Affinity 2 - Horribly slow updates

[igolfchip]

updating all the affinity 2.0 apps is dreadfully slow (88% completed after 16+ hours).

I have tried both the update within the program and downloading the installers, and in both cases, the process is horribly slow (thought the download would have been better).

Help?

 

[GarryP]

I would guess that there may be something wrong with your system/set-up.

An update of any Affinity application shouldn’t take much more than a minute or two. (This doesn’t include download time as that can vary much more for various reasons.)

Try doing a web search for make machine run faster for some hints and tips on checking if your machine is running optimally.

If it's the download time which is the problem then I don't think there's much that Serif can do about that.

[igolfchip]

This is a brand new pc, with 32gb of memory and an AMD 5600 processor.

Gigabit internet connection through Google.

Safe to say, this is unlikely to be a PC issue unless something with firewall or other issue exists. 

I have checked my firewall and other settings and not knowing the internet address for the download site, unable to further diagnose.

[dominik]

41 minutes ago, igolfchip said:

This is a brand new pc, with 32gb of memory and an AMD 5600 processor.

Gigabit internet connection through Google.

Safe to say, this is unlikely to be a PC issue unless something with firewall or other issue exists. 

I have checked my firewall and other settings and not knowing the internet address for the download site, unable to further diagnose.

We have seen occasionally slow updates in the past. It turned out that after a couple of hours the problem went away. This may be due to distribution via Amazon's networt (if I remember correctly).

d.

[igolfchip]

Thanks @domink for the reply... now at 94%, but again, over 16 hours. And this is not occaisional, it is constant over 2 different PCs and at different internet locations (root cause likely Affinity servers and/or the process they use to download within the apps the updates vs. a clean uninstall/reinstall)

[dominik]

48 minutes ago, igolfchip said:

Thanks @domink for the reply... now at 94%, but again, over 16 hours. And this is not occaisional, it is constant over 2 different PCs and at different internet locations (root cause likely Affinity servers and/or the process they use to download within the apps the updates vs. a clean uninstall/reinstall)

16 hours is ridicoulous. It may well be that it is a Affinity server mishap. It may as well be, that if you stop now and start over again it is back to normal speed. But I do not suggest to try this 🙂

Since you are the only one at the moment who is reporting this chances are that it is just your bad luck this time. If you encounter this with a further update it would be worth looking into the case closer.

What do you mean with 'different internet locations'? Different providers? Different cities?

d.

[igolfchip]

OK- first, I am reporting an issue based on facts, not conjecture.

Let's not talk it away and come up with excuses because we like Affinity. 

Here's something about tech support - only a small % of customers report tech issues. The rest either deal with it or switch to a competitor. There is real value to accept every issue and look for a resolution. There is nothing worse than tech companies that assume their product is perfect, everything is either Microsoft/Apple's fault or the User's fault.

To your questions -

I have attempted the install at different physical locations that all have different internet providers and excellent internet speeds.

I have attempted those on diffferent PCs (license allows Affinity 2 to be installed on 2 Pcs) and same results on both.

I have attempted the upgrades (not downloads, UPGRADES which seems to be a unique process where it is changing files, instead of the traditional microsoft method of uninstall and reinstall) on different days with same results.

[dominik]

45 minutes ago, igolfchip said:

OK- first, I am reporting an issue based on facts, not conjecture.

Let's not talk it away and come up with excuses because we like Affinity. 

Here's something about tech support - only a small % of customers report tech issues. The rest either deal with it or switch to a competitor. There is real value to accept every issue and look for a resolution. There is nothing worse than tech companies that assume their product is perfect, everything is either Microsoft/Apple's fault or the User's fault.

To your questions -

I have attempted the install at different physical locations that all have different internet providers and excellent internet speeds.

I have attempted those on diffferent PCs (license allows Affinity 2 to be installed on 2 Pcs) and same results on both.

I have attempted the upgrades (not downloads, UPGRADES which seems to be a unique process where it is changing files, instead of the traditional microsoft method of uninstall and reinstall) on different days with same results.

My intention is not to talk something away. I just point out that this has happened in the past and went away after some time.

I am not a representative of Serif and cannot help you with what is going on behind the scenes technically. Usually Serif staff monitors this forum and if there is something worthfull to contribute they chime in.

Different internet providers may point to a problem on the server's end. I'm really sorry the download is so slow for you. I myself experienced this once or twice. Still, I am sure this will be different the next time an update becomes available.

d.

[igolfchip]

Well, good news, is that it seems to have cleared up, when updating over a weekend vs. weekday.

What took 18 hours to complete multiple times previously completed today for all 3 apps in about 3 min.

I have a theory - Serif or Amazon (if they are the hosting/server company) may limit the bandwidth to the server.  On weekdays, perhaps there's exponential demand for upgrades vs. weekend and that's when we see the limits / issues?

[Nobody At All]

Over the last several updates, I've also suffered through horrible connections problems.

And I'm on fibre internet, so speed isn't the issue.  Every and every time I try to update the Affinity app through the app itself, it's just stalls after about 4-5MB of download.

Frustrating.

Not sure if it's an issue, but running this on the latest macOS operating system version and on an M1 iMac.

[Mr. Doodlezz]

I just updated all the apps to macOS Ventura and after a fortunately quick in-app-download. But after that it took unexpectedly long to extract, so I thought I was waiting in vain and killed the apps a couple of times to restart. Probably I wasn't patient enough, because after the third time I noticed the bar actually moves … just … real … slow for the first minute or so. 🥱

After that it installed in <10 minutes.

[dominik]

14 hours ago, igolfchip said:

I have a theory - Serif or Amazon (if they are the hosting/server company) may limit the bandwidth to the server.  On weekdays, perhaps there's exponential demand for upgrades vs. weekend and that's when we see the limits / issues?

Hi @igolfchip,

good to hear the speed problem went away which also emphasizes observations made in the past that I was referring to. I doubt that there are bandwidth limitations as you assume. Those are hiccups related to the global distribution of the files as was explained some time ago.

d.

[mrbips]

noticing exact same thing. 56k modem or less in download speed. I'm on a fiber connection so it are not me. 

just trying to update Photo 2, cancelling because .. just no not going to wait 

Whats the deal @Affinity? Why are downloads unfathomably slow?

[walt.farrell]

7 hours ago, mrbips said:

Whats the deal @Affinity? Why are downloads unfathomably slow?

If it's not an issue on your machine, then it should be an issue in the network between you and Amazon, where the updates are hosted. Where are you located?

[pbordeaux]

Same issue last week during an afternoon and now in the evening. I haven't waited for the slow downloads to finish, but tonight I bailed after 2 hours of waiting on the Affinity Photo 2.4.0 update. I have 500Mb service, and the download averaged 100Kb/sec. I tried again and got the same rate. What's up with this?

[Ron P.]

I think Serif is not the problem, but somewhere between you and Amazon Web Services. It might not be Amazon, but some point that your internet is routed through. I know last week there was an issue where FB, and some other social media suddenly went down. Just like flipping a switch. MHO, wasn't accidental.

Also AT&T outage affecting tens of thousands for over 12 hrs. (Cyber Attack)

Amazon Web Services Live Status

[rmaz]

Same issue here: Tested my speed and I'm downloading at 25 MBPS, but all attempts to update crawl and usually crap out.

 

[Komatös]

23 minutes ago, rmaz said:

Same issue here

As mentioned in a previous post, there may be a routing issue between your provider and Amazon Web Services.

[rmaz]

27 minutes ago, Komatös said:

As mentioned in a previous post, there may be a routing issue between your provider and Amazon Web Services.

Any idea (asking Affinity) if there is a link or reference I can give my ISP for them to check? 

[rmaz]

Re; the conversation about slow upgrade downloads: I just downloaded the entire Affinity Designer program and it took 10 seconds. But the upgrade (from presumably the same AWS account) still crawls. That suggests to me that it's not a routing issue.

 

Edited April 5 by rmaz

[Archangel]

Has anyone tried to use a tool such as Process Explorer or an equivalent to monitor what is going on with the processes and monitor the data usage and speed of tasks. This is probably only useful on a PC. I don't know if the Mac has similar software.

[mopperle]

The process explorer doesnt make much sense in such a case. It wouldnt see if there are any problems with one of the many nodes between  the users PC and the download server.

More usefull for Windows is the command line tool TRACERT

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/how-to-use-tracert-to-troubleshoot-tcp-ip-problems-in-windows-e643d72b-2f4f-cdd6-09a0-fd2989c7ca8e

There are also similar tools with a graphical UI available, mostly not for free.

For Mac users there is for sure something similar in place.