All Affinity programs (Designer/Photo/Publisher v2.0.4) crash on Win 11 Pro while opening an existing or creating a new file

[TheK]

Hi,

After the (normal looking) start of any Affinity program all programs stop working and freeze when I try to open an existing file (I formerly created with that very program) or try to start a new file. I'm running Affinity on Win 11 Pro 22H2 and never experienced such an issue before. Uninstall/re-install doesn't solve the problem, so does a system reboot or deleting the settings in the .affinity folder neither. The issue occurs on all current versions as well as on V2.0 (without subversion 2.0.4 update). I didn't change anything on my system (no new anti-virus software etc.) since I last worked with the Affinity suite. Starting the program itself works if I cancel the dialog to open/create file. The settings for the new file don't matter. Any suggestions?

Appreciate any help.

PS: Even 2.1.0 beta crashes in the same way. I can't work any more with Affinity. 😩

PPS: It looks quite similar to the issue discussed here except that the program freezes and thus doesn't generate a crash report. I tried to solve it by running the .NET repair tool, re-installing .NET (which didn't work either as it was already installed), and clearing the user data as suggested - to no avail. However, I can't solve it by using 2.1.0 as described above, so I'm stuck.

[NathanC]

Hi @TheK,

This could potentially indicate a GPU/Driver issue, I would suggest trying the both of the following:

Disable Hardware Acceleration 

In some circumstances/hardware configurations having Hardware Acceleration enabled can cause problems, this can be disabled under Edit > Preferences > Performance. Once you have unticked this setting, restart the app for the change to take effect. 

Whilst you're in the same menu, also make sure to have the 'Renderer' assigned to your GPU. 

 

Update your GPU Drivers 

Make sure that you have the latest available drivers installed for your GPU, i've linked the AMD and Nvidia and Intel driver search tools below, dependant on your GPU. 

https://www.nvidia.com/download/find.aspx 

https://www.amd.com/en/support 

https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/download-center/home.html 

[TheK]

Thank you for the reply and the support links. I forgot to mention that I already did this before as I read about it in another thread. I've tried it again after completely deinstalling and re-installing all Affinity products and deleting the .affinity folder manually, but it doesn't change anything. However, I've waited now for over 1 hour with the frozen app in the background and the Designer eventually opened a blank canvas. It takes really loooooong, so you might be on the right track but it's strange that I didn't update the drivers before when AD was running smoothly and a new update isn't available also.

[TheK]

Ah, I think you helped me with that. I changed the renderer from the default setting of my GPU to "WARP" (whatever that is) - and now it works. Thank you so much @NathanC!

[TheK]

No, I only have an onboard intel iris xe chipset and no separate graphic card.

[TheK]

Obviously, this issue has been triggered by an automatic, yet incompatible driver update. Intel recommends a roll back and after executing the roll back Affinity runs also smoothly with the Intel GPU used as renderer. Strange thing though - after rolling back the driver the Intel Graphics Command Center identifies the current driver as the most recent version. Again, thank you all!