Publisher crashes when opening files

[Brian_J]

Affinity Publisher has been crashing when I open some files — the files open in Publisher and after they are fully loaded, Publisher closes. There is no error message.

The issue has occurred on multiple files, but all the effected files were created from the same original template file. I am able to open the template file, edit the file, and save it with a different file name… but when I try to open the file again, Publisher crashes. I have been using the template file for some time without any issues until now. Some of the files that cause Publisher to crash can’t be opened after multiple attempts, others cause Publisher to crash, but a second attempt to open the file is successful.

A crash issue was reported here; I don't know if the issue I'm having is related:

I’ve done several things to try to resolve the issue; none of the following fixed the issue:

• Ran Windows DISM Restorehealth in Command Prompt: DISM /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth.
• Ran Windows System File Checker in Command Prompt: sfc /scannow.
• Reinstalled Affinity Apps (I have Designer, Photo, and Publisher). I originally had the MSIX apps installed; I deleted the apps via Windows Apps & Features (and manually deleted user files for settings, etc.), then reinstalled the Affinity MSI/EXE apps.
• Reinstalled Windows via the Reinstall Windows 10 using installation media and selected the option to Keep Everything — my personal files and all apps and settings were preserved.

I’m attaching data from Windows Event Viewer that pertains to the crash.

Note: The ntdll.dll file referenced in the Windows Event Viewer data does not appear to have been updated by reinstalling Windows. I’m hoping to avoid doing a complete Windows reinstall that wipes out everything… but if it’s determined that’s what I need to do, let me know.

If you would like me to provide a Publisher file and/or an Affinity crash report DMP file, please provide a Dropbox link where I can upload the files.

Affinity Publisher 2.3.1.2217
Windows 10 Home 22H2 64-bit

Publisher Crash - Windows Event Viewer 2024-01-15.txt

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, Brian_J said:

an Affinity crash report DMP file ...

... might be more meaningful here, as it will hopefully give a better (more detailed) overview of CPU thread stack backtraces, so all those involved function calls of a thread which finally resulted to the crash.

1 hour ago, Brian_J said:

please provide a Dropbox link where I can upload the files

That's something only the Serif forum Mods/Staff can provide you with here, so you have to wait until some response from them.

[Brian_J]

16 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

1 hour ago, Brian_J said:

an Affinity crash report DMP file ...

... might be more meaningful here, as it will hopefully give a better (more detailed) overview of CPU thread stack backtraces, so all those involved function calls of a thread which finally resulted to the crash.

Thanks @v_kyr I'm not aware of what data is included in the DMP files, so I don't feel comfortable sharing the file publicly. Figured I'd wait to hear from a person at Serif and provide the .afpub and .dmp files directly to them.

[v_kyr]

53 minutes ago, Brian_J said:

I'm not aware of what data is included in the DMP files

A DMP file contains system processing informations like ...

• Operating system:
• CPU:
• Crash reason:
• Crash address:
• Crashing instruction:
• Memory accessed by instruction:
• Process uptime:
• the list of CPU threads: (all CPU threads, especially and of most interest here the crashed one)
• Loaded modules: (all DLL files)
• Unloaded modules: (all DLL files)

... so basically no private account data or the like.

As an example, a DMP file (a minidump file in this case) contents looks then like this here ...

• out.txt

 

See further also related:

• https://www.partech.nl/en/publications/2021/09/what-are-dump-files#
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/performance/read-small-memory-dump-file
• https://docs.fileformat.com/system/dmp/
• ... etc.

[Brian_J]

I appreciate the info @v_kyr.

Attached is the Affinity Publisher 2 crash report created 1/15/2024 10:45 AM.

5850b217-56c3-4dd4-b3f8-567a782c190b.dmp

[Brian_J]

Publisher just crashed again. There was no crash report generated this time.

[Brian_J]

Here's more info about the most recent crash.

I opened a Publisher file and was editing it without any issues. I then opened a second Publisher file and the app crashed. (I've experienced this issue opening one file without any other Publisher files opened.) There was no crash report generated.

After the crash, I was unable to open either of the two Publisher files... Publisher crashed every time I tried to open the files.

I restarted my computer and am now able to open the files individually. I haven't tried having both files open at the same.

I have an old computer, but I'm not experiencing any computer issues other than Publisher crashing:
Intel Core i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60GHz
RAM 32.0 GB

The only other app I had open on my computer when Publisher crashed was a web browser.

[v_kyr]

Your crash report dmp file shows ...

Quote

Crash reason:  EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION_READ
Crash address: 0x0000000000000000 **
    ** Null pointer detected with offset: 0x0000000000000000
Crashing instruction: `cmp rbx, qword [rax]`
Memory accessed by instruction:
  0. Address: 0x0000000000000000
     Size: 8
Process uptime: 7633 seconds

Thread 2  (crashed)
 0  libraster.dll + 0x1f1b3ff
     rax = 0x0000000000000000    rdx = 0x0000008bf29ff0d0
     rcx = 0x0000023ea8470b68    rbx = 0x0000023ea8496900
     rsi = 0x0000023ea8470b68    rdi = 0x0000008bf29ff0d0
     rbp = 0x0000000000000000    rsp = 0x0000008bf29fef80
      r8 = 0x0000000000000004     r9 = 0x0000008bf29fefd0
     r10 = 0x0000023ea84c22f0    r11 = 0x0000023ea84554f4
     r12 = 0x0000023e9950e2f8    r13 = 0x00007ff873dc8b38
     r14 = 0x0000000000000029    r15 = 0x0000000000000002
     rip = 0x00007ff856cfb3ff
    Found by: given as instruction pointer in context
 1  libraster.dll + 0x104c136
     rsp = 0x0000008bf29fefa0    rip = 0x00007ff855e2c137
    Found by: stack scanning
 2  libraster.dll + 0x1e4b59a
     rsp = 0x0000008bf29fefb0    rip = 0x00007ff856c2b59b
    Found by: stack scanning
 3  libraster.dll + 0xfb613e
     rsp = 0x0000008bf29feff0    rip = 0x00007ff855d9613f
    Found by: stack scanning
 4  librenderer.dll + 0x36695ef
     rsp = 0x0000008bf29feff8    rip = 0x00007ff854c595f0
    Found by: stack scanning
 5  librenderer.dll + 0x53037b
     rsp = 0x0000008bf29ff030    rip = 0x00007ff851b2037c
    Found by: stack scanning
 6  libkernel.dll + 0x2b4642
     rsp = 0x0000008bf29ff060    rip = 0x00007ff873ad4643
    Found by: stack scanning
 7  librenderer.dll + 0x36695ef
     rsp = 0x0000008bf29ff098    rip = 0x00007ff854c595f0
    Found by: stack scanning
 8  librenderer.dll + 0x36695ef
     rsp = 0x0000008bf29ff0a8    rip = 0x00007ff854c595f0
    Found by: stack scanning
...
...

• output.txt

 

According to that I would first check under the APub preferences the performance hardware acceleration settings, if it is set to OpenCL usage then disable that, restart and retry if it changes APub's crash behavior.

Other than that and as far as you can open one of your template files, inspect it's contents, especially any possible resources availability like linked image, used fonts etc. inside.

[just_vince]

I am also experiencing this issue, however changing the hardware acceleration setting doesn't seem to help. Reopening the file over and over eventually gets it to work, though. I do have linked resources that are in my Google Drive folder. Could that be the issue?

[Brian_J]

OpenCL Acceleration is disabled.

Linked images and fonts all look good… there aren’t any issues with the content of the file that I can identify.

I was able to open both of the files that caused Publisher to crash earlier today… and work on them both at the same time, with additional publisher documents open as well as other apps open on my computer. It’s a real head scratcher.

[Brian_J]

2 hours ago, just_vince said:

I do have linked resources that are in my Google Drive folder. Could that be the issue?

I don’t know if embedding linked resources that reside in a Google Drive folder can cause issues, but the linked images in my files reside in my Documents folder on my computer.

[v_kyr]

10 hours ago, just_vince said:

Reopening the file over and over eventually gets it to work, though. I do have linked resources that are in my Google Drive folder. Could that be the issue?

That's often the cause here, especially for unstable connections, wake on after sleep for net drive connections etc.

[v_kyr]

12 hours ago, Brian_J said:

OpenCL Acceleration is disabled.

Linked images and fonts all look good… there aren’t any issues with the content of the file that I can identify.

I was able to open both of the files that caused Publisher to crash earlier today… and work on them both at the same time, with additional publisher documents open as well as other apps open on my computer. It’s a real head scratcher.

So crashes are only happen sporadically and not always, strange. But there must still be a reason for that odd behavior when things do sometimes crash.

[Patrick Gilmour]

I think I'm having the same issue. I have a relatively large file that crashes Publisher every time I try to open it since I upgraded to 2.3.x

I'm on Mac Sonoma, but...

I have also found a weird workaround. @Brian_J might be worth trying this on your file too.

So, when I double-click the file and it opens, it shows the artwork in the Publisher window for a second to two then it crashes the app.

However, if I do the same then quickly, while the content displays but before the expected crash, click on one of the page icons in the Pages (not Master Pages) panel, then click on another then another the app does not crash.

Totally weird, but it works every time. And when I don't, it crashes every time.

Note: Do not double-click a page icon, as the app still crashes if I do that. Just click once, then another.

Curious to know if this workaround works for you too, @Brian_J

-Patrick

[Brian_J]

@Patrick Gilmour Interesting. I'll give your method a try next time I use Publisher. Thanks for the info.

[Lee_T]

Hi Patrick/Brian,

Would it be possible to upload a file/package exhibiting this behaviour to this location https://www.dropbox.com/request/RF88c7Z5Klx4oIcpKBLj

Lee

 

[ronditlesauvage]

Patrick, it seems to have worked for me, too. What a weird thing to have to do.

Ron

[Brian_J]

Hey @Lee_T, I uploaded a file that has exhibited the behavior. The placed images in the document are linked — the 'Images Linked' folder included with my upload contains all the linked images.

The file I provided, as well as the other files that have caused the issue, sometimes open without any issues and other times cause Publisher to crash.

Thanks for your help. Let me know if you have any questions.

[Patrick Gilmour]

5 hours ago, ronditlesauvage said:

Patrick, it seems to have worked for me, too. What a weird thing to have to do.

Ron

Yeah. I noticed the crash happening around the time the Page panel previews completed rendering... no idea why clicking on them would stop the crashing but as it was a UI thing I gave it a go.

[Brian_J]

On 1/17/2024 at 1:46 AM, Patrick Gilmour said:

if I do the same then quickly, while the content displays but before the expected crash, click on one of the page icons in the Pages (not Master Pages) panel, then click on another then another the app does not crash.

Clicking on pages in the Pages panel doesn't prevent the crashes I'm experiencing. Bummer.

[James999]

I tried this fix too but didn't work... My issue seems to be related / triggered by preflight check / spelling. I'm on V2.3.1 Publisher, windows 11 MSIX and files are stored on locally sync'd google drive/folders (might be relevant as someone else had mentioned about drop-box linking fixing their issues)

[James999]

Hi Support team,

Is there anything else I can try, I literally can't work on this document without it crashing as I'm going through pre-flight spelling checks and it just crashes shortly after right clicking on text (to autocorrect spelling) after jumping to a pre-flight error (using left pre-flight check panel)...

I just tried to 'save as' a new file in the hope that it might 'repair' the issue.. but it didn't

I urgently need a solution and will have to role back to previous version otherwise.... dump file attached.

99484bd5-0637-4c6e-b7e1-90e29c57b4e6-record.zip

[Dan C]

Hi @James999 & welcome to the Affinity Forums  

 I can confirm this crash when selecting a misspelt word in Preflight is a known bug in v2.3.1, which has already been resolved in our latest beta version (v2.4.0.2256) - 

If you wish to test this beta update for yourself, you can find out how to sign up for our beta program here -

You can find a list of other new features and improvements across Affinity v2.4 here -

Alternatively, if you don't wish to try our beta program at this time, then this fix will be included in the next retail update for Affinity V2.

I hope this helps!

[Brian_J]

I spent quite a few hours recreating one of my troubled files from scratch in the hopes that a new file would resolve the issue. It didn't. The new file causes Affinity Publisher to crash.

This issue is having a major impact on my ability to get work done. I hope Affinity is able to identify and resolve the issue soon.

Affinity, if you would like me to provide any additional information, please let me know.

[R C-R]

16 hours ago, Brian_J said:

I hope Affinity is able to identify and resolve the issue soon.

As mentioned above in the last post by @Dan C, the bug has been fixed in the current v2.4.0 beta, so it should make it into the next retail release.