Publisher (Mac): File size rising gigantic despite linked pictures from Apple Photos database

[_Seb_]

Publisher file with 92 pages and about 600 images. Pictures imported via File > Place... and choosing "Photos" (Database from Apples Photos App). The 2016 file size is 20,5 MB, created on a MacBook Pro from 2012 with Affinity Publisher and macOS Mojave. All pictures linked. Working just fine.

Now on my MacBook Air M1 from 2020 (16GB RAM), new project, same pagination, also about 600 images, imported via File > Place... and choosing "Photos" (Database from Apples Photos App), linking chosen! But - first unnoticed - the file size grew up to 5GB. Now I can no longer continue working on the document. I can open it, but Publisher keeps crashing when I try to work in the document. Only now I have discovered the gigantic file size and noticed that something must be wrong with linking. 

Affinity Publisher has permission to access the Apple Photo database in the security settings.

Does anyone know this problem? Any suggestions?

[MikeTO]

Please see this thread. I just shared a workaround for a file size issue so perhaps your issue is the same.

 

[_Seb_]

Thank you @MikeTO! When I embedded the pictures, the document size shrank from 5 GB to 2,15 GB. After linking, the document is now 18,2 MB and smooth as a charm again. THANKS A LOT!!!

Edited February 8, 2022 by _Seb_

[_Seb_]

Unfortunately, if I move one picture and safe the document it's almost 1GB again. I hope Serif fixes this problem soon. It's not so new I learned today... And it worked before. 

[MikeTO]

41 minutes ago, _Seb_ said:

Unfortunately, if I move one picture and safe the document it's almost 1GB again. I hope Serif fixes this problem soon. It's not so new I learned today... And it worked before. 

It doesn't do that for me. It's always going to get somewhat larger if you make a change and choose Save but it should definitely not get that much larger. For me opening the small document, moving one image, and choosing save boosts it from 8 to 11.5MB but if I then choose Save As it's back to 8MB. What happens if you choose Save As after embedding all the images, linking them all, moving one image, and then choosing Save As?

I don't doubt that whatever caused this problem will occur again because I found through previous testing that there were about 20 images in my document causing this problem, so the problem had occurred about 20 times before. But they didn't all happen at once so now I'll just watch the file size creep back up and when it gets a bit large I'll redo the embed and link trick to fix it again for a while. That should tide me over until Serif fixes this bug.

[_Seb_]

First I tried 1.10.5 Beta, same trouble. Then I got 1.10.1 from my old MacBook. Same problem. Then Publisher 1.9.3 from backup. Scrolling in this version is not so smooth, but the linking is working. I can edit the document and safe as often I want. So far it has not crashed and the file size with about 600 linked pictures stays around 20 MB. 

[DWright]

This issue with the saved file size fluctuating on M1 Apple Macs has been logged with our developers 

[_Seb_]

@DWright Publisher 1.9.3 has already been an universal app. The links are working on M1 Mac with this old version of Publisher.

Update: Here you can find Publisher 1.9.3 (Universal) for Mac on Serif website.

Edited February 9, 2022 by _Seb_