Topaz Photo AI (v2.3.1) crashes when opened as PlugIn from Affinity Photo V2 (Windows PC)

[WilbChris]

Hi,

I've just updated to Affinity Photo V2.3 (EXE/MSI version), and can no longer open  the Topaz Labs Photo AI plugin.. 

When sending a photo to Topaz Photo AI plugin, Photo AI brieflz opens and then crashes leaving only an error dialog box (see attached screenshot)..

Please help fix this

[StuartE]

I also get the plugins link greyed out, and it happens with Nik Collection

[WilbChris]

My problem occurs with every version of Topaz Photo AI from version 2.0 onwards (Photo AI v1.5.4 seems to work)... 

[Dan C]

Hi @WilbChris,

Thanks for your report!

We've seen this error occur with previous versions of Topaz plugins, and the error message shown indicates an issue with the Plugin itself, rather than the Affinity apps.

As can be seen in the above thread, users have been previously able to resolve this by uninstalling the Topaz update, then reinstalling the latest version of Topaz directly, rather than using the Topaz updater.

Failing this, I would recommend contacting Topaz support for further advice, as mentioned above the plugin itself is crashing and not the Affinity app.

Welcome to the Affinity Forums @StuartE!

On 12/2/2023 at 3:53 PM, StuartE said:

I also get the plugins link greyed out, and it happens with Nik Collection

As this is related to different plugins, I'd recommend creating a separate New Thread, where our team can assist as required

[WilbChris]

8 hours ago, Dan C said:

Hi @WilbChris,

Thanks for your report!

We've seen this error occur with previous versions of Topaz plugins, and the error message shown indicates an issue with the Plugin itself, rather than the Affinity apps.

As can be seen in the above thread, users have been previously able to resolve this by uninstalling the Topaz update, then reinstalling the latest version of Topaz directly, rather than using the Topaz updater.

Failing this, I would recommend contacting Topaz support for further advice, as mentioned above the plugin itself is crashing and not the Affinity app.

Welcome to the Affinity Forums @StuartE!

As this is related to different plugins, I'd recommend creating a separate New Thread, where our team can assist as required

Hi Dan,

Thanks for your response.. I figured the problem of the plugin crashing is with the plugin itself, somehow, and have reached out to Topaz Labs already.. They have recommended uninstalling the plugin and re-installing it with the latest installer directly, however that isn't fixing the problem for me.

One thing I have noticed is that although I've uninstalled Topaz Photo AI, it is still listed in the available Plugins in Affinity Photo. Affinity correctly reports that the plugin isn't installed if I try and run it, but I can't get Topaz Photo AI out of the list of available plugins - even removing the Topaz Program Files Folder from the Plugin Folders options, removes the other Topaz Labs Plugins,fine but Topaz Photo AI is still there....

How can I get Affinity Photo to remove the Topaz Photo AI form the plugins list?

Cheers,

Chris

[nickbatz]

Wait, stop the presses...

YOU'RE GETTING IT TO WORK AS A PLUG-IN?!

I've never been able to get Gigapixel AI to work as a plug-in. It just doesn't appear.

...although to be fair, I haven't kept up with the updates for a couple of years (because I'm not as enthusiastic as I'd like to be about its results, and while Photo AI is better, it's still not enough to make me open my wallet).

 

[walt.farrell]

10 hours ago, nickbatz said:

I've never been able to get Gigapixel AI to work as a plug-in. It just doesn't appear.

This is about Topaz Photo AI, not Gigapixel AI. Different products, I think?

[WilbChris]

11 hours ago, nickbatz said:

YOU'RE GETTING IT TO WORK AS A PLUG-IN?!

I've never been able to get Gigapixel AI to work as a plug-in.

As Walt has already written, this thread is about Photo AI and NOT Gigapixel. Gigapixel has NEVER worked as a plugin in Photoshop or Affinity but is available as an external editor in Lightroom..

Now, back to Photo AI.. 

I think I may have solved the problem.. 

As previously stated, after uninstalling Topaz Photo AI, it was still listed in Affinity Photo as a plugin, so I went poking around in the system to find where Affinity was finding it and in Affinity's standard Plugins folder (%appdata%\Affinity....) I found a Photoshop plugin file (*.8bf) for Topaz Photo AI which must have been put there by some previous install or update of Topaz Photo AI (I know that I haven't put anything in that folder)..

Once that was deleted (whilst Topaz Photo AI was still uninstalled), Topaz Photo AI then disappeared from Affinity Photos Plugins menu.

After re-installing Topaz Photo AI 2.1.3 it now works.

[DebSki]

Hi All

I have a similar problem, but what I'm getting is error message when running Topaz Photo AI while AF 2.3 (& 2.1/2.2) is running. This has been going on for a while & I've been talking to Topaz & today they have told me

"It looks like there is a conflict with our update and Affinity's update. Please delete the plugin from the Affinity folder and rerun the Photo AI installer one more time."

I put my raw files through Topaz & then save & open in AF. Whether that's the best way to do things I don't know. Open to ideas (once it's all running OK of course)

So, I've done as they suggested & I have the same problem. I've never tried using plugins from AF (hadn't realised they were there). Found them in settings/Photoshop Plugins & ticked the allow unknown plugins to be used, but when I go to filters/plugins/Topaz Labs, Topaz Photo AI is greyed out

Open to any & all ideas

Thanks

 

[nickbatz]

6 hours ago, WilbChris said:

As Walt has already written, this thread is about Photo AI and NOT Gigapixel. Gigapixel has NEVER worked as a plugin in Photoshop or Affinity

Oh yeah I know it doesn't work all too well, and sorry if it sounded like I'm conflating the two - I'm fully aware that they're different products from the same company.

But Gigapixel AI does have a plug-in that you can install in Affinity Photo - and that doesn't show up once installed. That's why I was surprised that Photo AI ever works as a plug-in.

And you'd think that a developer would be sharing this kind of code among their programs, never mind that they seem to have been concentrating their development on Photo AI.

[DebSki]

I've heard back from Topaz - but this is what they told me

Thanks for giving that a try.

I just spoke to my team about this and it looks like it's a GPU conflict. Our developers are currently investigating this. In the meantime, Manually select the CPU to use for processing. Go to the Topaz Photo AI Menu option > Preferences > General menu > AI Processor > CPU.

This may cause slower processing but hopefully it doesn't crash or fail.

 

I've just tried processing an image in Topaz. Seemed to work fine. Fingers crossed it's solved the problem

 

 

 

[Dan C]

Apologies for the delayed response here -

On 12/5/2023 at 12:21 PM, WilbChris said:

As previously stated, after uninstalling Topaz Photo AI, it was still listed in Affinity Photo as a plugin, so I went poking around in the system to find where Affinity was finding it and in Affinity's standard Plugins folder (%appdata%\Affinity....) I found a Photoshop plugin file (*.8bf) for Topaz Photo AI which must have been put there by some previous install or update of Topaz Photo AI (I know that I haven't put anything in that folder)..

Once that was deleted (whilst Topaz Photo AI was still uninstalled), Topaz Photo AI then disappeared from Affinity Photos Plugins menu.

After re-installing Topaz Photo AI 2.1.3 it now works.

&

7 hours ago, DebSki said:

I just spoke to my team about this and it looks like it's a GPU conflict. Our developers are currently investigating this. In the meantime, Manually select the CPU to use for processing. Go to the Topaz Photo AI Menu option > Preferences > General menu > AI Processor > CPU.

This may cause slower processing but hopefully it doesn't crash or fail.

 

I've just tried processing an image in Topaz. Seemed to work fine. Fingers crossed it's solved the problem

Many thanks for letting us know, we're certainly glad to hear this has been resolved

[Nodrog Macphee]

Topaz photo AI 2.07 is the last one plugin wise that I managed to get working and not crash

[WilbChris]

1 hour ago, Nodrog Macphee said:

Topaz photo AI 2.07 is the last one plugin wise that I managed to get working and not crash

What worked for me was closing Affinity Photo, completely uninstalling Topaz PhotoAI, then launching Affinity Photo and checking if the Topaz PhotoAI plugin is really gone. If it's still listed check under %appdata%\Affinity (or its subfolders) for any ".8bf" files for Topaz PhotoAI and delete it/them. Check in Affinity again that it's now gone. Then close Affinity and re-install the latest Topaz Photo AI using a full installer downloaded from Topaz labs. 

Hopefully that solves the problem.

Cheers.