Affinity publisher started crashing between two versions of the same project

[PeetSneekes]

Hey, I'm kind of stuck and also in a pinch.

I've been building this lovely project since a couple of weeks and since 'some' change in my project it crashes publisher immediately when I reopen it after a while. The document did not crash Publisher when I edited it, and saved it in between. The differences between the project shared and the version before this, is deleting empty pages, replacing two or three assets and adding a new text. 

I have tried previous tips like choosing OpenGPL and switching to something different. I also tried to place the file in a different drive, but no results. 

• Publisher 2.0.4
• MacOS 13.2.1 (22D68) (both Intel and Apple M1)

For the life of me: I don't know what changed that makes this project crash Publisher. If I knew I would stop doing it. 

Love to hear your suggestions and Affinity to please fix this!

Kind regards, 

Peet

 

EDIT: I removed the files as a curtsy to my client. Rest assured, we cracked it. Follow the thread for more details and thanks for all the help! I hope I can return the favour soon. 

 

[Hangman]

Hi @PeetSneekes and welcome to the forums...

There is something on Page 41 of your Publisher file causing it it crash... I've done a quick rebuild of the file for you leaving Page 41 blank as you will need to rebuild that particular page. I would check any of the graphics you've used on that particular page first and perhaps resave them before placing them on that page to try and ensure the files causing the document to crash don't re-corrupt the Publisher file.

Notes

1. You will need to go through the document and check everything is as it should be as the text flow doesn't look quite right on the rebuilt file as there are sections where the text repeats, unless this is designed to be placeholder text...
    
2. Any linked files will need to be re-linked... when you open the file it comes up with a message saying "Affinity Publisher 2 removed links to broken objects in your document". I'm unsure specifically what those objects are so you will likely need to go through the document page by page to check that everything which should be linked is linked.

I hope this at least gives you the ability to continue working on your document... If I've missed anything or anything is in the wrong place just let me know...

[PeetSneekes]

Hi @Hangman , thank you so much for the warm welcome, looking into the file and the amazing response time! I will look into the page and see if the text-flows are correct. 

Is this 'rebuilding of pages' something I can also do? 

What are commonly things to prevent this from happening in the future?

Once again thanks so much. I will report back for results. 

Edited February 27, 2023 by PeetSneekes

[Hangman]

Hi @PeetSneekes, that's absolutely no problem at all...

The text-flows in the rebuilt file don't look right to me as certain paragraphs appear to be repeated as do some of the index page contents so I'm not entirely sure what is going on there, it may be a case of having to reflow some of the text elements...

To rebuild the file I simply created a new blank document with a single page and then used the Document > Add pages from file... option to add individual pages one by one from your original document to the new document starting by Replacing Page 1 and then adding subsequent pages After Page 1 (if that makes sense)... The reason for adding the pages one by one was simply to identify which page was causing the issue...

As soon as you enter 41 along side Page numbers: in the Add Pages from File... dialogue window Publisher crashes so it would appear there is something contained on that particular page causing the crash, my guess is an image or a graphic which hopefully you can re-open, re-save or re-build but at least you now have a file you can open even though some re-work and re-linking is likely to be required...

Please do report back, I'd be interested to understand how much reworking was required and whether the elements on Page 41 are now working as expected and no longer causing your Publisher document to crash...

[PeetSneekes]

Alright, quick update on @Hangman's comment: your document did open correctly, but as you indicated, is quite a mess. All of a sudden I have a huge amount of masters en and there were a lot of doubles. I choose not to recover, but incrementally alter, save, close and reopen the file. The problem did seem to come from page 41 and it seems to be one image that did not sit right for some reason. It's an asset I have copied and pasted from Affinity Designer, like many others, but apparently this one created the crash. Rather than past as content I now used the 'place image' and that worked. 

I'm now on the road to recover and further the file from the latest version. Hopefully I will never see this behaviour again. It is very jarring that a complete program crashes on a file that I'm editing, but I do understand software development, so I understand weird stuff happening. 

Thanks for the tip and the effort.

Cheers!

[Hangman]

38 minutes ago, PeetSneekes said:

All of a sudden I have a huge amount of masters en and there were a lot of doubles.

This appears to be a side effect when using Add Pages from File... I noticed it added a new copy of the master for each page added and bearing in mind I added the pages one by one the file ended up with one duplicate master per page. I don't know if there is any way to prevent that from happening or if you simply have to manually delete duplicate masters after completing the process?

Unsure why the Affinity Designer file would have caused the crash after a copy and paste, but I have a feeling something similar may have been reported previously, I'll have to dig to see if I can find out if there is a known issue with this.

I'm glad you are slowly able to rebuild and correct your file, hopefully it didn't involve starting completely from scratch and yes, it is concerning when the document crashes and can't be opened, hopefully someone from the moderation or development team can provide some useful insight here as to what to do when a situtation like this occurs...

[NathanC]

Hey @PeetSneekes &@Hangman ,

Could either of you provide me with the original file which causes the crash when the file is opened? I can then get this logged with the developers so they can look into what has potentially caused the problem.

Many thanks 🙂

[PeetSneekes]

@NathanC I could send it to you in a DM. I'd rather not share the project file (again) publicly as it's an ongoing project. 

I love for the developers to crack this. 

[NathanC]

Just now, PeetSneekes said:

I could send it to you in a DM. I'd rather not share the project file (again) publicly as it's an ongoing project. 

I love for the developers to crack this. 

Yeah that's no problem feel free to send me a DM with the file

[Hangman]

6 hours ago, Hangman said:

This appears to be a side effect when using Add Pages from File... I noticed it added a new copy of the master for each page added and bearing in mind I added the pages one by one the file ended up with one duplicate master per page. I don't know if there is any way to prevent that from happening or if you simply have to manually delete duplicate masters after completing the process?

Which, to answer my own question, of course there is...

I initially used Add Pages from File... to identify the problematic page by adding pages one by one to rebuild the file until I identified it was Page 41 causing the Publisher file to crash but now knowing the problematic page, simply using Add Pages from File... to select Pages 1 through 40 in a new blank document creates a perfect file where everything flows correctly without creating multiple masters! Skip Page 41 and then add the remaining pages to complete the rebuild...

[PeetSneekes]

@Hangman saved the day!