Crash when clicking and dragging child layer

[ch22]

There are two ways to create child layers in Affinity Photo, but I couldn't find anything about this point in the online help. I therefore do not know the official vocabulary (if it exists) to distinguish the two types from each other and this makes uneasy to discuss it. So I begin with explaining how to get these two types. For this I start from an image with 3 ordinary layers, a background, a delimited pixel layer which will become the parent layer and a top layer which will become the child layer. Then :

(1) The 1st type children are created by right-clicking on the upper layer and choosing "Mask to below". If this layer is an adjustment or a filter, you can also create this type of child directly with the buttons of the layer palette or with the items of the Layer menu

(2) The 2nd type children are created by selecting the upper layer and then calling the menu "Arrange > Move inside"

 You can also transform the top layer into one or the other kind of children with the appropriate click and drag. You can also transform a 1st type child into a 2nd type with the click and drag  shown below, starting from a folded parent-child group and moving the child layer thumbnail horizontally to the right

 

This works fine on my Windows laptop, but this always makes Affinity Photo to crash on my Mac, regardless of the child layer (adjustment, filter, pixel layer). I tried in Preferences > Performance to cancel all hardware acceleration (see below screenshot), but this still crashes.

I am working with a Mac Pro (under BigSur OS) with a AMD FirePro D500 3 Go video card

[NathanC]

Hi @ch22,

I have a few follow up queries below:

- To clarify, on your Mac does the crash occur independently of if Method 1 (Clipping Mask to thumbnail/'Mask to below) or Method 2 (Nesting as a child layer/move inside) are used? 

- Based on your screenshot i'm guessing so, but can this crash occur on any file/set of layers when either of these two actions are performed or is it file specific? In case this is somehow related to your specific layers, could you provide a file where you can replicate this?

- Could you provide a few recent crash reports after encountering this? I've linked the FAQ below which details how to find these.

Many thanks!

[ch22]

Thank you for considering my message

To clarify, on your Mac does the crash occur independently of if Method 1 (Clipping Mask to thumbnail/'Mask to below) or Method 2 (Nesting as a child layer/move inside) are used? 

I am not sure to exactly understand. Your Method 1 yields what I call 1st type child while your Method 2 yields a 2nd type child. The crash occurs when the child-parent group is folded. Then only the 1st type is visible and the only possible click and drag move is a conversion attempt from 1st type to 2nd and it always crashes

I prepared a short video showing what I do, at https://oitregor.com/divers/AP2e/bug.mp4 (2mn30sec, 29 Mo)

Based on your screenshot i'm guessing so, but can this crash occur on any file/set of layers when either of these two actions are performed or is it file specific? 

It is not file specific. My video shows two different occurrences

Could you provide a few recent crash reports after encountering this? I've linked the FAQ below which details how to find these.

Unfortunately, my Console application is not compatible with my OS ("Vérifiez auprès du développeur que Console.app fonctionne avec cette version de macOS"). I prepared a copy of the bug report prepared for Apple in  https://oitregor.com/divers/AP2e/Bug_report.docx and I hope it will be convenient for you 

 

[NathanC]

Thanks for following up along with the screen recording and crash report, this is fairly standard behaviour and it's not something I've been able to replicate a crash for so far, indicating there is could be something in your local  environment which may be the problem or perhaps it's the app version.

I've noticed in your crash report that you're running Photo 2.0.3, could you update to 2.1 and then see if the crash can still be re-produced? If it can be, see the below:

20 hours ago, ch22 said:

Unfortunately, my Console application is not compatible with my OS ("Vérifiez auprès du développeur que Console.app fonctionne avec cette version de macOS")

This stands out as unusual to me, as from what I've found online the Console app has been in MacOS since Mojave 10.14, one version prior to the minimum OS version required for the V2 apps, which is Catalina 10.15 and according to the crash report you're running Big Sur 11.7 so it should be available.

Could send me a screenshot of your 'About this mac' screen so I can see your full specs, along with a screenshot of the in app performance preferences?

[ch22]

 Hum! My Console app seems in a better mood today or I messed up yesterday. Anyway, here are the 3 requested files. Also, I upgraded to 2.1 and it didn't change anything for me.

Affinity Photo 2 Affinity Store_2023-05-20-181631_Gromac2.crash

[NathanC]

Hi @ch22,

Thanks for following up, i've since been able to consistently re-produce the crash and found that it's currently logged with the developers (Affects mac only), so it's nothing specific to your device/environment. The bug happens when you have the layers in a collapsed state with a clipped/mask layer and then drag it and hover over the parent stack without letting go of your mouse, it causes an app crash.

The reason I couldn't produce it before was because I wasn't hovering it, I was just instantly drag and dropping the clipped/mask layer over to the parent layer without leaving any time to hover as shown in your recording. I've bumped the existing issue with your report.

The easiest way to workaround this is to instantly drag/drop the layer, or have the layer expanded as you've found.

[ch22]

OK. That will be all for me on this issue. It's not very serious (we can live with it), but it would be better to solve it. I submit another bug of the same barrel, but rather Windows than Mac —a little anyway_, at https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/186882-affinity-photo-is-show-others-menu-buggy/ 

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Drag-dropping a masked child layer out to the parent stack without releasing the mouse button causes a crash" (REF: AF-977) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.4.0.2252".
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Serif Info Bot to notify us.