Missing Brushes in Designer

[oliverwarshaw]

I don't use Designer very often but when I opened the programme the other day I found that none of the brushes that come with the app were there, the brushes panel was empty and there was nothing in the drop-down menu. I had hoped that the fonts would re-apppear when I updated the app to V1.10.3 but they didn't. I am running Big Sur 11.3.1 on a MacBook Pro can anyone help me get the brushes back? 

[walt.farrell]

Did you try clicking on the dropdown menu, in case it's just displaying a category with a blank name and no content?

Assuming you have backups of any brushes that you installed personally, then you might try opening the application Preferences, Miscellaneous, and clicking Reset Brushes.

[oliverwarshaw]

Many thanks Walt, the reset brushes did the trick.

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome. Thanks for confirming.

[PrettyRikki]

Hey there,

I have the same problem and have reset the brushes multiple times, with zero success....

[walt.farrell]

19 minutes ago, PrettyRikki said:

I have the same problem and have reset the brushes multiple times, with zero success....

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

If Resetting the brushes doesn't work, then you may have a damaged installation. Please use File Explorer and navigate to
    C:\Program Files\Affinity\Designer\Resources\Affinity Designer
and show us the directory listing.

[PrettyRikki]

[walt.farrell]

Thanks, @PrettyRikki. Yes, you're missing a bunch of .propcol files.

Possibly your anti-virus (anti-malware, etc.) program has mistakenly deleted them. You might try uninstalling the program, turning off your anti-virus program(s), and installing again.

Which anti-virus program(s) do you run?

[PrettyRikki]

Norton VPN....it does block a whole bunch of websites I need but ugh, this is so frustrating.... I'll try this. Thanks

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome.

I wouldn't expect a VPN to delete files, though. More likely it would be an antivirus, but if you use something like Norton 360 it's never affected the Affinity applications for me.

[PrettyRikki]

Ok, sooooo that didn't work either.....it's like it's completely gone from my account....

[Ron P.]

1 hour ago, PrettyRikki said:

it's like it's completely gone from my account....

What's that mean? You can't access the app from where you purchased it? Where did you purchase AD, Serif/Affinity store or MicroSoft store?

Do you have the install file for AD somewhere on your system? If so good, if not you need to be able to download the app again. If you purchased it from Serif, then log in to your account and go to Downloads and Product Keys, download it again. Make sure to download it to someplace on your system and don't up and delete once you have the app installed. I have about 10 versions I keep on an external USB drive. If purchased from MS store, then you would need to make sure AD is uninstalled, then log into your MS account and download/install from there.

Now once you have it downloaded, (from Serif) disable your anti-virus, then right-click on the installer file, and select Run as Administrator. If install is successful, Do not launch or open AD. First go to the Program Files>Affinity>Designer>Resources>Designer folder and see if it installed all the propcol files. If those files are there, leave this window open, and launch Designer. What I'm curious about is if your brushes and everything else are there. If not, are all those files still showing in the File Explorer window?

When you don't have those propcol files, they either were not installed (corrupt dowload file) or something on your system deleted them. Generally absent a virus/malware, the antivirus program is about the only program that will delete files. Right now I'm thinking good ol' Norton might be behind this. I stopped using it over 20yrs ago, just my personal experience was not good. Others have no issues, so it's a matter of choice.

[PrettyRikki]

I do have issues with many websites due to Norton, so I think I will go ahead and disable it and stick with Nord VPN, which I also have. But I did redownload it from my Affinity account, and the brushes are still missing. I think I deleted previous versions last night, but I won't do that going forward. I'll delete and reinstall again, and try this method

[PrettyRikki]

This is what I now have.. 

[Ron P.]

Ok, try looking in the AppData\Roaming, directory. Press the Win key + R and copy/paste the following: %AppData%\Affinity\Designer\1.0\user

You should see this.

You can force Affinity to rebuild the 1.0 folder by renaming it. So go up a couple of folders so you see just the 1.0 folder (%AppData%\Affinity\Designer). Rename it or copy it somewhere else on you system. Then restart Designer, it will rebuild that folder. Do you have brushes now?

 

[PaulEC]

9 hours ago, PrettyRikki said:

I do have issues with many websites due to Norton

Maybe your version of Norton is different to mine (I have Norton 360), or your settings are different, but for me Norton does not normally delete any files, it just quarantines them. If you want to keep the file(s) you can tell Norton to restore it.

[PrettyRikki]

I copied the 1.0 file to my desktop and relaunched Designer, but still no standard brushes, only the fine liner one I apparently bought or received when I purchased this last year. This is what my brushes look like plus what's in my account. I too have Norton 365

[R C-R]

12 hours ago, PrettyRikki said:

I copied the 1.0 file to my desktop and relaunched Designer, but still no standard brushes...

One of the earlier suggestions by @Ron P. was to rename the 1.0 folder to something else. Have you tried doing that?

[Old Bruce]

1 minute ago, R C-R said:

One of the earlier suggestions by @Ron P. was to rename the 1.0 folder to something else. Have you tried doing that?

I don't recommend messing about like this but when we have to I find it useful to use the convention of OriginalName + _My_Name_Backup so in this case it would go from 1.0 to 1.0_Bruce_Backup. I use this method of renaming because then the alphabetical sorting is retained and it is very easy to revert.

[Dan C]

Hi @PrettyRikki,

Sorry to see you're having trouble here - I can confirm the application showing the brushes installed through My Account, but not the default brushes is expected behaviour as you don't have the required default files in the folder Walt previously mentioned:

On 5/30/2022 at 10:42 PM, PrettyRikki said:

These missing files may indicate the installation did not complete correctly, or as others have mentioned it's likely a third-party app is removing these files during/after installation.

Can you please try resetting the app to default settings for me, which should return the default installed brushes to your installation.

You can reset your app back to its default settings by holding down the CTRL key while launching the app. When the Clear User Data window appears, click Select All and then Clear. The app will now open.

Be aware that resetting your app back to its default settings will lose any custom settings such as keyboard shortcuts and brushes etc. To backup such settings before resetting the app, please watch our Affinity Backing up app resources and factory reset video here - 

After resetting, which brushes appear in this list please?

[walt.farrell]

10 minutes ago, Dan C said:

Can you please try resetting the app to default settings for me, which should return the default installed brushes to your installation.

You can reset your app back to its default settings by holding down the CTRL key while launching the app. When the Clear User Data window appears, click Select All and then Clear. The app will now open.

As we see in the screenshot you quoted, they have missing files in the Resources directory, too, and so the Reset operation has not helped in the past.

[Dan C]

AFAIK, the 'Reset Brushes' in the Preferences dialog will perform a slightly different operation than when using the full CTRL run-up method, so although I'm not overly hopeful based on the users previous info provided, it's certainly worth a try

[PrettyRikki]

Hey everyone....so, I have moved the 1.0 to my desktop...then I renamed the 1.0 in the original location...then I reset the app...still no brushes. Additionally, when I renamed the 1.0 folder, it added a folder and the 1.0 was still there. I have now renamed the same folder twice, and the original still shows up, and no brushed. After I renamed it, when I launch, I now get a license agreement from Europe. I'm soooooooooo frustrated!!! 

[walt.farrell]

It is correct that a new folder would be created, and that you would have to accept the license agreement.

I'm pretty sure that the lack of files in the Resources folder is the reason for the issues you're having. The only cure for that would be an uninstall and reinstall of the program, as far as I know. And if that does not work, then it is most likely that something on your system is removing those files. You will need to find out what that "something" is (likely a cleaning app, or an anti-virus or anti-malware app) and convince it not to remove them. If you have such applications, they may have logs of their activity, or they may provide methods of restoring the deleted files. But that is something you would have to discover.

Possibly @Dan C will have additional ideas.

[Dan C]

Sorry to hear this @PrettyRikki, it certainly sounds as though something is affecting your local installation - so I'd like to request a list of all installed apps on your PC.

Can you please follow the below steps to generate this list from CMD/Powershell -

https://theitbros.com/how-to-get-list-of-installed-programs-in-windows-10/#:~:text=any text file%3B-,How to Get a,execute the following command%3A,-wmic product get

then attach a copy of this here for me?