All programs crash on font change

[Phil_rose]

Hi, on Windows 11 version 10.0.22621 build 22621 if I open any Affinity program whether beta or not and select a piece of text, hit the font dropdown and start to type a font name the program just crashes and disappears. No autobackup, nothing. This happens on both my laptops. Are others seeing this too? I can scroll through fonts but cannot type the name of the font I want.

Thanks!

Phil

[Callum]

Hi Phil

it sounds as though you are experiencing the issue described here: 

Thanks
C

[Phil_rose]

Thanks so much for the quick reply and that info. I am not sure how to uninstall or roll back like that. Is there any info that you know of that would instruct me on how to go back to a previous version of the program? Presumably I could just scroll until the publish a fix?

Thanks again!

Phil

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Phil_rose said:

I am not sure how to uninstall or roll back like that. Is there any info that you know of that would instruct me on how to go back to a previous version of the program? 

Have you tried just following the instructions in that FAQ?

[Phil_rose]

No, I didn't see that that was a link rather than a screenshot. Thanks for the nudge.

I love how the smiley face in your profile pic contrasts with the snarky tone of your message! 

[lacerto]

12 hours ago, Phil_rose said:

No, I didn't see that that was a link rather than a screenshot. Thanks for the nudge.

Did you manage to resolve this somehow? I did not really understand the instruction, at all. The KB text implied that the .NET 3.5 and 4.8.1 updates (which I have four already on Windows 11, with different KB references) would resolve TreeView-related problems in WPF based apps, rather than cause them, but what is said above mentions something about need of rolling back, implying that this update is actually causing this error??? Personally I prefer not to roll back Windows updates just for Affinity app. But I wonder if I might just have failed to install the last of the .NET updates as so many were listed. Do you have 22H2 (and .NET update for that) installed? (I do.) 

[Loyalty Is Key]

On 10/3/2022 at 11:34 AM, Phil_rose said:

Hi, on Windows 11 version 10.0.22621 build 22621 if I open any Affinity program whether beta or not and select a piece of text, hit the font dropdown and start to type a font name the program just crashes and disappears. No autobackup, nothing. This happens on both my laptops. Are others seeing this too? I can scroll through fonts but cannot type the name of the font I want.

Thanks!

Phil

I'm having the same issue. Windows 11 AND 10. Program is also crashing when using certain masking features and perspective tool. The issues slightly change each time I do a new install. Did you ever resolve the issue?

[carl123]

@Loyalty Is Key

Have you checked to see if your Windows 11 PC received any of the updates (or later ones) listed in the FAQ

 

[lacerto]

The problem is that there is not enough information on the issue. 

I have Windows 11 with latest updates and can experience this issue (and probably related ones, since the same "error" appears to cause all sorts of instability and program crashes, e.g. in context of image placement).

I have the following recent updates:

As can be seen, the update in question (cumulative update for .NET 3.5 and 4.8.1) seems to be first installed already on Sept 17 for earlier version of Windows 11 (KB5017497) and later for 22H2 (KB25017271). Since the KB number KB5017264 referred to in this post for Windows 11 is neither of ones that I have installed, I cannot know whether these updates have installed the same or updated, possibly "fixed" versions of the .NET update).

 

What is confusing is that the KB articles mention the following:

 

...which might to be related to the font lists (though I am not sure if they are WPF TreeViews). But both changes are supposed to be improvements to earlier miscellaneous problems ("hangs, crashes, etc."), which we can experience now, but not earlier. On the other hand, it is specifically mentioned that no issues are known related to these changes, and I think that Serif font lists have earlier (always) experienced scrolling related delays and "gaps" mentioned in the description. 

Now finding out about details of this problem has been left to users. What I expect would be Serif to step in and tell more about the issue, whether it is definitely an error caused by Microsoft and expected to be fixed sooner or later (e.g. as a result of Serif having informed MS about the problem and MS having acknowledged it), or whether updates to .NET (and specifically to WPF) is something that should be permanently avoided by users who want to continue running Affinity apps without these crashes. 

 

[PaulEC]

On 10/4/2022 at 6:01 AM, lacerto said:

Personally I prefer not to roll back Windows updates just for Affinity app.

Apparently it's not just the Affinity apps that are affected by this!

FWIW, I removed this update, which solved the problem. A day or so later Windows installed a couple more updates. I thought it might just have reinstalled the same update, but the problem has not come back since, so, hopefully, Microsoft have fixed the problem!

[lacerto]

3 hours ago, PaulEC said:

Apparently it's not just the Affinity apps that are affected by this!

Most probably not, but I do not seem to have other WPF based Windows apps in regular use [Visual Studio might still use WPF based UI in the 2022 version that I just installed on the same Win 11 computer where I have the Affinity apps installed but so far no problems], and using standard controls like TreeView, ListView etc. has not been an issue in any other apps. Thanks for the info about usefulness of uninstalling the update. You seem to be running Windows 10 Home, though, so it might be different there especially as I already installed 22H2, from which I do not want to roll back. 

[Todd S.]

I have Windows 11. I was unable to find this update number Windows 11:KB5017264

What I did find was an update for 9/30/2022 (sorry didn't write the number down) It was a windows update and NOT a security update which I also found. I uninstalled the WINDOWS UPDATE and that fixed the problem with the FONT CRASH. Now to try and figure out how to keep my PC from trying to install that update again!

[Loyalty Is Key]

22 hours ago, carl123 said:

@Loyalty Is Key

Have you checked to see if your Windows 11 PC received any of the updates (or later ones) listed in the FAQ

 

Yes, I did and that fixed the issue, but I'm not sure what that is going to effect on my device. It's weird that Affinity would rather us take away a recommended update from Microsoft instead of making the fix on their end. 

[carl123]

1 hour ago, Loyalty Is Key said:

Yes, I did and that fixed the issue, but I'm not sure what that is going to effect on my device. It's weird that Affinity would rather us take away a recommended update from Microsoft instead of making the fix on their end. 

Affinity are just giving you a workaround for the problem now. Which is normal procedure

At this stage we do not know if this is a Microsoft Problem or an Affinity problem

Pretty sure they are actively investigating this (widespread) problem and will either...

1. Find it's a Microsoft problem, which they cannot fix and have to wait until Microsoft fixes it

2. Find it's an Affinity problem which they will fix and issue a patch (or update) to fix it.

3. Find it's a Microsoft problem but they can circumvent that problem within the Affinity apps and fix it that way.

 

For now, there is no issue with uninstalling that particular update but if you don't want to do that you can simply wait until one of the options 1,2, or 3 (above) is determined to be the cause and the appropriate action is taken.

[walt.farrell]

6 hours ago, carl123 said:

At this stage we do not know if this is a Microsoft Problem or an Affinity problem

We know from reports on the web that other products that (like Affinity) use the Windows WPF functions are also affected, which (to me) is a clear indication that Microsoft broke something, and should fix it.

[lacerto]

21 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

We know from reports on the web that other products that (like Affinity) use the Windows WPF functions are also affected, which (to me) is a clear indication that Microsoft broke something, and should fix it.

Anyone who has some programming experience knows that it is more complex: a fixed or updated control e.g. can cause issues that an earlier version did not cause because erroneous handling of event did not cause errors in a former version of the control. This has happened to me several times, last time after one of my apps broke on Windows 11 because of such unhandled case in a window message tree.

On 10/7/2022 at 7:25 AM, carl123 said:

2. Find it's an Affinity problem which they will fix and issue a patch (or update) to fix it.

And do it in the 1.x versions of the apps. 

[Phil_rose]

On 10/3/2022 at 10:01 PM, lacerto said:

Did you manage to resolve this somehow? I did not really understand the instruction, at all. The KB text implied that the .NET 3.5 and 4.8.1 updates (which I have four already on Windows 11, with different KB references) would resolve TreeView-related problems in WPF based apps, rather than cause them, but what is said above mentions something about need of rolling back, implying that this update is actually causing this error??? Personally I prefer not to roll back Windows updates just for Affinity app. But I wonder if I might just have failed to install the last of the .NET updates as so many were listed. Do you have 22H2 (and .NET update for that) installed? (I do.) 

No, I didn't. I uninstalled as suggested, the one update that I have that was listed and it hasn't helped. I wish this could be fixed.

 

[carl123]

7 minutes ago, Phil_rose said:

No, I didn't. I uninstalled as suggested, the one update that I have that was listed and it hasn't helped.

If that's your current list of installed updates then you still have KB5017271 installed (today!)

When you uninstall them, you have to follow the instructions to prevent them automatically being reinstalled or pause all updates for a couple of weeks or more