Images move on their own erratically (Affinity Photo v1)

[David RB]

Hi all, I have a serious issue with Affinity Photo v1 for mac that is getting worse and worse.

I use a document which is a template (1000x1000 pixels) for all the product images I sell on my website, mostly clothes. I have about 50 images sorted in different folders that I arrange and display individually. The problem is the images randomly move on their own after I arranged them. I tried to lock the layers but they move anyway. I quit the app, restart but same problem. Sometimes images are just moved inside the document, sometimes they are also reduced in size. Movements happen when I close the document or during my open session when I'm working on the images. This is hours and hours of work lost (images imported, corrected, adjusted...).

I couldn't find any similar issue on this forum.

Thanks in advance for your support.

[Alfred]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, David.

You say that you ‘tried’ to lock the layers. What did you actually try? Locking absolutely should prevent movement and changes in size, but if a locked layer is nested to another layer then its behaviour will be governed by the (locked or unlocked) status of the parent.

[David RB]

Hi Alfred, thanks for your answer.

Indeed, each layer containing an image is inside a succession of groups and sub-groups for better organization and readability. I can't lock the parent groups to prevent any movement and changes in size otherwise I couldn't work on this document at all! The erratic changes in position and size happen when I work in another sub-group of the same parent group.

Does it mean Affinity Photo cannot manage a tree structure of groups and layers?

[David RB]

 

On 7/14/2024 at 1:46 AM, Alfred said:

Locking absolutely should prevent movement and changes in size, but if a locked layer is nested to another layer then its behaviour will be governed by the (locked or unlocked) status of the parent.

I tried to lock all the groups and layers in the document, from the parent group to all child groups. I saved. I reopened: images moved again on their own!

[Lee D]

@David RB Welcome to the forums.

It's not something I've seen reports of as objects should be in the same position as when saved. Would you be able to do a screen recording showing a document open and an objected selected. Also having the Transform panel open so we can also confirm the objects X/Y. Then save, close and reopen the same file and select the same object again.

[David RB]

12 hours ago, Lee D said:

@David RB Welcome to the forums.

It's not something I've seen reports of as objects should be in the same position as when saved. Would you be able to do a screen recording showing a document open and an objected selected. Also having the Transform panel open so we can also confirm the objects X/Y. Then save, close and reopen the same file and select the same object again.

Thanks Lee for your answer and for your interest in my issue. All the images I'm working on will be used on my commercial website that is not online yet. So screen recording my Affinity Photo document with all the images and names (the layers names) raises at the moment confidentiality concerns. I hope you will understand. I've just found a kind of workaround to my problem. I lock all the layers and groups in the document (50+) from the parent groups. I unlock the layer on which I want to work then lock it again. This way, images apparently stop moving. But this is tedious and not very practical.... I must add that only PNG images, not JPG, are affected by these changes in position and size.

[Alfred]

6 hours ago, David RB said:

All the images I'm working on will be used on my commercial website that is not online yet. So screen recording my Affinity Photo document with all the images and names (the layers names) raises at the moment confidentiality concerns.

If the problem is specific to your commercially sensitive document then it’s impossible to help you solve it (unless you’re willing to share it with Serif via a private upload link that @Lee D would be able to provide). However, if it’s a more general problem you could construct a simple document that demonstrates the problem without the use of any sensitive material.