1.10.5 Causing crashes (again)

[multis]

We used 1.10.4 since it was published with very few crashes. Since we have diverse team with many users, moving to a new version has been usually only when we've confirmed that the new version is solid.

Unfortunately, again, we are seeing the old bug that has bothered us since the beta time. When the new version appears, Publisher immediately notifies the user... and soon after that crash. No matter what I am doing, which files are open etc. It gives no error messages and no warnings. It simply dies. Attempts to re-open with 1.10.4 were doomed - this has been seen many times.

Earlier on, I even changed Registry value as per support instructions so that this should not happen. Apparently something is changed and this time the new version was 'notified' and that meant crash. Now, since installing 1.10.5 (on Windows 10 Pro with 64G of RAM) it has started to crash - not every time, not on every file and but far, far, far more often than 1.10.4 ever did. And not only on my computer, but all of our team members have reported the same.

I don't know what 1.10.5 was supposed to fix, but forcing these updates is bad behavior and I really hope this is the very last time Serif does this. I sincerely hope that you'll either remove the component that "notifies" of the updated version or redo it from scratch. This same problem (as you can see from older bug reports) has existed a long while. As this will, clearly, mean that I have again unstable Publisher and hours and hours of time is likely going to crashes, I do feel annoyed and betrayed. I would have not changed from 1.10.4 without the absolute must that Serif imposed. What should I do now? 1.10.5 works only occasionally and i have urgent deadlines to meet. 

[jmwellborn]

@multis  I don't know how it works with Windows, but can you find the option I show below in your Publisher>Preferences>Software Update?  Although the screenshot shows "Daily" checked, I actually have mine set to "Never," so I can personally decide whether to update or not.  I should add that I purchased all three apps directly from the Affinity store, rather than from MAS.  I hope that people who use Windows can come to your rescue regarding getting you back to v. 1.10.4!

[multis]

yeah, I have Mac version of Publisher, too. That does have such a selector, but the Windows 'preferences menu' does not have such fancy things.

[jmwellborn]

3 hours ago, multis said:

yeah, I have Mac version of Publisher, too. That does have such a selector, but the Windows 'preferences menu' does not have such fancy things.

Drat.  I hoped Windows might oblige.  Did you by any chance buy your Publisher through the Affinity store?  If so you can reinstall 1.10.4.  

[multis]

It doesn't much help that I can re-install 1.10.4 as it IMMEDIATELY notices that "ah, there is a new version" and crashes. And since then .4 does no longer work on any existing files. And as the 1.10.5 is unstable (30+ crashes today) situation is less than funny.

[stokerg]

18 hours ago, multis said:

Earlier on, I even changed Registry value as per support instructions so that this should not happen. Apparently something is changed and this time the new version was 'notified' and that meant crash. Now, since installing 1.10.5 (on Windows 10 Pro with 64G of RAM) it has started to crash - not every time, not on every file and but far, far, far more often than 1.10.4 ever did. And not only on my computer, but all of our team members have reported the same.

Sorry to hear the trouble you are having.  Do you get the crashes on new files or ones you've already created?  Are the crashes random or do you have a set of steps that always results in a crash?

 

18 hours ago, multis said:

Unfortunately, again, we are seeing the old bug that has bothered us since the beta time. When the new version appears, Publisher immediately notifies the user... and soon after that crash. No matter what I am doing, which files are open etc. It gives no error messages and no warnings. It simply dies. Attempts to re-open with 1.10.4 were doomed - this has been seen many times.

Thats not something i've experienced when updating Publisher and can't seem to find a link to one of those threads.  If you could give me a link to one of those threads, i'll be able to find out some more information.

[multis]

3 hours ago, stokerg said:

Sorry to hear the trouble you are having.  Do you get the crashes on new files or ones you've already created?  Are the crashes random or do you have a set of steps that always results in a crash?

 

Thats not something i've experienced when updating Publisher and can't seem to find a link to one of those threads.  If you could give me a link to one of those threads, i'll be able to find out some more information.

Hi,

 

If you look at what I've posted to this forum, it contains several threads, almost all essentially of the same problem:
- Update of Publisher being broken this way or that way. Here is a one of those, that just happens to have exactly same problem as with 1.10.5.

If I just open Publisher and make new file, it works quite okay (only one crash on such cases since update). But as we have 100+ files that in constant update and which I will, most assuredly, not redo from scratch when ever Serif decided that an update for Publisher is needed, we have a real problem.

When I open one of those files previously created, there is scant time (2-3 seconds) until Publisher crashes. If I manage to change something and save the file AND the save is completed before crash inevitably always occurs, the newly saved file MIGHT work. It matters not what is changed. What seems to matter is that it is saved with 1.10.5 (not 1.10.4) last. After 1-10 crashes per file, so far, I have managed to open every file with this method. But is it elegant? Or does it feel safe? Or most important why the heck does it happen? 

Here you have a sample. To 'tame' this file took 30 minutes of open, edit, save, crash - rinse-and-repeat. As before, my humble hunch is that this is (again) linked files acting badly. Even earlier with 1.10.4 I had to occasionally embed some of the symbols, as if there are too many linked files Publisher becomes more prone to crashing. This is a case that has existed since the first beta we've tried. On some versions it has been less of a problem, on some more. But linked files are clearly an issue when you have loads of those (hundreds). We have changed our work habits to break books in to chapters to keep the linked files in some more manageable amounts, just to avoid this problem.

I work with at least ten .afpub files a day on a normal day. If I need 30 mins per file to get them to stop crashing and become stable with 1.10.5, that  takes most of the work hours for a week or two, just to do that. And, as this happens with most of the version updates we've experienced over the years I can't say that I appreciate new versions. 

I don't know what 1.10.5 offers compared to 1.10.4 - at the time when 1.10.5 was forced on us no release notes were in forum and I havent bothered to check since then. But the fact is that no matter what what .5 offers, it is NOT something I would have updated from stable and well working .4 from. Not in a million years. Certainly not, as it was deadsure that there is serious, repeating and frequently seen risk that the new version WILL cause complications no matter what.

Our team has asked this again, but let's voice it again: Make the 'update poll' on Windows products optional (like on Mac) so we can set it to never ever check. Make it happen now. Or just remove the update thing on Windows entirely. Or at very least redo it entirely. This has been the a constant pain and a massive time-hog and as you provide no means avoid this (no, the Registry trick clearly no longer works, or Publisher update writes that over) on Windows that is a real problem.

 

 

[Old Bruce]

2 hours ago, multis said:

Here you have a sample. To 'tame' this file took 30 minutes of open, edit, save, crash - rinse-and-repeat. As before, my humble hunch is that this is (again) linked files acting badly. Even earlier with 1.10.4 I had to occasionally embed some of the symbols, as if there are too many linked files Publisher becomes more prone to crashing. 

I would also look at the fonts that are missing. Opening that file there is no problem with the file. Meaning there is no crashing, so the problem is either the missing resources or missing fonts. Where are the images on your computer setup. If they are on a cloud service or a network that may be the problem. Could even be a problem with an attached hard drive.

Having said that I wonder why you haven't just embedded the files if that fixes the problems.

[multis]

1 minute ago, Old Bruce said:

I would also look at the fonts that are missing. Opening that file there is no problem with the file. Meaning there is no crashing, so the problem is either the missing resources or missing fonts. Where are the images on your computer setup. If they are on a cloud service or a network that may be the problem. Could even be a problem with an attached hard drive.

Having said that I wonder why you haven't just embedded the files if that fixes the problems.

Well, I wonder why there would be missing fonts now with 1.10.5 when no such problems were with 1.10.4. Have to remind that .4 worked nicely. 

And all problems IMMEDIATELY BEGUN when 1.10.4 noticed that there is new version. And I could not open *any* existing file with .4 any longer. How's that font related?
All files are LOCAL on my computer on an SSD drive that shows 100% perfect condition and again, with .4 didn't have ANY problems.

Why I haven't embedded all files? Because that makes the files unbearably large when making files intended for printing. There is also the fact that if you embed all files, you practically lose the potential to update all symbols at once if and when those change.

[Old Bruce]

8 minutes ago, multis said:

Well, I wonder why there would be missing fonts now with 1.10.5 when no such problems were with 1.10.4. Have to remind that .4 worked nicely. 

I do not have those fonts, when I opened the document It showed they were missing.

[multis]

Well. I have all the fonts. Some are non-free, so I can't just post those here.

[Old Bruce]

try this.afpubTry Embedding all the images first. Or move them all to your computer's hard drive if you want them to be linked.

One more thing I noticed is the use of Tables as well as Text Frames from the master page. You may be better served by having Column guides and just drawing your text frames and tables as you proceed. That way you would not need the Tables to have Text Wrap turned on. This will possible simplify things.

Here is what I mean, I changed all the fonts to Arial (sorry) so I could actually work on this. All the text frames are now single column frames.

try this.afpub

Edit: I forgot to include the file. 

[stokerg]

Hi @multis,

Like @Old Bruce I've had no trouble with your file.  But i'm missing all of the images, which appear to be stored on possibly stored on Dropbox? The path for some is D:\DDP Games Dropbox, so i could be wrong on that.  If you could upload a package of your file to our Dropbox here that would be a big help.  Just create an empty folder side of Affinity and then open your File in Affinity and click File>Save As Package and point it to the folder you created.  Then zip that folder and upload it to the dropbox link.  That way i'll get all of the fonts and images and will be able to try and replicate your issue.

Also this link is the change list for the latest update, so nothing that should of affected your workflow from the changes i see and what you describe.

[multis]

7 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

try this.afpubTry Embedding all the images first. Or move them all to your computer's hard drive if you want them to be linked.

One more thing I noticed is the use of Tables as well as Text Frames from the master page. You may be better served by having Column guides and just drawing your text frames and tables as you proceed. That way you would not need the Tables to have Text Wrap turned on. This will possible simplify things.

Here is what I mean, I changed all the fonts to Arial (sorry) so I could actually work on this. All the text frames are now single column frames.

try this.afpub

Edit: I forgot to include the file. 

No. It is not good idea at all to move away from master pages and tables. If I'd have to redo all tables and stuff, they'd not be exact nor is it fast enough.

But I guess you are choosing to not see the real problem. This worked perfectly with .4, but right at the instant when .5 appeared it ceased to work. Then it takes awful black magic to make it work again.

It can not be related to Dropbox or fonts. Sorry guys. But I didn't change anything. Absolutely ONLY thing that changed was that my Publisher noticed that a new version is there. And this to the letter exactly how it has behaved earlier, too. 

If this would have happened once, on one version I could potentially have bought "yes, it must be co-incidence" or some such. But this is at least fourth or fifth different version update on Windows doing this. And magically it always happens *EXACTLY* when Publisher notices a new version. Co-incidence? Surely not. Related to fonts? If your software update check actually changes my fonts or break the Dropbox or some such, maybe you should be very much fixing that. But kindly do note that if there are no problems outside of the stupid 'update notify' feature, the honest way would be to finally retire the feature or at very least allow users to choose if they want it or not.

[Old Bruce]

1 minute ago, multis said:

It can not be related to Dropbox or fonts. Sorry guys. But I didn't change anything. Absolutely ONLY thing that changed was that my Publisher noticed that a new version is there. And this to the letter exactly how it has behaved earlier, too. 

Turn off the wifi and or network so you can't get a notification and see how things work.

[multis]

3 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Turn off the wifi and or network so you can't get a notification and see how things work.

You must be joking. I can not work on a non-networked computer. 

If you are thinking that it is caused by our network, we have 200MB fiber optic. And, once again, it works very well when Publisher Update notification is not active. This *ONLY* happens when a new version is released.

So, you are suggesting that I remove Publisher, disconnect LAN, install Publisher again and keep my computer off-LAN permanently. Very handy. Consider that if you'd read the previous things, you'd notice that we did try that a year ago just to see if it can be replicated. Yes. It can be replicated. If there is no network connection at all Publisher doesn't crash as it does not know that there is new version. When I plugged then LAN cable back, it took just few seconds for Publisher to crash.

So. Culprit has been known. Even by you. For a long time. But STILL You force this on your customers.

Allow us to choose (like Mac users) to never ever have any of your software to poll for new versions. And life is so much better, but, alas, for over a year and several updates in between but that has NOT been done. I wonder why? And yet again, this time, too, it seems that you guys really blame anything else, even wrong tarot readings or what not instead of fix the problem. If you do not want to add the menu item  to select if we want to get rid of the update feature, just do it yourself. Delete the feature.
Do *anything* that concretely and permanently purges the update poll from the Windows versions of your products. 

We have several users who always need to undergo the same sh*t on almost every update you put out. Why!

[Old Bruce]

It is basic trouble shooting. Remove things one at a time.

Just so you are clear on this. I too believe that checking for updates should be totally optional.

4 minutes ago, multis said:

This *ONLY* happens when a new version is released.

So a new version is out. Turn off the network, unplug the cable, whatever you need to do to your computer and see if you can do any work with publisher. Ten or twenty minutes should show if the problem still shows.

[Old Bruce]

It is basic trouble shooting. Remove things one at a time.

Just so you are clear on this. I too believe that checking for updates should be totally optional. I too do not understand Affinity/Serif's inability to do this for the Windows versions.

6 minutes ago, multis said:

This *ONLY* happens when a new version is released.

So a new version is out. Turn off the network, unplug the cable, whatever you need to do to your computer and see if you can do any work with publisher. Ten or twenty minutes should show if the problem still shows.

[multis]

New versions are not out. I have 1.10.5 installed. If remove that and re-install 1.10.4 this will re-occur immediately.

This has been tested many times before. Eventually, once you have saved the old files with new version many enough times Publisher typically crashes rarely.

But now it is like this (made a video for you):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3rrwxvrene266ve/Debut 1.mp4?dl=0

That is the time window when the file is accessible. It will continue to crash (notice that there are no errors of any kind) ad infinitum unless I manage to change something and resave in that period when the file is accessible.

 

[multis]

New versions are not out. I have 1.10.5 installed. If remove that and re-install 1.10.4 this will re-occur immediately.

This has been tested many times before. Eventually, once you have saved the old files with new version many enough times Publisher typically crashes rarely.

But now it is like this (made a video for you):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3rrwxvrene266ve/Debut 1.mp4?dl=0

That is the time window when the file is accessible. It will continue to crash (notice that there are no errors of any kind) ad infinitum unless I manage to change something and resave in that period when the file is accessible.

I've attached crash log from 

C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Publisher\1.0\CrashReports\attachments\a9d5285a-26f8-4fd5-99cc-f3e7adb50914

and likely it tells little. This has been the case earlier too. WIndows is rebooted. AMD drivers are the latest. THE ONLY THING that has changed is that you released 1.10.5 and then .4 stopped working. Backtrace folder is empty.

I included also latest file from 'reports' folder, which seems to be binary and thus not readable to me. It doesn't create .dmp every time (see the frequence from PNG). You'll notice that from yesterday and today, it shows *nothing*. And just today, the crash I made video and the 10+ other crashes when I've tried to make the same file to work (not working still) have produced absolutely nothing.

It is worth considering that the file did work with 1.10.4 and didn't crash. I even copied the file and still the same problem, so even if the copy of the file resided in local hard drive, is renamed and all other tricks you've been suggesting, I have now frequently/constantly crashing publisher (again) thanks to the update. Well done.

 

attachment_Log.txt 4bea0fb8-98e7-4bd3-aeae-feb8bf277d1a.dmp

[multis]

I even uninstalled the Publisher just now. Then removed the whole AppData for it. Then installed 1.10.5 again. And still same failures. Same crashes and NO crashreports of any kind.

I have urgent deadlines and can't work. Again. Thanks to the unwanted "updates".
So. I uninstalled it again. This time installing 1.10.4 instead. It *IMMEDIATELY* notifies of the new version AND crashes about 2,5 sec later no matter what I do. And again, no crash reports of any kind.

Next stage. I UPDATED to 1.10.5 WITHOUT uninstalling 1.10.4. The file opens and works at least some time. 
So. I have now verified that I can no longer use 1.10.4 to files that were created with it. Again, ONLY THING that changed is that you released 1.10.5.
And 1.10.5 update does cause files created with 1.10.4 to crash until I manage to save them with 1.10.5 when that problem ceases. I have AGAIN point out that it produces NO crash logs on these crashes and it ALWAYS happens just when opening a file within first 2-3 seconds.

[multis]

... and after an hour of actually something productive, the next file. And surprise: It crashes the Publisher. Now, after 10+ crashes at launch, this is becoming desperate. And again, this is a file that worked FLAWLESSLY before 1.10.5 was released.

[Miratek]

Just now, multis said:

... and after an hour of actually something productive, the next file. And surprise: It crashes the Publisher. Now, after 10+ crashes at launch, this is becoming desperate. And again, this is a file that worked FLAWLESSLY before 1.10.5 was released.

Sad to hear you also got a big problem now. I also have so many crashes and errors since a few weeks it's so frustrating. Not at launch but in the middle of the workflow...

[multis]

1 minute ago, Miratek said:

Sad to hear you also got a big problem now. I also have so many crashes and errors since a few weeks it's so frustrating. Not at launch but in the middle of the workflow...

Indeed. Very sad. 

And completely avoidable if only Serif would take their customer feedback seriously and DISABLE the update notification (or at least allow users to choose if the software ever polls it). Some versions are more stable and I'd dearly like to use those as long as *I* deem that it is good idea to change to something new. Now that decision is taken out of our hands and we're given these "new versions" and are forced to work as guinea pigs. No, not at all what I'd like to do.

[multis]

Over a week and no solutions. Sad.