Masks Disappear

[GreenSWOhio]

On a multi-layer (12 layers) image I am adding masks I am adding masks via the Layers Panel to about every layer.

Some masks disappear. While I am working with the mask, the changes caused by the mask are incorporated into the layer, and the mask is gone. If I go back in the history panel to where the mask still existed, and select a historical action, the mask reappears. Of course if I've worked on some other layer that work is lost as it appears after the historical action I had to go back to.

Not all masks are lost and there are many masks on other layers. The disappearance seems random. 

Very annoying.

 

[walt.farrell]

What actions does the History panel show that caused the problem?

[GreenSWOhio]

The history panel has many entries. Any action that might have caused the problem is not obvious.

 

[NotMyFault]

Would you mind uploading a screenshot of the history panel, or the actual afphoto file (saved with history)? Then we might be able to spot what has caused the issue.

[NotMyFault]

Possible causes for mask layers disappear:

• deleting them by keystroke or menu
• running a macro which includes deletion step, e.g. triggered by keystroke 
• ungroup. It will delete all layers in masking positions
• filling or clearing the alpha channel of a layer will remove only inherent masks.
• edit: triggering any action which rasterizes the parent layer, e.g. painting on an image layer. Rasterizing a parent will „consume“ any nested layers like masks. Automatic rasterization may occur depending on assistant settings. Normally you get a brief text message (if configured in Assistent settings) whenever an assistant is triggered.

i‘m not aware of any other way to delete layers, especially mask layers.

[GreenSWOhio]

it happened again. I went thru the history. It occurred during a 'raterize (assistant)' step. 

I do not know why the assistant rasterized the image. Undoing it did not seem to undo anything I wanted done.

 

[walt.farrell]

4 minutes ago, GreenSWOhio said:

Undoing it did not seem to undo anything I wanted done.

You might have needed to Undo twice. Watch the History panel while you use Undo, or manually click where you want it to be.

The Assistant typically rasterizes something when you try to paint on a vector item usig a pixel brush. If you can recreate this, you might try doing a screen recording so we can see what you're doing, or perhaps you can tell us more about what you were doing when that History entry appeared. And please provide a screenshot, including the Layers panel.

[NotMyFault]

Probably you are painting over an image layer by accident when you actually try to paint over the nested mask. This automatically rasterizes the image layer.

[Dan C]

Hi @GreenSWOhio,

As you've found, the Assistant will automatically Rasterise layers when certain actions are performed, and a 'Rasterise' will merge any Mask layer directly into the resulting Pixel layer.

The Assistant will be automatically triggered when performing certain actions on your layers, however if you don't like this behaviour, you can selectively disable it within Affinity.

To do this, please navigate to Edit > Settings > Assistant. Here you can change the behaviour of certain Assistant options, or disable the feature altogether.

I hope this helps

[GreenSWOhio]

Thanks!

[photodarren]

The same thing happens to me and I've been using both Photoshop and Affinity for a very long time so I'm not accidentally deleting the mask.

I have an adjustment layer.

I add a mask.

I paint into the mask to suit my needs.

I alt tab to some other task on my computer.

I come back and the adjustment layer change exists, but can't be edited because the mask has disappeared.

It happens every single day and is random. I sometimes have the mask, edit mask. Save file. Go back to file mask is still intact. Other times I open the file and the mask has disappeared.

I think the bug is in the save process. I think both autosave and manual save sometimes glitch and ditch my mask.

Very annoying since I have custom masked files I use as templates.

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums @photodarren

I’ve just went through the steps you suggest with Photo 2.6.2 on Windows and it’s working okay for me and my mask remains intact.

Would you be able to provide a full-screen (whole application UI) video which shows us what’s happening? (Please also tell us which key-presses you are using when they perform an action which we can see in the video.)

Note: In case you, or anyone else reading this, aren't aware of it, adjustments have their own ‘inherent’ mask so you don’t need to create a new mask layer, unless you will be using the mask for other things, just paint on the Adjustment layer itself.

[photodarren]

Pretty busy but easy to replicate.

Running Mac OSX 15.4.1

Create a text layer. Apply mask. Paint out part of the mask. Disable that layer's visibility.

Open new image do some stuff. Go back to previous image and the mask will be gone most of the time. 

The mask doesn't disappear if it is left visible, but as soon as I set it invisible, it disappears. Its affect on the layer remains, i.e. the text has the holes cut in it, but the layer mask that causes the holes is no longer there.

And if I delete the characters with the holes and write new ones, the layer mask acts as if it is still present, i.e. the holes remain, but there is no way to edit those holes because the layer mask represented in the UI is gone. 

Happens every single day multiple times a day. 

I create a text layer. Add a mask. Edit mask. Save as to export the image, Disable mask. Save as to export the same image without the text (my watermark). Go to new image. Try to copy layers from old image (for my watermark) and the layer mask is gone. Which means I can't use it on my new image. 

Pain in the backside the layer masks aren't persistent. Notice that the text across the ears has holes in it. Screen shot shows that the layer for the text has no visible mask on it. Yet it is clear by the picture that the text has the holes. 

[photodarren]

Also note that it only happens on text layers so far because they are the only one I toggle visibility.

The brightness contrast mask always remains, but I don't toggle that. 

I can as a test though I suppose. 

[NotMyFault]

It seems the mask ist still there, the layers just got collapsed. Can you show the layers panel with expanding the child layers?
 

please always include a few panels in every screenshot, and expand the child layers in layers panel which are relevant:

• layers
• navigator
• history
• color, brush, swatches in case of brushwork

[photodarren]

I did what you said, and yes, when I drop down the arrow the layer mask is there. So they aren't disappearing, only the thumbnail of the mask is disappearing.

So a UI glitch. Thank you. I've learned something. Mask can be still present but without the thumbnail showing that it is. 

So across a set of my files, some show the mask and some don't, but I checked and all the ones acting like a mask is there have one when I press the drop down.

Thanks again.