Anna M

Thanks! Just did. After the last reboot a few hours ago, Designer runs again, so I guess I will give it a couple days. I will report either once it freezes again, or in a few days if it doesn't. Fingers crossed, thanks!

As I mentioned in the original post, Ctrl+click does not open the reset window for me. I don't know why. Also, I had OpenCL turned off for a while, long before I created this topic -- turning it off did not resolve the frequent freezes.

Hi, and thanks for the reply! I did try running "%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\WindowsApps\AffinityDesigner2.exe --no-ocl" from the FAQ's, and it did not resolve the not-loading issue. However, reinstalling and rebooting did, in this case, solve the issue. But, please understand that I cannot always reboot when Designer does not load; there are often processes running, such as SSH to remote servers, etc, that are difficult to relaunch, and needing to reboot every other day would compromise my work a lot. (I used to use Designer almost daily, and now it freezes almost every other time I try to run it.)

Found some application logs, I don't know if this helps: The program Designer.exe version 2.0.4.1701 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Security and Maintenance control panel. Process ID: 3f54 Start Time: 01d93a88a8ccf121 Termination Time: 39 Application Path: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityDesigner2_2.0.4.1701_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt\App\Designer.exe Report Id: 4c26ae95-cb38-45a7-bcf7-0c638dd0fb75 Faulting package full name: SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityDesigner2_2.0.4.1701_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt Faulting package-relative application ID: SERIFEUROPELTD.AFFINITYDESIGNER2 Hang type: Unknown This may not identically correspond to the attempt from the dump file, as I've been running it multiple times to take screenshots, make sure Ctrl+click doesn't help, etc.

Hi, I have problems with Affinity 2 products not starting and/or freezing on me. Win 10, Lenovo ThinkPad. I mostly use Designer, but once this happens, it usually affects Photo&Publisher as well. I had these problems for MONTHS. - I normally have the most recent updates for Windows 10, for my graphics drivers, Affinity products, etc. This persisted past multiple updates. - Right now, they are current as well. I don't know how to prove it. But from the experience of the past months (and multiple updates), updating Windows, Lenovo drivers, Affinity products, hardly solves anything. - When Designer (Photo/Publisher) freezes on open, there is nothing I can do short of closing everything, rebooting, uninstalling, rebooting, reinstalling, rebooting, praying that some of it will work... - Please understand that I use my computer for work, have SSH terminals open, etc, so rebooting is not always an option. - As a result, Designer is unusable for me most of the time. Honestly, this is my last shot at finding the problem before I ask for my money back (upgraded to V2 hoping it'll help...) and go look elsewhere... Designer.DMP What I do know: - comp specs: Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1165G7 @ 2.80GHz 2.80 GHz RAM: 32.0 GB (31.7 GB usable) System type: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor Pen and touch: Pen and touch support with 10 touch points Graphics card: internal, Intel Iris Xe Graphics - there is usually nothing in the %USERPROFILE%\.affinity\Designer\2.0\CrashReports\reports , and right now, there is nothing as well - for this particular case (today's error), I went to Task Manager as Designer was trying to run and created a dump file, see attached - this (today's dump) is a case of Designer freezing on open. The splash screen disappears, UI starts to appear, and that's the end of it: - no, I really cannot reboot right now, it'll compromise my work calculations. Alas, I got so grown to using Designer for illustrating my work... can't use it anymore. - here're the settings: - when I press Ctrl+click to run, it does not open the dialog offering to reset anything. (This can be because I'm running it from the Start Menu.) - I do use DisplayFusion. I had learned to close it before running Designer, just in case... if it had ever helped, at least once, I won't be writing this bug report in such a desperate tone... admittedly, sometimes I try and don't close it, and Designer runs. I don't know why. - I don't know what else to do or what information to provide. Please help. This can't go on. It freezes pretty much every second time I try and open it. And it freezes after at most 24hrs if I just leave it open (so, say, having an illustration to return to is no longer an option). - I had learned to rely on Designer for work to make illustrations (I'm a scientist), create graphical journals, etc. In the last maybe 4 months, I truly felt crippled. Say I'm at a telecon, can I open Designer to do an illustration on the fly? That's a coin toss. I'm back from lunch, is the Designer with a screenshot database of my project still open? A coin toss. A colleague asks to update an illustration I've made in the past. You get it... Upgrading to Ver 2 did not help, so it kind of feels like I've wasted money upgrading. It really can't go on like this. Please please help. Thanks.

I am on Windows. I cannot start it anymore with ctrl+ option, it seems. Affinity isn't installed in your usual "Program Files" any longer, but instead, in "Program Files/WindowsApps/SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityDesigner2_2.0.3.1688_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt/" And for that, I do not have permissions to execute anything. * * * After A LOT of hassle, I managed to give myself "write" permissions to the designer.exe.config file to make it this: * * * I suspect in order to properly run designer.exe from this folder, I might need to go through this manual hassle for every single file in this folder? (No, just "claiming ownership" does not work. I am already the owner, I did this for all files in WindowsApps. So on top of that, in order to edit this config file, I had to add a new permission group, in which I'd manually write myself. I do not know how it works.) * * * Also, I don't see anything in %USERPROFILE%\.affinity\Designer\2.0\CrashReports\reports. * * * Please tell me I need to go through this every other time when Affinity freezes on me?.. How is this acceptable...

It is turned off. I'd take a screenshot, but it won't load on me right now... I'd have to do multiple reboots, reinstalls, uninstalls, some praying, but it's not certain... I cannot reboot right now because of other things running. (They do not consume a lot of memory, like ssh or other coding applications, but are a major pain to bring back to the same state after a reboot.)

Hi, I had been a HUGE fan of Affinity Designer ever since it was DrawPlus. Bought all versions, recommended to all colleagues. (I am a scientist and it is really good for scientific illustrations.) Until the last few months... Affinity products (Designer, Publisher, Photo) just crash. Crash. All. The. Time. I can't leave Designer open, open a telecon, and get back to Designer assuming it is still there. More likely than not, it won't be. To relaunch, I need to reboot, uninstall, reinstall. Close DisplayFusion. Close Xming (just in case). Close something else. Then reboot again. Maybe uninstall, reboot, reinstall, and reboot one more time. Maybe some combination of these. I've found that some praying might help, but it's not certain. Maybe check the website to see if there's a new version available. (I've purchased version 2 already, it didn't change anything, so money wasted.) This isn't an option every. other. time. (I kid you not!!!) when I'd love to use Designer. (Ideally, every day or most days.) I am tired of googling "Affinity crashing" every other day. Some webpages that come up on top have advice #1 to reboot, uninstall, reboot, reinstall, reboot, close everything else, try again and pray. Advice #2 is to uninstall Affinity and go to Adobe. It looks like many people are in my boat. There are lots of advices, which I followed (including acceleration in settings, when it finally launches of course, closing other programs, etc). To be honest, advice #2 seems more and more appealing lately. Because one can't take a product seriously if every other time it needs to be run you got to reboot, uninstall, reboot, reinstall, reboot, close everything else, run, and pray... The reason for the desperate tone of this post is that right now, it crashed one more time. I do need to make an illustration for work today, but I have an ssh to a remote server with some processes going on, and some coding stuff open locally, so rebooting is, again, a major hassle. I had it open and it froze. Again, as it always does. So I'm down to no Designer. I've been such a huge fan and supporter always. Made so many scientific posters and illustrations. But what's going on is simply making the product unusable. I don't know what to do, short of uninstalling and looking for alternatives... I feel like I've wasted my money on buying ver. 2. That's me, a huge long-standing fan saying this. Please help -- are there other ways? Please fix. This can't go on like this.

Hi, I have used DrawPlus for the longest time, then switched to Affinity Design when it became available. I have many files, such as scientific posters, in .DPP format. Are they all gone forever? Can I read them in somehow? What's the best option? Thank you!

Hi, I am a scientist and Affinity Designer is my de-facto first choice for making illustrations for papers, posters, etc. Because it's great, and it's affordable. But making a scientific poster is a hassle. A true hassle. Because I do need to use equations. How does one import an equation into a Designer? I found several options, none really works for posters -- keep reading: 1) create a small LaTeX document; (a) compile into PDF; have hours of "fun" with fonts and import options. (b) alternatively, compile into a PostScript, open a file browser, rename PS into EPS, drag-and-drop, if you're lucky, sometimes I managed to make it work. Caveat: if you have many equations, they need to be in individual EPS files, otherwise Designer will not like one EPS file constantly getting changed. (Bonus: open your poster from a year ago with 20 EPS figures in it. Click 20 times on a popup window saying the source has changed because you re-ran the computer simulation which created them. After clicking on one popup, wait for a smooth animation as 19 other popups slide around your screen. Repeat 19 times. Then, you can access your poster. Probably.) 2) use online converters. The one I know that reliably works is www.codecogs.com . But it does not allow for fonts bigger than 20 pts, and fonts in posters are at least 24 pts. So when I really need to insert an equation I do this: (a) type it in codecogs, (b) download SVG file (copypasting from the browser results in a little black rectangle instead of the equation). So download the file, open the file browser, drag and drop. Not into the poster, that would be too easy. Because then, I'll need to manually resize the image to match my font size. I have devised some templates to insert the file into and either resize to match the size of a sample character, or type in numbers in Designer's "transform" tool, for which I need a calculator at hand (would be nice to download in 12pt and resize in Designer by 200%, but alas - so I use a calculator). None of this is a good working solution if you need like 20 equations. Is there a working solution? I have heard of LaTeXit, but that won't work in Windows. MS Office has some weird equation editor, but that won't copypaste to Designer. Every single time I make a poster, I often spend hours searching for other options online and it gets inexplicably frustrating. Every. Single. Time! When I need a lot of equations, I make a LaTeX save them all as a PS, then convert to EPS (they still have to fit on one page), then open it in a separate Designer window, then convert to curves, then "Group" curves corresponding to all symbols in a single equation, then resize in bulk, then copypaste. Aaarrrggghhh. Has anyone have found any working solution? As I said, the solutions above work if you have one equation, but are a true hassle if you need to put in a dozen. (Unless there is an alternative to codecogs that lets you set large font size and hopefully works as a copypaste?) It would be really great for more than just posters, as I often use Designer for illustrations, in which sometimes I need to use equations, too -- that would make me never want to quit the Designer ever. Thanks!