When I open a .jpg image, it is opened as an .acorn image
I don’t want that to happen, can I stop it?
Turn off the option “Enable autosave and versions” in Acorn’s Settings window.
And an additional bit of info from our docs:
When autosave is turned on, Acorn will open non-native (.acorn) files in an untitled, unsaved window. There is a very important reason for this: if an image is automatically saved back to the original file, then data may be lost (layer information, text layers, ruler preferences, etc.). In addition, if the format of the image is in a lossy format (such as JPEG), then repeatedly opening and saving an image will introduce compression artifacts and degrade the quality of the image.
Thank you
I search manual and here for ‘open’ didn’t find anything
edit: to solve this
Open shows up in 99 pages, so it’s a bit broad of a term to search for.
I’m planning on splitting this out though and making it more obvious in a future release.
this is a re-occuring problem for me… fortunately you are very pleasant in your help
but in this situation, for example, what would the search terms be?
I’m not sure, but we’ll have to think of something to make this a bit more obvious.
For me, there are several things like this… most are thiungs I have learned and/or use all the time … like things with ‘filters’ and often with that I save a pre-set.
But this is likely me… there are other programs I find things that seem they should be one place are often somewhere else
An option could be a warning - with a “yeah yeah I get it, don’t tell me this again” tick box and an OK button - once the user makes an edit operation on a file that’s not .acorn? There could also be a (not recommended, but there if you insist) setting to change the default save format to “keep original file format”?
Yes… but really… I’m guessing here… there is no perfect solution…
Like with me… I bought A-8 when it came out… but kept using a7 on my older computer… once that guy started crashshing… I starting from scratch with many of my software programs…
In the end… I search… to try to figure it out myself, but then ask here and then Mr. Gus answers it within a day (or sooner)… both here and with an email…
I’ve just put up a new preview release of Acorn with the following changes related to autosave:
# Autosaving Changes
- Native Acorn files (
.acorn) always autosave and support versions. Previously, this was a preference. - Non-native files (such as PNG, JPEG, TIFF, etc.) do not autosave by default, but this can be enabled via Acorn’s Settings… ▸ General ▸ “Enable Autosave and Versions for non-native files” checkbox.
- In Acorn 8.0, when autosave was enabled, non-native files would open without a reference to the original file on disk. This is no longer the case in Acorn 8.1, where non-native files open with a reference to the original file, and pressing ⌘S will save back to the original, regardless of the autosave setting.
I’m probably going to make some more tweaks to it, but I’d love to hear anyone’s thoughts on these changes.
You can download the updated version from here: https://flyingmeat.com/download/latest/
Maybe a dumb question…
I went into my Acorn and checked for updates and was told (as if someone was actually talking to me) that I was up to date
Is this because you are sending this out before incorporating it into an ‘official’ update?
{{I did go to your link and downloaded this}}
Yes, the version I linked to is a preview release and won’t be officially released until it’s out of beta.
There’s a link in that page that will put your version on the beta update release train. I tend to put up new builds between multiple times a day, and also once every few days, depending on what kind of development is going on.
In such a case (now that I am using it) what should I be looking for to see if it is okay?
You should be seeing that .acorn (and new unsaved images) are autosaving by default, and all other file types (such as JPEG / PNG / TIFF / etc.) aren’t autosaved by default. And opening a .jpeg/.jpg file in Acorn should allow you to save right back to it.
So autosave will be mandatory for .acorn files? 
As someone who strongly prefers manual saving (and strongly dislikes macOS’s builtin versioning system), I’d really love if this could be optional instead. I don’t mind if it’s on by default—I don’t even mind if it’s a secret preference that takes a defaults write command to turn off—but if 8.1 is going to force me into autosaving, I’m going to have to stick with 8.0.x indefinitely.
not sure if this helps
but in settings you can on/off enable autosave and versions for non-native files
But that might mean you can not with .acorn files… this is one of the things that I find confusing in the settings
There is a defaults key to turn it all off. I’m out of the office till the 24th, but I’ll see if I can look it up before then.
Besides not having this setting, how has the saving behavior for files been working for you in the 8.1 beta?
I’ve been abstaining from the 8.1 beta, because I dislike autosave that much, but I’m delighted to hear that there’s a way to turn that particular feature off. (Acorn v8 has overall been a wonderful and well-polished upgrade, for what it’s worth.) Anyway, I certainly don’t mind waiting a week—don’t let me interrupt your vacation!
‘disableAllAutosave’ is the defaults key which should do the trick. I can’t test it at this moment, but if it works, let me know or not!
defaults write com.flyingmeat.Acorn8 disableAllAutosave -bool true
That seems to work great! Thank you! 