Importing brushes causes Affinity apps to crash regularly.

[Bryan Rieger]

I'm using Affinity Designer 2.1 on an 11" iPad Pro and a 12" iPad Pro (both running the latest OS versions) and I'm regularly running into issues where importing 3rd party brushes from True Grit Texture Supply, Frankentoon, etc. causes the app to crash to the 'desktop' without warning, and without saving a version of the document I'm working on. I've learned the hard way not to load brushes while I'm working on an actual document I want to keep. If I try a couple of times I can usually get the brushes loaded, but I've also had instances where the app doesn't crash, but doesn't load the brushes either, with no communication provided at all. I originally thought it was because I was loading pixel brushes in the vector persona as this silent fail behaviour is often seen in that context, but I was importing pixel brushes in the pixel persona.

 

[DWright]

Can you please confirm if you are importing the brushes via the Account page or from the Brushes studio using the import tool.

[Bryan Rieger]

On 6/5/2023 at 4:11 AM, DWright said:

Can you please confirm if you are importing the brushes via the Account page or from the Brushes studio using the import tool.

I’m using the import tool found in the hamburger menu in the brush panel. The (raster and vector) brushes are stored in my iCloud Drive Documents folder in order to be available for both the iPad and macOS versions of the Affinity apps.

Addendum: the brushes do appear to import just before the crash as I've discovered a have a number of brush folders named sequentially from subsequent imports (and crashes). ie: Nomad, Nomad 1, Nomad 2… Nomad 12, etc. So it appears the brushes do import, but then Affinity crashes directly after the import happens.

[Frankentoon Studio]

I can replicate this crashing issue when importing vector brushes into Affinity (iPad) 2.1.0

1. Import brushes from the hamburger menu
2. The usual confirmation dialog appears
3. After clicking ok the app crashes
4. After re-launching brushes appear installed correctly

[walt.farrell]

I got a crash importing one of Frankentoon Studio's Mystery Box vector brush packs (#44), too. Sequence of operations just as @Frankentoon Studio described.

Here's the IPS file from the crash: 

Designer iPad-2023-06-09-065935.ips

[Benfischer]

That’s been happening since the beta. But I hadn’t noticed it lately. Also importing from the brush panel (not the account or store). For some reason importing Daub brushes caused it to crash constantly. I reported it as a bug, but I guess it’s still there. I wonder if there’s a type of brush or number of brushes in a pack that make Affinity crash. 
 

and while I’m at it, it’s a huge pain in the butt in Designer that I have to be in Pixel personal to import pixel brushes and same with Vector.   I don’t see that limitation on the desktop. 

[walt.farrell]

58 minutes ago, Benfischer said:

For some reason importing Daub brushes

There was a specific issue handing the DAUB W&W brushes that was logged and resolved during the beta, if I remember correctly. The brushes imported, but couldn't be used.

This one seems different.

[Bryan Rieger]

Just to follow up on this. I purchased @Frankentoon Studio's El Malo Kit today directly from their store. Unfortunately installing these (vector) brushes (I haven't got to the other assets or palettes yet) in Designer (using the hamburger menu in the brush palette in the Designer persona) is a constant crashfest. After each brush is installed Designer 2.1.1 on iPadOS (latest updates) either immediately crashes out to the iPad 'desktop', or completely locks up forcing me to close the app.

FWIW everything works absolutely fine on desktop.

Addendum: the crashing behaviour isn't limited to Frankentoon brushes, but also brushes from True Grit Texture Supply, and Retro Supply Co. The one common characteristic is that they are all third-party brushes purchased outside of the official Serif store. Also, the .afstyles imported just fine on both macOS desktop and iPadOS.

Edited June 22, 2023 by bug reports only
Additional information.

[Benfischer]

I also got the El Malo kit from the Affinity store (the demo images crack me up). I did not install them manually but let Affinity Designer download and install on its own and no problems.  I guess there’s a difference in how AD does its thing, menu vs store installs. 

4 hours ago, bug reports only said:

Just to follow up on this. I purchased @Frankentoon Studio's El Malo Kit today directly from their store. Unfortunately installing these (vector) brushes (I haven't got to the other assets or palettes yet) in Designer (using the hamburger menu in the brush palette in the Designer persona) is a constant crashfest. After each brush is installed Designer 2.1.1 on iPadOS (latest updates) either immediately crashes out to the iPad 'desktop', or completely locks up forcing me to close the app.

FWIW everything works absolutely fine on desktop.

Addendum: the crashing behaviour isn't limited to Frankentoon brushes, but also brushes from True Grit Texture Supply, and Retro Supply Co. The one common characteristic is that they are all third-party brushes purchased outside of the official Serif store. Also, the .afstyles imported just fine on both macOS desktop and iPadOS.