Problems with Affinity 2.5.5 and MacOS Sequoia Beta

[Juhani]

The fact that Serif's staff has completely stopped responding to any of our cries here could also suggest the update/fix is just about to be released now. Let's hope that's the case.

[MEB]

Hi @Juhani, everyone,
I hadn't replied earlier because I didn't have anything new to add to my previous post. The issues are now fixed, have passed QA, and will be included in the next Customer Beta, which should be out very soon. Thank you for your patience, and apologies for the delay.

[whatimissthemost]

1 hour ago, norbinw said:

I will not go back to a previous OS just because one lousy app developer is late. Use XnView like me, to find something in a document. It's slower and worse than quick look, but better than downgrade. Let's just try to have patience, and in a couple of months, we may have the fix 🥰

Good advice, thanks for the suggestion!

[Daniel Höpfl]

1 hour ago, MEB said:

Hi @Juhani, everyone,
I hadn't replied earlier because I didn't have anything new to add to my previous post. The issues are now fixed, have passed QA, and will be included in the next Customer Beta, which should be out very soon. Thank you for your patience, and apologies for the delay.

Good to hear.
Good, not great.

A few questions:

1. When is “soon”? Might be anything from “this week” to “before Christmas“. Put a date on it, please.
2. Beta software by definition is not to be considered production ready, when can we expect it to be available in stable releases?
3. Do you consider the way this problem was handled, from knowing month before the macOS release to this date, appropriate for a software targeting a professional audience? (You still do target a professional audience, don’t you?)
4. Will there be an extended post mortem analysis within Serif/Canva? Will the result thereof be public?

Thanks for answering these questions.

[Trustedsource]

Under the Heading of "Gift Horse in the Mouth"

Thank you for your communication MEB. *I* appreciate open channels - even if it's only to say there is nothing new to say.

And even though there is no way to fully apprehend what is happening behind the curtain, I'm thankful for all the hard work I'm guessing folks have been expending on our behalf.  So against my negative nature and curmudgeony outlook - I'll look up and out to the wonderfulness of having our icons back (among other things) and hope that this happens sooner rather than later.

[And here my mother said I didn't have a positive bone in my body]

[BBG3]

2 hours ago, MEB said:

I’m not the most appropriate person to reveal it, sorry

Could you privately message me the date? I promise not to share it with anyone. (kidding😜) 

[BBG3]

2 hours ago, MEB said:

I don’t even know my own situation

Hi @MEB, You have solved many problems both for users and Serif. You are a diamond and so valuable to our community and Canva. I personally thank you a lot and wish you the best. ❤️

[MEB]

Thanks for your words @BBG3.

[BBG3]

1. To download XNview you can click here or just search "XNview mac download"

https://www.xnview.com/en/xnviewmp/

2. Activate Show all graphic formats in Tools → Settings → General 

 

3. Restart the XNview.

Now you can see your *** files like @norbinw. You can thank him/her.

 

[Gianni Becattini]

Fantastic! And dumb me...😵‍💫 I am using xnview since several years but I didn't discover that flag!

THANKS!

[Juhani]

I appreciate you taking the time to respond and confirm that at least someone is paying attention to our rambling here from your side. I only wish Serif as a company would adopt a bit more transparent communication approach with their core customers going forward, so that you wouldn't have to be so restrained about what's happing behind the scenes and it would be easier for us to accept and understand that this stuff is not easy and takes time.

On that note, if you don't like giving out any real dates, could we establish (at least between you and us) that from this point onwards "soon" means within a month, and "very soon" within a week ?

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Import content error when importing .affont files in Sequoia beta " (REF: AF-3814) has been fixed by the developers in the latest beta build (2.6.0.2805). The fix is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Affinity Info Bot to notify us.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "[macOS] Native Affinity files not generating thumbnail previews in Sequoia" (REF: AF-3857) has been fixed by the developers in the latest beta build (2.6.0.2805). The fix is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Affinity Info Bot to notify us.

[srg]

Finally, not perfect but at least I see thumbnails!! 

[kilimanjaro]

It's been four weeks since we were told it was fixed internally and only needs to go through QA testing.

So are your QA tests so thorough that it takes four weeks, or has the fix been so bad that it's taking that long?

[norbinw]

Now it's in the Beta app 😂. So we are testing it 😂. Not sure what they tested, but it's still not proper fix. I installed only the Designer Beta, but don't use it. Reset Finder with cmd shift esc (I can't remember the proper combo without looking at it) or restart Mac, and you should see thumbnails. Quicklook still doesn't show properly, only a bit magnified icon, but at least I see whatever TF is in my document at a glance. 

[kilimanjaro]

On 9/26/2024 at 7:47 PM, BCBC said:

Someone should be fired for this. At this point it's clearly incompetence and poor leadership. Photoshop, which I also use, has no issues and works seamlessly, as usual. Both companies had the same access to beta versions to plan for the changes and Affinity dropped the ball. I may have to switch to Illustrator if this continues much longer. Vague promises of we are working on it are no longer helpful. Anyway it's becoming obvious that Affinity products are more suitable for hobbyists, not professionals. Serves me right for cutting corners on my tools. the money saved is not worth it. 

Yep. There's a reason Apple put out developer betas early on and for some reason it's always the small software houses (Rogue Amoeba, Flying Meat, etc.) who fix almost all their issues BEFORE the new macOS releases. And for some unexplicable reason the larger vendors with their hordes of developers can't be bothered to check the new macOS beta and do some testing to make sure everything works and fix upcoming issues before they become real problems for the end user. It boggles the mind.

[kilimanjaro]

I just installed the latest Affinity betas (2.6.0 [2831]) and the thumbnails are showing. If you don't get the thumbnails to show right away it could well be the Finder cashing stuff, so you may want to use the Activiy Monitor app, search for "Thumbnail", force quit the "com.apple.quicklook.ThumnailsAgent", then in Terminal enter 

killall Finder

and hit return to restart the Finder (or option+click on the Finer icon in the Dock and select restart) and voila, you should have thumbnails.

[bici]

I am patiently awaiting to hear that the  Affinity Suite is ripe and ready to be used on Sequoia. I won't update from Sonoma until the Bird of Happiness  sings in my ears. 

[Trustedsource]

And what a song that would be!

I am currently standing in a rapidly shrinking crowd of Affinity converts.  Once or twice a week, I am informed that like it or not the workarounds are not working around enough to keep people in line with Affinity products. While we belittle "problems" like missing icons, font glitches/file management and castigate folks for upgrading operating systems [[[ as if everyone has a *choice* in such matters ]]] - work flows are significantly impeded and folks migrate back to Adobe products.  And I can tell you that once those companies return to Adobe environments - there will be no reversal.  Not to mention the darkest of momentum when it comes to word-of-mouth advertising. And here I was in *such* a good mood, thinking the "bird of happiness"  was just a short flight away.   LOL 🙂

[bici]

16 hours ago, Trustedsource said:

And what a song that would be!

Goes like this:

He works fine in Sonoma OS14 all day long
Desigin'  and a-layin' and a-singing his song
All the little apps on Affinity Street
Love to hear the Suite go tweet, tweet, tweet

Rockin' robin (tweet, tweet, tweet)

😊

 

[jaabdad]

Hmm. The 2.6 beta installer injects a couple of OS items that enable the thumbnails. Then, I can just use 2.5.5 and all is well. Are folks worried about the stability of the OS component updates or the actual 2.6 betas of Affinity software?

[Plumspot]

Could we please just get the update? This is crazy not seeing the icons.

[norbinw]

Probably next year. Serif has snails for coders, and incompetent management.

They focus on 100+ fixes instead of fixing what's affecting everyone. 

[Trustedsource]

My grandmother used to say: "Some folks are foolish enough to pass over a diamond to pick up a nickel."

This was applied in several instances, but in this case - I wonder if it doesn't apply to the folks in charge of this situation who missing *very* important points (maintaining good will with current customers - and growing the business via word of mouth) in order to nurture some unknown set of priorities that in the long run will be more of a liability than an asset.  One also wonders what sense of urgency exists here (or to what degree) - but in the absence of any real clear/open communication - mostly conjecture and "wonderifing" rules the day.  Piercing the curtain of corporate culture has always been difficult and in the land of lawyers telling everyone to shut up,  it's even worse.  Just imagine what would happen if everyone on both sides of -- things like this -- acted like plain human beings that were playing a pickup game of catch. I know, I know... I'm being naive - but I can dream can't I?   Here's to a brighter day with big solutions.