Affinity Photo crashes when I try to open HEIC file

[Dirk Pörschmann]

I just installed the latest update for Affinity Photo (1.10.5) for Mac (Version 12.3.1). Unfortunately, it crashes when I try to open HEIC file. I have tried several times.

[ptodd]

I just tried with https://github.com/tigranbs/test-heic-images/blob/master/image1.heic on the same version of AP and macOS, and it works here.

[Dan C]

Hi @Dirk Pörschmann,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums

Sorry to hear you're having trouble! I can confirm we're aware of an issue whereby certain HEIC images crash when importing into Affinity, so I'd like to request a copy of your file to test this here and log with our developers as required.

Can you please upload a copy of your HEIC to the below link for me?

https://www.dropbox.com/request/Q2UxeSN8TGi4FlCDnqlz

Once uploaded, please reply here to let me know. Many thanks in advance!

[Dirk Pörschmann]

8 hours ago, Dan C said:

Hi @Dirk Pörschmann,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums

Sorry to hear you're having trouble! I can confirm we're aware of an issue whereby certain HEIC images crash when importing into Affinity, so I'd like to request a copy of your file to test this here and log with our developers as required.

Can you please upload a copy of your HEIC to the below link for me?

https://www.dropbox.com/request/Q2UxeSN8TGi4FlCDnqlz

Once uploaded, please reply here to let me know. Many thanks in advance!

Thank you! Unfortunately, this is not possible because it is a photo of a personal document. I have then blackened certain passages (with the preview app), saved and then the file can be opened. 

[Dan C]

No problem at all, I certainly understand and many thanks for letting me know!

15 hours ago, Dirk Pörschmann said:

I have then blackened certain passages (with the preview app), saved and then the file can be opened. 

It's possible that the app was crashing due to the metadata in the HEIC file and editing through Preview may have changed/fixed the metadata, allowing Affinity to open the file.

We've already got a bug report with our developers that certain HEIC files can crash on launch, which is usually caused by the metadata of said HEIC files, so I'll be sure to add a 'bump' to this log with your report now.

I hope this helps

[Malena]

On 4/26/2022 at 1:24 PM, Dan C said:

Hi @Dirk Pörschmann,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums

Sorry to hear you're having trouble! I can confirm we're aware of an issue whereby certain HEIC images crash when importing into Affinity, so I'd like to request a copy of your file to test this here and log with our developers as required.

Can you please upload a copy of your HEIC to the below link for me?

https://www.dropbox.com/request/Q2UxeSN8TGi4FlCDnqlz

Once uploaded, please reply here to let me know. Many thanks in advance!

Hello @Dan C I have the same problem (in Affinity Publisher) and the preview app did not fix it for me unfortunately. But my photo is not so private that I can't share it so if you like to investigate I can send this photo to you. 

What may also be helpful (for anybody with this problem) is that the photo was cropped on my iPhone and then shared via airdrop to my Mac. This caused a crash. I then reverted the photo to the original on my phone, again sent it via airdrop to my Mac and there was no problem when importing. So I guess the iPhone edit is causing the problem.

Kind regards, Malena 

[Dan C]

Hi @Malena,

Sorry to hear you're having trouble! Can you please upload a copy of both the cropped and 'original' image to the below link for me, so that I can investigate further?

https://www.dropbox.com/request/pWiqExT6olxcSlCaveYa

Please reply here to let me know once this has been uploaded, can you also please confirm:

• What version of Publisher is in use? (1.10.6, 2.0.4 or 2.1.x beta)
• How are you introducing this image into the app, that causes Publisher to crash? (drag & drop, File > Place, Place Image Tool etc)

Many thanks in advance

[Malena]

Hi @Dan C

I uploaded the two photos.
I played around a bit and at first the cropped photo didn't cause the crash 🤪 but after inserting some random stuff it always caused a crash (even though I had a new, empty document after restarting each time). So I'm confused now...
I'm using Publisher 1.10.6 (on MacOs 12.6.1)
I tried both methods of introducing the image to Publisher and they both had the issue.

It's not a terrible problem to me since it's anyway better to crop it in Publisher (there's a reason why I use it 🤓)
I just hoped it could be helpful since I observed this behaviour.

Many thanks 😊 

[Dan C]

Many thanks for providing these for me!

I can confirm I've been able to replicate this issue, and I have also tested this issue in Publisher V2.0.4, where it appears as though this has been resolved - as the V2 app does not crash.

I will be sure to log this with our developers for you now, and I'm glad to hear you have a workaround for the meantime