Affinity Photo 1.10.3 is broken on Mac 10.14.6. How can I downgrade??

[loukash]

7 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Apple quit updating drivers for the Intel HD Graphics 4000 when Mojave was released

Well…

3 hours ago, loukash said:

no problems on a Catalina partion […] using the very same MacBook

So obviously, ugrading to Catalina would also solve the issue.

[R C-R]

8 minutes ago, loukash said:

So obviously, ugrading to Catalina would also solve the issue.

I'm not sure that is possible these days. Does Apple still make the Catalina upgrade available (signed) now that Big Sur & Monterey are available?

I ask because my wife's 2015 (I think) iMac is still running High Sierra & at the Mac App Store the link to the Catalina update via a search says 'not found.'

[markw]

Old versions of macOS can still be found on the MAS, but seem to be hidden for reasons best known to Apple🤫, but they can be accessed via Safari.
See this article in MacWorld on how, and for the links to the different OS versions: https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/download-old-os-x-3629363/

 

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, markw said:

Old versions of macOS can still be found on the MAS, but seem to be hidden for reasons best known to Apple🤫, but they can be accessed via Safari.
See this article in MacWorld on how, and for the links to the different OS versions: https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/download-old-os-x-3629363/

Thanks for that macWorld 'how to' but unfortunately it does not work -- clicking the link for Catalina in Safari opens a page that in turn opens the MAS, which as mentioned in the MacWorld article section "That Mac App Store link isn't working for me!" generates the "Update not found" error message when I click on the download link.

[markw]

Hi @R C-R, well that’s very odd?
A couple of months ago I used it to reinstall Catalina on another computer.
Have just tried again now and it still works for me.
Clicking on the GET button starts the download process.

[loukash]

7 hours ago, R C-R said:

unfortunately it does not work

Don't use Firefox for opening that link.
Open https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372 in Safari and go from there.
(Works for me on El Capitan.)

[tymcat]

17 hours ago, loukash said:

For the record: no problems on a Catalina partion (or on El Capitan, for that matter) using the very same MacBook.
So this seems ultimately a Mojave issue.

My first reason to upgrade to Catalina. Otherwise I don't need it. Never change a running system... when my AP trial period runs out, I will try it and report.

17 hours ago, loukash said:

I just checked on my Mojave test partition and can confirm this issue with all three Affinity 1.10.4 apps.
MacBookPro 9,1 (mid-2012 non-retina), Intel HD Graphics 4000, Metal active.

That's interesting - on my MBP 10.2 retina only Photo acts up. Designer and Publisher 1.10.4 work well.

How do I change to Open GL? I thought it was turned off in Mojave?

[loukash]

12 minutes ago, tymcat said:

My first reason to upgrade to Catalina. Otherwise I don't need it. Never change a running system

Haha, that's why my main partition happily continues to run El Capitan.
(Disclosure: I'm still using a fully working Firewire audio interface from 2003 [!] under El Capitan which wouldn't work under Sierra or higher anymore because those bastards don't provide anymore drivers. And even those El Capitan drivers are already user hacked…)

And that's why I have installed all other MacOSs on separate partitions, having a 2 TB SSD in total. This MacBook can also still boot Mountain Lion although I rarely ever need it.

El Capitan is the best compromise for me, also because I can then easily sync the whole content with my backup MacBookPro from 2008 which can only run up to El Capitan.

12 minutes ago, tymcat said:

on my MBP 10.2 retina only Photo acts up. Designer and Publisher 1.10.4 work well.

Because apparently by default they don't seem to use Metal. If you change to Metal in Preferences, the artifacts will appear.

12 minutes ago, tymcat said:

How do I change to Open GL?

Affinity Preferences > Performance > disable "Enable Metal" > then you can change the Display popup menu to "Open GL" > restart app

Edited October 31, 2021 by loukash

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, loukash said:

Don't use Firefox for opening that link.
Open https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372 in Safari and go from there.
(Works for me on El Capitan.)

As I said, I used Safari, & as per the article I did not have the MAS app running when I clicked on the link. The MAS app then opened but like the MacWorld article said in the "That Mac App Store link isn't working for me!" section, I am among those who get the Update not found error message.

[markw]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

I am among those who get the Update not found error message.

Sorry to hear that R C-R, do you have access to another Mac you could try again with? Could be worth trying, as there is no definitive reason why it should fail for some. Maybe it's linked to hardware???
Then, as per the article, just Save the download to disk instead of installing it and then transfer the installer to the desired Mac.
After downloading the installer is a tad over 8GB if memory serves.

[R C-R]

12 minutes ago, markw said:

Then, as per the article, just Save the download to disk instead of installing it and then transfer the installer to the desired Mac.

I finally managed to get the installer to download, quit the installer once it opened, but then after installing a new security update for Catalina on the Mac I downloaded to, the Install macOS Catalina.app inexplicably disappeared from that Mac's Application folder (it was there before running the security update).

I downloaded it again (took 2 tries before the download would start), repeated quitting the installer, & finally managed to copy it to a smaller thumb drive after discovering that my largest SanDisk USB 3 thumb drive has developed unrepairable faults. The large one is what i planned on using as a bootable installer drive (& have in the past) so that was disappointing.

All told, this took well over an hour & at this point, I am tired of fighting with this so I will put off to another day trying to use it on my wife's iMac.

Anyway, thanks for all the help. Hopefully, others will not have the problems I have had with this.

[v_kyr]

See support.apple.com:

• How to get old versions of macOS

• ... & security updates

[markw]

18 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I am tired of fighting with this so I will put off to another day trying to use it

It's at this point we Brits would go and make a fresh cup of tea!

[R C-R]

3 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

See support.apple.com:

• How to get old versions of macOS

Yes, I read that support article, along with the MacWorld one & the one @loukash mentioned earlier.

All of them basically involve the same procedure for getting the download. My problem was it did not work reliably -- it took many tries for the download to be found & even when it was, more often than not, the download would not start.

All in all, very frustrating!

[loukash]

1 minute ago, R C-R said:

it did not work reliably

Depending on the MacOS version, the Mac App Store app may or may not be partially broken. I haven't checked the above procedure directly from the Mojave partition, but earlier this and last year, there were App Store app issues on Mojave, e.g. when trying to download or update GarageBand or Logic Pro – while there were no problems on High Sierra, El Capitan or Catalina. Or vice versa, depending on the app I wanted to download…

There are a couple of hints online on how to reset the App Store cache etc. which might eventually fix such download and install issues. At least temporarily. Or not. D'oh…

[tymcat]

Djekouyi loukash for your hacks - they work for you, but I don't have a 2TB SSD, my main SSD is a Quarterpounder (without cheese) ;D and my backup has 750GB. I keep them, in case I upgrade.
But the good news is: I HAVE MY APPLE 1.10.1 AFFINITY PHOTO BACK!!! And it works flawlessly!  💐 🥳🍺🎊
I never used Time Machine backups (apart from the fatal failure of my very first total TM backup before purging a disk, which cost me 5 years of images...)
But my Affinity backup works!

Apart from that...

7 hours ago, loukash said:

Because apparently by default they don't seem to use Metal. If you change to Metal in Preferences, the artifacts will appear.

- in my case both 1.10.4's work!!! You are right with Publisher, I turned on Metal there, Designer had Metal turned on and both work well, see below.

For now I am safe with my 2x 1.10.4 and 1x 1.10.1 and I hope my solution works for others. So it's just AP acting up.
I don't know why the downgrade didn't work for tex882 – maybe it wasn't a Time Machine backup. TM seems to restore the old links to prefs and so on whereas another backup leaves some remnants from the 1.10.4 copy. That's my noob's logic at least

I thank all for your help!! ♥️

So - my Mojave 10.14.6 runs v 1.10.4 AD & APub, but only 1.10.1 APh

Edited October 31, 2021 by tymcat
wasn't complete. I just wanted to upload the screenshots first.

[R C-R]

6 minutes ago, loukash said:

Depending on the MacOS version, the Mac App Store app may or may not be partially broken.

I suspect Apple is not particularly interested in fixing any MAS issues unless they affect the most recent macOS versions.

When I have called Apple Support about issues I have had with my 2020 iMac, when I tell them I am running Catalina, the first thing they have suggested is upgrading to the latest version.

[loukash]

14 hours ago, tymcat said:

in my case both 1.10.4's work!!! You are right with Publisher, I turned on Metal there, Designer had Metal turned on and both work well, see below.

Interesting. Frankly, I didn't investigate that in deep. I feel literally uncomfortable when using any other OS than my highly customized El Capitan, so it was just a brief "visit" in the Mojave desert.

14 hours ago, tymcat said:

I don't have a 2TB SSD

Quality SSDs are literally preiswert nowadays. I also put the same 2 TB SanDisk SSD into the "antique" MBP 2008 – the last pre-Unibody model with silver keyboard – and in spite of the much slower SATA 1 hard drive interface (vs SATA 3 in the 2012 model) the ole 'book now literally flies. This was the best computer upgrade in decades. Especially given that the MBP is already 13 years old. And still going as my backup and travel machine.

14 hours ago, tymcat said:

apart from the fatal failure of my very first total TM backup before purging a disk, which cost me 5 years of images

Speaking of backups and purging or swapping discs, I'd never use Time Machine for that, unless in case of a drive failure which happend to me one week after buying a Time Capsule 10 years ago. And I never purge a disk before making sure that I have a fully working backup of whatever important was on that disk. When swapping the hard disk with the SSD in the 2008 MacBook, I have actually cloned the original partitions onto the similarily partitioned SSD. I don't remember what app I was using for that, but apart from Disk Utility which is what I may have used in this case, I also use either SuperDuper or ChronoSync to create bootable backups. And of course, there's the Time Capsule 4th gen. silently running on the network in the background, making its hourly backups.

Backups, backups, backups.
You'll never have "too many" of them.

11 hours ago, R C-R said:

I suspect Apple is not particularly interested in fixing any MAS issues unless they affect the most recent macOS versions.

My impression as well.
I have always avoided MAS whenever possible. As such, and as an early Affinity adopter, ADe and APh are my only major MAS purchases apart from Apple's Logic Pro X.

[Dan C]

Many thanks for the further information provided here and we're very sorry to hear that 1.10.4 has not resolved this issue as expected.

I can confirm that I've logged all the information from this thread directly with our developers. As I understand it:

• This issue only affects Mojave
• This requires an Intel GPU
• Disabling Metal (both acceleration and display) resolves the issue

Should I have missed anything, or if you have any further info to provide, please don't hesitate to let me know

[Chris B]

@tex882 and @tymcat have you tried the latest beta which is supposed to revert this issue?

 

[paaljoachim]

I am using OSX 11.6.1.
Affinity Photo version: 1.10.4
I had a similar weirdness as well. Mine had a huge blank square be created when I was drawing a rectangle with the rectangle tool.
I tested...
I went into Preferences -> Performance and turned on the Hardware acceleration: Enable Metal compute acceleration. Restarted the app and now the Rectangle tool works again as it should. I also turned it off again and restarted and the Rectangle tool still looks to be working fine. There seems to be an initial hickup that did some weirdness. It looks better now. I will report back again if it shows up again.

[tymcat]

AP works again
For me the problem was solved by upgrading from Mojave to Catalina.
No regrets, but it took some time to be fully fall-back secured. I've had bad experiences with Apple upgrades.
So unfortunately I cannot report anymore about the bug-extinction under Mojave. I'm happy to be on track

PS: I hope there will be a Linux version of Affinity one day ... «:) if not - maybe through a Mac/Win VM.
If it wasn't for me being tied to several programs, I'd switch any moment - and spend money on good hardware (Mac would still be a good option).