Frequent “Failed to launch (app)” after menu/File/Edit in (app)...

[cajhin]

The error happens frequently when I switch a document between the three Affinity apps.
Happened about 7 times out of 30 so far.

Found a single related report from 2016, supposedly fixed.


STEPS (an Example; I do somewhat random stuff to learn Affinity):
1. Create and play with a test doc in Photos, add layers etc.
2. “Edit in Publisher”, add a Picture frame
3. “Edit in Photo”, move layers around
4. “Edit in Publisher”
*Boom*

RESULT
- Popup Window “Failed to launch Publisher. An unrecoverable error occurred while trying to hand over to the other app.The document will now close.”
  (Note: do you care about details? There's a missing blank in “...the other app.The document...”)
- The document closes, the app stays open
- No entries in the log file; no crash report is sent


WORKAROUND
- Reopen document, “yes” to “Recovery file found, use it?”
- Try again. Sometimes it works the second time; sometimes it will never work no matter how often you try.
- Close the target app and retry. This usually works
- Close all 3 apps. This always works.

ENVIRONMENT
- Two unconnected machines

   1. New AMD PC with latest public Win10

   2. HP Elitebook 840 G5 Laptop with older Win10 1709
- The error happens on both machines.
- All apps bought and installed in the last 10 days, latest v1.8.3.641. Designer was reinstalled on the PC with new license key (I messed up the purchase)
- No third party virus scanner or similar on the PC.


I'm willing and able to provide more crash info if you tell me how.
 

[Chris B]

Hey cajhin,

I'm really struggling to reproduce this. Perhaps the contents of the document matter? can you attach a document you're working on?

On 4/17/2020 at 2:30 PM, cajhin said:

  (Note: do you care about details? There's a missing blank in “...the other app.The document...”)

Yes, this needs logging. Nice catch!

[cajhin]

The issue is not (at least not completely) dependent on the file. It works after restarting all apps, sometimes even without restarting.

My best guess is the exchange file is write locked, or something with licensing / network, or Windows IPC glitch.

Is there a debug mode or a verbose logging option? I could then drill down the next time it happens. No way to recreate this reliably...

[Chris B]

As it isn't crashing, a dump file might help. As soon as the error happens, try going to Task Manager and right-click the app which gives the error and see if you can create a dump file in the right-click menu.

Dev have debug tools but we can't touch them I'm afraid.