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Affinity apps excruciatingly slow to open/start


ASTJ

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I thought it was my Mac, so I did a clean install (format hard drive and reinstall OS) but all of my Affinity apps are still painfully slow on startup/opening - have a look at this video:

https://streamable.com/2mn1dj

I have a 16" MBP with 64GB RAM, a good CPU and GPU and of course a 'fast' SSD - older versions of Affinty apps (when I got my MBP a year ago) opened almost instantly - is there a reason for this significant slow-down? Has Apple introduced something that's messing with the Affinity code-base?

Edited by ASTJ
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Running Big Sur, Both 1.8.6 and 1.9, all Affinity Suite apps, slow startup. Purchased through Mac App Store. I think that Affinity developers were bogged down with the just released 1.9 update and didn't get around to resolving the startup issue. I expect the issue to be resolved soon since 1.9 just came out. At least I hope this is the case.

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39 minutes ago, TomM1 said:

As a point of reference, for me, AP 1.9 was slow to start the first time after the update. 

But now is very fast.

Catalina

It is only momentary - try it again in a few hours and it will be slow again.

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Same problem here: all the Affinity apps (Photo, Designer and Publisher) are very slow when starting after awhile from previous starting. I am using macbook 15" (mid 2015) with the latest Big Sur -version (11.2). I also have installed very fast SSD (OWC Aura Pro X2).

Yesterday I updated all Affinity apps to version 1.9 and I started the apps and of course the first starting was very slow, and I started them every now and then and the tstartig was very fast. But today I started again all of them and starting was again extremely slow.

It would be very nice to know what causes this problem. And it seems that I am not the only one who has this issue.

I have purchased Photo from Affinity and Designer and Publisher from App Store. They all have this issue.

Edited by tsehov
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  • Staff

Hello everyone. 

Development are aware of this but as far as I know, we aren't sure what causes it specifically.

Running up after a restart can be slow but closing the app and restarting is usually faster. The restart is often the key here.

When QA were trying to find a workaround, we sometimes found duplicating the app sometimes worked but it's not ideal :( 

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I also have the same problem. MacBook Pro (15 inch, 2016), 2.7 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, 16GB, Radeon Pro 460 4 GB. After reading the posts, I'm glad I'm not the only one. I'm sure the folks at Affinity will fix this. The programs are otherwise very stable and I have been able to complete many projects with them.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/5/2021 at 11:59 AM, Chris B said:

Hello everyone. 

Development are aware of this but as far as I know, we aren't sure what causes it specifically.

Running up after a restart can be slow but closing the app and restarting is usually faster. The restart is often the key here.

When QA were trying to find a workaround, we sometimes found duplicating the app sometimes worked but it's not ideal :( 

I have an update which I think may help - it has led to a significant improvement for me anyway!

As suspected, it appears to be Apple's fault!

Try this:

- System prefs > Siri > Siri Suggestions & Privacy and then uncheck both the options for ALL apps

- System prefs > Apple ID > iCloud > iCloud Drive > Remove ALL apps

MASSIVE IMPROVEMENT!

Unless it is just unrelated and is connected to Apple's dialing home (whenever anyone opens an app on their Mac 😡) being down or something.

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On 2/23/2021 at 1:45 PM, ASTJ said:

I have an update which I think may help - it has led to a significant improvement for me anyway!

As suspected, it appears to be Apple's fault!

Try this:

- System prefs > Siri > Siri Suggestions & Privacy and then uncheck both the options for ALL apps

- System prefs > Apple ID > iCloud > iCloud Drive > Remove ALL apps

MASSIVE IMPROVEMENT!

Unless it is just unrelated and is connected to Apple's dialing home (whenever anyone opens an app on their Mac 😡) being down or something.

Won't that remove data from those app?

 

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6 hours ago, ASTJ said:

I just tested again today - same (improved) load time!

I hope your developers give Apple a hard time over this,  it was making me hate my Affinity suite and considering moving back to Adobe.

Hve you tried the technique mentioned on this forum where you copy the app files out of Applications to your desktop. then copy them back and overwrite the originals? That brought the startup time back to nearly normal for me.

 

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4 hours ago, FlintHillsSky said:

Hve you tried the technique mentioned on this forum where you copy the app files out of Applications to your desktop. then copy them back and overwrite the originals? That brought the startup time back to nearly normal for me.

 

No I haven't tried that. I don't want any of my files accessible/stored on anyone else's servers anyway, so I am quite happy that it is off.

 

4 hours ago, FlintHillsSky said:

Won't that remove data from those app?

 

If you store your files on their servers/iCloud then I would imagine so (I don't use it myself).

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On 2/26/2021 at 2:21 AM, Santi Capó said:

What I noticed it's that every time I use CleanMyMac X and clean user cache, even excluding Affinity Apps, they start really slow.

Edit 5 minutes later:

Also excluding folder com.apple.helpd works fine.

that would be expected. When apps are started, there are usually caches of code created and stored in the user cache that help the app run and make it faster to start the next time. When you clear that out you are resetting those apps back to zero. clearing the cache may open up some disk space but it does not speed up your computer's operation.

 

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1.9.1 did not fix it for me.

  1. Prior to 1.9.1 startup was about 5 seconds
  2. installed 1.9.1 (after initial verification step) startup was around 30 seconds
  3. Copied AF Photo and then moved the copy to Applications replacing the original.
  4. After that, startup was again back to 5 seconds.

Something seems to happen (or not happen) when the apps are installed that causes it to be slow to start.

 

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I've experienced this as well for the last month or so on an M1 MacBook Air. It's definitely something in the OS, as console entries indicate control isn't being passed to Affinity Photo until after the 20 seconds it sits on the Dock, at which point it launches quickly. I tend to agree that something is off-kilter in either Spotlight, iCloud, or security, as I've had a variety of odd performance and other problems linked back to those.

For me, installing v1.9.1 (standalone, non-MAS version) resulted in instant launches, but that's also after previously using 1.9 in that session, so something may have been cached or otherwise primed. We'll see how it acts after a reboot.

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