Affinity Publisher 1.9 Mac crashes when trying to export

[Dave Dennis]

Immediately after updating to Aff. Publisher 1.9 it refuses to open the export dialogue and crashes (program shuts down completely) when I choose File -> Export. All very time wasting and such a headache! I need to send PDFs to printer!!

iMac 21.5" (late 2015) quad-core intel i5, 16gb ram, Iris pro 6200 graphics.

Things I've tried:

• I have updated to latest Big Sur (11.2) and any other updates. This problem began BEFORE updating to Big Sur, and the system update is part of my attempts to solve the issue with Publisher.
• If I create a new document from a template it opens the export dialogue okay and saves to PDF no problem.
• Opening a previously existing document won't export.
• Turned off hardware acceleration and OpenGL.

SESL Business cards 2021-02.afpub

[Ulysses]

I'm sorry I cannot help with the cause of your problem. However, I'm able to open your file in Publisher 1.9, and I can then export it to PDF without any problem. 

I'm attaching the PDF here, although of course I didn't have access to the linked resources.

I'm on an iMac 27" Late-2013 model, with macOS Mojave 10.14.6.

SESL Business cards 2021-02.pdf

[dkenner]

FWIW, Same as Ulysses here.  Downloaded the file, opened, exported without any problem with APv1.9 with the latest OS (11.2) on a 2019 iMac

 

[GryphonArt]

Same has happened to me - just upgraded to 1.9 and it crashes before I get a chance to export to PDF - very frustrating and I need t get this newsletter out on proof

[Dan C]

Hi @Dave Dennis & @GryphonArt,

My sincerest apologies for the delayed response here!

I believe there may be a corruption issue with your Custom Export Presets if the app is crashing by simply opening the export dialog. The easiest way to reset these is to close the Affinity app, then relaunch the app with the CRTL key held.

You should see the below window open, please select Deselect All and then tick the option for Reset File Export Presets

Once selected, choose Clear and the Affinity app should open. Can you now access File > Export without the app crashing?

[dkenner]

On 2/10/2021 at 11:43 AM, GryphonArt said:

Same has happened to me - just upgraded to 1.9 and it crashes before I get a chance to export to PDF - very frustrating and I need t get this newsletter out on proof

 

Happened twice with v1.9, once with v1.91 (last night).  With v1.9, there was a crash report sent to Apple.  No crash report with v1.91.  Relaunched AP, and the same file re-exported without a problem.  

I must note that v1.91, and other two instances, AP crashed when the actual export was attempted.  After the file name was entered and export pressed.  The dialogue boxes up to that point worked fine.

 

 

[Dan C]

Thanks for the further info @dkenner and I'm certainly sorry to hear this. I'd like to request a copy of your crash report(s) as this doesn't sound quite like the same issue as above, if you're able to open the export dialog without the app crashing.

Please go to Applications > Utilities and open the Console app. Crash Reports from our apps can be found in the User Reports section. You can Right Click the required Crash Report and select Reveal in Finder, then upload a copy of these reports to your reply here.

Many thanks in advance!

[Regina]

I am having the same problem with crashes during Export.  I get through the dialog boxes just fine but just about halfway through the Export, AP shuts down "unexpectedly."  I've sent these crash reports to Apple.  I am not sure how many reports I can attach to this conversation, but I'll try to add them all so you have as complete a picture as possible.

Affinity Publisher_2021-03-09-140752_Reginas-Mac-mini.crash Affinity Publisher_2021-03-09-224853_Reginas-Mac-mini.crash Affinity Publisher_2021-03-10-073348_Reginas-Mac-mini.crash Affinity Publisher_2021-03-10-121621_Reginas-Mac-mini.crash Affinity Publisher_2021-03-10-125131_Reginas-Mac-mini.crash

[Dan C]

Hi @Regina,

Sorry to hear you're experiencing crashing in Affinity during your export. Can you please confirm the following for me:

• What format are you exporting to?
• Does the app crash no matter what format you export?
• What location are you exporting the file to currently?
• What if you change the export destination folder (ie export directly to the desktop)?
• Does this happen for any Affinity Publisher document, or only one specific file?

My apologies for the many questions, simply your crash reports show a potential Network issue, so I'd like to ascertain if you are using or exporting to a network drive or Cloud storage system.

Many thanks in advance

[v_kyr]

16 hours ago, Regina said:

I am having the same problem with crashes during Export.

Your several crash reports there are always telling the same cause for liblibnetwork.dylib here, an invalid access. The crashed thread accessed unmapped memory, either by accessing data or an instruction fetch. - The devs have to look inside the debugger at the source point of this cause.
 

Quote

Process:               Affinity Publisher [2541]
Path:                  /Applications/Affinity Publisher.app/Contents/MacOS/Affinity Publisher
Identifier:            com.seriflabs.affinitypublisher
Version:               1.9.1 (1.9.9)
...
OS Version:            Mac OS X 10.15.7 (19H512)
Report Version:        12
Anonymous UUID:        15D647DD-1433-2180-C9D1-4E8725BFE4BB

...

Crashed Thread:        17  Dispatch queue: NSOperationQueue 0x7fe43476d270 (QOS: UNSPECIFIED)

Exception Type:        EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes:       KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x00007fe670c28598
Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Signal:    Segmentation fault: 11
Termination Reason:    Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0xb
Terminating Process:   exc handler [2541]

VM Regions Near 0x7fe670c28598:
    MALLOC_SMALL           00007fe5ca1cc000-00007fe5ca800000 [ 6352K] rw-/rwx SM=ZER  
-->
    STACK GUARD            00007ffee9ce1000-00007ffeed4e1000 [ 56.0M] ---/rwx SM=NUL  stack guard for thread 0

...

Thread 17 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: NSOperationQueue 0x7fe43476d270 (QOS: UNSPECIFIED)
0   liblibnetwork.dylib               0x000000013bae8d5f Network::Wss::FoundationWssClient::Deschedule() + 27
1   liblibnetwork.dylib               0x000000013bae8969 invocation function for block in Network::Wss::FoundationWssClient::SendPing() + 42
2   com.apple.Foundation              0x00007fff3b9c0a85 __NSBLOCKOPERATION_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_BLOCK__ + 7
3   com.apple.Foundation              0x00007fff3b9c09a6 -[NSBlockOperation main] + 80
4   com.apple.Foundation              0x00007fff3b9c0941 __NSOPERATION_IS_INVOKING_MAIN__ + 17
5   com.apple.Foundation              0x00007fff3b9bfb73 -[NSOperation start] + 722
6   com.apple.Foundation              0x00007fff3b9bf899 __NSOPERATIONQUEUE_IS_STARTING_AN_OPERATION__ + 17
7   com.apple.Foundation              0x00007fff3b9bf769 __NSOQSchedule_f + 182
8   libdispatch.dylib                 0x00007fff732912b9 _dispatch_block_async_invoke2 + 83
9   libdispatch.dylib                 0x00007fff73285658 _dispatch_client_callout + 8
10  libdispatch.dylib                 0x00007fff73287818 _dispatch_continuation_pop + 414
11  libdispatch.dylib                 0x00007fff73286f16 _dispatch_async_redirect_invoke + 703
12  libdispatch.dylib                 0x00007fff73293957 _dispatch_root_queue_drain + 326
13  libdispatch.dylib                 0x00007fff73294097 _dispatch_worker_thread2 + 92
14  libsystem_pthread.dylib           0x00007fff734e39f7 _pthread_wqthread + 220
15  libsystem_pthread.dylib           0x00007fff734e2b77 start_wqthread + 15
...

Do you perform an export over the network and not locally to your local disk?

[Regina]

Hi and thank you V_KYR.  Unfortunately I don't "tech speak" so I am hoping your comment/assistance means something to the techs at Affinity if they are reading this.

Hi Dan C thank you also for your assistance.  No apologies necessary for your questions.  However, I am surprised the crash reports don't show this information.  Please excuse my ignorance, I don't have a tech brain so those crash reports are just a jumble of letters and numbers to me.

In answer to your questions:

1.  What format are you exporting to?  I was attempting to export to PDF High Quality.

2.  Does the app crash no matter what format you export?  I didn't try any others.  However, I was successful when dropping it down from PDF High Quality to the next level down - I think it is "good" can't remember the exact quality rating right now.

3.  What location are you exporting the file to currently?  For the first couple of crashes, I was attempting to export to my iCloud account.  Then I tried to export directly to my desktop thinking it was a problem with the iCloud.  But I didn't have any success with the desktop either until I dropped it down from High Quality PDF.  The reason I was trying High Quality PDF is that this is a Digital Planner I hope to sell on Etsy and the better the quality the better the product.

4.  Does this happen for any Affinity Publisher document, or only one specific file?  I haven't tried any other files.  Just a quick note, in preferences, I ticked the box for linking images as opposed to embedding after I experienced the crashing problems thinking that was the cause.

If you would like, I can email you the file I'm having the problem with so maybe you can determine the problem.  I am guessing since you are a "moderator" you have my email address.  Let me know.  This is the size of the file...12,330,719 bytes (13.1 MB on disk).  If this is too big to attach to an email, I can either set up a google doc folder and share it with you or send a dropbox link...your choice.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Regina

[Dan C]

Thanks for the further information provided here Regina!

As you have been able to export the PDF by changing the settings, I'd like to try using our PDF logging script to determine the exact cause of the higher quality PDF export failing - can you please visit the below link and follow the instructions to enable PDF logging -

Once enabled, please set the PDF export to High Quality and then wait for the app to crash. Once the app has closed you should find a PDF log in your Documents folder, which can be attached to your reply here. This will hopefully show us why the PDF is failing to be created, or the step which is causing the app to crash.

Absolutely, if you could please upload a copy of the Publisher document to the below link, this can certainly help us to investigate the issue further -

https://www.dropbox.com/request/BTDqpt0d35aLmguJNWyF

On 3/11/2021 at 10:44 AM, v_kyr said:

Your several crash reports there are always telling the same cause for liblibnetwork.dylib here, an invalid access. The crashed thread accessed unmapped memory, either by accessing data or an instruction fetch. - The devs have to look inside the debugger at the source point of this cause.

Thanks for this information provided v_kyr, I can confirm these reports have been forwarded to our developers and I am currently awaiting a response from this team

[Regina]

Hi Dan 😄

Whew, took me a while to get that to work properly.  But I was finally able to and get the log you requested.  Hope this helps   I will now upload the file to the dropbox you provided.

 

Regina

PDFLib.log

[wmfinnegan]

Quick post to say I'm having the exact same problem. Upgraded to 1.9.1 yesterday (on a MacBook Pro running Catalina) and have been working in Publisher this morning without any problems until I try to export. Export starts but then Publisher crashes about 1/3 into the process. I went through pre-flight and fixed some errors related to embedded PDFs, but that didn't change anything. I'll try some of the other suggestions in this thread now.

Update: I followed the suggestion to reset file export settings and cleared some other user data, and now it crashed a few times while I had the Export window open but before I start exporting. I tried with another file that I didn't have any problems exporting last month and that failed as well. I tried exporting to the desktop instead of the folder I've been working in and it failed again. I've tried a number of the PDF export setting, but none seem to work. I'll try the logging script now... attached are the log files from the script and console. 

PDFLib.log Affinity Publisher_2021-03-13-125203_Bills-MacBook-Pro-2.crash

Edited March 13, 2021 by wmfinnegan
update based on following recommendations in this thread

[v_kyr]

Looks like the app uses memory in an unexpected way here then. Your crash report lists memory access issue.

Quote

rocess:               Affinity Publisher [1736]
Path:                  /Applications/Affinity Publisher.app/Contents/MacOS/Affinity Publisher
Identifier:            Affinity Publisher
Version:               1.9.1 (1.9.1)
Code Type:             X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:        ??? [1]
Responsible:           Affinity Publisher [1736]
User ID:               501

Date/Time:             2021-03-13 12:50:32.147 +0000
OS Version:            Mac OS X 10.15.7 (19H2)
Report Version:        12
Anonymous UUID:        93EAB629-4568-1C9C-93DF-00C85F23D9A2

Time Awake Since Boot: 3800 seconds

System Integrity Protection: enabled

Crashed Thread:        3

Exception Type:        EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes:       KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000038
Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Signal:    Segmentation fault: 11
Termination Reason:    Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0xb
Terminating Process:   exc handler [1736]

VM Regions Near 0x38:
-->
    __TEXT                 000000010352c000-0000000103570000 [  272K] r-x/r-x SM=COW  /Applications/Affinity Publisher.app/Contents/MacOS/Affinity Publisher

...
Thread 3 Crashed:
0   ???                               0x0000000137dc44b5 0 + 5232149685
1   ???                               0x000000013893c737 0 + 5244176183
2   ???                               0x00000001396ce7cf 0 + 5258405839
3   ???                               0x0000000139d288c3 0 + 5265066179
4   ???                               0x0000000139d28815 0 + 5265066005
5   ???                               0x0000000138939b0e 0 + 5244164878
6   ???                               0x000000013838067c 0 + 5238163068
7   ???                               0x0000000139d288c3 0 + 5265066179
8   ???                               0x0000000139d28815 0 + 5265066005
9   ???                               0x0000000138939b0e 0 + 5244164878
10  ???                               0x000000013838067c 0 + 5238163068
11  ???                               0x0000000139d288c3 0 + 5265066179
12  ???                               0x0000000139d28815 0 + 5265066005
13  ???                               0x00000001389398e4 0 + 5244164324
14  ???                               0x000000013837fccc 0 + 5238160588
15  ???                               0x0000000139d28147 0 + 5265064263
16  ???                               0x0000000139d2bc6f 0 + 5265079407
17  liblibpersona.dylib               0x00000001263fdbc0 ExportItemCommandBase::ExportPDFPage(Renderer::RenderTree::PdfExport&, std::__1::vector<ExportableInterface::ExportParams, std::__1::allocator<ExportableInterface::ExportParams> > const&, unsigned long, Kernel::Counted<Renderer::FileExportOptionsPDF const>, VisibilityInterface::VisibilityTestOptions const&, Kernel::Counted<Kernel::Progress>, std::__1::vector<Renderer::RenderTree::Warning, std::__1::allocator<Renderer::RenderTree::Warning> >*) + 10512
18  liblibpersona.dylib               0x00000001263f9ebf ExportItemCommandBase::ExportItemAsPDF(Kernel::JailCounted<ExportableInterface>, Kernel::Counted<Renderer::FileExportOptionsPDF const>, Kernel::Counted<Kernel::FileOutStream>, Kernel::StringT<Kernel::TEncUtf8> const&, bool, ExportAsMultiPage, VisibilityInterface::VisibilityTestOptions const&, Kernel::Counted<Kernel::Progress>, std::__1::vector<Renderer::RenderTree::Warning, std::__1::allocator<Renderer::RenderTree::Warning> >*) + 1823
19  liblibpersona.dylib               0x00000001263f7c73 ExportItemCommandBase::ExportItemAsVector(Kernel::JailCounted<ExportableInterface>, Kernel::Consolidated<Renderer::FileExportOptions> const&, Kernel::StringT<Kernel::TEncUtf8> const&, bool, ExportAsMultiPage, VisibilityInterface::VisibilityTestOptions const&, Kernel::Counted<Kernel::Progress>, std::__1::vector<Kernel::LocalisedString, std::__1::allocator<Kernel::LocalisedString> >*, std::__1::vector<Renderer::RenderTree::Warning, std::__1::allocator<Renderer::RenderTree::Warning> >*) + 2515
20  liblibpersona.dylib               0x0000000126406877 ExportItemCommand::Do() + 1255
21  liblibpersona.dylib               0x000000011b94aca6 DocumentCommand::DoAndUpdateCaches() + 150
22  liblibpersona.dylib               0x000000011f8fdb9f DocumentController::ProcessCommand(Kernel::Counted<DomainCommand>, std::__1::vector<Kernel::Counted<Kernel::Notification>, std::__1::allocator<Kernel::Counted<Kernel::Notification> > >&) + 2943
23  liblibpersona.dylib               0x0000000116c65d43 DomainController::ProcessCommandQueue() + 451
24  liblibkernel.dylib                0x000000010421956e invocation function for block in Kernel::Dispatch::DispatchAndForget(std::__1::function<void ()>, Kernel::Dispatch::DispatchPriority) + 46
25  ???                               0x00007fff72e396c4 0 + 140735120905924
26  ???                               0x00007fff72e3a658 0 + 140735120909912
27  ???                               0x00007fff72e3c4b0 0 + 140735120917680
28  ???                               0x00007fff72e48957 0 + 140735120968023
:::

So Publisher starts the PDF export, but at some state during generation get's an segmentation fault and crashes. - In a similar manner as for the previous poster (Regina) here.

[wmfinnegan]

On 3/13/2021 at 1:29 PM, v_kyr said:

Looks like the app uses memory in an unexpected way here then. Your crash report lists memory access issue.

Just in case this was specific to my computer, I've restarted and tried exporting with only Publisher running. I'm still running into the same issue. Anybody have any tips for sorting this out? I was supposed to send a PDF to the printer this morning...

[Ulysses]

I'm sorry if this repeats a previous suggestion, but @wmfinnegan have you tried reinstalling Affinity Publisher?

[wmfinnegan]

12 minutes ago, Ulysses said:

I'm sorry if this repeats a previous suggestion, but @wmfinnegan have you tried reinstalling Affinity Publisher?

I just tried uninstalling, reinstalling, opening the file, and exporting as PDF and it crashed again during the export.

[Regina]

At this point, I'm going to give upon publisher.  I also have a PC with well over and above the requirements to run publisher and I still run into crashing issues.  I cannot afford a CAL TECH sized super computer to avoid crash issues, (maybe after I win the lottery).  And now, when I am able to export a small size pdf, the links get changed for some reason.  I checked, checked, and rechecked each and every link before I exported (after striping out all the graphics first), and still the links are changed when I open it in the program I'm using the exported document with.  I'm going back to Keynote.

[wmfinnegan]

I really think this must be a bug in the latest update - I've been using Publisher for over a year and have been really happy with it as an affordable layout option (especially compared to an Adobe subscription). I used a workaround to print as a PDF, but it wasn't as optimised as far I as can tell (was a much larger file size than similar documents). Is anyone at Affinity looking into this?

[dkenner]

For what its worth, beyond the issue above, it has not repeated itself, and the application has been behaving rather will.  Per Regina's comments, a "Cal-tech" sized computer won't make any difference if it is a memory issue or a programming bug in certain unique circumstances.  That this thread is not overfilled with similar experiences suggests that what ever I did, was unique.  Depending on platforms, it could be OS issues.  I know my Windows platforms have experienced a lot of updates lately (though for ma AP is on OS/X).  

 

[wmfinnegan]

I'll try updating macOS to 11.2 if I can clear off enough GB to download it, as hopefully that will resolve my issue (currently running 10.15)...

[dkenner]

2 minutes ago, wmfinnegan said:

I'll try updating macOS to 11.2 if I can clear off enough GB to download it, as hopefully that will resolve my issue (currently running 10.15)...

 

Just a quick note...  

https://cyber.gc.ca/en/top-10-it-security-actions

No. 2.  Always keep operating systems and applications up to date with patching...  There is no benefit in keeping a system vulnerable.

 

[Ulysses]

12 minutes ago, dkenner said:

 

Just a quick note...  

https://cyber.gc.ca/en/top-10-it-security-actions

No. 2.  Always keep operating systems and applications up to date with patching...  There is no benefit in keeping a system vulnerable.

 

While I believe this in principle, I also rarely update right away if my system is stable and well protected. Sometimes OS updates bring on more pain than they bring security. This is particularly important for a working studio. So YES, keep your system updated, but also make sure the updates are reliable and stable themselves. 

[dkenner]

36 minutes ago, Ulysses said:

While I believe this in principle, I also rarely update right away if my system is stable and well protected. Sometimes OS updates bring on more pain than they bring security. This is particularly important for a working studio. So YES, keep your system updated, but also make sure the updates are reliable and stable themselves. 

 

Patching for security reasons implies that it is no longer well protected.  While not the forum to be discussing security best practices, if you have the ability to discern critical security patches from important, then waiting a day or two is possible, though my personal opinion that kind of delay primarily concerns iOS updates.  OS/X, Microsoft, those should be on automatic update.  The link is from one of the Five Eyes, and is a best practice.  If a patch causes issues with AP, then Affinity has to address the issue, not the other way around.  Consider it a variant of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs...