Affinity Designer is well over the iPad’s storage capacity (impossible!), AND it’s set to iCloud

Affinity Designer is using 318GB storage space on a 256GB capacity iPad Pro!

How is this possible?

I am using Affinity Designer (purchased September 2019) on my iPad Pro whereby I had originally set all files to be saved on iCloud, but it came to my attention a few days ago that something is wrong. Affinity has told me that Apple is aware of the issue, but Apple haven't done anything about the following...

Even though files have been saved on iCloud, the iPad says (Settings / General / iPad Storage) the Designer app has used 318.78gb... on an iPad Pro with 256gb of space. It is obviously impossible to store more than what the device actually has! This is even after offloading the Designer app.

What I don't want to do is delete the app because the issue will reoccur because a fix has yet to be created by Apple.

Also, I have been unable to backup the iPad Pro to my Mac Pro because iTunes says there’s not enough disk space. Really? I have 380GB available on a terabyte drive. Something is obviously awry here.

If it’s not Apple who needs to fix this issue, it’s Affinity themselves, but it’s definitely not me.

The two apps using the most storage space on the iPad are Photos (40gb) and Music (10gb)... there is a mass about of space available, but there is a big red progress bar saying 248.7 GB of 256 GB used

So, saying that, I don't actually think it's a software and / or old machine issue, I think it's related to the Affinity Designer app that Apple needs to fix. From the sounds of it, Apple have known about this for a very long time...

Update: a follow up email back to Affinity:

"I have been very reluctant to approach your suggestion, which is why I haven’t replied for a while, but I really need to get this issue sorted ASAP, and so looked into it last night.

I went into every file visible inside Designer to rename and save them all. There are 112 files.

Upon checking the files stored on my iPad, I found 60; all of which just had their names changed.

When I went to iCloud, I found 210 files; none of the names had been changed. I named them in a specific way so they were easy identifiable, but they are not visible on iCloud.

The issue I have now is that 52 files are missing if we are to focus on the 112 files inside Designer with only 60 stored on the iPad. You reassured me that files are still being stored on iCloud, but from my aforementioned counts in both locations, it seems not. If they are being synced, it means that the name changes are not syncing.

I am therefore even more reluctant to follow your advice and delete the Designer app because I will lose 60 very important files; maybe even 112 if I knew where they were being stored.

I cannot stress enough how this issue must be fixed. You have been extremely honest in saying that it’s an Apple issue, but that doesn’t help me, I’m afraid. It still comes back to Affinity in solving this problem that you said Affinity has been aware of for quite some time. I am now having to offload all of my photos (47gb) onto iCloud just so I can attempt to backup the iPad. I have no backups if something were to happen. I still don’t know at this point whether I can backup the device once the photos have finished uploading to iCloud. If not, then what can you do? If I were to delete the app and reload it, the problem will eventually reappear, and I won’t have the mental capacity or time to want to deal with it all once again, or even several times long into the future.

As you can appreciate, I have work to do, and clients these days are in short supply since the pandemic started.

I have attached screenshots: (email only; not uploaded to the Apple thread here)

1. iPad storage is full

2. iCloud file names not changing / syncing

3. iCloud has now stopped loading, and I therefore have zero access to my work

4. Files saved on the iPad showing only 60 of 112 (names successfully changed, but they should be on iCloud NOT the iPad)

I was up most of the night, and I was pushed into doing all of this based upon iCloud not loading and also receiving the warning message that my iPad storage is full. In reality, I have used less than 100gb of storage and the iPad’s capacity is 256gb, which means there is plenty of space, but Affinity Designer is causing an issue by wrongly maxing out my storage space.

So, as of today, I can no longer work, and I have a client deadline to meet by February 15th. I pray that you have a solution soon enough for me to start and complete the project. This is my livelihood and it needs to be sorted. I don’t want to lose this client."

...Since sharing my entire Photo library on my iPad to the iCloud, I am using less than 40GB space on the 256GB storage capacity. I am still seeing the red warning band along the top of the screen in iPad’s storage settings.

Many thanks in advance : )