Unable to Customise Tools

[PaulEC]

Every time I try to customise the Tools Bar I go to View, Customise Tools, make the changes then click Close. OK so far, the changes are made. But next time I open the app the Tool Bar has reverted back to the default set. I'd like to be told that I'm just doing this incorrectly! (This happens in all the apps. I think it has started with 2.3, but I'm not certain.)

[walt.farrell]

MSI/EXE or MSIX version?

[PaulEC]

EXE

[walt.farrell]

Also, are you successfully Closing (Quitting) the app after you perform the customization? If you don't, the changes won't be saved.

[PaulEC]

Yes, I just close it as normal. I wondered if I needed to do anything else to save the changes, but I don't remember having to do anything else previously.

I am closing without saving a document, would that make a difference?

[walt.farrell]

You should not need to have a document open.

Your settings from Customize Tools would be saved in two files. As you say this is happening in all 3 applications, let's consider Publisher for this example. You might start Publisher 2, customize the Tools, close Publisher 2, and note the time.

Then, in File Explorer, look in %AppData%\Affinity\Publisher\2.0\ where you'll be interested in these two files:

• \Settings\tools.xml
• \Workspaces\<persona>\tools.xml (where <persona> would be Publisher or Photo or Vector depending on which Persona's Tools you customized)

You could look at them and examine the timestamp, to see if they were changed at the time you closed the application. You could also examine their content (they should open in Edge if you double-click them, or you can open them in any text editor or XML viewer you might have).

 

[PaulEC]

Thanks for that info,  Walt.

I tried a Ctrl start up and that seems to have fixed the problem (at least in Designer, which is the one I was trying to change originally). But I'll check out those files as well; I'd rather avoid resetting the other apps, if I can!

[PaulEC]

I spoke too early! The Tools Bar is now OK, but now all the Panes keep resetting every time I open the apps and I have to reapply my preset from the Windows menu!

[walt.farrell]

What kind of anti-virus (or, more likely, anti-malware) application do you have?

Have you checked the timestamps on the other files in the directories that I mentioned?

[PaulEC]

The times seem to be correct. I've got Norton 360 installed, but I've used it for years with no problem. However, I haven't tried to make any changes in Affinity for a while and there have been a number of updates to Norton in that time. (FWIW my wife has all the Affinity software installed, same OS as me and using Norton, and she doesn't have these problems.)

[PaulEC]

I just tried removing everything from the AppData folders, and now I'm back to square one. The Panes layout is correct and stays put when I reopen the apps. but I can't save any changes to the Tools Bar. I think I'll just live with it for now, and maybe try a clean re-install when I have the time!

[Dan C]

Thanks for your report @PaulEC!

Just to confirm:

• Is this happening in multiple apps, or only Designer V2?
• Do you have the EXE version for all installed Affinity apps, or a mix with MSIX?
• Do you have any beta versions installed currently?

Can you please navigate to %AppData%\Affinity\Designer\2.0\ and provide a copy of your 'Settings' and 'Workspaces' folders here for me?

Then, try replacing the Workspaces folder and Toolbar/Tools.xml files (in the Settings folder) with the equivalent files attached below.

Workspaces.zip Settings.zip

After restarting Designer, do you find these changes to the Tools are retained?

[PaulEC]

@Dan C Thanks for replying.

 

All three apps.

EXE

I did have the betas, but uninstalled them a while back.

 

At the moment the panels are OK (they kept resetting to the default) but if I try to customise the Tool Bar, it reverts back every time I open the apps.

Desktop.zip

[PaulEC]

Update

I replaced the folders and the Tool settings are now retained. But I'm now back to the workspace (panels) not staying on my settings, but going back to the default layout every time I open Designer. (I do have a saved preset that works, but I have to reapply it every time!)

It seems I can get one or the other (Tools or Workspace layout) to stay as i want, but not both!

[Dan C]

Thanks for confirming that for me and for trying this resolution - I can't find anything untoward in the files you've provided, but it's certainly interesting to hear this behaviour seems to be consistently incorrect, in only having the ability to retain one or the other settings during a restart of the apps.

It sounds as though the app might be crashing during the close, unbeknownst to yourself, as this could cause the settings to fail to save as expected.

Are any crash reports being generated when closing the app? Alternatively, do you see any activity in Event Monitor that would indicate the app is crashing?

If you're unsure how to check the Event Monitor, please see the below steps:

1. Open Windows Run (Windows Key + R) and type the following - eventvwr
2. In the window that opens, expand the Windows Logs drop-down list on the left and then select Application
3. Select Filter Current Log on the right hand side, then enable the Critical, Error & Warning checkboxes and click OK
4. Sort the list using the Time & Date column, to view events in chronological order.
5. Now, search through the list (I tend to search manually as I find it to be easier than using the built in search tools) for any 'Affinity' related events in the past few days - especially around the time of closing/reopening the apps.

Are you able to find any Events listed that would indicate the Affinity app is crashing etc?

[PaulEC]

I can't find any Affinity related entries in the Event Monitor, but attached is the crash report for Designer. (Although all the apps are affected, I assume if we track down the problem with Designer, it should also apply to the other apps!)

6322a1ff-e860-4541-bf1f-2eecc4c4c9d8.dmp

Walt mentioned anti-virus software, do you think Norton could have anything to do with this problem? It hasn't been a problem in the past, but I wonder if a Norton and/or Windows update could have changed something? – I'm grabbing at straws here!

My other thought is, should I just bite the bullet and do a complete, clean re-install of the Affinity apps? If so, how do I remove all traces of Affinity before reinstalling? For example, are there any Registry entries that need to be removed manually? All my apps are getting a bit bloated with brushes, Assets, macros etc and it might be good to have a clean out and start again from scratch!

Thanks for all your help.

[Dan C]

No problem at all, I'm in the process of debugging this report and I'll be sure to let you know the results shortly - hopefully this points us in the right direction!

7 hours ago, PaulEC said:

Walt mentioned anti-virus software, do you think Norton could have anything to do with this problem? It hasn't been a problem in the past, but I wonder if a Norton and/or Windows update could have changed something? – I'm grabbing at straws here!

It's rather unlikely that any Windows update could cause this, but it certainly wouldn't be the first reports of weirdness occurring after a Windows Update is released.
In my opinion it would be more likely for Norton to be affecting this, as it can sometimes be overly-aggressive with blocking files from being saved/updated by an app. 

For example, if Norton detects the Affinity app tries to modify/save multiple files when closing (ie various .XML files) it may detect this as a potential security risk and lock the files from being edited - meaning the next time you launch Affinity you see the previously-saved values and it appears to the user as though this setting change was never committed, unexpectedly.

Therefore it's certainly worth temporarily pausing/disabling Norton if possible, or alternatively some anti-virus apps offer a 'Whitelist' function, where you can tell the anti-virus scanner to ignore certain apps. 

If you temporarily pause/disable Norton, or add Affinity to said 'Whitelist', do you still see this occur?

7 hours ago, PaulEC said:

My other thought is, should I just bite the bullet and do a complete, clean re-install of the Affinity apps? If so, how do I remove all traces of Affinity before reinstalling? (...) All my apps are getting a bit bloated with brushes, Assets, macros etc and it might be good to have a clean out and start again from scratch!

If you were to do this, I'd recommend creating a backup of all of the folders/files in the following locations, in a separate folder/location (such as in your Documents folder):

%AppData%\Affinity\

%USERPROFILE%\.affinity\

%PROGRAMDATA%\Affinity

Once you have backed up these files, you can uninstall the apps, then delete these folders from their original locations.

You can then download 'fresh' versions of the EXEs from the below links, selecting the 'Also Available : EXE' download options- 

Photo - https://store.serif.com/update/windows/photo/2/
Designer - https://store.serif.com/update/windows/designer/2/
Publisher - https://store.serif.com/update/windows/publisher/2/ 

7 hours ago, PaulEC said:

For example, are there any Registry entries that need to be removed manually?

We do not recommend removing any Registry entries, as some will be left behind after uninstalling the apps, but these are fine to be ignored and should not affect future installations

[Dan C]

Thanks for your patience, unfortunately the debugging results were a little generic - it appears the app is crashing somewhere in the .NET code, which could indicate an issue with your .NET install, your GPU drivers, or even your system files.

Therefore, I'd recommend the following, in this order:

• Run the .NET Repair tool from the following link, which should repair any issues found with .NET - https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=30135
   
• Update your GPU drivers, directly from the manufactures website - once installed, restart your PC and try altering your settings in Affinity again.
   
• Update your Windows 10 to the latest update, if any are available
   
• Run a DISM / SFC scan, following the steps here - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/topic/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system-files-79aa86cb-ca52-166a-92a3-966e85d4094e

Hopefully you should find that one/multiple of the above steps stops this occurring for you, or failing that a complete uninstall/reinstall.

Please do let us know how you get on here!

[PaulEC]

3 hours ago, Dan C said:

or failing that a complete uninstall/reinstall.

of Affinity or Windows?

[Dan C]

Apologies - I could have been clearer here!

If the above steps don't change the behaviour, I'd recommend reinstalling Affinity after backing up and clearing the aforementioned folders on your system.

Hopefully a combination of the repair tools / a fresh install of Affinity stops this occurring for you

[PaulEC]

Thanks Dan, and Walt, for your help. It might be a day or two before I can get around to trying all this, but I'll let you know how it works out.

[PaulEC]

I've now discovered that no changed settings seem to stick, including the recent files list. (I clear it, then it's back again when I restart, the same as it was before.) I'm in the middle of a couple of projects that I need to finish so I'm a bit reluctant to mess around too much at the moment, reinstalling etc, in case I make things worse, but I will try out the suggestions ASAP! Luckily this problem is more of an irritation, rather than something that stops me using the software! 

[PaulEC]

It's been a while, but, for the sake of completion, I thought I should report that everything is now OK.

I tried a few things unsuccessfully, but decided I didn't want to have to reinstall everything unless I really had to. Then it occurred to me that I have virtually the same setup on an old laptop and checked that to see if the same problem was there as well. It wasn't! So, hoping for the best, I copied all the user files from there to my main PC and everything seemed OK. I gave it a couple of weeks and everything now seems fine. I have no idea what caused the problem in the first place, and I'm afraid that my solution will probably not help anyone else, unless they also have an identical setup on another PC!

Thanks again for the help.