Focus Merge Crashing unpredictably

[soundsliketree]

1. Affinity Photo

2. Currently Using Version 2.5.2.  Bug was also present in all previous versions of V2 as well as at least the last version of V1 that I used (can't remember).

3. I can reproduce it.  It is a crash that happens during focus merge towards the beginning of the process.  It will show about a second or two of the focus merge process and then crash. It doesn't happen every time - this is how I've lived with it: I just keep trying focus merge until it works.  I haven't been able to find a pattern.  It seems just as likely to happen when I have multiple tabs/docs open as when I have just freshly restarted the app (often after the last crash).  Eventually it will work.  My focus merges usually have between 10-30 jpegs in them.

4. It happens with focus merges that are done either with no or multiple tabs open.

5...

Mac OS Ventura

It happens with hardware acceleration in both ON and OFF position.

I have an external monitor attached to my M1 MacBook Pro.

This behavior started in V1 - later version.  There was a time when it did not happen, and I believe it started when I updated V1 at one point, but I can't accurately remember.

I have attached a video with examples of it crashing as well as working.  I can't predict when it will crash vs. work. I can't seem to notice a pattern.

 

[NathanC]

Welcome to the forums @soundsliketree,

It might be a bit of a tricky one for us to replicate based on these conditions as it sounds very much like a local environment issue on your device. For a start could you provide us with some crash reports after running into this crash? FAQ below details how to find these.

16 hours ago, soundsliketree said:

 I haven't been able to find a pattern.  It seems just as likely to happen when I have multiple tabs/docs open as when I have just freshly restarted the app (often after the last crash).  Eventually it will work.  My focus merges usually have between 10-30 jpegs in them.

If it's more likely to happen with more documents already open in the app perhaps it's memory related. Have you tried closing down All background apps you have running on your mac so it's just Photo 2, closing down any other doc tabs and then running through a few focus merges? Also, have activity monitor open on the Memory so you can see what usages you're hitting during the merge.

Could you also provide us with a set of the images you're using for the merge where you've previously encountered a crash? I've provided a private upload link below.

https://www.dropbox.com/request/o0T2IgSU3Qfmsx8p6axX

Thanks

[soundsliketree]

Thank you. I will experiment more with Activity Monitor open while having only Affinity open.  I believe I have done this in the past and it yielded no memory issues, but I'll try again.  

I went searching in the Console app for crash reports and there are none there from after August of last year.  I have no idea why.

I uploaded a set of images that are an example of the files I focus merge.

 

 

[soundsliketree]

To be clear, I've found that it is just as likely to crash when multiple documents/tabs are open as when none are.  It appears haphazard in this regard.  I'll continue to work while monitoring overall memory usage.

Edited June 22, 2024 by soundsliketree
typo

[soundsliketree]

I can now confirm that the crashes still happen when Affinity Photo and Activity Monitor are the only two open apps and memory (as shown in Activity Monitor) is nowhere near being an issue.  Also, the latest crash happened when there were only two document tabs open.

I believe I’ve tried all of your suggestions now and ruled out memory pressure being a factor.  

Please note that these crashes didn’t happen (with same computer) during most of my time using V1.  They started during the latter part of using V1 (I believe when I updated AP).  The crashes were actually the reason that I upgraded to V2 And also to Mac OS Ventura - neither of which stopped them. 

I generated crash report from the dialog box that appeared after the crash and am attaching it.

AFFINITY PHOTO CRASH #1.pdf

[NathanC]

Hi @soundsliketree,

Thanks for the additional info, unfortunately the crash report backtrace is very generic and doesn't point towards any specific Photo app component as the cause. I do want to see if we can pinpoint the specific point at which the app crashes using the Mac device log generated by the console log as this may provide some additional insight that we're missing with the crash report alone. If you could follow the below and provide us with the log when you're next getting continuous app crashes during the Focus merge we may be able to find out more:

 

1. Close down all background applications running on the Mac and close all Affinity apps

2. Open the Mac Console app and select your Mac name from the 'Devices' list on the sidebar

3. Press 'Start' along the top and it will start continuously logging messages

4. Start Affinity Photo 2 and make a note of the specific time you started the app (this makes it easier for us to track in the log)

5. Go through your standard Focus merge workflow which results in the crash

6. When the app crashes, make a note of the specific time of the crash and open the Console app again and press 'Pause'

7. Press CMD + A to highlight the entire log and CMD + C to copy it

8. Paste the copied log contents into a text editor, such as TextEdit or Pages and save a copy of the file.

 

 

If you could then provide us with the following:

- A copy of this console log text file

- The crash report from this specific Focus Merge Crash (Could you save this out of the console app as a .DMP file rather than pasting the contents onto a PDF. See FAQ linked earlier for instructions.)

- The time that the Photo app started and the time that the app crashed

 

Thanks

[soundsliketree]

Thanks, Nathan.

I just did the above procedure - right after a machine restart, no less.  It crashed on the very first attempt.

I am attaching a text file for you.  Note the times at the beginning of the text doc.  I didn't get the exact times; let me know if you need more specific times.  It was not clear how to make a .DMP file of the "crash report from this specific Focus Merge Crash" so I pasted the contents of the dialog box appearing after the crash into the text document just after console app log info.  I know this isn't what you wanted, but I couldn't think of what else to do.  If you'd like me to do the whole thing I again I'd be happy to if you explained how to make a .dmp file.  I can also get more accurate times.

 

Crash of Affinity Photo 2 - on June 24, 2024.txt

[NathanC]

Hi @soundsliketree,

Thanks for providing those log files, you've captured all the relevant info and having the app crash report on the same doc was helpful and exactly what I was looking for, the original PDF crash log you sent earlier was missing some key info was all, which I now have.

I've made a few observations based on the logs and also your original recording:

• The console log appears to indicate there are some UI issues the changing the view origin leading up to the crash, perhaps of the document tab within the app, but also possibly the active Display since you have two displays.
• Normally a successful focus merge will prompt the 'Sources' panel immediately on the screen once it's finished, this appears to be entirely absent in your recording. Is it perhaps prompting on the external display not in view of the recording, or is it completely absent?
• In both instances of the crash you already have an active document within the app, have you had it crash when no document is actively open within the app?

Based on the above, particularly with regard to the sources panel, could you try the below:

• Disconnect your external display so you've only got your Macbook display active, and then follow the below to reset the app panel states:

1. Close all affinity apps
2. Hold CTRL and launch the app while still holding CTRL
3. A 'Clear user data' menu will prompt with three boxes ticked, press 'Clear' at the bottom right
4. The app will now launch, try running through a few focus merges to check the stability

 

• The sources panel closes and loads itself automatically when working in both Focus and HDR merged docs. Before you even attempt a Focus merge load the 'Sources' panel onto your Studio via Window > Sources and then Dock the panel with a set of your other panels. E.G dock the 'Sources' panel with The Histogram and Color panels in the top right hand corner. Once the sources panel is Docked, try running through a few focus merges and see how it goes.

 

[soundsliketree]

Quick reply now before I dive in deeper a bit later:

1) The crash that was documented in the most recent log I just sent actually happened at the airport with no external monitor or any other peripherals attached.

2) Yes, it has crashed without any tabs open numerous times.

[soundsliketree]

I can confirm that the app still crashes on focus merge attempts (sometimes) when:

• The external monitor and all other peripherals are not connected.
• There are no other apps running on my computer.
• There are no tabs open in Affinity Photo.
• The sources panel is pre-docked with the colors and histogram panels.
• I have performed a "clear user data" procedure.

I believe this covers all of your suggestions?  

Thanks for your help.  

[soundsliketree]

Hello Nathan,

I believe I've followed all of your suggestions and have not been able to stop the erratic crashing.  Do you have a sense of anything else to try?  What would our next steps be?

Thanks for your help!

[soundsliketree]

It occurred to me to mention: Though I have not been able to establish a pattern of exactly what conditions caused the focus merge crashes, I can say that when it does crash it always occurs at the same point in the focus merge process - just after the progress bar appears, a few seconds after the process starts.  That much seems consistent.  Maybe that helps?

[NathanC]

7 hours ago, soundsliketree said:

I can say that when it does crash it always occurs at the same point in the focus merge process - just after the progress bar appears, a few seconds after the process starts

The Crash report and Console log all point towards a User Interface issue but isn't specific on what element, it's also at this specific stage you've highlighted that the 'Sources' panel terminates at the start of the merge and re-launches itself at the end. Annoyingly this is one of the only panels can't be a permanent fixture and always re-performs this when you begin a Focus or HDR merge, on Windows it doesn't do this. I'm convinced that it's either the Sources panel or the Loading prompt that appears at the start but at this stage I'm a bit limited to suggestions unfortunately mainly down to the fact that it's just not re-producible. You could try creating a temporary new MacOS user and trying the merges from a new user account, this may work if the problem is related to either the local user environment or the local app data, as you're essentially using a fresh copy of the app with none of your original local user settings.

You could also try booting your Mac into safe mode and then trying the merge a few times, this clears down a few caches and also may stop a potentially problematic third party app from interfering, but that's quite unlikely.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mh21245/mac

Let me know how this goes.

[soundsliketree]

Hello Nathan,

Me again!  I'm still having the issue.  I did just notice something that could be helpful in troubleshooting.  This has happened numerous times this way...  I'll have a file open - let's call it file "A." I'll attempt a focus merge of a new image (intended to add to A), but it will crash in the early stage of the progress bar as it often does.  Then, when I open Affinity Photo again, it will not have A loaded as a tab, but instead an earlier file - and, in the last occurnace, multiple files (call them B, C, and D).  Could this possibly indicate that the auto-save or undo-history or something like that isn't functioning properly?  Wild guess - sorry if it's not helpful.  Just thought I'd share - since I have a consistently sporadic problem that doesn't seem to be going away.

Eric