Can't open files created before and even created with V2

[Antonio Peregrino]

Dear sirs
Since I updated Affinity Publisher to version 2.2.0 I can no longer open my files saved in Affinity Cloud.
The screen always stays on “opening file”. But he never opens them.
I'm a doctor and I have several saved files. He always worked normally.
Not anymore.
I looked for solutions online.
I saw that there has already been or has been a similar case. But I didn't find the solution.
I use MacOS Operating System, currently version 14.0, Sonoma. iMac 24 inch M1 and MacBook Air M2.
Publisher version in Brazilian Portuguese
Thank you for guidance.

[Jaya72]

I am also having this issue with some v.1 files in Publisher. I have also managed to open a file at one point and edit it but then it seems to hang* when I try and save it.

*It doesn't crash as such but it doesn't open the file and it won't let me quit the app because it is still trying to open the doc.

The files are stored on OneDrive.

Publisher v2.2.0

macOS 14.0

MacBook Pro 16 2021 (M1)

 

*** Edit - Just as I was typing this I left a file trying to open and it eventually opened (maybe 5 minutes). It is now opening any files almost immediately and saving without issue ***

[Dan C]

Hi @Antonio Peregrino,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums and I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble!

Following the release of macOS Sonoma, our team have seen an increase in similar reports and we're currently investigating this further - as it appears as though a change to how macOS handles documents stored in the Cloud is affecting certain Affinity users.

I note that you mention the 'Affinity Cloud' for your document storage, however we don't offer such a service at this time. Can you please confirm if you are using iCloud, OneDrive, Dropbox, GoogleDrive etc?

Secondly, many of the users that report this issue have informed us that after waiting a certain amount of time with the Affinity app 'loading' the document, it will then open as expected and further files will not have any issue - such as in Jaya72's post above.

Can you please try opening one of these documents and simply waiting for the app to load this file, and let me know if this eventually completes?

The time users need to wait seems to vary based on how much data they have saved to their specific cloud service (also indicating this is a wider overall issue with macOS Sonoma , rather than the Affinity apps themselves), meaning you may need to wait upwards of 60 minutes for the file to open.

Once this file opens, are you then able to load and edit further files from your Cloud source, as expected please?

Thanks in advance!

_______________

Hi @Jaya72,

Sorry to hear you're having trouble here also!

20 hours ago, Jaya72 said:

Edit - Just as I was typing this I left a file trying to open and it eventually opened (maybe 5 minutes). It is now opening any files almost immediately and saving without issue

Many thanks for letting us know - this certainly sounds like the known issue that our team are investigating, as covered above, and I'm glad to hear documents are now opening correctly for you.

Our team are tracking all information our users provide regarding this issue, in order to relay to Apple to try and determine the root cause, so I will be sure to 'bump' the internal development log with this thread now.

As far as I'm aware, after waiting the initial period for the first file to open, further documents should load as expected and we're yet to see a report of this behaviour returning for any users after this - but please don't hesitate to update this thread should you need any further assistance or have any further details to share 

[Antonio Peregrino]

Hi Dan
Regarding the cloud service, I use Apple's iCloud.
As for waiting to open documents to see if it resolved, I left it waiting for several hours. Finally opened a document but what happens is that I can see the page thumbnails. But not the pages to edit.
I closed it, reopened it and…nothing. Waiting again for an indefinite period of time. Same mistake.
I am now making the second suggestion. I uninstalled Publisher, Designer and Photo and will re-download from their download page.
About saving to another location, I'll try downloading iCloud and see. But I did this before and the same thing happened. But I will try again.
I downloaded it to the local folder (from my Mac's downloads) and to a pendrive. The same thing happened. But I'll try again and let you know.
The other locations on iMac and MacBook are also clouds (the desktop and documents folder on the Mac are cloud services too).
I post again.
Thanks
Antonio Peregrino

[Dan C]

Thanks for confirming that for me, I'll be sure to update our development log regarding this now.

5 hours ago, Antonio Peregrino said:

Finally opened a document but what happens is that I can see the page thumbnails. But not the pages to edit.
I closed it, reopened it and…nothing. Waiting again for an indefinite period of time. Same mistake.

This isn't behaviour I've seen being reported by other users - either in relation to this specific issue, or the 2.2 update in general. Are you able to provide a screenshot showing the exact issue you're seeing when your file loads within Affinity?

Does this happen for any document, or only one specific one?

If you use File > New and create a new document, does this display as expected, or do you see the same error with a blank document please?

Many thanks once again

[Antonio Peregrino]

Dear Dan
In the morning, after waiting for a long time, they opened (I tried 2) files with thumbnails and a blank center page. I didn't take a screenshot to show you.
I uninstalled all Serif applications.
I reinstalled it just now.
Interestingly, I am able to open the files. At least at home.
At my doctor's office I still left it - when I left there - unopened.
I will do the same test on Monday.
I need to tell you that before I had also uninstalled and installed it and was unable to open it.
Now, without explanation, it started to open.
It's something inexplicable.
It needs to be well studied because I know that several people are experiencing the problem.
The worst thing is that I don't see any really effective solution yet.
Things seem to work randomly in the solution.
I'll watch the next few days and let you know.
Grateful
Antonio Peregrino

[Antonio Peregrino]

Surprisingly, after huge time to open the files (hours), Affinity apps are working for me.
But you need to see what it is about to avoid the same problem with other users.
We shouldn't expect that.
Furthermore, getting back up and running after days and days of waiting is something that needs to be fixed as soon as possible.
Getting back to work without knowing the reason is something a bit magical, which is not expected in IT.
Antonio Peregrino

[Dan C]

Many thanks for letting me know @Antonio Peregrino, I'm glad to hear this issue has been resolved for you.

Absolutely, the Affinity team don't expect this issue to occur and we're investigating this further internally to be fixed as soon as possible.

Thus far we have found many reports of other applications and Cloud services experiencing issues with macOS Sonoma, and we believe the issues reported here are related, for example:

There are known issues with Sonoma and iCloud:

Quote

The reason is that Sonoma fixes a long-standing bug in whether local files can be ‘evicted’ to iCloud, or the download removed from your Mac’s local storage. In some circumstances you could find Sonoma downloading everything you have removed from your local storage, which may come as a surprise.

Reports for OneDrive and Sonoma having sync issues,

As well as issues with Dropbox and Sonoma (note the number of users 'me too-ing' the thread.

According to Dropbox themselves, there were expected changes coming with a previous macOS version due to the File Provider API Apple provided -

https://help.dropbox.com/installs/macos-support-for-expected-changes

My current suspicion is that the 'long standing bug' mentioned in the above quote has affected this File Provider API, causing the loading delay in Affinity but this is only my best guess.

This would also explain the reason that simply waiting for the app to open the document eventually resolves the issue and then no longer occurs for the user - as the time waited allowed for their files to be redownloaded/cached by macOS. 

Therefore this may require Apple to resolve, rather than the Affinity team as the issue appears to affect many users and applications since updating to macOS Sonoma.

I hope this clears things up!

[Antonio Peregrino]

I thought I had solved the problem because the documents opened after a few minutes.
But it became endless again: 2 or 3 hours (sometimes even longer to open).
Do you already have a new solution?

[HCl]

.

[Antonio Peregrino]

17 hours ago, Return said:

Can't you just download the files instead of opening from your cloud folder?
Save it locally on your hd>work on it and save back a copy to the cloud?

I have tried but it does not work. The problem is "absolutely the same". It's incredible. There are something very strange and wrong do solve. Sometimes, after hours, the file opens. Sometimes open a little more fast (15 minutes). Sometimes absolutely does not open. We need a solution from Affinity. 

[HCl]

.

[Antonio Peregrino]

No friend!
It's not related to my internet. I've saved copies on iDrive, in Dropbox, on the computer itself, in iCloud and even on a USB stick.
It is something associated with the file being created in a version prior to v2.
The new ones seem to open without any problems.
The problem is that my file is of importance: it is a newsletter that I maintain every 60 days related to medical issues.
Redoing everything is very complicated.
But it worked 100% until Sonoma arrived.
However, all files from other programs open normally. The problem is with Affinity Publisher, Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer.
That's why I'm describing it in the form of Affinity.

[Patrick Connor]

@Antonio Peregrino

We agree, there is something going on for a few customers like yourself using Sonoma and 2.2.0/2.2.1 We have not been above to replicate it ourselves but we are still investigating, sorry for the inconvenience.

[Antonio Peregrino]

Hi Patrick

Any suggestions I can try?
I have a publication to release on November 5th.
But I can't open it. Loading all the time.
When it opens, I can sometimes see the pages and work.
Eventually I see the thumbnails but not the page in the center to edit.
Any suggestion?
I really appreciate the help.

[Dan C]

Unfortunately as I mentioned above, we believe this issue may currently caused by the macOS Sonoma update, though our team are still investigating this further internally as Patrick has confirmed.

At this time, I believe the only known 'workarounds' are to leave the file loading for as long as it takes on the first load, however subsequent loads may then be faster.

You may also want to try moving the Affinity file (and any linked content) to a non-cloud synced location and pause any iCloud syncing on your mac, as some users have also found this improves loading times for these specific files.

I'm not aware of other options currently to change or fix this behaviour within Affinity, as it appears to be specifically related to macOS Sonoma - our apologies.

[ashf]

I suggested someone removing/replacing linked images on other device such as  iPad regarding similar case.
They said it's solved by that.
 

[Antonio Peregrino]

Thanks ashf. I'm going to try it from my iPad and post the result. 

By the way, look at page that open today. Sometimes it occurs.

 

[Antonio Peregrino]

Dear ashf. I tried using my iPad. But the problem with MacOS still the same. 

But. Thank you for your assistance. 

[Dan C]

2 hours ago, Antonio Peregrino said:

I tried using my iPad. But the problem with MacOS still the same. 

My apologies, just to confirm you are trying to open this document on your iPad and you are seeing equally long loading times for the file? 

The aforementioned bug report is regarding macOS Sonoma specifically, so if you are experiencing a similar issue with the file on iPadOS, this might indicate an issue with the file itself.

Is the issue only occurring with the file shown in your screenshot, or is this happening with multiple documents?

What exactly have you tried in regards to your iPad? As I understood ashf's suggestion was to 'break' any links to linked images/documents within your file, usually achieved by moving the linked files to a different location on your mac.

[Antonio Peregrino]

Hi Dan, thank you again

The problem is only on Mac.
On the iPad it opened normally.
In MacOS Sonoma sometimes opens the file after hours and sometimes opens as I presented.
I'm so worried. With Bulletin to be released on November 5th and I never know when I will be able to edit it.
It has happened with more than one document.

[Dan C]

No problem at all, thanks for verifying that!

1 minute ago, Antonio Peregrino said:

The problem is only on Mac.
(...)
In MacOS Sonoma sometimes opens the file after hours and sometimes opens as I presented.
(...)
It has happened with more than one document.

This certainly matches our understanding of the aforementioned bug, which is still logged with our development team at this time. We're working to investigate this further and hope, where/if possible, to address this in the future.

From the reports we've seen, all files do eventually load, but may take some time on the first load after opening.
ur apologies for any inconveniences caused due to this time taken to open these documents in the meantime.

[Antonio Peregrino]

Dear Dan and other friends
Very good news.
At least it seems to have resolved it for me, although I'll keep an eye on it over the next few days and post again.
What did I do? I deleted Affinity Publisher (and Affinity Photo and Designer) and downloaded Affinity Publisher directly from the App Store (from Apple).
It's working 100%.
Opening everything quickly, no problem.
I haven't reinstalled Photo and Designer yet (for fear of complicating things). I'll do it later.
Let's see if this can be a solution for those who have the problem.
Previously I always downloaded directly from Affinity.
I don't know if it makes sense but it worked. Maybe something has already been “adjusted” within the App Store (?!!!).

[Antonio Peregrino]

I continue testing and working on Affinity Publisher, which is ABSOLUTELY NORMAL since it was installed through the AppStore (from Apple).
I have been opening all the old files (which used to be waiting for hours to be opened) immediately after the new installation mentioned.
I have already reinstalled Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer (also from the AppStore) which now work completely normally both individually and included in Publisher Persona.
In conclusion, the problem I had with Affinity 2.2.1 applications not opening or opening very slowly with MacOS Sonoma was completely resolved when I uninstalled the versions that had been acquired through the Affinity server and reinstalled them through the AppStore.
I don't understand the meaning (I'm a doctor, end user; I don't understand the details of information technology), but I post this to help those who may have the problem try this solution.

[LLscud]

I am having this problem with 2.3 Publisher running on MacBookPro 2019 using Sonoma 14.2.1  but no amount of waiting allows me to open the files previously created in v2.  I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Publisher - not through the AppStore so maybe I need to try that trick next.