Problem Launching photo app, other apps non-responsive so it closes photo

[dradept]

During startup Affinity Publisher 2 has loaded and showing as non responsive, possibly waiting for me to create a new file, during this time Affinity Photo 2 is trying to load but then shows this error;

Affinity Photo 2

Sorry, there was a problem launching the application.

Another Affinity app is running, but cannot be communicated with. Please ensure the app is up-to-date.

Why do they need to communicate with each other?

I have to restart the apps almost every time, I have now stopped the New File box appearing at startup just to see if this is the issue.

[EmT]

Hi @dradept
Please can I just get a bit more info from you about your issue, do you have multiple versions of Affinity Photo  or Publisher installed e.g. from the Affinity and Mac store?
Do you have any other affinity app v1 or v2? 

Which OS are you running?

Can you open Publisher and create a new document? Or does it show a spinning wheel when you open the app? 

[dradept]

Yes, photo and designer version 1 came from the app store, publisher came from Serif direct. 

All 3 apps for Version 2 came direct from Serif.

Should I download from the App store?

 

[EmT]

1 hour ago, EmT said:

Which OS are you running?

Can you open Publisher and create a new document? Or does it show a spinning wheel when you open the app? 

Thanks for that, do you mind just answering the other 2 points also this should help narrow down the issue. 

[dradept]

MacOs Ventura 13.0.01

Everything opens fine and works as expected, just at startup communication error.

[EmT]

Thanks, when the error occurs, can you check if there's a dialog box open such as missing fonts or resources open in one of the other apps that's currently running? 
 

[dradept]

No boxes or errors etc. appearing.

I have just deleted the 3 V2 apps and reinstalled.

Loading all 3 apps at the same time, publisher is now showing this error as it was the second app to load. Designer is loading without any issues.

Must say they are very slow at loading so if Photo loads and then Publisher tries to load but photo has not yet fully loaded this might be the issue, trying to communicate with an app that is doing something else.

If I click OK it closes that app, if I then reload that app it loads fine and no issues.

[EmT]

Hi @dradept
This has now been passed over to the devs for further investigation.

[dradept]

This is still an issue since the latest update 2.2.0.4.

Actually it is worse now, as it won't allow multiple apps to run together, even after I have started one app successfully and then try to start another app. 

EG. I have Publisher 2 running and opened a file successfully, then I try to open Photo 2, it opens but then get the message;

Sorry, there was a problem launching the application.

Cannot communicate with other Affinity apps. Please ensure the app is up-to-date and that your firewall isn't blocking local network traffic.

The Photo 2 app then closes.

I have tried this 3 times and then it opened and stayed open, this is most annoying and time wasting.

 

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Error when apps are first launched showing, prevents apps from opening " (REF: HUB=220) has now been fixed by the developers.
This fix is included in build 2.1.0.1709 (or later) which is already available as a customer beta and will be included in the next release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.

If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Serif Info Bot to notify us.

[dradept]

This error is still occurring using the latest beta build 2.1.0.1732

 

[EmT]

Hi @dradept

Please could you send over a screen recording of this issue in action so we can try an recreate this using the same steps.

[dradept]

I noticed that the popup message changed from the previous version, it now states ensure that the firewall does not prevent communication on the network.

I have now added all the Affinity apps to the AVG Allowed Apps under their Ransomware Shield.

Have restarted all 3 apps and no errors, will try again on my next reboot and see what happens.

For now though it seems to have solved this issue.

 

[dradept]

Still getting this issue with version 2.1.1

Any news?

[walt.farrell]

43 minutes ago, dradept said:

Still getting this issue with version 2.1.1

Any news?

The last thing you said was that it was solved. When did it start happening again, and what changed in your system at that time?

[dradept]

On 8/1/2023 at 1:32 PM, walt.farrell said:

The last thing you said was that it was solved. When did it start happening again, and what changed in your system at that time?

Hi Walt,

Yes setting allowed apps in the firewall did seem to sort things out, but it did not last, and is still causing an issue today.

It is impossible to open more than 1 of the 3 apps at a time, cannot load 2 at startup as this would cause the issue.

All 6 apps (beta included) are in the allowed apps list. Not sure what else I can do other than be a little more patient and open apps one at a time with a delay in between.

 

[walt.farrell]

16 minutes ago, dradept said:

All 6 apps (beta included) are in the allowed apps list.

Can you show us that list?

[dradept]

On 8/8/2023 at 3:08 PM, walt.farrell said:

Can you show us that list?

This is in my AVG preferences

[walt.farrell]

Thanks. Those options seem related to file access, not to network access, but network access (Firewall) seems to be the issue for the problem you're reporting.

[dradept]

On 8/11/2023 at 12:59 PM, walt.farrell said:

Thanks. Those options seem related to file access, not to network access, but network access (Firewall) seems to be the issue for the problem you're reporting.

Here is the firewall list and settings.

Still occurring after all the updates..

just updating to 2.2 and hoping it will sort it out..

will also try turning off the firewall...

[Juuleas]

I'm having this problem with Publisher 2 running windows 11. I've added Publisher 2 to AVG's allowed app list and to my windows firewall list. I've also uninstalled and reinstalled the program. Anyone have another solution I can try?

[Komatös]

46 minutes ago, Juuleas said:

Anyone have another solution I can try?

Hi and welcome to the forums.

Please read here for the solution: