Affinity Publisher 2 crashing with Large File on macOS Sonoma

[Omid]

Hi everyone,

I'm encountering a frustrating issue with Affinity Publisher 2 (v2.5) and wanted to see if anyone else is experiencing something similar or has found a solution.

I've been working on a project file that I initially created back in May this year. The file is quite large, about 450 MB, and includes hundreds of linked images, drawings, and other assets. Back when I last worked on it, everything was running smoothly. However, after opening it recently, the software has become almost unusable.

Here’s a breakdown of my setup and the issue:

- macOS Sonoma, Version 14.6.1  (latest)
- Software: Affinity Publisher 2, Version 2.5
- Hardware: MacBook Pro with Apple M1 Max, 64 GB RAM (so hardware limitations shouldn't be the issue)
- Troubleshooting Attempted: Tried toggling 'Hardware Acceleration' on and off—no improvement.

Issue Details:
- The file opens and displays, but then the application starts freezing.
- I can scroll for a bit, but I can't click on anything. Sometimes it just crashes outright; other times, I can take a few actions before it freezes again.
- Even trying to quit the application its not working, it hangs.

This problem is really disruptive, especially since the file worked perfectly a few months ago. It feels like something in the recent updates or possibly the compatibility with macOS Sonoma is causing these severe performance issues?

Is anyone else dealing with similar problems? Any advice or potential fixes would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Lee D]

@Omid Welcome to the forums.

We could do with a copy of your .afpub file to see if the same issues occur on our systems, most of them being same spec MacBook Pros as yours.

You can send me a share link via DM or I can arrange for a Dropbox link to be sent to you.

[Fixx]

I too have performance problems with large files, but with Designer. Document tends to freeze when changing page size, or when all pasted to new document. Generally editing object can be laggy, depending grouping/layering structure.

Latest problem is that trying to export to DWG or DXF repeatedly kills app.

File sizes are 3 MB and up (PDF) or 20 MB and up (afdesign). All vector.

Mac Mini M1 16GB RAM.

[Omid]

On 8/14/2024 at 12:08 PM, Lee D said:

@Omid Welcome to the forums.

We could do with a copy of your .afpub file to see if the same issues occur on our systems, most of them being same spec MacBook Pros as yours.

You can send me a share link via DM or I can arrange for a Dropbox link to be sent to you.

Hi Lee,

 

I sent you the file two weeks ago but haven’t heard back yet. Could you please check your DM when you get a chance?

[MikeTO]

Where are the linked resources stored? If they're anywhere but on your internal drive in a folder that is not synced to iCloud, try moving them to an non-synched folder on your internal drive. I know that's a lot of space but Affinity doesn't like working with linked resources that are on external drives, network drives, or even on your SSD in an iCloud folder.

Once you've moved the resources to the non-synched folder, re-open the document and relink the resources when prompted.

If that doesn't work, then you could try opening the document and not relinking the resources when prompted. Are you able to work with the resources unavailable? If so, it may take some detective work to figure out where the problem lies. You could divide the resources into two folders, relinking half of them and not the other half. If that works, then the problem is with the other half. Repeat until you narrow it down. This could be tedious though if your resources aren't all in a single folder to start with. If they're a variety of types, issues are more likely to be with the complex formats such as afdesign, afphoto, psd, and svg and not simple raster formats such as jpg, tiff, or png.

Good luck

[Omid]

4 hours ago, MikeTO said:

Where are the linked resources stored? If they're anywhere but on your internal drive in a folder that is not synced to iCloud, try moving them to an non-synched folder on your internal drive. I know that's a lot of space but Affinity doesn't like working with linked resources that are on external drives, network drives, or even on your SSD in an iCloud folder.

Once you've moved the resources to the non-synched folder, re-open the document and relink the resources when prompted.

If that doesn't work, then you could try opening the document and not relinking the resources when prompted. Are you able to work with the resources unavailable? If so, it may take some detective work to figure out where the problem lies. You could divide the resources into two folders, relinking half of them and not the other half. If that works, then the problem is with the other half. Repeat until you narrow it down. This could be tedious though if your resources aren't all in a single folder to start with. If they're a variety of types, issues are more likely to be with the complex formats such as afdesign, afphoto, psd, and svg and not simple raster formats such as jpg, tiff, or png.

Good luck

Hi Mike, all the files are stored on my hard drive, and they’re automatically synchronized to OneDrive. I’ve also copied all resources, including links, into a (only) local directory, but the issue persists. After deleting the links, the documents work briefly, but then it started hanging again—it’s really frustrating. Unfortunately, this software doesn’t seem to handle complex documents or books with numerous links, drawings, etc., very well.  It’s really strange because last year I created a similar document, and it worked perfectly. I’m not sure if recent updates are causing the issue, but it’s incredibly frustrating.

[MikeTO]

5 minutes ago, Omid said:

Hi Mike, all the files are stored on my hard drive, and they’re automatically synchronized to OneDrive. I’ve also copied all resources, including links, into a (only) local directory, but the issue persists. After deleting the links, the documents work briefly, but then it started hanging again—it’s really frustrating. Unfortunately, this software doesn’t seem to handle complex documents or books with numerous links, drawings, etc., very well.  It’s really strange because last year I created a similar document, and it worked perfectly. I’m not sure if recent updates are causing the issue, but it’s incredibly frustrating.

My history book has 200K words and 600 high-resolution images and my Publisher manual has 105K words and 650 low-resolution images. I have no issues with either of them. The documents are only 11 and 6MB, respectively.

I do sync with iCloud which Serif doesn't recommend, but I'm taking the risk due to the convenience, probably like you're doing with OneDrive.

Questions:

1. Your file size of 450MB seems huge. Just to confirm, that's the size of the afpub file alone?
   1. Are there any embedded resources?
   2. Do you have Save History With Document enabled?
2. What are the file formats of your linked resources? I use only raster image files in my history book. My Publisher manual is mostly raster images and some SVGs. While the whole point of Affinity is that you can place afdesign, afphoto, pdf, and psd files directly into a Publisher document, I refrain from doing that because it adds complexity.

Good luck

[Omid]

All resources are indeed linked—see the attached files. You’re right, it’s very strange that the file size is this large; it doesn’t make any sense. I checked another book of mine, which is actually larger, but with all resources linked, the file size is only around 20MB. I also tried opening that file, but it crashed multiple times as well. I’m not sure what’s going on, but everything seems messed up now—I can’t open anything. I’ve attached the error log for reference.

Translated Report (Full Report Below).pdf

[MikeTO]

And Save History With Document is turned off?

A number of the linked files were missing but I assume that's because you renamed a folder while testing.

Also I noticed that some of them were named something like grundrisse.pdf but their type was shown as Affinity. Are these PDF files that you opened in Affinity and saved in a native Affinity format, so named grundrisse.pdf.afdesign?

That's about all I have, you'll likely need to wait for Serif's assistance now.

Good luck

[Omid]

On 8/25/2024 at 9:49 PM, MikeTO said:

And Save History With Document is turned off?

A number of the linked files were missing but I assume that's because you renamed a folder while testing.

Also I noticed that some of them were named something like grundrisse.pdf but their type was shown as Affinity. Are these PDF files that you opened in Affinity and saved in a native Affinity format, so named grundrisse.pdf.afdesign?

That's about all I have, you'll likely need to wait for Serif's assistance now.

Good luck

Hi Mike, Thank you for your help, but unfortunately, nothing has worked. I still haven’t received any response from the staff, even though it’s been many weeks since I sent the file. After this experience, I’m seriously considering switching back to Adobe, even though it’s more expensive, as it seems to be a more reliable option.

[Hangman]

Hi @Omid,

One thing I would suggest trying, even though you've moved all the Linked files to your internal HD is to completely remove any form of syncing to OneDrive...

I appreciate you uploaded the file to Serif a couple of weeks ago but are you able to upload it to the forum or if not DM it so we can take a look...

A few things could potentially be causing the problem but without seeing your file it will be difficult to figure out what...

If you are happy to send the file could you use File > Save as Package which you will need to Save to an Empty Folder... If you then zip up the contents of the folder to include the .afpackage and Images folder and upload the Zip file we can take a look at your file to see if we can identify what is causing the issue...

[Omid]

Hi everyone, I’ve figured it out! The issue lies with the Mac version of Publisher V2. When I opened the files on a Windows system, they worked perfectly, even while fully stored in OneDrive. I hope the Mac version gets upgraded soon so it works as well as it does on Windows.