Raster brushes have disappeared from Affinity Designer v2 and Photo v2-can't import 3rd party raster brushes as well.

[egehlin]

All of my installed raster brushes (including Affinity's default raster brushes) have disappeared from Affinity designer v2 and Photo v2.  If I try to import them I get an error message "Error Importing Brushes". When I upgraded to the version 2 Affinity Programs, I uninstalled the version 1 Programs.The brushes displayed properly when I updated to version 2.0.3 but now (a few weeks later) they have vanished and I am unable to import them.

I have noticed that IPad users have experienced this problem but I haven't been able to find a thread with the problem on desktop or laptop.

I am running Affinity Designer 2.0.3 and Affinity Photo 2.0.3 on an Acer Nitro 5 laptop (Windows 11). Hardware Acceleration: On. Tablet: Wacom Intuos BT M (Model# CTL6100WL).

Please advise a solution to this issue or if you need additional information from me.

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums, @egehlin.

The only solution I know is:

1. Close Designer 2, Photo 2, and Publisher 2 (if you have it)
2. Start one of them while pressing and holding the Ctrl key.
3. When you see the Clear User Data dialog, release the Ctrl key. (Note: you may need to watch for the application icon to appear on the Windows Taskbar and click it to get the dialog to appear.)
4. Uncheck everything, then check Reset Brushes. Click Clear.

This will reset all brushes for all 3 apps to the Factory Default status.

[egehlin]

Thank you for your swift response.

Followed your instructions and everything working as it should in both programs. Reloaded my raster brushes and they are working normally as well.

Many Thanks!!

 

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome.

[EmT]

Hi @egehlin

Can you remember at what point the pixel brushes disappeared? Was it whilst using or editing the brushes and did the app crash? 

[egehlin]

Greetings EmT,

It was directly after I upgraded to the V2 versions of the Affinity Apps. I ported my 3rd party resources from the V1 software to the V2 Apps. I didn't uninstall the V1 Affinity Apps for a week or so and used the V2 Apps to make sure they were working as expected. When I was confident V2 was working properly, I uninstalled the V1 Apps. After that, the next time I opened Affinity Designer V2 the raster brushes and color swatches were missing. I opened Affinity Photo V2 and the raster brushes and color swatches were missing as well. In addition, I was unable to import raster brushes or color swatches into Designer or Photo.

The apps didn't crash nor was I using or editing brushes.

I followed the advice of walt.farrell (see posts above) and was able to reset the apps and reload my raster brushes and color swatches. Everything has been working normally since then.

I hope this information is helpful.

[egehlin]

Greetings EmT,

Apologies...I had updated to version 2.0.3 of the Affinity Apps. I still had V1 versions installed on my computer and uninstalled them after upgrading to V2.0.3. That's when the problem with the raster brushes and color swatches manifested itself. I didn't experience any issues with version 2.0.0.

Sorry for the confusion.

[EmT]

Hi @egehlin

Its sounds like your issue is similar to another issue we are aware of, I've passed along your report to the devs for investigation.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "App hangs whilst editing/using pixel brushes, all brushes disappear on next launch" (REF: AFD-6283) has now been fixed by the developers.
This fix is included in build 2.1.0.1706 (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 make a new thread referencing this one.