Affinity Publisher Embedded Image Saving Corruptions Bug discovered

[Oli Putland]

EDIT: I have identified a bug which actually is not to do with Book creation- at least not directly.

 

Bug 1: If an embedded image file is deleted externally, Affinity Publisher is no longer able to save the .afpub at all (just hangs with an eternal saving bar), Affinity does not flag the missing file at all, and if an afpub file has been previously imported into a book, that will effectively render the entire Book un-saveable, without clear reasoning as to why.

Bug 2: When Drag/Dropping images into Affinity, PSD behave differently to JPGs and PNGs. Where as JPGs & PNGs are just imported and fully integrated into the .afpub file, PSDs are automatically embedded. This is not at all clear, and has lead to issues when the PSD file is either moved or deleted.

 

Several times, Affinity Publisher seems to often corrupt .afpub files when added into a Book.

I've had to recreate several chapters of my publications due to this terrifying bug which (luckily due to regular backing up) hasn't been too scary for me.

Never the less, this really is something that needs urgent addressing since the problem has mutated since the first version from something irritating but easy to handle, into something totally random and potentially very destructive.

It used to be that saving the book created potential corruptions- something that could be prevented by opening Affinity fresh and JUST dealing with a book file, quickly.

Now it seems to happen when either opening book files or even when importing chapters. As I say- whole .afpub files prevented from opening in any shape or form.

 

This really needs fixing.

Edited December 1, 2023 by Oli Putland
Bug identified and clarified

[Oli Putland]

Spoke too soon. For some reason, even the backups are now corrupted. They just won't save. It's driving me crazy.

[Oli Putland]

I think I may have discovered the source of the bug.

When importing PSD files using a drag and drop method, unlike JPGs, Affinity Publisher seems to link to the original file, rather than directly import it- something not terribly clear but hey ho.

After deleting the 'linked' picture file, when trying to save or add to a book, Affinity seems to really struggle and just hangs forever, rather than either show the file's ghost in situ, or (which would be better) have big Red Cross or something with the vacant picture frame clearly saying that the linked file is not available.

Missing footage is a common occurrence in desktop editing, but doesn't result in a completely corrupted work method or hanging app!

 

Please let this very nasty bug be fixed.

I'm just glad I identified it.

 

[MikeTO]

43 minutes ago, Oli Putland said:

When importing PSD files using a drag and drop method, unlike JPGs, Affinity Publisher seems to link to the original file, rather than directly import it- something not terribly clear but hey ho.

I believe this is normal. If I create a document with "Prefer Embedded" selected in New Document, and I drag and drop a large PSD into the document, Publisher will prompt me and ask if I want to switch to linked. Once I've done that subsequent files will also be linked because the document's Image Placement policy will be changed in Document Setup.

48 minutes ago, Oli Putland said:

After deleting the 'linked' picture file, when trying to save or add to a book, Affinity seems to really struggle and just hangs forever, rather than either show the file's ghost in situ, or (which would be better) have big Red Cross or something with the vacant picture frame clearly saying that the linked file is not available.

I'm not able to duplicate this. If I place a 170MB PSD and it's linked and then I delete it, Publisher will immediately alert me that the resource has been modified outside of the application through an alert. I have "Automatically Update Linked Resources When Modified Externally" on in Settings. Do you have that option enabled?

Even if the PSD is linked, Publisher still has a low-resolution preview that is saved with the document so there's no need for it to show a big red cross.

[Oli Putland]

Hi MikeTO.

Thanks for getting back. I'm happy to say that some of your advice seems to have actually allowed me to open hitherto un-openable files which I'm obviously very happy about!

For some reason until I checked "Automatically Update Linked Resources When Modified Externally", Affinity would just hang when I opened certain files and I'd need to Force Quit to get anywhere.

Unfortunately, there still seems to be a strange issue with how Embedded and Linked files are handled which I've made a little video about to demonstrate.

[MikeTO]

Hmm, I've duplicated this issue but you don't have delete the PSD files to duplicate it. It appears that PSD files can't be embedded and only linked which seems like a bug to me.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Create a document
2. Place a PSD file
3. Make the PSD embedded if it's not already
4. Save, close and re-open - the PSD will now be linked

I tried this with other file formats such as PDF and couldn't duplicate it.

[Oli Putland]

Yes, I agree the deleting of the file only highlights the issue that is already there.

 

[NathanC]

I'm also able to re-produce the PSD embedded policy changing to linked when the file is re-opened and i've now logged this with the developers.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Saving a file with a PSD embedded automatically switches the policy to linked when re-opening the file" (REF: AF-1416) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.3.1.2212".
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.