 13, 2019 by befehr
Added addition comments

[RNKLN]

I have exactly the same experience (icons, AD docs opening in AP). I also had expectated to see a Publisher folder in iCloud but nope. 

[R C-R]

7 hours ago, RNKLN said:

I have exactly the same experience (icons, AD docs opening in AP). I also had expectated to see a Publisher folder in iCloud but nope. 

It's complicated & unfortunately I can't remember many of the details (& I probably have some of them wrong), but at least in theory those badged folders (the ones with app icons on them) are created in iOS, & this usually occurs when an iOS app saves a file to iCloud Drive for the first time. So unless you are running an iOS version of Affinity Publisher on an iPad, there should not be a badged Publisher folder in your iCloud Drive.

This has something to do with iOS not permitting direct access to folders (like is permitted with Finder or Terminal on Macs) for security reasons (the so-called iOS "walled garden"), only indirectly via the lame iOS Files app.

[RNKLN]

10 minutes ago, R C-R said:

So unless you are running an iOS version of Affinity Publisher on an iPad

Do you have a download link for Affinity Publisher for iPad. .

Could this maybe also explain why there's no AD folder, since i only have Affinity Photo for iPad, not Affinity Designer.

@befehr: do or don't you have AD for iPad?

[R C-R]

29 minutes ago, RNKLN said:

Do you have a download link for Affinity Publisher for iPad. .

Nope. I only mentioned it because there might be a private beta of it. Since the private betas are by invitation only, I would not know if there was one unless I was invited to try it.

32 minutes ago, RNKLN said:

Could this maybe also explain why there's no AD folder, since i only have Affinity Photo for iPad, not Affinity Designer.

Well, I think that could explain it, but as I said I am not certain of any of the details. All I really remember about is that shortly after the iPad versions were released, some users were saying they had "badged" folders & others not. One of the staff said something about for the Affinity apps, they were created automatically when a file was saved on the iPad & there was no way to create them otherwise (due to iOS sandboxing). But now that I think about it, I am not even sure if that applied to saving the file on the iPad or in the cloud.

I also remember something about Dropbox cloud saves not working properly & possibly interfering with iCloud Drive saves, but my memory is even hazier about that. 

Sorry I could of be of more help. 

[RNKLN]

Well @R C-R, you came with a good suggestion. One that at least explains to me why there are two AP icons (and also why there isn't a Publisher folder). Now what remains is an explanation for why AD files are opened with AP.

What is funny is the following:

An .afdesign file shows up with Affinity Photo highlighted/selected, despite also indicating that Affinity Designer is the default for opening this type of file. When i try to switch by selecting Affinity Designer, nothing happens.

Update: when i copy a .apdesign file to my local drive i can change the default program for opening the file type. When i then double click the file it opens with Affinity Designer, however, when i do the same with the iCloud .apdesign files they still open with Affinity Photo.

 

[befehr]

3 hours ago, RNKLN said:

Do you have a download link for Affinity Publisher for iPad. .

Could this maybe also explain why there's no AD folder, since i only have Affinity Photo for iPad, not Affinity Designer.

@befehr: do or don't you have AD for iPad?

I do have AD for iPad, as well as AP.

Remember though, this us not just an icon problem, its a file association problem. I have made the changes necessary to open an AD file with AD. That changed the icon to show correctly but...that will/may change once I open a AD file with APhoto or APub. It kind if unpredictable.

I first noticed this issue after installing a beta of Publisher. 

[kaffeeundsalz]

@befehr and @RNKLN – this is something many users (including me) had trouble with. Please follow the steps in this forum post to fix it:

 

[RNKLN]

@kaffeeundsalz @GrinningShark Thanks! This solved it for me. I have the right icon and double-clicking a .afdesign file now opens that file with Affinity Designer.

I'm curious to find out what is needed to also create an Affinity Publisher folder on the iCloud drive.