Affinity Photo keeps crashing- Do not have any of the known 3rd party apps.

[LibbyMB]

1. Are you using the latest release version?- Yes
   (here's how to check)
2. Can you reproduce it?
   (if you cannot then we may struggle to also, making it even harder to fix)
   1. It happens most often when I am editing in the layers. I have created a group with a mask. Then it stops responding. 
3. Does it happen for a new document? If not can you upload a document that shows the problem?
   1. It has happened on nearly every photo I have tried to make any substantial edits to. 
4. If you cannot provide a sample document then please give an accurate description of the problem for example it should include most of the following:

•    What is your operating system and version (Windows 10, OSX Mojave, iOS 12 etc)?- Attached in an image. 
•    Is hardware acceleration (in Preferences > Performance) ON or OFF ? (and have you tried the other setting?)
•    What happened for you (and what you expected to happen)
  • Affinity freezes/stops responding. 
  • no amount of time gets it working. 
  • Force closes application 
  • have to start over. 
•    Provide a recipe for creating the problem (step-by-step what you did).
  • After editing in developer mode, I move to pixel mode. 
  • open curve.
  • move to bright
  • create a group
  • Alt+ Mask
  • Paint the mask to create area to edit. 
  • Freezes.
  • Force close 
  • Open photo in recent opens.  
  • Repeat
•    Screenshots (very handy) or a screen capture/video- Attached. 
•    Any unusual hardware (like tablets or external monitors or drives that may affect things) or relevant other applications like font managers or display managers.
  • I do often use an external hard drive and an extra monitor. Issue persists with or without these things. 
•    Did this same thing used to work and if so have you changed anything recently? (software or hardware)
  • No changes. this has happened since I started using the product. 

[walt.farrell]

57 minutes ago, LibbyMB said:

What is your operating system and version (Windows 10, OSX Mojave, iOS 12 etc)?- Attached in an image. 

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums, @LibbyMB.

I don't think any of your screenshots actually answers that question. We can tell it's Windows, but not (as far as I can see) specifically which version of Windows, though I think we can infer that it's some release of Windows 10 from some of the info.

One thing to try, if you are on Windows 10: Open the Photo Preferences (Edit > Preferences), and click on Performance. If you have Hardware Acceleration (OpenCL) enabled toward the bottom of the list, disable it, and see if that resolves your problems.

[Lee D]

@LibbyMBIt's not something I can replicate following your steps on Windows or macOS. Have you tried @walt.farrell suggestion of disabling Hardware Acceleration as does cause some odd issues.