Affinity Publisher keeps crashing

[TimWo]

Hello!

I'm a newbie to the forum, and to using Publisher. I graduated from DrawPlus to Designer and found it excellent, so now that I want to produce a 50-page illustrated book I went straight for Publisher as it's compatible with my Designer projects.

And it's started to crash frequently 😞

I've been learning as I go, but over the last 2 weeks (as the file size increased - I'm using a fairly basic consumer laptop) I have found that pictue frames would become 'stuck' and undeletable, and attempting to alter their pinning settings would cause a crash. I had to work around this by adding pages, copying the text from that chapter to them and reinserting the pictures, then deleting the original pages.

Also I found a phantom text box near the bottom of one spread. The control points are replaced by Xs as if it's on the master pages, but it isn't. Likewise with the frames described above.

It's now crashing repeatedly within minutes, while I'm playing with pieces of Artistic Text forming a family tree, which were pasted in from a Desiger document.

I don't know how to generate a report like Rivetgeek's above, but I can provide details of my Windows 10 system. My project file is attached, and I have earlier backup copies if required.

Nant Mill book A5.afpub

[carl123]

6 hours ago, TimWo said:

Also I found a phantom text box near the bottom of one spread

There are 42 pages, could you narrow it down a bit?

[TimWo]

Hi Carl123, Thanks for your response.

Good point! I deleted that spread, but will screenshot if it happens again and post it here.

[TimWo]

Here it is!

It's on page 20 of this document. I used the Layer, Unlock command without any effect.

Nant Mill book A5 backup 3.afpub

[Brian_J]

13 hours ago, TimWo said:

Also I found a phantom text box near the bottom of one spread.

@TimWo That phantom text frame can't be edited because it's in the master page layer. To delete or edit the text frame, right-click the master 'Main part' layer and select Edit Detached, make whatever edits you want, then click the red Finish button.

I'm fairly new to APub and have accidentally added elements to a master page layer when working on a publication page. I can't explain why it happens. 

[Komatös]

No, the phantom text layer isn't in the master page layer.

My solution: Click on the phantom text layer, Hold CTRL + Shift + D. Delete the phantom text layer and click Finish.

[Brian_J]

1 minute ago, Komatös said:

No, the phantom text layer isn't in the master page layer.

It is in the second file TimWo provided.

[Old Bruce]

2 hours ago, Komatös said:

No, the phantom text layer isn't in the master page layer.

 

I haven't downloaded the file but I will wager that at some point the phantom layer got added to the master layer on that page. If you right click on the Master Page layer on that page and choose Edit Detached you'll find it nested in that Master Page layer and only on that page.

[Komatös]

Sooorry, I am stupid. Those who can read have a clear advantage.

I was lost in translation.  And my ageing English did the rest.

 

[Brian_J]

2 hours ago, Komatös said:

Sooorry, I am stupid. Those who can read have a clear advantage.

I was lost in translation.  And my ageing English did the rest.

@Komatös I can only read/write one language, so you won't receive any judgement from me. 🙂

[Gabe]

Hi @TimWo,

I split this into its own thread as we like to keep crash reports separate. 

Can you attach a document or a recipe for a crash at all? Also. have you got Hardware acceleration ON or OFF? 

[TimWo]

Hi Gabe,

Only just saw the notification, and thanks for your input.

I reckon the Hardware acceleration is OFF, based on this screenshot.

Here's the file I'm trying to edit; at present Publisher crashes every couple of minutes when it's open, mainly when I'm adding or editing pictures/picture frames.

I saved an earlier version, and I'm working on that one at present; Publisher seems to be stable.

Nant Mill book A5.afpub

Edited August 5, 2021 by TimWo
Spelling

[TimWo]

On 7/24/2021 at 2:40 PM, Old Bruce said:

I haven't downloaded the file but I will wager that at some point the phantom layer got added to the master layer on that page. If you right click on the Master Page layer on that page and choose Edit Detached you'll find it nested in that Master Page layer and only on that page.

Thanks, Old Bruce

I tried that, it worked, and now I know a bit more about Publisher!

[TimWo]

On 7/24/2021 at 10:47 AM, Brian_J said:

That phantom text frame can't be edited because it's in the master page layer. To delete or edit the text frame, right-click the master 'Main part' layer and select Edit Detached, make whatever edits you want, then click the red Finish button.

Thanks as well to you, Brian_J!

[TimWo]

I've updated Publisher to 1.1, and it still happens. I think that document is corrupted somehow, as the backup one (attached) seems fine

Nant Mill book A5 backup 3.afpub

[Gabe]

Hi @TimWo,

It's definitely something wrong with the document. I'll get this logged with our developers. 

[TimWo]

9 hours ago, Gabe said:

Hi @TimWo,

It's definitely something wrong with the document. I'll get this logged with our developers. 

Hi again, Gabe

I've remembered when things seemed to start going wrong, in case that helps the developers. I was trying to edit the image I've uploaded here, within Publsher. You'll note that the lower left corner is over-exposed in the original photograph, so I wanted to overlap another vintage pic over that area. As both images have irrregular outlines, I thought that I'd Subtract a square from the lower left corner of this image (or make a Compound to the same effect), then place its layer in front of the other image.

That wouldn't work, so I searched online and found I should 'Convert it to curves' first, which would convert it into a bitmap. I did this, but still didn't succeed, as the Subtract or Compound operation made the bitmap become a set of random splodges.

I found a workaround by using the Node tool to edit the corner nodes of the bitmap to form the required shape. However, after that things started to get crashy.

In trying to move on with editing, I deleted that page from the document, but I saved the history with it. You can see what I'm talking about on page 15 of the PDF, which I exported at the time.

I don't know if that helps.

Best wishes,

Tim

Nant Mill book A5 10.pdf

[Gabe]

We are aware of an issue where using a curves layer with bitmap fill (which is what the image will turn into when converted into curves) reset its fill to the original 100% zoom when part of boolean operations. What you see might be related to that. 

[TimWo]

On 8/6/2021 at 9:24 AM, Gabe said:

Hi @TimWo,

It's definitely something wrong with the document. I'll get this logged with our developers. 

Hi Gabe,

Thanks for the comment about bitmaps, that's useful to know.

I've just installed the latest Publisher update, to 1.10.1.1142, and hoped it would have solved my problems. However, it still crashed after opening my working copy of the Nant Mill book A5 document; the one I uploaded here first.

I presumed that one was somehow corrupted, so I abandoned it and started to work on the Backup 3 version, (which I've also uploaded previously) one that had seemed fine previously.

I tried to create a table of contents, so inserted a couple of pages after page 2. Following the instructions in the Help files, inserted a ToC, but no text became visible, just blue highlighted areas on the page.

Soon after that, Publisher crashed, yet again! I'm really disappointed, as it would be a real ball-ache to start my book again from scratch.

Can you find out, please:

     If my troubles were addressed in the latest update?

     What is wrong with my documents, that causes the crashes, and if they can be purged so I can work on them.

 

I've been a fan of Serif/Affinity for many years, so I'm surprised to run into these difficulties.

Thanks,

Tim

[Gabe]

I'm afraid I don't have an update on your issue. Sorry.