Slow startup (all Affinity apps)

[Green Dog]

Just found this thread, so it's a relief to see that I'm not the only person who has this problem. For what it's worth, I tried the app copy on my Monterey Mac Mini and "Photo" does load much faster. Will try with designer / publisher next.

And let me say that these Affinity apps are excellent, and at no point did I consider switching just because of this issue (not to disincentivize the devs, though, keep working on it!). Affinity gives me freedom from Adobe, and I am very grateful.

WebP support one of these days would be nice, though.

[rudluc]

I understood this to mean that the problem with slow startup of Affinity applications only occurs with versions purchased from the Mac AppStore.
Since the problem has existed for a long time and is unlikely to be fixed (I've given up hope by now), I think it would be a great initiative if Affinity offered their users an easy switch to the non-AppStore version.

[DEMinSoCAL]

17 minutes ago, rudluc said:

I understood this to mean that the problem with slow startup of Affinity applications only occurs with versions purchased from the Mac AppStore.
Since the problem has existed for a long time and is unlikely to be fixed (I've given up hope by now), I think it would be a great initiative if Affinity offered their users an easy switch to the non-AppStore version.

In my testing last year when all this started, it was initially thought that only the App Store version was affected, so I downloaded trial version from the Affinity web site, and installed those also.  At first, they appears to start normally, but after a few days, even the web site downloaded versions would stall at startup.  I wound up removing the web versions.

Making duplicates of the apps and using the duplicates also did not seem to keep working properly and would start stalling.  So, I haven't seen a permanent fix.

 

Someone above recommended some host file entries.  That did not work for me at all, unless there is more to it than editing the host file and running the app.  Mine still stalled (20+ bounces on first launch).

[Old Bruce]

21 minutes ago, rudluc said:

I think it would be a great initiative if Affinity offered their users an easy switch to the non-AppStore version.

That would be excellent. 

It won't happen because Serif / Affinity have absolutely no way of knowing that I do in fact own a Mac App Store version of their Photo application. Apple will not tell them that I do own it.

While many honest people will take advantage of the offer many dishonest people will as well.

[Patrick Connor]

3 minutes ago, BofG said:

There are ways to do anything. There isn't the will to do it.

Apple and Microsoft are quite prescriptive about customer scraping, but I think we should at least try to "find a way" for version 2 (if there is one). It would save customer services a lot of hassle. Anyway, that's just a personal wish. For now it is what it is, sorry

[User_783649]

To anyone who's experiencing slow startup of Affinity apps, you may try this simple trick.

Open Terminal app and run any of the following commands:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Affinity\ Designer.app
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Affinity\ Photo.app
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Affinity\ Publisher.app

This will remove quarantine flags from the bundles so they will just launch without those security checks that may take some time before app starts to load.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

1 hour ago, Alex M said:

To anyone who's experiencing slow startup of Affinity apps, you may try this simple trick.

Open Terminal app and run any of the following commands:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Affinity\ Designer.app
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Affinity\ Photo.app
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Affinity\ Publisher.app

This will remove quarantine flags from the bundles so they will just launch without those security checks that may take some time before app starts to load.

 

Doesn't work.  Also, needs to have "sudo" before each command otherwise you get permission denied.

[coral]

I have a same issue with MacOS Monterey 12.0.1 (21A559) 

Mac Pro 2013
64 GB Ram
 

[benwiggy]

Is anyone NOT seeing this bug on Mac? That would be useful data. 

Affinity staff and apps are always showcased in Apple's 'announcements'. You'd think that Affinity would have some clout to get Apple to have a look at this problem which only affects their apps.

[Old Bruce]

4 hours ago, benwiggy said:

Is anyone NOT seeing this bug on Mac? That would be useful data. 

The slow startup is due to the two (or is it three, I cannot recall) most recent OSes from Apple. Apparently startup times for earlier OSes show no significant differences.

[R C-R]

Just now, Old Bruce said:

The slow startup is due to the two (or is it three, I cannot recall) most recent OSes from Apple. Apparently startup times for earlier OSes show no significant differences.

For me running Catalina (v.10.15.7) on my iMac, cold start times might be slightly slower now than with previous versions, but not enough to be problematic.

[benwiggy]

On 12/23/2021 at 3:51 PM, Old Bruce said:

The slow startup is due to the two (or is it three, I cannot recall) most recent OSes from Apple. Apparently startup times for earlier OSes show no significant differences.

??? Surely if it's due to the last few OS versions, then startup times for earlier OSes than those would be faster. (And indeed, I remember they were.)

Bu I don't have this problem with any other apps, and if it's not a universal experience, then that should suggest it can be fixed.

[jimfbk55]

I get 21 bounces on my M1 MacBook Pro before the about screen shows on a fresh launch and 14 bounces thereafter.

 

EDIT:  Running Big Sur 11.6.1 and the apps were purchased from Serif directly.  I did try copying the app, to no avail.

Edited December 31, 2021 by jimfbk55

[DEMinSoCAL]

1 hour ago, jimfbk55 said:

I get 21 bounces on my M1 MacBook Pro before the about screen shows on a fresh launch and 14 bounces thereafter.

Did you try the "copy App" trick?  Make copies of each Affinity app and put those down in your Dock and launch.  For me, it's worked much better with just a few bounces on initial launch (after a fresh boot or restart) and almost immediate if quit and relaunched.

Do you mean if you quit the app and immediately launch it,, it still bounces 14 times?  That's not right, even for Affinity.

[jmwellborn]

I don’t experience these startup delays at all on either my laptop or desktop — both machines with the M1 chip and both running Big Sur.  Photo, Designer, and Publisher consistently open within 2-3 seconds.  All Affinity apps were purchased directly from Serif.

[DEMinSoCAL]

1 minute ago, jmwellborn said:

I don’t experience these startup delays at all on either my laptop or desktop — both machines with the M1 chip and both running Big Sur.  Photo, Designer, and Publisher consistently open within 2-3 seconds.  All Affinity apps were purchased directly from Serif.

Yes, it's been stated that the problem is with the App Store versions of the apps.

[jimfbk55]

32 minutes ago, DEMinSoCAL said:

Did you try the "copy App" trick?  Make copies of each Affinity app and put those down in your Dock and launch.  For me, it's worked much better with just a few bounces on initial launch (after a fresh boot or restart) and almost immediate if quit and relaunched.

Do you mean if you quit the app and immediately launch it,, it still bounces 14 times?  That's not right, even for Affinity.

Thanks. 

Yes, if I quit the app and immediately relaunch, I get 14 bounces.  I only have 8GB of RAM, so maybe that's the issue.  Will try again with copying the apps, but as I said in my edited post, I bought directly from Serif and copying the apps didn't work the first time.

[jimfbk55]

13 minutes ago, jmwellborn said:

I don’t experience these startup delays at all on either my laptop or desktop — both machines with the M1 chip and both running Big Sur.  Photo, Designer, and Publisher consistently open within 2-3 seconds.  All Affinity apps were purchased directly from Serif.

Can we trade computers?    

[jmwellborn]

1 minute ago, jimfbk55 said:

Can we trade computers?    

Not a chance!!!!😄  I love them both.  I contacted Apple Tech Support before buying them and was strongly advised to go for the 16 GB memory.  It seems to be the trick because not only do the apps open in 2-3 seconds but also I can do all sorts of fiddling with filters, adjustments, colors and styles, grouping and ungrouping, changing personas in midstream, and otherwise giving the apps a potential nervous breakdown, and they just consistently sail through.  (With periodic Saves, naturally.)  I purchased my first copy of Photo from the MAS in 2017.  I  deleted it and repurchased Photo along with Designer and Publisher from Serif.   Worth every penny!!

[jimfbk55]

5 minutes ago, jmwellborn said:

Not a chance!!!!😄  I love them both.  I contacted Apple Tech Support before buying them and was strongly advised to go for the 16 GB memory.  It seems to be the trick because not only do the apps open in 2-3 seconds but also I can do all sorts of fiddling with filters, adjustments, colors and styles, grouping and ungrouping, changing personas in midstream, and otherwise giving the apps a potential nervous breakdown, and they just consistently sail through.  (With periodic Saves, naturally.)  I purchased my first copy of Photo from the MAS in 2017.  I  deleted it and repurchased Photo along with Designer and Publisher from Serif.   Worth every penny!!

Thanks.  In the spirit of the New Year, my offer to trade still stands.

The performance is great and I'm very happy with the app and don't have any problems with it, just the slow loading which isn't really a big deal, just a minor annoyance.

Happy New Year!

[jmwellborn]

@jimfbk55  Happy New Year to you too!!

[Stuke]

I read through all the posts, the tricks, etc.  I just launched Publisher...42 seconds on this machine (see image).  Publisher said 'we have an update' so I ran it.  1.10.4 is now installed.  I restarted and it was available in ~ 3 seconds.  Publisher was purchased from Serif.  My Designer and Photo were purchased through Mac App Store.  They both launch in about the 40-45 second range, just like the last Designer version from Serif directly.  So, maybe there is hope that the next D/P updates on Mac App Store will have fixed this trust/JIT/etc issue.

While the launch time is one issue, the trust issue is equally annoying as right clicking in the Finder on a file format that D or P can handle produces a list absent of D or P!  THIS IS REALLY ANNOYING as I have to go and select "another app" each time to be able to launch the file in D or P.  I'm hoping, no praying, this problem of trust (JIT, or whatever) gets fixed, and if the little guy (Serif) can't persuade the big guy (Apple) to fix the issue, then Serif on their own will change the JIT flag (whatever) code to eliminate the delay...find another way to implement the code feature that does not spark the YARA (??) check by macOS.

For Heaven's sake...Affinity products were one of the earliest to embrace macOS technology in their field (photo and vector editing) as alternatives to other big guy (Adobe) lease-ware behavior.

For now, let's restart the computer and see if Publisher 1.10.4 still opens in a few seconds.  Cross your fingers!

 

[Stuke]

1st start: 13 seconds (better, not great)

2nd start:  6 seconds

Maybe we should configure all Affinity apps to launch on start-up, kill them, and then they're be fast apps on macOS once again!

 

but...let's try this tomorrow once the date changes.

 

[Old Bruce]

1 hour ago, Stuke said:

Maybe we should configure all Affinity apps to launch on start-up, kill them, and then they're be fast apps on macOS once again!

This is a way to work. You can do so in the OS preferences in the Login Items tab of the Users & Groups panel.

This "Slow start for Affinity applications purchased from the Mac App Store and used on the more recent Mac OSes" problem has been noted. It seems to be caused by an Apple Security check that is too... aggressive.

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, Stuke said:

While the launch time is one issue, the trust issue is equally annoying as right clicking in the Finder on a file format that D or P can handle produces a list absent of D or P!  THIS IS REALLY ANNOYING as I have to go and select "another app" each time to be able to launch the file in D or P.

FWIW, I am running Catalina, not Monterey, & do not have this problem with AP or AD, both bought from the Mac App Store. I think in Monterey there is some setting in System Preferences > Security & Privacy that must be set to allow the Affinity apps to access files stored in various places, but I am not sure which one it is.

Hopefully, someone using Monterey can explain more about that.