All Affinity Apps (Designer, Photo, Publisher) Missing Icon

[freshmograph]

All Affinity Apps (Designer, Photo, Publisher) are missing icons on the taskbar when the program is open. Has anyone had the same issue or know of a fix? I deleted the icon cache, but it didn't resolve the issue. I'm on Windows 11 running the most recent build of the Affinity v2 apps. 

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Affinity forums, @freshmograph.

I've never had that happen to the Affinity applications specifically, but it sometimes happens to others. To fix it, I open Task Manager and find Windows Explorer in the list, and Restart it. Sometimes there are two entries, and I restart both of them.

 

[freshmograph]

Thanks for the response. I'm not sure what happened, but if I set the taskbar to always combine, the icon would be updated. If I restart Windows Explorer the icon would be updated, if I changed to a different virtual desktop and back the icons would be updated as well. However, none of the fixes would stick. Each time I restart Windows the issue would persist. The only thing that I found to fix the issue was to delete the settings for all three of the programs.

 

[walt.farrell]

19 hours ago, freshmograph said:

The only thing that I found to fix the issue was to delete the settings for all three of the programs.

I'm not sure what that means. Do you mean pressing Ctrl and doing something in the Clear User Data dialog?

[stokerg]

Hi @freshmograph,

Do you have the MSIX version or the MSI version of Affinity installed?

Easiest way to check, see if Affinity V2 is installed to C:\Programs Files\Affinity\ or with Affinity running, call up Task Manager, open the Affinity process and right click on the sub process and select Open File Location.  If that opens an Explorer with WindowsApps in the path, then it its the MSIX version and i'm sure this is an issue the MSIX version, i'm just struggling to find the post here on the Forums and the bug report.

 

[freshmograph]

I have the MSIX version, but I installed the MSI version, and the problem persisted. To get Affinity Designer to load the icon properly I had to go to C:\Users\Username\.affinity\Designer\2.0\ and delete the folder "Settings" for it to create a new folder and files when the app launched. I did that for all three programs and it appears to have worked so far. Hopefully, it was just a random issue.

[freshmograph]

Well, the icon is missing again. Looks like I don't have a solution.

[_Th]

Same issue here with the missing/generic icons. 

All three apps, Beta and Public. MSIX. 

Windows 11 24H2 (though this existed before 24H2)

Curiously, the correct app icon shows while the loading/splash screen is visible. Then the generic icon appears to the right of the actual app icon. Finally, when the document opens, or the new document screen appears, the app icons drops down, leaving just the generic.

[Komatös]

@freshmograph @_Th 

Perhaps the following solution will help.

Delete icon cache and thumbnail cache with a bat

The icon and thumb (preview images) cache contains all icons in various sizes from 16 px up to 2560 px.
As the caches are always in use, you cannot simply delete the iconcache.db or thumbcache.db by right-clicking.

Here you create a new bat file. 

• Right-click on the desktop -> New -> Text document
• Copy and save the following content:

@echo off
taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows
del /f /s /q Explorer\iconcache*.*
del /f /s /q Explorer\thumbcache*.*
Start explorer.exe

Explanation:

/f Also deletes write-protected files
/s Deletes all files, even in subdirectories
/q There is no prompt because of the placeholders (*)

Now right-click on the new file and rename it from ‘Text document (new).txt’ to ‘iconcache.bat’.
Copy this file to the user folder C:\Users\your name and double-click there

The commands are now executed and the cache is deleted.
During execution, it may happen that a file with the message ‘Access denied’ cannot be deleted. These files then end up in the ThumbCacheToDelete folder. After a restart, these files are also deleted.

I hope it helps you, even permanently!

[freshmograph]

Thank you for the suggestion to delete the icon cache. I have tried it and the same issue persists. 

[4dimage]

Hi,

have the same Problem with Publisher taskbar icon since some weeks (actual Windows 11). Thought the actual 2.6.0 Update would fix it. But unfortunatelly doesn't 😔.

I have the apps installed using the msie.exe.

 

The Publisher taskbar link icon still breaks after launching the app. Also tried this icon cache procedure (.bat) and restarted Windows - doesn't help.

Taskbar link before:  during startup: 

when running Publisher:

Designer and Photo taskbar icons behave correctly:

 

By the way - the actual 2.6.0.3134 (Beta) show the same behaviour:

 

[zackw]

Happens to me too and I'm running MSIX latest version.

I recorded a video although it's probably not helpful. 

No procedures regarding clearing Windows icon cache helps with this.

Short of fully uninstalling and reinstalling, I'm not sure what else to try.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/f2y8jgvnthqdxigmrskjh/Designer-icon.mp4?rlkey=hapgypd7sx08lm35g4yw8ya6d&dl=0

 

[freshmograph]

I uninstalled all the apps and reinstalled the MSI versions, and I thought that fixed it, but the issue still occurs occasionally. I haven't seen it happen since the last Windows 11 Update, so I'm hopeful that it was a Windows-related issue and not specific to Affinity apps. 

Just a side note. I did see the missing icon issue occur for another app (a non-Affinity app) before the last Windows update. 

[freshmograph]

And the icons are missing again. 

[_Th]

A curious follow up on the missing/generic icons...

Last night I left Photo open and told the computer to "sleep." (Windows 11, 24H2)

Today, after "waking" the computer ("Oh, good morning, you're back so soon?") the missing Photo icon is no longer missing/generic.

[ksnyder]

I found that you can also make the icons reappear by switching to a different virtual desktop and then going back. 

[_Th]

On 3/26/2025 at 12:06 AM, ksnyder said:

I found that you can also make the icons reappear by switching to a different virtual desktop and then going back. 

Very strange, but that does work.

[Jmbo]

Hi
Just wondering if there are any updates to this issue?
Still missing icons on all 3 affinity apps!
Thanks!

Edited April 9 by Jmbo