Why won't the left-side Tools display anymore? Bug?

[JDW]

I don't know what happened, but I left Affinity Photo open and put my iMac to sleep last night and this morning when I switched to AP and noticed that the left side Tools were missing.  When I click the View menu, I see a checkmark to the left of "Show Tools."  Toggling that does nothing except expand or contract the left sidebar by 1cm or so.  Quitting and relaunching AP does nothing to solve the problem either.

 

The Toolbar shows just fine, and I can toggle that just fine.  It's only the TOOLS that display at left which won't show anymore.

 

Choosing "Customize Tools..." expands or contracts the black space at left by about 8cm or so but otherwise shows nothing when I toggle it.

 

This seems like a bug, but since I could be doing something wrong and since I have no steps to repeat this bug I am writing this QUESTION today.

 

I guess the only way to resolve this problem would be to reset all preferences to defaults or otherwise reset AP, but how do I accomplish that?

 

Thanks.

 

UPDATE: Solving my own question (although the cause of this anomaly is still a mystery), I clicked Preferences > Miscellaneous > Reset XXX on all 5 buttons and then relaunched AP.  To my delight the Tools now display at left.  Very odd but glad to see there's an easy fix.  If I can find a way to repeat this bug I will of course report it in the Bugs forum.

[MEB]

Hi JDW,

To reset the app press and hold ⌃(ctrl) while launching the app, then select clear from the dialog that will appear.

[JDW]

Thanks, MEB.  I actually tried relaunching with OPTION only held down, and then relaunched with OPTION-COMMAND held down.  It's CONTROL only.  Got it.

 

So holding down the CONTROL key on launch of AP is the same as clicking all 5 of those RESET buttons in the Preferences?  Or does it do something else too?

[Dave Harris]

I think the control key method offers more things to reset.