Affinity Photo and Designer stopped working

[Illustrator Pascal]

Hello, I have a question:
I use following software on a Intel Mac mini model 2018:
- Affinity Photo 1.10.6
- Affinity Designer 1.10.6
- Affinity Publisher 1.10.8

A while ago Photo and Designer stopped working.
When I try opening these applications it says 'unexpected quit'. I don't know why.
Publisher still works fine.

Maybe it has something to do with switching from Mac OS Ventura to Sonoma, but I'm not sure since Publisher still works.
In the App store it's possible to download a new version of Designer and Photo, but my serial number don't work with it.
Is it because it's version 2 ?

How do I get Affinity Photo and Designer working again?

[loukash]

11 minutes ago, Illustrator Pascal said:

Maybe it has something to do with switching from Mac OS Ventura to Sonoma

It does. Please update all your Affinity apps to 1.10.8

[loukash]

15 minutes ago, Illustrator Pascal said:

In the App store it's possible to download a new version of Designer and Photo

Have you bought Designer and Photo in the Mac App Store?
If so, you need to log in with the Apple ID you have used to buy them. Then you will be offered the update to 1.10.8.

If you bought them from the Serif store, then simply download them from your Serif account.

[loukash]

In fact…

2 minutes ago, loukash said:

If you bought them from the Serif store, then 

… then the built-in Affinity software update mechanism will offer you the update as well, as long as you have actived it. (Just checked on my El Capitan Mac which still runs v1.10.6 because the fixes in 1.10.8 are not relevant on El Capitan.)

[Illustrator Pascal]

I bought the 3 applications a few years ago for Windows on the Affinity website I think.
After 2 years of Windows I switched back to Mac and could install the software with the serial numbers.

Now I logged in on the website and updated to 1.10.8 and now Photo and Designer works again.
In the download page it said 'trial' but there was no other option. Will this keep working?

[loukash]

2 minutes ago, Illustrator Pascal said:

could install the software with the serial numbers

That would be unusual. Only the v2 "Universal License" allows usage on all platforms.
Since you already have a v1 license, you would be eligible to a discounted upgrade though: https://affinity.serif.com/store/upgrade-offer

6 minutes ago, Illustrator Pascal said:

In the download page it said 'trial' but there was no other option. Will this keep working?

All your Serif store purchases would be available on this page: https://store.serif.com/account/downloads
Having bought Publisher directly from Serif, I can see v1.10.8 there. Whereas my Designer v1 and Photo v1 came from the Mac App Store, before Serif even launched their own store and downloads. So those two updates are still being offered there, even though there is no way to buy v1 anymore.

[thomaso]

17 minutes ago, Illustrator Pascal said:

I bought the 3 applications a few years ago for Windows on the Affinity website I think.
After 2 years of Windows I switched back to Mac and could install the software with the serial numbers.

Now I logged in on the website and updated to 1.10.8 and now Photo and Designer works again.
In the download page it said 'trial' but there was no other option. Will this keep working?

As loukash mentioned, this sounds confusing or unclear at least. Did you purchase V1 for Win and for Mac, too?

If yes, make sure you used the same login data as for the purchase and also get the same country displayed in the URL: There seems to be possible confusion for the Serif Store if I switch from the default country to a different (here manually via URL-text /en-us/): Then AD is offered to me as "Trial" only (while APub seems to work 'international') …

… whereas to me the default URL path /de/ offers AD as a purchased license correctly as expected:

[Dan C]

Hi @Illustrator Pascal,

Due to the issue outlined in the below FAQ, when using Affinity V1 apps on macOS Sonoma, you need to be using the latest updates, 1.10.8 -

You can find the latest versions of the Affinity apps from the Affinity Store for download at the below links: 

Photo - https://store.serif.com/update/macos/photo/1/
Designer -  https://store.serif.com/update/macos/designer/1/
Publisher - https://store.serif.com/update/macos/publisher/1/

I hope this helps!

[Illustrator Pascal]

2 hours ago, loukash said:

That would be unusual. Only the v2 "Universal License" allows usage on all platforms.
Since you already have a v1 license, you would be eligible to a discounted upgrade though: https://affinity.serif.com/store/upgrade-offer

All your Serif store purchases would be available on this page: https://store.serif.com/account/downloads
Having bought Publisher directly from Serif, I can see v1.10.8 there. Whereas my Designer v1 and Photo v1 came from the Mac App Store, before Serif even launched their own store and downloads. So those two updates are still being offered there, even though there is no way to buy v1 anymore.

Oh, it's possible that I got Publisher from the App store later.
In the overview of the Affinity page I forgot to scroll down.
There are 4 downloads:
Photo and Designer trials for Mac (the ones who I have downloaded now)
and
Photo and Designer for Windows with product key.
These Windows versions were bought 2 years before Mac.

But the Mac downloads seem to work on my Mac, so isn't that ok?
I have 2 product keys.

[thomaso]

6 minutes ago, Illustrator Pascal said:

Photo and Designer trials for Mac (the ones who I have downloaded now)
and
Photo and Designer for Windows with product key.
These Windows versions were bought 2 years before Mac.

But the Mac downloads seem to work on my Mac, so isn't that ok?
I have 2 product keys.

Your product keys appear to refer to the purchased Windows versions. If you did not purchase AD V1 / APh V1 for Mac you don't have product keys for the downloaded Mac versions. Since you downloaded the Trial versions this downloads work independently of the existence of product keys and as trials for a limited period only.

@Dan C, is an option to download V1 Trial versions the expected behaviour in the Serif Store nowadays … although V1 non-Trail can not get purchased any more?

[Illustrator Pascal]

That's very strange.
Since I could use the software on my Mac I thought I could just use the same product key.
I have my Mac since 2019 and don't know for sure anymore how I did install it back then, but it worked.
Anyway, I will see if at a certain point I will be asked for a product key and what happens.

[Dan C]

2 hours ago, thomaso said:

@Dan C, is an option to download V1 Trial versions the expected behaviour in the Serif Store nowadays … although V1 non-Trail can not get purchased any more?

I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you're asking here - it's no longer possible to sign up for a V1 Trial, or purchase a V1 license since we began selling V2.

If you previously purchased a V1 license or signed up for a V1 trial, the Affinity account on the Affinity Store will still provide the download link for the latest V1 version of the app that you purchased/trialed.

This will be the same download file as the links I've provided above, meaning the V1 versions from the Affinity Store can effectively be downloaded by anyone, regardless of your previous license/trial entitlements.

Once the V1 apps are installed, they'll then prompt for a product key / email address combination to be licensed, which again are only available if you previously purchased the apps.

If you haven't previously trialed the Affinity V1 apps, and don't have a license, I believe you will still be offered the original 10 day trial we provided with V1 apps, though after this time they will require a Product Key to continue use.

Due to GDPR regulations, the amount I'm able to confirm regarding a specific users licenses publicly here on the forums is limited, which is why we ask for users to email affinity@serif.com if they have any questions or issues with licensing.

@Illustrator Pascal I would expect that if the 1.10.6 apps were previously functioning for you, until updating to Sonoma, then you should be able to simply download and install 1.10.8 and you won't be prompted to relicense the apps after updating - but if you have any further questions or concerns about your licenses, please don't hesitate to email us at the above address

[Illustrator Pascal]

Thank you for all the help and feedback.