Layer Effects Won’t Take Effect

[Brett Stebbins]

I apply an inner glow or outer glow to a group of vector objects, change the color and blend mode, but when I finish and select out of the layer effects panel, the layer effect will revert back to last state. It won’t let me change the layer effect. See attached video to see it happening.

[Bri-Toon]

For me, I get the same result as you if I press somewhere on the artboard after adding an effect, but I keep the effect if I select another tool instead.

[Brett Stebbins]

I have tried everything including selecting another tool and the layer effect will still revert back to previous state.

[walt.farrell]

Can you share a sample .afdesign document, containing at least that set of layers you're trying to apply the effects to?

[Brett Stebbins]

Go to layer ‘woman/torso/flecks. Sometimes I wonder if it has to do with the file size. Everything seems to start out fine but after working in the file for some time eventually this issue shows up. I have this issue in almost any document I work in.

Tattooed Memories 01.zip

[MEB]

Hi @Brett Stebbins,
Thanks for your report and file. I've reproduced the issue here with your file - It also reverts back to previous state for me.
It does work fine if i try to recreate the issue in a new blank file as you stated. I'm logging the issue to be checked.

[Brett Stebbins]

Awesome! Glad I could help. Just to reiterate, the problem won’t occur till I have been working on the file for awhile. I suspect it has something to do with the complexity of the file and the many layers, groups, effects etc.. It usually shows up in my most complex illustrations.

[Brett Stebbins]

Wondering if there is any work around for this problem. I have several illustrations I can’t finish because I can’t get the layer effects to work.

[MEB]

Hi @Brett Stebbins,
From my investigation the issue is caused by touching the screen after applying an effect which has certain attributes - like Radius for example: when you touch the screen after applying the effect the Radius gets set to zero and thus the effect is not visible on screen anymore. The only "workaround" if we can call it as such is setting the Radius value again to what is was originally. I'm checking all the FX/attributes and will have this logged very soon.
This can be easily recreated in a new file it's not limited to complex documents. I'm sorry for the inconvenience this is causing you.

[Brett Stebbins]

So that you are aware. Because I’ve had this issue for some time now. I have experimented. I will apply an inner glow, for example, and then click on the canvas. Or I will apply it but this time click on a layer in the layers palette, or I might click away onto another FX. Or I might click on another tool. I tried many different variations of getting the FX to apply itself, but in every case it would revert back. BTW, this problem would not show up at first, when I started working on a file, but at some point later it would show up and once it did, I couldn’t get whatever layer FX to work again. Also, another note, I noticed that Gaussian blur never had this issue. I have not experimented with all the layer FX to see which ones have the issue and which ones don’t since I primarily only use certain ones. This problem also shows up in Affinity Photo.

[walt.farrell]

18 minutes ago, Brett Stebbins said:

Or I might click on another tool

For me, clicking on the Move Tool works. The sliders are removed, and the effect is applied/committed.

[Brett Stebbins]

@MEB I am now having a similar bug happen to Filters. See attached videos showing this similar bug with Noise and Depth Of Field Blur. It seems like the more and more I work with this file the more bugs I am encountering.

[MEB]

Thanks @Brett Stebbins. Working on it.

[EDIT] Logged.

[Brett Stebbins]

@MEB I just updated to v2.4.1 today. I was hoping this issue with layer effects would have been resolved by now but the bug still persists. I am having similar problems with filters too. This has such a huge crippling effect on my ability to use Affinity. There has been at least two or three updates to Affinity Designer since this post back in December. When will this issue be resolved on the iPad Pro? Am I the only one experiencing this?

[Brett Stebbins]

I had reached out in 2023 about this issue of effects and filters not reverting after being applied. I still have this issue and it is now 2025. I sent @MEB a file in which he was able to reproduce the issue. Please see all previous posts in this thread for further details. The bug still exists. Attached is another video showing me adding inner glow, adjusting the color and then clicking to another tool and the color reverts back to white.
 

V2.6.3 on the iPad Pro.

[MEB]

Hi @Brett Stebbins,
The issue was logged as AF-1772, and there was some progress on it around that time (it was marked as ‘In Progress’). I’ve updated the report to bring it back to the developers’ attention. It may have fallen off the radar or is still on hold, awaiting a complete fix.

[Brett Stebbins]

What is a bummer is this issue, which is not small, has been going on since 2023. I pretty much only use Affinity Designer on the iPad Pro. I have to constantly find work arounds. Having effects and filters not work is a big deal, not a small bug. I really hope that this is accelerated. And if this bug is fixed, how will I know what update is fixing this issue so that I know to look for it?

[thomaso]

On 6/23/2025 at 7:44 PM, Brett Stebbins said:

how will I know what update is fixing this issue so that I know to look for it?

You may get an email if you keep following this thread and with the according notification settings.

For many (all?) fixed bugs the @Affinity Info Bot will post a reply in (all?) related (logged, tagged) threads.
For instance: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/228865-frame-bigger-than-object/#findComment-1350437

I haven't tried but possibly you can follow the forum member "Affinity Info Bot" to get informed about all of its posts.