Affinity Photo 2.1 suddenly unable to make any image adjustments

[dfantle]

I've used Affinity Photo for about 3 years, and recently upgraded my computer specifically for photo/video editing to an AMD-based Lenovo Legion 7 running Win11.  I installed Affinity Photo V2.0 and it seemed to work fine at first.  After just a few times, it now no longer will let me make any edits to my images.  I can open an image, and do RAW conversion, but when I try to make any adjustments or live filters, such as brightness/contrast, HSL, sharpening, etc. the controls/sliders for that adjustment flicker on for a fraction of a second, but then disappear, and won't let me make the adjustments.  If I click on the icon for those adjustments I've tried to make which then show up in the layer panel, the same thing happens - the control sliders flicker on for about 1/4 second, and then disappear again.  I can't recall if this started happening immediately after I updated to V2.1 or not, but possibly.  Any idea what is happening, and how I can fix this?  Hoping not to have to go back to Lightroom...

[RichardMH]

A few things to try. Hold down control when you start Photo and reset user data. 

If that doesn't work try turning off hardware acceleration (Edit->Settings-> Performance).

[dfantle]

17 minutes ago, RichardMH said:

A few things to try. Hold down control when you start Photo and reset user data. 

If that doesn't work try turning off hardware acceleration (Edit->Settings-> Performance).

Thank you for the suggestions!  I did the first one, but still had the issue.  I did find out something else though.  I work with the program on my laptop screen, while the image being worked on is on a secondary color-calibrated monitor.  If I drag the image window back into the program on the laptop, then the adjustments work again, and don't immediately disappear.

[RichardMH]

If you go to View->New View then Window->Arrange->Float and drag that window to the second monitor does it work?

[dfantle]

It's interesting what happened.  After I dragged the duplicated/floated window over to the monitor and tried to add a live filter, it immediately disappeared like it has been doing.  When I dragged that window back over to the inside of the program however, I saw that the adjustment controls for that live filter were sitting behind that image window on the monitor, instead of in front of the image.

[RichardMH]

Have you tried with hardware acceleration off? (If it is on). 

[dfantle]

No, I haven't tried yet with hardware acceleration turned off, but will do so soon.  I've found that if I just open an image in the main program window on the laptop, and then temporarily add virtually every adjustment that I ever use, while the control sliders also stay over the program on the laptop, that they will stay there from then on, even after I move the image to the accessory monitor.  I'll need to adjust to looking back and forth from the sliders on the laptop to the image on the monitor as I adjust them, but at least it seems to work now.  After I finish a couple of projects I've been waiting to edit, I'll go back and try it with hardware accel turned off and see if that fixes things.  Thanks a lot, Richard!

-Dave