Newest version update (2.3.1) freezing and crashing repeatedly

[StacyE]

Since updating to the newest version I have had nothing but trouble. I start a design and it is laggy and then it will freeze altogether and say not responding. Sometimes it comes back and sometimes I have to close it. This is not one instance. It is every time I try to the point that I can't use the program anymore. I have made sure all drivers are up to date. I am running Windows 11.

[NathanC]

Welcome to the forums @StacyE,

I'd initially suggest following the below to perform a basic app reset and also disable Hardware Acceleration at the same time to see if this improves the app responsiveness on your system:

1. Hold down CTRL and launch Designer 2 while still holding CTRL
2. A 'Clear user data' menu should prompt with three boxes ticked, in addition tick 'Disable Hardware Acceleration'
3. Press 'Clear' and the app will now launch.

If the problem persists, could you confirm if the application freezes occur as a result of performing a specific action or using a tool within the app or if it is completely random? Also, to rule out it being a problem with an existing document, see if the same issue then persists on a new empty document.

 

[ShaneB]

I have the same issue on Publisher V2 and Designer V2. When opening Publisher V2 it asks for username and password for registration then fails 

[NathanC]

Welcome to the forums @ShaneB,

20 hours ago, ShaneB said:

When opening Publisher V2 it asks for username and password for registration then fails 

This sounds like a slightly different problem, is the message you're getting when attempting to activate Publisher 'Please try again'? If so It's possible that you have installed the apps using the different installers available (.MSIX and .EXE), which causes app conflicts when both are opened at the same time. It can be a little difficult to tell which app version you installed, so I would recommend uninstalling both and then proceeding with the installation of the .EXE version only to see if that resolves the problem, you can find a download link to the .EXE version below. Be sure to download via 'Also available: EXE' and not the download link above it.

https://store.serif.com/en-gb/update/windows/designer/2/

https://store.serif.com/en-gb/update/windows/publisher/2/

If the 'Please try again' error persists, send us an email over at affinitysupport@serif.com with your Affinity ID email and we'll be able to provide further assistance.

[carriej]

It was my NVIDIA graphic selected in settings that was crashing mine (microsoft). I had to reboot like twice a day.I'm only doing web work so the resolution is no big deal.  Try changing edit>settings>performace> (drop down *Renderer> INTEL R UHD) 

 

[MoCoMade]

This has been happening to me across all programs in the Affinity suite. It doesn't matter whether I try to open a brand new document or an existing one. The app freezes and stops responding. One additional note from me is that if I open the program and then try to open a document nothing opens. When I try to exit the program I get this warning message. 

[MoCoMade]

16 minutes ago, carriej said:

It was my NVIDIA graphic selected in settings that was crashing mine (microsoft). I had to reboot like twice a day.I'm only doing web work so the resolution is no big deal.  Try changing edit>settings>performace> (drop down *Renderer> INTEL R UHD) 

 

I just want it to be known that this did not fix my problem

[ShaneB]

Hi Nathan

I have downloaded the EXE version and removed the previous file (MSIX) but it still crashes upon opening

[NathanC]

14 hours ago, MoCoMade said:

This has been happening to me across all programs in the Affinity suite. It doesn't matter whether I try to open a brand new document or an existing one. The app freezes and stops responding. One additional note from me is that if I open the program and then try to open a document nothing opens. When I try to exit the program I get this warning message. 

Welcome to the forums @MoCoMade,

If the app freezes on opening existing documents or creating new files this is normally an indication of a GPU/Driver based issue on your device which is causing Affinity to freeze when rendering the canvas. I've provided some potential solutions to run through below in order:

Disable Hardware Acceleration 

Within the apps under Edit > Preferences > Performance try disabling Hardware Acceleration (The last tickbox) and then close the interface and restart the app when prompted to and try again. 

Update your GPU Drivers  

Make sure that you have the latest available drivers installed for your GPU, i've linked the AMD and Nvidia and Intel driver search tools below, dependant on your GPU. If possible, perform a clean installation of your drivers if given the option. 

https://www.nvidia.com/download/find.aspx  

https://www.amd.com/en/support  

https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/download-center/home.html  

Reset drivers via DDU   

If it still freezes/crashes, try doing a complete uninstall of your graphics card drivers using a dedicated tool for this purpose (Such as DDU linked below) and then restart and install your graphics card drivers (using the links above to search) to completely refresh them.   

 https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html  

------------------------------

@ShaneB could you describe at what point the app crashes, does it get as far as the app splash/start screen, or are you able to get into the app first and try and open a document? If so I'd suggest following the above, if you're not getting as far as creating a new document can you confirm if the app is outright crashing or is it just freezing? If it's crashing if you could send us some crash reports that would be great.

Crash reports FAQ:

 

 

[MoCoMade]

6 hours ago, NathanC said:

Welcome to the forums @MoCoMade,

If the app freezes on opening existing documents or creating new files this is normally an indication of a GPU/Driver based issue on your device which is causing Affinity to freeze when rendering the canvas. I've provided some potential solutions to run through below in order:

Disable Hardware Acceleration 

Within the apps under Edit > Preferences > Performance try disabling Hardware Acceleration (The last tickbox) and then close the interface and restart the app when prompted to and try again. 

Update your GPU Drivers  

Make sure that you have the latest available drivers installed for your GPU, i've linked the AMD and Nvidia and Intel driver search tools below, dependant on your GPU. If possible, perform a clean installation of your drivers if given the option. 

https://www.nvidia.com/download/find.aspx  

https://www.amd.com/en/support  

https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/download-center/home.html  

Reset drivers via DDU   

If it still freezes/crashes, try doing a complete uninstall of your graphics card drivers using a dedicated tool for this purpose (Such as DDU linked below) and then restart and install your graphics card drivers (using the links above to search) to completely refresh them.   

 https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html  

------------------------------

@ShaneB could you describe at what point the app crashes, does it get as far as the app splash/start screen, or are you able to get into the app first and try and open a document? If so I'd suggest following the above, if you're not getting as far as creating a new document can you confirm if the app is outright crashing or is it just freezing? If it's crashing if you could send us some crash reports that would be great.

Crash reports FAQ:

 

 

I have done all of these things already.

[NathanC]

Hi @MoCoMade,

Could you send a copy of the log.txt file? The location of this file is different dependant on if you currently have the MSIX or EXE version installed, locations below can be accessed via run command (WIN + R)

• MSIX: %USERPROFILE%/.affinity/Designer/2.0
• EXE: %APPDATA%/affinity/Designer/2.0

Could you also provide a copy of any recent crash reports? If the app is only going into an unresponsive state and isn't crashing out on it's own I wouldn't expect there to be any, but it's just worth checking if any are available since this started occuring, as they may provide some insight.

 

[MoCoMade]

50 minutes ago, NathanC said:

Hi @MoCoMade,

Could you send a copy of the log.txt file? The location of this file is different dependant on if you currently have the MSIX or EXE version installed, locations below can be accessed via run command (WIN +

• MSIX: %USERPROFILE%/.affinity/Designer/2.0
• EXE: %APPDATA%/affinity/Designer/2.0

Could you also provide a copy of any recent crash reports? If the app is only going into an unresponsive state and isn't crashing out on it's own I wouldn't expect there to be any, but it's just worth checking if any are available since this started occuring, as they may provide some insight.

 

I think I attached correctly. There are 4 crash reports since 1/31 when this problem begun

Log.txt 67e168d8-d6a1-44b3-b643-99068ad2ea60.dmp 9966b372-4d66-4a74-9b7a-20561a2754a5.dmp e454ccef-7fb1-49a6-92e0-801e4ac8e13e.dmp 698a6c5b-e91e-4309-9f33-32d2c5f05966.dmp

[NathanC]

Hi @MoCoMade,

Thanks for sending those over, based on the contents of the log.txt file I do want to rule out this being caused by the app local settings, could you try the following to reset both the MSIX and EXE local user settings:

1. Close all affinity apps
2. Press WIN + R and enter the following: %USERPROFILE%
3. In this directory rename the '.affinity' folder to '.affinityold'
4. Press WIN + R and enter the following:  %APPDATA%
5. In this directory rename the 'affinity' folder to 'affinityold'
6. Open Designer and re-activate the app
7. Disable Hardware Acceleration under Settings > Performance and restart
8. Try creating a new doc again

If the same crashes persist, a few of the provided crash reports provided indicate towards the faulting component as libraster.dll which is used to render the canvas, so it still could be Graphics card driver related, but I would recommend downloading the latest 2.4 beta version of Designer to confirm if it's the same in the beta version, if you don't have access already I've provided the signup below, and the beta app can be installed along side the release version.

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/affinity-beta-program/

[MoCoMade]

5 hours ago, NathanC said:

Hi @MoCoMade,

Thanks for sending those over, based on the contents of the log.txt file I do want to rule out this being caused by the app local settings, could you try the following to reset both the MSIX and EXE local user settings:

1. Close all affinity apps
2. Press WIN + R and enter the following: %USERPROFILE%
3. In this directory rename the '.affinity' folder to '.affinityold'
4. Press WIN + R and enter the following:  %APPDATA%
5. In this directory rename the 'affinity' folder to 'affinityold'
6. Open Designer and re-activate the app
7. Disable Hardware Acceleration under Settings > Performance and restart
8. Try creating a new doc again

If the same crashes persist, a few of the provided crash reports provided indicate towards the faulting component as libraster.dll which is used to render the canvas, so it still could be Graphics card driver related, but I would recommend downloading the latest 2.4 beta version of Designer to confirm if it's the same in the beta version, if you don't have access already I've provided the signup below, and the beta app can be installed along side the release version.

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/affinity-beta-program/

I tried all of these things and still having the crashing issue in both 2.3.1 and the 2.4 beta.

[NathanC]

Hi @MoCoMade,

Since a full factory reset of all the app's local files has not helped this does further the point that it is likely graphics driver/rendering related, could you send a screenshot of your Performance Preferences?

Thanks

[ferhtrd]

my designer 2 is crashing randomly when I make any action with a mouse click, never lasts more than one minute of use until it crashes. I already reinstalled, update drivers and disable hardware acceleration, I really don't know what to do, I don't know if it's a compatibility issue with another software, but I just can't stop crashing.

I'm on windows 11, ryzen 2700/3070/24gb ram

[MoCoMade]

10 hours ago, NathanC said:

Hi @MoCoMade,

Since a full factory reset of all the app's local files has not helped this does further the point that it is likely graphics driver/rendering related, could you send a screenshot of your Performance Preferences?

Thanks

Please see attached. I haven't touched these since I've used Affinity except for turning off acceleration. I have also reverted my GPU drivers to an older version hoping that maybe the newest one caused the problem and that did not help or change the problem. 

I just want to say that while this problem is breaking my ability to use this software at all, I have really enjoyed it more than any other I've used by a large margin and the support I am receiving to try to get to the bottom of the issue is really great.

[NathanC]

Hi @MoCoMade,

Thanks for sending it over, I did just want to confirm that the Graphics card was listed as an available renderer, which it is. In honesty i'm surprised that the DDU driver clean didn't sort this out based on the crash report contents, but if you swap the 'Renderer' setting over to WARP and then close the preferences and restart the app, does the crash persist?

Also, i'd suggest checking the list of third party program incompatibilities below to confirm you don't have any of these actively running, and if you have any similar hardware monitoring/overclocking  or recording apps i'd suggest closing them down.

-------

10 hours ago, ferhtrd said:

my designer 2 is crashing randomly when I make any action with a mouse click, never lasts more than one minute of use until it crashes. I already reinstalled, update drivers and disable hardware acceleration, I really don't know what to do, I don't know if it's a compatibility issue with another software, but I just can't stop crashing.

I'm on windows 11, ryzen 2700/3070/24gb ram

Welcome to the forums @ferhtrd, I would suggest creating your own separate thread in the V2 bug section and provide a few crash reports as it's likely that the origin of your issue is quite different to that of the OP's or MoCoMade's and this will prevent further confusion/cross posting, we can then assist you further. 🙂

[MoCoMade]

8 hours ago, NathanC said:

Hi @MoCoMade,

Thanks for sending it over, I did just want to confirm that the Graphics card was listed as an available renderer, which it is. In honesty i'm surprised that the DDU driver clean didn't sort this out based on the crash report contents, but if you swap the 'Renderer' setting over to WARP and then close the preferences and restart the app, does the crash persist?

Also, i'd suggest checking the list of third party program incompatibilities below to confirm you don't have any of these actively running, and if you have any similar hardware monitoring/overclocking  or recording apps i'd suggest closing them down.

-------

Welcome to the forums @ferhtrd, I would suggest creating your own separate thread in the V2 bug section and provide a few crash reports as it's likely that the origin of your issue is quite different to that of the OP's or MoCoMade's and this will prevent further confusion/cross posting, we can then assist you further. 🙂

The WARP option did not fix the problem. One other note I have noticed. When the app doesn't crash and I am able to close it (like when I changed the render settings and the app needed to restart), I'm noticing that it affinity never closes and instead moves to 'background processes' and will not open again on its own. I have to force close the background process to then open the program. Not sure what, if anything, this means.

[NathanC]

Hi @MoCoMade,

Apologies for the delayed reply and thanks for giving that a try, since that's not had an impact i'd recommend switching it back to the Nvidia card as the renderer in the app prefs. It looks like there may be a potential issue with the Nvidia Game ready driver version that you're currently running (31.0.15.5123)  as according to the Nvidia forums another using is experiencing more consistent crashes in Affinity and other editors like DxO following an update to this driver version which were not present prior, I've linked the thread below for reference.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/game-ready-drivers/13/536382/apps-crashing-after-310155123-installation/

I'd therefore suggest downloading the 551.23 Studio driver (Instead of game ready) that i've linked below. Make sure that when you install this driver that you select the 'Custom' option and check the 'Clean installation' box, once you've got this driver version installed reboot and then see if you're able to create a new document, if that works open an existing file (one kept locally first rather than onedrive/any other cloud storage) again.

https://www.nvidia.co.uk/download/driverResults.aspx/218485/en-uk

[MoCoMade]

4 hours ago, NathanC said:

Hi @MoCoMade,

Apologies for the delayed reply and thanks for giving that a try, since that's not had an impact i'd recommend switching it back to the Nvidia card as the renderer in the app prefs. It looks like there may be a potential issue with the Nvidia Game ready driver version that you're currently running (31.0.15.5123)  as according to the Nvidia forums another using is experiencing more consistent crashes in Affinity and other editors like DxO following an update to this driver version which were not present prior, I've linked the thread below for reference.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/game-ready-drivers/13/536382/apps-crashing-after-310155123-installation/

I'd therefore suggest downloading the 551.23 Studio driver (Instead of game ready) that i've linked below. Make sure that when you install this driver that you select the 'Custom' option and check the 'Clean installation' box, once you've got this driver version installed reboot and then see if you're able to create a new document, if that works open an existing file (one kept locally first rather than onedrive/any other cloud storage) again.

https://www.nvidia.co.uk/download/driverResults.aspx/218485/en-uk

No worries at all. I will say that I have already installed older versions of the game drivers and the studio drivers but I will try this again and let you know if anything changes.

[NathanC]

3 minutes ago, MoCoMade said:

No worries at all. I will say that I have already installed older versions of the game drivers and the studio drivers but I will try this again and let you know if anything changes.

Thanks, if it's more of the same crashes upon creating a new doc following the driver install could you send over some more recent crash reports for comparison?

[edemzeus]

Hello dear all, I would also like to explain my case to you. All the software in the Universal Suite v 2.3.1 crashes my computer as soon as I start them. I have a Dell Precision 5550 cpu core i7 10875H,ram 32gb, intel UHD & 4gb Nvidia Quadro t2000.if you have some manipulation please  let me know. thank you

[Komatös]

7 hours ago, edemzeus said:

Hello dear all, I would also like to explain my case to you. All the software in the Universal Suite v 2.3.1 crashes my computer as soon as I start them. I have a Dell Precision 5550 cpu core i7 10875H,ram 32gb, intel UHD & 4gb Nvidia Quadro t2000.if you have some manipulation please  let me know. thank you

Hello and welcome to the Affinity Forum.

Is Windows up to date?

Is the graphics card driver up to date (release date: 2024.2.12)? If not, install the newest driver and then try to start the programs.
Download from here: https://www.nvidia.co.uk/download/driverResults.aspx/218650/en-uk

If the new driver is not successful either, then hold down the CTRL key when starting the programs. In addition to the options already given, select Disable Hardware Acceleration.
If the programs still do not start, please add two crash reports to your next post, if available.

 

 

 

[edemzeus]

thank you very much.it's working now