I just found an almost 3-year old post where Lilly said auto-save would be available in the next version of Animate Pro.
Any news about that?
I don’t see any options for the Auto-Save Workspace area in the General panel of preferences. I just lost a bunch of work when Animate 2 unexpectedly quit. I have Auto-Save Workspace checked and I see the files with the ~ extension.
I’m using Animate 2
So your Preferences looks different than this?
Unless it is undocumented (which would be absurd) as far as I can tell there is no auto-save for work-in-process but there are auto-save options for specific contexts like saving the workspace and saving pencil styles.
It appears that the only program to date offering auto-save for work-in-process is Storyboard Pro. Surprisingly, not even Harmony 11 has it.
That’s really peculiar, huh…
I lost half a day’s work yesterday because of a crash. I don’t think I’ve got any other apps that don’t auto-save.
The worst part is that I was sure I had clicked OK to Auto-Save in Preferences – but it turned out to be Auto-Save LAYOUT.
And I mean, who needs to auto-save that every 10th minute… 
Anyway, I’m obviously going to save manually at every major change now…
I was exchanging emails with TB Support about a different issue yesterday (11/2714) and asked about auto-save. I received a response today. According to the support rep the text and options under “Automatically Save Workspace” in Preferences is for work-in-process not the screen setup (workspace).
He included a screen shot of the section in Preferences and I suspect what is misleading is the indentation of the text. There is a checkbox for auto-saving workspace that should be considered separate from what is indented (implied subordinate) and underneath it. It looks to me like everything is autosave workspace. The whole thing is under a heading of “Save” but the indentation of everything that would apply to work-in-process lead me to think of it as part of the line above it “Automatically Save Workspace.”
I had thought that it was redundant to have a checkbox for “Automatically Save Workspace” and also another checkbox for “Enabled.”
So I compared screen shots of the Preferences section in the User Guides for software versions 1, 2 & 3. Version 3 is the only version with the additional options referring to “intervals” so this must be work-in-process. That would also fit with the timing of Lilly’s comments.
In conclusion, Yes version 3 of Animate, Animate Pro and version 11 of Harmony have auto-save work-in-process.
Thank you for investigating this! Do you know where the auto-saved files might be located?
I just had a crash in Photoshop and when I clicked ‘Reopen’, Photoshop automatically launced the auto-saved reconstruction.
Animate didn’t do that, so I assume the auto-saved file is hidden somewhere…
I was not sure so I opened a project and enabled Auto Save, added a small change and made sure the project was open long enough to Auto-Save a couple of times. Then I searched my system for modified files with today’s date.
The original file is saved just as if you had manually chosen Save from the File drop down menu. There may be a special back up file created by Auto-Save. There are three more files in addition to the project .anim file that update simultaneously. They end with .aux, .aux~ and .anim~. They are all grouped in the same folder as the original project files.
Now that I have Auto-Save enable I will have to monitor the project folders. I suspect the ~ files are part of the Auto-Save process. I opened and closed this project twice after enabling it and there are now two sets of these files with the modified times coinciding with those events. The earlier file has the ~ and the most recent is just .anim
and .aux.
I don’t know where that leaves you and your crash.
Thanks for your input.
Animate 2 has been generally unstable on my MacBook this past while and so it has been quitting unexpectedly or freezing up.
I just have to keep pressing Command+S every now and again until I can evolve from these dark ages and upgrade to Animate 3 ($299).
Animate Pro 4 will be coming in 2015 at some point if it follows past release dates. Wait for its release and speak directly with Sales about upgrading. They had a sale in the Summer last year when Animate Pro 3 was released.
I am fortunate to be able to run 3 on my older Mac system and I will need to get a new computer to move forward. The way Apple is limiting their systems I am considering either building a Hackintosh or switching over and building a Windows system.
Apple is now soldering in RAM at build time so it is no longer upgradeable in the future. The graphics cards pose a different problem. In order to have flexibility you have to waste money acquiring a MacPro.
I love the Mac and OS X. Windows is clumsy and garish to me. If I invest in Windows it will be for Toon Boom exclusively. I could do everything else I need with a MacMini.
Sometimes I get confused between Autosave and Automatically Save Workspace. I personally am of the opinion that the way these appear in Preferences of version 3 is confusing because it looks to me like Autosave is part of Automatically Save Workspace the way there is a check box for ASW then underneath is a box around Autosave but no check box.
Autosave was not implemented until version 3.
There are no options for Automatically Save Workspace in version 3 either.
Perhaps the ~ tilde only demarcates temporary files when a project is open? If the project crashed there might be remnants from an improperly closed project file.
Without Autosave you are better off training yourself to save every time you make a change even if you have to rename files using some form of system so you have something to go back to. I do this with Photoshop. It is hard to describe but I have a feel for what I Save and what I Save As under a different name. It has to do with the way a project evolves. It works best for me doing it this way.
You are correct, the autosave works much like a normal save.
The project backup files (the ones with the ~ symbol at the end) are a separate mechanism to back up the project (NOT the data itself) and happen no matter how the save is done. This is a backup of the previously saved version.
Here is what happens… When you save, it first renames the existing .anim and .aux files by appending the ~ character. It then creates a temporary .anim+ and .aux+ while writing the new backups. Once the save is complete it removes the “+” character.
For the original poster, remember also that the autosave will happen after the time interval specified but also respecting the period of inactivity specified in the preferences. If there is never a period of inactivity - the autosave will not take place.
In my opinion it is preferable to save manually because you are controlling the time and state of the save. The autosave is really a failsafe mechanism on top of that. Consider my reason for saying this; often animators will try several variations before on some technique - the autosave might save during one of the (later) discarded attempts rather than the one finally settled on. If your memory is better than mine this may not be an issue though.