lost toolbars since moving to M1 iMac

[sandraseal]

Hi, I have Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher. I bought Photo and Designer when I had my Intel iMac. I migrated my files from the old to the new mac then bought Publisher. My problem is that the Context toolbar is missing in Photo and Designer when I'm in Separated mode, even though 'Show context toolbar' is ticked. Grateful for any help : )

[catlover]

sorry, reply cancelled.

 

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums, @sandraseal.

Did your old machine have a different monitor setup (more monitors, windows arranged on different monitors) than your new machine?

[Dan C]

Hi @sandraseal 

In addition to Walt's question, could you please provide a screenshot showing this view option ticked and the Affinity app in separated mode?

As mentioned above, if you have a different number of monitors from your previous setup where you've migrated settings from, this could certainly cause the issue you're seeing.

Please navigate to View > Studio > Reset Studio - does this return the context toolbar for you?

Many thanks in advance!

[sandraseal]

thanks so much for the replies  screenshots attached. The View>Studio>Reset Studio didn't bring back the bar.

I think you're on to something with the monitors idea. Although I don't have any extra monitors, my old imac was a 27" and my new one is 24", is that the issue do you think? Is it perhaps best to somehow re-download the apps and reinstall? or delete a preferences file or something?

Edited September 11, 2021 by sandraseal

[R C-R]

From your screenshots, you are missing both the main & the Context toolbars. If you disable Separated mode, do you see both those toolbars at the top of the screen, below the Mac menu bar?

[walt.farrell]

13 hours ago, sandraseal said:

Is it perhaps best to somehow re-download the apps and reinstall? or delete a preferences file or something?

You could try resetting the app, but if you're not careful you could also lose assets, brushes, styles, etc. that you've added. The easiest next step is probably to open the application Preferences, switch to the Miscellaneous section, and Reset User Defaults. This will reset Tools and Toolbar preferences, and settings from the Preferences dialog. But it should preserve everything else.

[sandraseal]

thanks for the replies and ideas!  ok, so I reset the user defaults in Photo and Designer, quit and reopened the apps, but no change. I haven't added any custom styles etc as I'm quite new to using these apps, so they're as they were out of the box and I could reset the app (if you please tell me how?) without losing anything. I've attached two screenshots of what I see if I disable Separated mode, does that shed any light?

 

 

Edited September 12, 2021 by sandraseal
wanted to upload new screenshots which show an open file

[walt.farrell]

9 hours ago, sandraseal said:

I've attached two screenshots of what I see if I disable Separated mode, does that shed any light?

Those look right.

To do a full reset to the Factory state:

1. Press the Ctrl key and hold it until step 3.
2. Click on an application to start it. You will get a Clear User Data dialog.
3. Release Ctrl, click Select All, and then click Clear.
    

[sandraseal]

Walt you're brilliant! That worked! Thanks so much to you and the others for helping me