Affinity Photo 2 freezes up on launch

[Pampurrs]

Affinity Photo2 has been working fine until today. When I launch it, it takes forever to load, and then when I click on any menu item, I get the dreaded "not responding" message. I tried waiting for over an hour and it never comes back to life.  I have to force the program to close.  I've tried it several times with the same result.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, but that didn't solve the problem.

Any suggestions before I just give it up and go back to Photoshop (shudder)?

EDIT: Since posting this, I have made a discovery, and now know the root of the problem. A few days ago I installed a new Ultra Sharp 4k monitor, which requires connecting both the HDMI cable, and a DP cable to my computer. I didn't think much of it, until today when I disconnected the new monitor and reconnected the old 1080 monitor. That fixed the issue.

Also, I managed to get Affinity Photo to launch without freezing up, but I am unable to open any existing images (of any file type), nor am I able to create a new document.  In either case, the program freezes up when I try to open or create a document.

So now I know, it has something to do with the DP cable (I think). Now that I know what caused the problem, I hope one of the support people from Affinity will see this and come up with a solution.

[MikeTO]

Try launching it with Ctrl held down (on a Mac press Ctrl immediately after clicking the app icon or you'll get a context menu). This should show a screen that allows you to clear your defaults. Others with the same issue as you have reported that this solves the problem for them.

Good luck!

[Pampurrs]

Thanks for the response.  Unfortunately, this didn't completely solve the problem. Affinity2 will open now, but the minute I try to open a file (any file regardless of extension), it freezes up.  I even tried creating a new document and it froze up.  Something weird is going on under the hood.

Pam

[RichardMH]

Are your graphics drivers up to date?

[Pampurrs]

Yes they are. However, I doubt it has anything to do with the graphics card or driver since I'm able to open images just fine in On1, or any image viewer on my computer. Also, I'm able to edit videos in Davinci Resolve, which is way more graphics intense than any image editing program. 

The issue is clearly with Affinity.

[MikeTO]

Are you using Mac or Windows and which version of the operating system? Which processor and graphics card do you have?

Are you trying to open a single document or have you tried a few different ones?

Are you able to create a new document and draw shapes and type text in it?

Do you have Designer and Publisher? Do they work okay?

[Pampurrs]

1 hour ago, MikeTO said:

Are you using Mac or Windows and which version of the operating system? Which processor and graphics card do you have?

Windows with Nvidea graphics card 4g vram

Are you trying to open a single document or have you tried a few different ones?

As I stated earlier, I tried various docs with different extensions.

Are you able to create a new document and draw shapes and type text in it?

As stated earlier, I am unable to create a new document

Do you have Designer and Publisher? Do they work okay?

Same issue with those apps

_______________________________

Through some troubleshooting, I have been able to isolate the problem. A few days ago, I added a new ultrasharp 4k monitor which requires both a HDMI cable and DP cable. As an experiment, I switched back to the old 1080 monitor (which only requires the HDMI cable) and Affinity works fine. So, the root of the problem seems to be the addition of the DP cable. Oddly, all my other graphics apps (ON1, Davinci Resolve, GIMP, Winzip Image Manager, Paint) work just fine. I suspect, if I was to renew my subscription to Photoshop, it would work fine also. This issue is exclusive to Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher.

Now that I know the root of the problem, I just need to find out how to fix it. Hopefully someone from Affinity tech support can help.

Pam

 

[MikeTO]

Hi Pam. I'm a Mac user so I'm not going to be able to provide much help but while you're waiting for assistance try playing with your preferences > performance settings. In particular, try turning hardware acceleration off. I know you just replaced the monitor and cable and not your graphic card, but it's worth a try.

Good luck!

[Pampurrs]

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, that didn't fix it.

Do the support people at Affinity monitor this forum? I'd love to hear from them.

Pam

[RichardMH]

1 hour ago, Pampurrs said:

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, that didn't fix it.

Do the support people at Affinity monitor this forum? I'd love to hear from them.

Pam

Maybe they have the weekends off? And they did have quite a back log.

[walt.farrell]

11 minutes ago, RichardMH said:

Maybe they have the weekends off? And they did have quite a back log.

There are certainly fewer of them working outside of business hours.

[Pampurrs]

Well it's not a huge emergency.  I just hope eventually I get some support. Is this the right place to seek help from Affinity support?

 

Pam

[stokerg]

On 3/25/2023 at 5:55 PM, Pampurrs said:

Also, I managed to get Affinity Photo to launch without freezing up, but I am unable to open any existing images (of any file type), nor am I able to create a new document.  In either case, the program freezes up when I try to open or create a document.

 

This type of issue is normally related to the graphics card driver and doing a clean install of your driver, making sure its the latest one should resolve the issue.  Also you try clicking Edit>Preferences>Performance and at the bottom of this screen is an option for openCL, if that's ticked, untick it and close Preferences and you'll be asked to restart Affinity, once restarted try opening an image or start a new document and let me know the results.

[Pampurrs]

>> This type of issue is normally related to the graphics card driver and doing a clean install of your driver, making sure its the latest one should resolve the issue.  Also you try clicking Edit>Preferences>Performance and at the bottom of this screen is an option for openCL, if that's ticked <<

I've already tried those steps, and to no avail.

However, I just discovered that if I disconnect the HDMI cable and leave the DP cable connected, I was able to open images in Affinity Photo2.  This is good to see, but it leaves me with two questions:

(1) Why was I having this problem with Affinity Photo and not with any other graphics program (Photoshop, ON1 Raw image editor, GIMP, etc)?

(2) The instructions for my Dell Ultrasharp 4k monitor clearly state to connect both HDMI and DP cable. I'm surprised that the monitor even works without the HDMI cable, but now I have to wonder if I'm actually getting 4k without it.

Thanks for your help. I'm still trying to solve the mystery.

Pam

[Ron P.]

Here's an interesting read on the HDMI vs DPI. It's not as simple as it would seem.

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/hdmi-vs-displayport-which-should-i-use-for-my-pc-monitor