Constant crash or application refuses to save and close with external resource update

[MatPen]

Hi,

When trying to update external resources (61 pp. in PDF), the application freezes and prevents saving or crashes.
The only way I found was to update 2/3 pages at the most (beyond that the application becomes unresponsive), close the application, reopen and continue like this throughout the process.
Not only is a one-off update of all files impossible, but even the update of individual pages is limited, otherwise Publisher becomes unresponsive.

Sometimes a crash report is generated (attached), sometimes not and you have to force exit.

Thank you for your attention.

[macOS 12.6.1, MacBookPro M1, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3]

Affinity_crash.pdf

[Old Bruce]

Just to be clear, am I correct in my assumption that you have a linked PDF file with 61 pages in your Publisher document? And that you are then somehow editing that PDF file?

[Freder Ick]

I have a similar-ish problem with Save As in Affinity Photo 2. The application just hangs with work unsaved. Support seems to consist of putting things on this forum for subsequent ignoring. It's cost me work and no acknowledgment from Affinity. 

Edited January 16, 2023 by Freder Ick

[MikeTO]

Hi MattPen. Is the document 61 pages with a linked PDF embedded on one of the pages or did you link embed a 61-page PDF into a document, displaying one of its pages? Or is it something else entirely?

How are you updating the PDF and the Publisher document?

1 hour ago, Freder Ick said:

I have a similar-ish problem with Save As in Affinity Photo 2. The application just hangs with work unsaved. Support seems to consist of putting things on this forum for subsequent ignoring. It's cost me work and no acknowledgment from Affinity. 

Hi Frederick, I don't work for Serif but I saw your original post and didn't know the answer. I don't think your issue has anything to do with MatPen's issue with is with linked resources.

Edited January 16, 2023 by MikeTO
corrected

[MatPen]

4 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

Just to be clear, am I correct in my assumption that you have a linked PDF file with 61 pages in your Publisher document? And that you are then somehow editing that PDF file?

This is correct. It is a musical edition and the individual pages are those of a score. Every time corrections are made I do of course need to update them.

[MatPen]

2 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

Hi MattPen. Is the document 61 pages with a linked PDF embedded on one of the pages or did you embed a 61-page PDF into a document, displaying one of its pages? Or is it something else entirely?

How are you updating the PDF and the Publisher document?

Hi Frederick, I don't work for Serif but I saw your original post and didn't know the answer. I don't think your issue has anything to do with MatPen's issue with is with linked resources.

Hi MikeTO,

The pages are not embedded but externally linked.

If changes have been made to, for example, ten pages and I want to update them in one go, the application freezes or crashes. The same undesirable result if I do the update individually for each page. After 3/4 pages (individually updated) the application becomes unresponsive. I press 'save' but the document is not saved. I press 'save as', the procedure seems to be successful but no new document is created.

[MikeTO]

Hi MatPen, sorry, I meant to write linked and not embedded. I think you've encountered the known issue with linked documents which Serif is already working on.

The workaround for now is to embed them to avoid the issue and fortunately your documents are small, but if you want to keep updating them that means replacing them manually each time you update them externally.

Good luck!

[Dan C]

Hi @MatPen,

Thanks for your report and our sincerest apologies for the delayed response here. We are exceptionally busy following the release of V2 and we thank you for your continued patience and understanding here.

I have tested this in 2.0.4 with 5 PDF files, and 'Automatically update linked resources when modified externally' disabled in Publishers preferences - I was able to place, edit the PDF files externally and then update all file at once with no crash/hang shown.

Can you please confirm for me, what location are these PDF files saved to on your mac? ie is this a 'cloud synced' location, a local folder, etc

Does this occur with any PDF files, or only those being generated/updated by your musical application?

Many thanks in advance!

[JosueVivas]

I have similar issues in publisher.

My book has 270 pages where there are 120 different inserted (linked) pdfs. I'm on 2.0.4 Windows 11.

As I edit the pdfs externally, I'm taking advantage of the updating of linked pdfs feature.

But now it is getting funny. I'm seeing three bugs:

1. When inserting more pdfs, the app frozes, shows a text frame but does not load the pdf.
2. Often, when I select a single page pdf or a multi page pdf, the pdf options panel is not shown. I need to close publisher and open it again.

 

       3.Sometimes it is not updating the linked PDFs when they are edited externally by another app.

[Dan C]

Hi @JosueVivas,

Sorry to hear you're having trouble!

I have tried replicating this issue here with a similar document setup, however I'm not seeing these same issues currently.

Can you please open Edit > Preferences > Performance within the Affinity app and provide a screenshot of your settings here for me?

On 2/4/2023 at 1:32 PM, JosueVivas said:

• When inserting more pdfs, the app frozes, shows a text frame but does not load the pdf.

Does the same issue occur if you place a different file type within this document, for example an image, or .afpub file?

On 2/4/2023 at 1:32 PM, JosueVivas said:

       3.Sometimes it is not updating the linked PDFs when they are edited externally by another app.

Are you manually updating your resources through the resource manager, or do you have the 'automatically update external documents' option enabled in Preferences?

Many thanks in advance

[JosueVivas]

Sure. 

• I tried replicating the problem with a small three pages document and I couln't. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The PC has plenty of RAM at APublisher never uses more than 9GB of RAM. the .afpub file is around 65MB and teh PDFs that are inserted are passthought and occupy like 60KB-120KB each

 

59 minutes ago, Dan C said:

Does the same issue occur if you place a different file type within this document, for example an image, or .afpub file?

• No, with images is perfect.

 

59 minutes ago, Dan C said:

Are you manually updating your resources through the resource manager, or do you have the 'automatically update external documents' option enabled in Preferences?

• The option for automaitcally updating the resoruces is now on. for some reason it was not activated after the update from 2.0.3 to 2.0.4.

• I recorded a video 

I open the document with 100+ placed pdfs. Then work on it for a bit. When I click on any pdf the menu/tool bar for PDF options does not show up.

Then I move to a three pages documwent with two pdfs and the menu/toolbar for the pdfs where I can select the page of the pdf shows up. 

Then I move to my document and nothing. 

However, If I close my document and then open it, as soon as I selct a PDF, ther it is!!! the menu/toolbar for teh PDFs is shown. But if I start editing and save the document, the problem shows up again.

 

[Dan C]

Thanks for the further information provided and my apologies for the delayed response again.

I'd recommend unticking Hardware Acceleration at the bottom of the Preferences dialog to see if this resolves the issue with PDF files not being displayed after placing.

On 2/6/2023 at 5:53 PM, JosueVivas said:

The option for automaitcally updating the resoruces is now on. for some reason it was not activated after the update from 2.0.3 to 2.0.4.

I'll be sure to investigate this option changing, however hopefully with this enabled you should find your documents update as expected!

On 2/6/2023 at 5:53 PM, JosueVivas said:

I open the document with 100+ placed pdfs. Then work on it for a bit. When I click on any pdf the menu/tool bar for PDF options does not show up.

Then I move to a three pages documwent with two pdfs and the menu/toolbar for the pdfs where I can select the page of the pdf shows up. 

Then I move to my document and nothing. 

However, If I close my document and then open it, as soon as I selct a PDF, ther it is!!! the menu/toolbar for teh PDFs is shown. But if I start editing and save the document, the problem shows up again.

When you are clicking on the PDF documents in your recording, you have the Text Frame Tool enabled - meaning the Context Toolbar settings you are seeing are for the Text tools. If you select the Move Tool from the left hand toolbar before selecting the PDF document, you should see the expected controls on the Context Toolbar.

After reopening the document, the Move Tool is automatically selected and hence this then works as expected.

I hope this clears things up

[JosueVivas]

1 hour ago, Dan C said:

When you are clicking on the PDF documents in your recording, you have the Text Frame Tool enabled - meaning the Context Toolbar settings you are seeing are for the Text tools. If you select the Move Tool from the left hand toolbar before selecting the PDF document, you should see the expected controls on the Context Toolbar.

 This did the trick! now I select the PDF in the layers panel then click on the move tool and it works!!! Thank you.

 

 

1 hour ago, Dan C said:

After reopening the document, the Move Tool is automatically selected and hence this then works as expected.

 

Insert face palm here...

 

Thank you @Dan C