msgphoto

@Chris B -- a further update -- I've done two complete erase and reinstalls of AP and things have improved slightly. Frustratingly, my slowdowns seem to be kind of random now. I have a collection of files I'm working on (all the same format (8-bit TIFF, from a canon 5DSR), all processed (lightroom) and imported into AP the same way. It seems, though, that now approximately 1 in 3 of these files experiences this slowdown. It seems to persist with the file - despite reboots, closing AP and reopening, closing and reopening the file, etc. I'm not quite sure why this would be as ALL of these files should be nearly identical in size/type/origination. Slowdowns mainly in the following areas, as before: 4-10 sec lag time between painting a line/brush with inpainting or clone stamp tools and the red mark appearing on screen. -- delays when merging visible layers to a new pixel layer. several minute delay when generating an export file. I'm a little heartened that things have improved a bit, and I do appreciate you checking back in and keeping us informed. This is an incredible app. I can imagine it's frustrating, also, from your end, but please remember the fact that people come to rely on this application is a sign of just how good and essential it is/can be. Hoping for an updated fix soon. Thanks.

@p_mac Thanks, all good ideas. Yes, I'm very hopeful for iPadOS, I think that's the thing that will help realize what these machines can be. I work most often in the adobe suite on a desktop iMac, but I have long been a proud iPad Pro evangelist. I'm one of those people who hate working on laptops - hate it. I have an old macbook air sitting in a drawer. I can't stand trackpads. I love the iPad Pro and smart keyboard and apple pencil. I'm a pro photographer and shoot tethered to the iPad using a camranger. I downloaded Affinity Photo when I purchased my iPad Pro a couple years ago, but have only recently started really doing a deeper dive into it and I have been absolutely blown away. Getting some real external storage and file system capability (even if it is limited still) will be a huge step forward. I do save often while working in Affinity. I don't tend to save to the iOS camera roll as I've found that strips away filenames, which I rely on. I use dropbox to transfer to and from. I don't mind a slow upload speed but a progress bar of the transfer in the background would be hugely helpful as I'm sure having that going on slows down other operations. Still, the problem I've been experiencing here (at least, on this particular thread) is that simply generating the flattened export file takes forever. I attempted to flatten the AP file prior to generating the export and even the flattening operation took many, many minutes. We're not talking about a large number of layers. I don't do compositing, this is a fairly simple set of touch ups and adjustment layers. I can't imagine how long this would stall for the people doing serious compositing work where there are a hundred layers or more. Also, flattening first did not seem to make the generating export spinning wheel spin for much less time, either.

So, an update of sorts. I've tried a hard reboot of the iPad several times. I did one reinstall of the software and was briefly encouraged. . . Was able to get halfway through a simple portrait retouch with slightly better luck, no significant slowdowns (though still considerably slower than v1.6). Then, just when I was getting my hopes up the sludge of v1.7 struck again. Everything ground to a halt. There was a 4-7 second delay on each brush stroke with cloning or inpainting. Trying to merge a handful of pixel layers to a new visible layer took over five minutes. Previously on v1.6 this took a second or two. What's worse, generating an image export (uncompressed, to adobe RGB 1998 TIFF) can take up to ten minutes, whereas on v1.6 if it took 5-10 seconds it seemed like a lot. Again, I'm on a 2nd gen 512GB iPad Pro 12.9" I'm about to start my second full erase and install. Not optimistic. Look, I know this is a terrific app, and the fact that we can do this sort of editing on mobile is incredible. The frustrating thing is not that I want more features - it's that I want the thing that worked perfectly just a few days ago to work that way again. Serif, anything?

A hunch I might have as to why this is happening (tell me if this sounds right): Could it be that Affinity Photo takes a while to generate export file IF there is a buffer of larger files being uploaded to Dropbox in the background? As there is no progress bar for that upload (which I assume takes a while, given what I know of my standard upload speeds) is there another way to see a progress on this? I suppose it'd just be logging into Dropbox at the same time out of Affinity and watching the progress on that end.

Hi - I'm trying to export my working files (80 or so, currently) in order to do a delete/reinstall as v1.7 has been very slow and buggy. Exporting from a layered .afphoto file to a flattened 8 bit TIFF sent to dropbox. Previously when I would select export --> TIFF --> (set options, in this case, 8 bit TIFF, no compression, Adobe RGB 1998 color space) the "Generating export" spinning wheel would only take 5-10 seconds, at the very most. Now it's taking several minutes (up to 10 - 15 min) for the same files. Anything I can do about this? Please, please, can you make an install file of v1.6.12 available again until some of this stuff is worked out? If anyone has this file they can send me please let me know. I only have 1.6.2 backed up on my desktop. Thank you. Edit: I'm using a 2nd gen 12.9" iPad Pro 512GB -- iOS is up to date. Export bug seems intermittent, but happening more often than not. Doesn't seem to matter which file it is.

I would also very much like a way to revert to the latest version 1.6.x -- Since v1.7 has been buggy for so many of us what are the chances that Serif will make v1.6 available again on a limited basis?

I really hope I haven't come across as nitpicking -- truly I love this app and have strived to make it an essential and enjoyable part of my normal workflow -- which is why this new buggy version is so disappointing. I want it to work and be as fluid and beautiful an experience to use as it was last week on v1.6. I'm hopeful this can happen without an investment in $1k+ of new hardware. Though on that end it's further disappointing to hear that you were having similar problems even on the newest iPad Pro iteration.

I've been trying to export the 100 or so working files I currently have in Affinity photo out of the damn thing in order to attempt a software reinstall since v1.7 has become downright unusable due to lags and delays in adjustments, especially cloning and inpainting. I managed to export a dozen or so this morning and then all of a sudden it stopped -- spinning wheel hung on "generating export" for more than ten minutes until I finally quit. Tried flattening a layered file before export thinking this might be the problem but it took nearly six minutes just to perform the flatten operation. I'm on a 2nd gen 12.9" iPad Pro 512GB. Rebooting the iPad doesn't have any effect. In the past week I've gotten several of my pro photographer colleagues to buy Affinity Photo. I feel badly about that now. All of this was smooth as butter two days ago on v1.6 before the update. I deeply regret updating, and am now stuck in the middle of a project that can't be finished and it seems like I can't even reliably rescue my files out of Affinity to go back to Photoshop. How am I to upload a file to your dropbox link if I can't get a file to export in the first place? Did you want a certain file format, supposing I can reliably get an export to occur?

Thanks, Paul. Yes, I've done the reset/reboot several times, with no improvement. It's curious that it would work well on your first gen iPad Pro, but be laggy on my 2nd gen model. That might rule out the processor speed as the source of the problem? Can the mods / Serif comment on this? I should clarify that the app technically works - just that there's a pause between each pen stroke. A couple seconds, perhaps, maybe a second and a half, but it's enough to make me not want to use it. Whereas on v1.6 (yesterday) it was smooth like butter working on the same files. This is a pause before the app reacts to the pen stroke - not the red progress bar you sometimes get for inpainting/cloning a larger area. So. . . no way to go back to 1.6? Looking back at the actual backup files on my desktop (which I unfortunately did not sync to very frequently at all) I have a Photo 1.6.2.ipa file -- but disappointingly I believe that version is over a year old.

I have a 12.9" iPad Pro 2nd generation model (2017). Have been using Affinity photo v1.6 with the appropriate model apple pencil and it has been perfect, smooth and flawless. Just updated to 1.7 this morning and now making any adjustment (especially inpainting or cloning) is excruciating. Slow. Lagging. Very unpleasant. Is there any way to revert back to v 1.6? If the fix is to spend $1k + on a current gen iPad pro then that's not much of a solution.

I am having this same issue. Very disappointing. Just updated this morning - everything speedy and perfect before the update. SLOW and lagging on any adjustment now. I have a 12.9" pro, 2nd generation.

Ah, but for this method you'd first have to make the adjustment and then see how it looks deselected, correct? Meaning, as distinct from the photoshop method whereby you can preview the adjustment live while not seeing the marching ants at the same time.

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I understand how to deselect. . . What I'm looking for is a way to hide the marching ants while still being selected. . . In photoshop it's a command-H keyboard shortcut. Does not deselect, just hides the ants so you can preview things without the distraction of little wavy lines, too.

What the title says -- is there a toggle to hide the marching ants of a selection on the iPad version of Affinity photo? Thanks.

Hi - A bit new to using Affinity in the iPad, but very much enjoying it. One thing I have not been able to figure out, though, is how to get a display similar to the "Info" panel in Photoshop. That is, I want to be able to see specific RGB values for a given point (tap?) on my image. Anyone know how to do this? Thanks.