Affinity Designer freezes

[J.Michael]

Identical problem - Designer 1.8.5 freezes solid (must kill with Task Manager) after Open or New. If not killed, allocates increasing memory (4.5 GB after 15 minutes) and takes about 30% CPU on a 4C/8T I5. (Win10 x64 versions 1909 and 20H2 both act the same on an Acer Aspire with 8GB.)

• Changing color profile on New does not change anything.
• log.txt is 0 bytes.
• Repairing with downloaded Designer 1.8.5 file does not change anything

Suggestions?

[J.Michael]

6 hours ago, J.Michael said:

Identical problem - Designer 1.8.5 freezes solid (must kill with Task Manager) after Open or New. If not killed, allocates increasing memory (4.5 GB after 15 minutes) and takes about 30% CPU on a 4C/8T I5. (Win10 x64 versions 1909 and 20H2 both act the same on an Acer Aspire with 8GB.)

• Changing color profile on New does not change anything.
• log.txt is 0 bytes.
• Repairing with downloaded Designer 1.8.5 file does not change anything

Suggestions?

Un-installing, rebooting and re-installing does not change anything - still freezes solid. This suggests that the problem in the Registry and that the un-install is not cleaning up the registry.

Wandering thru the Registry searching for "affinity" didn't show anything obviously screwy but that doesn't mean much.

Program Compatibility Troubleshooter recommends Win 8 compatibility mode but running in that mode doesn't change anything.

Very sad.

[J.Michael]

5 hours ago, Chris B said:

@J.Michael - this does not sound identical if the issue does not happen when using an RGB profile. You said 'Changing color profile on New does not change anything.' unless you mean changing CMYK profile?

There has to be a rogue profile somewhere. If it's not crashing for the majority of users there has to be something specific on your end.

I have 57 profiles installed:
 

Please check yours in: C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color

Both of these freeze Designer completely on New:

In Program Files > Affinity > Designer > Resources > icc there are 17 files. All appear to have been installed when I un-installed and re-installed 1.8.5

 Directory of C:\Program Files\Affinity\Designer\Resources\icc

10/28/2020  01:33 PM    <DIR>          .
10/28/2020  01:33 PM    <DIR>          ..
08/12/2020  06:01 PM               560 AdobeRGB1998.icc
08/12/2020  06:01 PM               552 AppleRGB.icc
08/12/2020  06:01 PM           557,120 CoatedFOGRA27.icc
08/12/2020  06:01 PM           654,352 CoatedFOGRA39.icc
08/12/2020  06:01 PM               560 ColorMatchRGB.icc
08/12/2020  06:01 PM               548 Display P3.icc
08/12/2020  06:01 PM           557,168 JapanColor2001Coated.icc
08/12/2020  06:01 PM           557,168 JapanColor2001Uncoated.icc
08/12/2020  06:01 PM           557,172 JapanColor2002Newspaper.icc
08/12/2020  06:01 PM           557,164 JapanWebCoated.icc
08/12/2020  06:01 PM               564 ROMM RGB.icc
08/12/2020  06:01 PM           654,140 UncoatedFOGRA29.icc
08/12/2020  06:01 PM           557,168 USSheetfedCoated.icc
08/12/2020  06:01 PM           557,168 USSheetfedUncoated.icc
08/12/2020  06:01 PM           557,168 USWebCoatedSWOP.icc
08/12/2020  06:01 PM           557,164 USWebUncoated.icc
08/12/2020  06:01 PM           654,140 WebCoatedFOGRA28.icc
              17 File(s)      6,979,876 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  131,918,311,424 bytes free

Note that "Display P3.icc" and "ROMM RGB.icc" do not appear in Chris B's list. All the others do appear.

Here is Windows > System32 > spool > drivers > color

Directory of C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color

10/26/2020  10:03 PM    <DIR>          .
10/26/2020  10:03 PM    <DIR>          ..
05/17/2012  12:00 AM           329,328 CNBBLDB0.ICM
05/17/2012  12:00 AM           329,340 CNBBLKB0.ICM
05/17/2012  12:00 AM           329,340 CNBBLKC0.ICM
05/17/2012  12:00 AM           329,328 CNBBLMB0.ICM
05/17/2012  12:00 AM           329,328 CNBBLMC0.ICM
05/17/2012  12:00 AM           329,328 CNBBLNA0.ICM
05/17/2012  12:00 AM           329,328 CNBBLNB0.ICM
05/17/2012  12:00 AM           329,328 CNBBLNC0.ICM
09/26/2005  12:00 AM            17,552 CNBJPRN3.ICM
05/28/2012  10:31 AM           216,160 CNFRC2.ICC
12/07/2019  03:08 AM             1,058 D50.camp
12/07/2019  03:08 AM             1,079 D65.camp
12/07/2019  03:08 AM               797 Graphics.gmmp
12/07/2019  03:08 AM               838 MediaSim.gmmp
12/07/2019  03:08 AM               786 Photo.gmmp
12/07/2019  03:08 AM               822 Proofing.gmmp
12/07/2019  03:08 AM           218,103 RSWOP.icm
12/07/2019  03:08 AM             3,144 sRGB Color Space Profile.icm
12/07/2019  03:08 AM            17,155 wscRGB.cdmp
12/07/2019  03:08 AM             1,578 wsRGB.cdmp
              20 File(s)      3,113,720 bytes

Note that none of these has been modified later than 2019 and up until a few days ago Designer 1.8.5 was working.

If Designer is pulling a bad color profile from its Resources\icc, how it could survive a re-install? If from spool\drivers\color what changed?

Still sad but appreciate the support, J.Michael

 

[J.Michael]

7 hours ago, Chris B said:

Can you also screenshot all the tabs in the Windows Colour Management window?

Try setting your monitors colour sspace to sRGB (temporarily)

And finally, can you go to %AppData%\Affinity\Designer\1.0 (Beta)\profiles\ and give me a copy of the blacklist.txt and then try renaming it so it's not using it.

Here are the screenshots for Color Mgmt before setting monitor color space

 

J.Michael

 

[J.Michael]

8 hours ago, Chris B said:

Can you also screenshot all the tabs in the Windows Colour Management window?

Try setting your monitors colour sspace to sRGB (temporarily)

And finally, can you go to %AppData%\Affinity\Designer\1.0 (Beta)\profiles\ and give me a copy of the blacklist.txt and then try renaming it so it's not using it.

Removed all CN*.* profiles from Windows > System32 > spool > drivers > color. Changed monitor color space to sRGB,

Launched Designer: freezes solid after New using this color profile

As you saw in the previous note, Color mgmt > Advanced matches the recommendations in https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/126311-designer-publisher-and-photo-did-not-start-after-win10-update-to-20h2/&tab=comments#comment-692756

Downloaded beta 1.9.0.820. Uninstalled 1.8.5. Will reboot and see if makes a difference.

 

[J.Michael]

21 minutes ago, J.Michael said:

Removed all CN*.* profiles from Windows > System32 > spool > drivers > color. Changed monitor color space to sRGB,

Launched Designer: freezes solid after New using this color profile

Downloaded beta 1.9.0.820. Uninstalled 1.8.5. Will reboot and see if makes a difference.

Using the same color profile, 1.9.0 beta sort of works.

• New seems to work - can draw a square and enter text
• Dbl click existing .afdesign file loads smoothly. Can select and modify both graphics and text. However, clicking "Text Styles" freezes Designer solid.

I noticed that 1.8.5 was starting with "Text Styles" selected.

For what it's worth, my blacklist.txt is 0 bytes.

One step forward ...

[J.Michael]

20 hours ago, J.Michael said:

Dbl click existing .afdesign file loads smoothly. Can select and modify both graphics and text. However, clicking "Text Styles" freezes Designer solid.

I noticed that 1.8.5 was starting with "Text Styles" selected.

Possible clue: In 1.8.5 under Text Styles there was a line with "Header 1" centered. The entire UI was frozen solid but "Header 1" shuddered horizontally at irregular intervals.

Does this mean anything?

[Chris B]

Hey J.Michael,

I have slit this from the other thread as it is somewhat different to the original thread, though it did appear to be the same/similar at first.

I think it might jump depending on the length of the Text Styles panel. We force a space so perhaps it's that making it jump. I can't get the hang though.

[J.Michael]

13 hours ago, Chris B said:

I think it might jump depending on the length of the Text Styles panel. We force a space so perhaps it's that making it jump. I can't get the hang though.

Since the UI was completely frozen, I couldn't change the width of the Text Styles panel and yet I was seeing the jumping (shuddering) in 1.8.5.

I have a 28KB .afdesigner file that freezes 1.9.0 beta UI solid on my PC when I click on Text Style. I can upload it if you'd like to analyze it.

 

[Chris B]

9 hours ago, J.Michael said:

I have a 28KB .afdesigner file that freezes 1.9.0 beta UI solid on my PC when I click on Text Style. I can upload it if you'd like to analyze it.

 

Yes, please—thank you.

[J.Michael]

4 hours ago, Chris B said:

Yes, please—thank you.

Here it is. I look forward to hearing if there is anything munged in the file.

FOLRR_logo.afdesign

[Old Bruce]

10 minutes ago, J.Michael said:

Here it is. I look forward to hearing if there is anything munged in the file.

 

Works fine here on Mac OS 10.14.6 and beta 1.9.0.5

I added a couple of text styles give it a try on the beta

beta FOLRR_logo.afdesign

[J.Michael]

On 11/3/2020 at 7:38 AM, Old Bruce said:

Works fine here on Mac OS 10.14.6 and beta 1.9.0.5

I added a couple of text styles give it a try on the beta

beta FOLRR_logo.afdesign

This beta file still freezes the UI on my PC when I click Text Styles. It's so frozen I can't get a screen grab but Text Styles box shows [No Style] in blue, "1", "2" and a second [No Style] in blue..

This may be a clue: File > New then draw a rectangle. Click Text Styles and see this (no text has been entered)

UI still works at this point.

However, scrolling this box down shows a second "[No Style]" in blue under "Table Body" and the UI is now completely frozen. Memory allocation is increasing at about 100MB/minute.

Very odd. Where is the second [No Style] coming from? Could it be munged and causing both freezes?

 

 

[Old Bruce]

3 hours ago, J.Michael said:

This beta file still freezes the UI on my PC when I click Text Styles. It's so frozen I can't get a screen grab but Text Styles box shows [No Style] in blue, "1", "2" and a second [No Style] in blue..

This may be a clue: File > New then draw a rectangle. Click Text Styles and see this (no text has been entered)

UI still works at this point.

However, scrolling this box down shows a second "[No Style]" in blue under "Table Body" and the UI is now completely frozen. Memory allocation is increasing at about 100MB/minute.

Very odd. Where is the second [No Style] coming from? Could it be munged and causing both freezes?

 

 

Not seeing anything like you describe.

I think you may have something wrong with your Default Text Styles. Try resetting them in your preferences.

[Chris B]

Hey J.Michael,

Please try what Old Bruce suggested.

Failing that, reset the app:

Affinity Store - Go to %AppData%\Affinity\Photo\1.0 and rename 1.0 to 1.1

or 

Microsoft Store - Go to %AppData%\Affinity\Photo\1.0 (Store) and rename 1.0 to 1.1

You can acccess the AppData folder by pressing the Windows key + R on your keyboard and then just type %AppData%

[J.Michael]

On 11/4/2020 at 1:50 PM, Old Bruce said:

Not seeing anything like you describe.

I think you may have something wrong with your Default Text Styles. Try resetting them in your preferences.

Failing that, reset the app:

Affinity Store - Go to %AppData%\Affinity\Photo\1.0 and rename 1.0 to 1.1

Edit > Preferences > Misc > Reset Default Text Styles

The file i uploaded previously still freezes the UI solid when clicking Text Styles. The "beta" file modified by Old Bruce still freezes the UI in the same way.

I have two folders in %AppData% > Affinity > Designer called 1.0 and 1.0 (beta). Renamed both to 1.1

Restart Designer without a system restart. Designer asks me to sign in and recreates 1.0 (beta) so the app reset was successful. The file i uploaded previously still freezes the UI solid when clicking Text Styles.

Sigh!

Here is the log file from the new 1.0 (beta). There's an error at the end: "Failed to create tablet context". (Note that I'm running on a PC not a tablet.)

Loading colour profiles
    Monitors
        Name: Generic PnP Monitor
        Adapter: Intel(R) UHD Graphics 620
        Primary: Yes
        Has user profile: Yes
        Profile name: sRGB Color Space Profile.icm

    System
        Found 10 system profiles (parsed 10)
        Loading colour profile (system): wsRGB.cdmp
        Loading colour profile (system): wscRGB.cdmp
        Loading colour profile (system): sRGB Color Space Profile.icm
        Loading colour profile (system): RSWOP.icm
        Skipping colour profile (system): Proofing.gmmp
        Skipping colour profile (system): Photo.gmmp
        Skipping colour profile (system): MediaSim.gmmp
        Skipping colour profile (system): Graphics.gmmp
        Skipping colour profile (system): D65.camp
        Skipping colour profile (system): D50.camp
        Found 10 user profiles (parsed 10)
        Loading colour profile (user): wsRGB.cdmp
        Loading colour profile (user): wscRGB.cdmp
        Loading colour profile (user): sRGB Color Space Profile.icm
        Loading colour profile (user): RSWOP.icm
        Skipping colour profile (user): Proofing.gmmp
        Skipping colour profile (user): Photo.gmmp
        Skipping colour profile (user): MediaSim.gmmp
        Skipping colour profile (user): Graphics.gmmp
        Skipping colour profile (user): D65.camp
        Skipping colour profile (user): D50.camp
    Installed
        Loading colour profile: AdobeRGB1998.icc
        Loading colour profile: AppleRGB.icc
        Loading colour profile: CoatedFOGRA27.icc
        Loading colour profile: CoatedFOGRA39.icc
        Loading colour profile: ColorMatchRGB.icc
        Loading colour profile: Display P3.icc
        Loading colour profile: JapanColor2001Coated.icc
        Loading colour profile: JapanColor2001Uncoated.icc
        Loading colour profile: JapanColor2002Newspaper.icc
        Loading colour profile: JapanWebCoated.icc
        Loading colour profile: ROMM RGB.icc
        Loading colour profile: UncoatedFOGRA29.icc
        Loading colour profile: USSheetfedCoated.icc
        Loading colour profile: USSheetfedUncoated.icc
        Loading colour profile: USWebCoatedSWOP.icc
        Loading colour profile: USWebUncoated.icc
        Loading colour profile: WebCoatedFOGRA28.icc
    Imported
    -- 691.7638ms
Wintab: Failed to load Wintab32.dll
Wintab: Failed to create tablet context
Attempting to create Direct3D device on default adapter
Setting screen DPI to 71.1725119738834 (scale = 1.145833)
Exit

 

[Chris B]

Hey J.Michael,

That tablet reference is just suggesting you have no tablet drivers installed (makes sense if you don't own one) but I think is unrelated.

Can you zip and attach your 1.0 (Beta) folder for me pleae? Once you've done that, you can do a full reset. Is it 1.9.0.820?

Can you launch it with the Ctrl key held down, check everything and then click Clear.

[J.Michael]

On 11/6/2020 at 3:43 AM, Chris B said:

Can you zip and attach your 1.0 (Beta) folder for me pleae? Once you've done that, you can do a full reset. Is it 1.9.0.820?

Can you launch it with the Ctrl key held down, check everything and then click Clear.

Sorry for the delay; life intervenes. Zipped folder attached. Yes, I'm running 1.9.0.820 on Win10 (20H2)

Had to go into Program Files to control-click the actual Designer.exe file (control-clicking on link didn't work).

Launched, Select all to check everything and hit Clear.  Re-registered, dragged and dropped the file I previously uploaded. Does not freeze UI until I clicking "Text Styles" and then still freezes UI solid.

Selecting Text Styles with no file loaded & no New does NOT freeze the UI.

Selecting Text Styles after New does NOT freeze UI. However, then scrolling the Text Styles window DOES freeze the UI. (Hard to tell exactly but it looks like a second blue [No Style] is about to come into view in the window when it freezes.) Basically  the same pattern as before.

Sigh!

1.0 (Beta).zip

 

[J.Michael]

On 11/6/2020 at 3:43 AM, Chris B said:

Can you zip and attach your 1.0 (Beta) folder for me please? Once you've done that, you can do a full reset. Is it 1.9.0.820?

Can you launch it with the Ctrl key held down, check everything and then click Clear.

As mentioned before, a full reset didn't change anything: the UI still freezes after scrolling the Text Styles box.

Did the 1.0 (Beta) folder illuminate anything?

To return to an earlier observation, after the UI freezes Designer continues to rapidly allocate memory and use a lot of CPU:

 

In the space of 3 minutes Designer (after a New and then scrolling the Text Styles box to show the second blue [No Style] into view freezing the UI) has allocated 1.3 GB (!) of memory and is using close to 100% of one I5 core. There must be a tight loop that starts when the second blue [No Style] is scrolled into view in Text Styles. Does the UI appear to freeze because Designer is too busy to recognize user input?

Note that NO user file is necessary, just a New + scroll the Text Styles box.

Any suggestions for a path forward?

 

[Chris B]

Hi sorry for the delay. I am seeing quite a big pause when I interact with the Text Styles Panel after using your folder from AppData. I am not getting a full freeze/lock though. I'm guessing there's something in this folder causing an issue though. I'll ask a few colleagues to try as well—thank you.

[Chris B]

We probably need the full dmp file. When it hangs, can you go to Task Manager > Right-click Designer > Create dump.

It might end up being massive so can you upload it here:

https://www.dropbox.com/request/l9qyrtSt0sxa3H9oFC4n

[J.Michael]

9 hours ago, Chris B said:

We probably need the full dmp file. When it hangs, can you go to Task Manager > Right-click Designer > Create dump.

It might end up being massive so can you upload it here:

Yes, 2.2 GB is fairly massive but it is uploaded. I hope it tells you something.

 

[Chris B]

Hey J.Michael,

I believe we may have reproduced this. If I set Windows DPI to a non-default value, such as 115%, I get a freeze when interacting with Text Styles—what's your DPI set to?

[J.Michael]

On 12/9/2020 at 7:39 AM, Chris B said:

I believe we may have reproduced this. If I set Windows DPI to a non-default value, such as 115%, I get a freeze when interacting with Text Styles—what's your DPI set to?

My DPI is also set to 115% and I also have "Fix scaling for apps" On.

Will try Designer with 100% to see if the hang disappears.

[J.Michael]

32 minutes ago, J.Michael said:

My DPI is also set to 115% and I also have "Fix scaling for apps" On. Will try Designer with 100% to see if the hang disappears.

At both 100% and 125% standard magnifications Designer does NOT freeze when scrolling the Test Style box past the 2nd blue [No Style].

This confirms that the bug relates to the non-standard magnification. Odd bug - I wonder if it's in Windows or Designer?

Thanks for figuring this one out.