Photos are not being saved in Pixelmator Photo folder in iCloud Drive

Discuss Photomator and photo editing.
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2019-04-23 18:13:31

Hello. When first I installed PP, it created a PP folder in the root folder of iCloud Drive. Earlier I had set Pixelmator Photo (PP for short) to save photos in iCloud Drive. However I noticed the edited the “.photos” were not being saved in this PP folder, rather they were being saved in the Documents folder in iCloud Drive. Today I set PP to save edited photos “On my iPad”, and PP duly created a PP folder in the On my iPad location. However the edited photos are still being saved in the Documents folder. Is there anything I can do to rectify this and make PP save photos in the correct folder?
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2019-04-24 11:27:45

Just out of interest, where are you tapping the + button to import a photo? If you're in the Browse view, it'll import into your current folder. If you're in Recents, it might be defaulting to the Documents folder. Could you double-check this?
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2019-04-24 11:38:10

Hi. I’m importing photos from the Photos app, via Browse view by tapping the + button on top right of the screen. And I save the photo using either “Modify original in Photos”, or “Save copy to Photos”. In either case it always saves the .photos copy in the Documents folder in iCloud Drive.
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2019-04-24 12:52:33

Understood, and when tapping the + button, which folder are you in? The Pixelmator Photo folder in the On My iPad location?
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2019-04-24 13:14:42

Okay now I understand after reading your message. I was in the Documents folder, which is why the .photos were being saved there. Next, in Browse, I switched to the root iCloud Drive folder and imported a photo into PP from the Photos app using the + button, and found that the .photo was saved in iCloud Drive root location. Now I’ve switched to the PP folder in On my iPad and the .photos are being saved there. What this means is that although I am importing a photo from the Photos app, the .photo is saved in the location that the Browse window was open in when importing. Is this how PP is designed to function, or perhaps is this a bug?
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2019-04-25 07:48:50

This is the intended functionality and has to do with the way that Files-based apps work. Basically, any files are imported into your current location. Of course, we'd love to improve this in some way because right now, there's definitely a little more confusion than we'd like.
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2019-04-25 08:24:31

Thanks for the clarification. Yes, it would be better if the .photo files were always saved in the PP folder no matter which location the original photos were imported from. Maybe you could incorporate this in a future update.
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2019-04-25 13:35:15

Yes, that would make sense, but as I (rather inelegantly) explained, for Files-based apps the import location is determined by the Files app, so this change would need to be made in iOS, rather than by us. That's ignoring any potential workarounds, which are often possible but almost always more of a last resort.
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2019-04-25 14:41:25

I understand. Well let’s see what future iOS updates permit 🙂
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2019-08-29 04:55:52

by Andrius 2019-04-24 11:27:45 Just out of interest, where are you tapping the + button to import a photo? If you're in the Browse view, it'll import into your current folder. If you're in Recents, it might be defaulting to the Documents folder. Could you double-check this?
Could you clarify, what browser view are you referring to? In the file app, or the pixelmator app? As far as I can tell there is only one location within pixelmator to add items to. I can’t imagine why you’d want to add items to the browser via folders app.


I’m having a similar issue. All my “on my iPad” items are being stored in On my iPad > pixelmator > .pixelmator_Documents. However, when I navigate here, I can’t find .pixelmator_Documents. Is this a hidden file? I’d like my items to just get saved in on my iPad > pixelmator
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2019-08-29 15:45:23

This discussion was about Pixelmator Photo — are you having trouble with Pixelmator for iOS? If so, it sounds like it is a hidden folder (the period at the beginning of the path suggests this), though that generally shouldn't be the case. Could you shoot us a quick email about this at support@pixelmator.com? Thanks!
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2019-08-30 20:40:31

by Andrius This discussion was about Pixelmator Photo — are you having trouble with Pixelmator for iOS? If so, it sounds like it is a hidden folder (the period at the beginning of the path suggests this), though that generally shouldn't be the case. Could you shoot us a quick email about this at support@pixelmator.com? Thanks!
Andrius, you’re correct. It was about the iOS app. Didn’t realize there was a computer version as well.

It definitely feels like it’s a hidden folder, which makes it difficult to grab my saved images without having to export.

I’ll be emailing support now.
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2019-09-11 06:58:34

Thanks for the solutions. I faced same problem.
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2019-09-11 11:22:16

by sunitapr 2019-09-11 06:58:34 Thanks for the solutions. I faced same problem.
Would I be right in thinking you were able to resolve it?
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2019-11-05 21:22:31

I’m seeing this issue too. Despite asking for edits to be saved in iCloud it is saving to the hidden folder on the iPad. Same workflow as above, photo.app + to edit photo in Pixelmator Photo, edits can be seen in the files.app under recent files. When you click info the location of those .photo files are on the iPad under the Pixelmator Photo folder, albeit hidden.

Any help?
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2019-11-07 13:33:06

When we released Pixelmator Photo 1.1 and made it possible to have nondestructive editing integrated with your Photos library, those edits were saved only locally. However, with the upcoming Pixelmator Photo 1.1.2, you'll be able to save nondestructively in iCloud Drive, too. The 1.1.2 beta should be out in the not too distant future and if you'd like to join it, feel free to email beta@pixelmator.com!