AP 1.9 unusable. How can I download the previous 1.9 betas?

[Venyer]

I have been trying 1.9 betas and the performance was superior to the 1.8.5. I updated AP to 1.9 stable and it is SO slow that it is unusable. Hardware acceleration doesn't work and even in warp mode it is slow as hell. I can't understand how it is possible that the betas worked better than the stable release.

It's been lots of problems since last summer, panoramas that don't work, stacks, hdrs, nvidia drivers, C1 interferring... and now AP 1.9 Stable really slow. I have read lots of comments relating the same thing in the forum.

Is Affinity going to release a fix or something soon? This is so frustrating. I can't imagine proffesionals relying on this software.

Where can I download the betas of the 1.9 version?

[AlanPickup]

If you are on Windows with a Serif account you can download from the links in the beta forums. If you did not unstall them thay should still be on you device, mine are on windows 10

[Dazmondo77]

I'd recommend that it's best to hold off updating to the latest store version, as I had a bad experience a few updates back which messed up a couple of deadlines, this was down to the MAS auto update kicking in (now turned off) so for production work I still use 1.8.6 and messing around with the last betas, which do have some great features, but there are still some pretty hefty bugs which have not yet been squashed with the latest commercial release - I reckon a week or so and they'll have things running ACE  

[Alfred]

9 minutes ago, Dazmondo77 said:

I'd recommend that it's best to hold off updating to the latest store version

It’s difficult to “hold off” if you’ve already updated! There’s no way to revert to 1.8 if you’re using the Mac App Store version or the Microsoft Store version, but if you have the Affinity Store version you can easily go back to 1.8 or 1.7 (or even 1.6 if you really want to):

https://store.serif.com/update/macos/photo/1/

https://store.serif.com/update/windows/photo/1/

 

[Dazmondo77]

12 minutes ago, Alfred said:

It’s difficult to “hold off” if you’ve already updated! There’s no way to revert to 1.8 if you’re using the Mac App Store version or the Microsoft Store version

Very true - so I'd recommend switching off auto-update (at least on a production machine) - potentially save a ton of grief - although, I suppose someone has got to update in order to report any bother - so I will be updating my old MacBook to the latest release and leave my main machine on 1.8.6 for a while longer

[loukash]

18 minutes ago, Alfred said:

There’s no way to revert to 1.8 if you’re using the Mac App Store version

Um… Time Machine?
If you use your Mac to make a living, you do have backups, right? Right?!

In other words, last night I have reverted the whole suite to 1.8.4 from my Time Machine backup. The only drawback is that now I can't open my test documents saved with Publisher 1.9 anymore. However, I will install the complete 1.9 suite on a spare High Sierra partition that sits there largely unused, and "play" with it from time to time until they fix all that needs to be fixed.

[lepr]

1 hour ago, Dazmondo77 said:

I'd recommend that it's best to hold off updating to the latest store version [...]

The thing that really bugs me [deliberate pun] is that the retail 1.9 introduces bugs that were not in the ultimate beta. The same happened when 1.8 was released, but Serif apparently didn't learn from that fiasco.

Edited February 6, 2021 by anon2
typos

[Dazmondo77]

22 minutes ago, loukash said:

Um… Time Machine?
If you use your Mac to make a living, you do have backups, right? Right?!

In other words, last night I have reverted the whole suite to 1.8.4 from my Time Machine backup. The only drawback is that now I can't open my test documents saved with Publisher 1.9 anymore. However, I will install the complete 1.9 suite on a spare High Sierra partition that sits there largely unused, and "play" with it from time to time until they fix all that needs to be fixed.

Oh yeah!

I do do a Time Machine backup a few times a month, and also do daily, automated, Carbon Copy Cloner work backups, but stupidly, I forgot to do TM BU the last time I had the problem with auto update - lesson learned ---- TIME MACHINE---- 👍

[loukash]

22 minutes ago, anon2 said:

the retail 1.9 introduces bugs that were not in the ultimate beta. The same happened when 1.8 was released, but Serif apparebtly didn't learn from that fiasco.

Exactly what I thought yesterday evening as well, after reading all the bug reports coming in while considering if I should install my App Store versions of APh and AD while already struggling with APu 1.9 from the Serif Store.
That's seriously mindboggling…

[Dazmondo77]

12 minutes ago, BofG said:

Not only that, but they released it with bugs that were reported from the beta. It's been pointed out many times that Windows store customers can't roll back, yet they still push the updates out with known issues

Yes the grouping text boxes bug (which resizes the contents) is pretty major and I believe is live in the commercial release - that alone would cause chaos with my workflow

[Alfred]

55 minutes ago, Alfred said:

There’s no way to revert to 1.8 if you’re using the Mac App Store version

 

31 minutes ago, loukash said:

Um… Time Machine?
If you use your Mac to make a living, you do have backups, right? Right?!

I’m not a Mac user, so I don’t have Time Machine, but I’m afraid my previous post was simply not well worded! All I meant was that the Affinity Store offers downloads of older versions but the MAS and the MS Store don’t.

[loukash]

1 minute ago, Dazmondo77 said:

the grouping text boxes bug (which resizes the contents) is pretty major and I believe is live in the commercial release - that alone would cause chaos with my workflow

It's in APu 1.9. Likely the main reason I reverted back to 1.8.4, even though there's a workaround by moving the text frame inside a group via Layers panel.

1 minute ago, Alfred said:

I’m not a Mac user, so I don’t have Time Machine, but I’m afraid my previous post was simply not well worded!

No problem. That's why I have pulled just a part of your post literally "out of context" to point out that at least on Mac, there is a way to roll back.

[loukash]

10 minutes ago, Dazmondo77 said:

lesson learned ---- TIME MACHINE---- 👍

I bought a 3TB Time Capsule in spring 2012. One week later (no kidding!), the hard disk in my MacBook Pro 2008 died. Went out to buy a new disk, put it in, attached Time Capsule via Ethernet to make it run faster, reloaded last backup which took some time overnight because a lots of data, picked up the next day literally where I left off, losing perhaps 30 minutes of unsaved work.

But even before that, I've always been a backup junkie. It's always better to have six backups too many than just one too few.
(Still have a box with backups on 3.5" Mac floppies from the early 1990s. I wonder if they still work? In fact I even have a USB floppy drive somewhere! )

[Alfred]

7 minutes ago, loukash said:

at least on Mac, there is a way to roll back

It’s possible to save a ‘system image’ on Windows, but because it isn’t quick and easy it’s not something that most users would think to do as regularly as they should.

[v_kyr]

Yes the latest Affinity suite release builds (v1.8.x, v1.9.x) have all been - let's say unfortunate and partly problematic - in terms of their overall deployment. - I can't tell for the Betas in contrast here, since I didn't found the time for testing and playing around with those, but of course it's a difference in system behavior when running and testing probably non-sandboxed betas vs shop based sandboxed release versions here.

Overall there are many aspects involved and a bunch (mass) of different things to take care about, for the different system based deployments (AF Store vs MAS vs Win Store) here. Especially when the host OS systems and their services freshly changed and thus are always in transition (M1/Big Sur/universal binaries or Win 10 upgrades etc.).

However, it's always a good idea to make first a local backup of the actual/previous software version before upgrading, so one has the chance to fallback if needed to the previous more stable better running version.

[v_kyr]

11 minutes ago, Alfred said:

It’s possible to save a ‘system image’ on Windows, but because it isn’t quick and easy it’s not something that most users would think to do as regularly as they should.

Their fault if they don't keep care of those things. Same as with working on some Publisher etc. document and never making continously daily backups of all related resources. Win also has build-in backup & restore mechanisms which help here, similar as MacOS with TM.

[Venyer]

I believe beta testing is there fo a reason. There is no point releasing a 'stable' version with so many problems.

Average users backup their documents just in case. I think that should be enough.

It is a pity that you can't have a robust and stable system with Windows and other program updates... You have to keep your fingers crossed hoping that everything goes well.