New Object Selection Tool?

[TanBrae]

I just downloaded 2.6 AP, and am watching the YT video on what's new. 

The narrator mentions the new Object Selection Tool, and how to download it. I have done that download, restarted AP, but do not see the icon for the tool. How do I find it? 

I'm running AP on Mac OS 15.3.1. 

[dominik]

Try 'View > Customize Tools'. There you should find the new icon that looks a little like an owl. Drag it to you Tools palette.

d.

[TanBrae]

1 minute ago, dominik said:

Try 'View > Customize Tools'. There you should find the new icon that looks a little like an owl. Drag it to you Tools palette.

d.

Thank you, dominik. I've tried that, too, but it isn't showing up there, either. Weird. 

And, just FYI, my Studio does have a silicon chip, so that shouldn't be the issue. 

 

[dominik]

1 minute ago, TanBrae said:

I've tried that, too, but it isn't showing up there, either. Weird.

There is another option. Try to do a CTRL start (I think it is the CMD key on the Mac) of the app. You should be prompted to reset certain things to default.

'CTRL start' means you hold that modifier key and double click the icon and keep holding until you see a special option dialogue.

d.

[MikeTO]

Note that after installing 2.6 you need to go to Settings, click Machine Learning Models, and install the two models before trying to use the new tools.

[R C-R]

7 hours ago, dominik said:

Try to do a CTRL start (I think it is the CMD key on the Mac) of the app.

It is CTRL for the Mac version as well.

[dominik]

10 hours ago, R C-R said:

It is CTRL for the Mac version as well.

Thanks @R C-R, I always mix them up.

Let's hope this clears @TanBrae's way to the new tools.

d.

[TanBrae]

On 2/21/2025 at 9:44 AM, MikeTO said:

Note that after installing 2.6 you need to go to Settings, click Machine Learning Models, and install the two models before trying to use the new tools.

As I've said, I've done that. Twice. I installed almost immediately after upgrading, and didn't see either, so closed AP, then reopened. Still no show. So, I uninstalled, closed AP, opened AP, reinstalled, and still no show. 

[MikeTO]

1 hour ago, TanBrae said:

As I've said, I've done that. Twice. I installed almost immediately after upgrading, and didn't see either, so closed AP, then reopened. Still no show. So, I uninstalled, closed AP, opened AP, reinstalled, and still no show. 

Do you have an M1 or later? The machine learning features will not appear for a Mac with an Intel CPU.

If you do have an M1 or later, check that Rosetta is not enabled in macOS System Settings. See this post from Serif for instructions.

[Pubcrawler]

I have exactly the same issue as does TanBrae. No object selection tool in 2.6, even after doing a Control start, checking that I'm not using Rosetta and checking Customize Tools (no icon there). No Machine Learning Modules panel in Settings. Using an M3 Mac.

Has anyone found the answer yet?

Cheers.

[dominik]

1 hour ago, Pubcrawler said:

I have exactly the same issue as does TanBrae. No object selection tool in 2.6, even after doing a Control start, checking that I'm not using Rosetta and checking Customize Tools (no icon there). No Machine Learning Modules panel in Settings. Using an M3 Mac.

Has anyone found the answer yet?

Cheers.

Just to make sure as you do not mention it in your post: are you looking in Affinity Photo?

d.

[MikeTO]

The machine learning modules are present in Photo and Publisher but not Designer.

If the machine learning options are not available in Settings on an Apple Silicon (M1 or later) processor, then the most likely reason is that it's set to Open With Rosetta. Check all of your Affinity apps for this and ensure you're running Affinity from the apps in Applications and not from another location.

Other than that, I'm out of ideas.

Good luck

Edited February 26 by MikeTO
fixed typo

[Pubcrawler]

It's a problem in both Publisher and Photo. Open with Rosetta disabled in both cases. I'll try official support.

[R C-R]

17 hours ago, Pubcrawler said:

I have exactly the same issue as does TanBrae. No object selection tool in 2.6, even after doing a Control start, checking that I'm not using Rosetta and checking Customize Tools (no icon there). No Machine Learning Modules panel in Settings. Using an M3 Mac.

Maybe an obvious question but have you downloaded the two ML modules to your computer? They are not automatically installed with the 2.6 update.

[walt.farrell]

On 2/23/2025 at 11:29 AM, Pubcrawler said:

It's a problem in both Publisher and Photo. Open with Rosetta disabled in both cases. I'll try official support.

Can you show us a screenshot of your View > Customize Tools dialog?

(By the way, this forum is an official support channel.)

[TanBrae]

On 2/22/2025 at 11:33 AM, MikeTO said:

Do you have an M1 or later? The machine learning features will not appear for a Mac with an Intel CPU.

If you do have an M1 or later, check that Rosetta is not enabled in macOS System Settings. See this post from Serif for instructions.

I'm running a Mac Studio with the M2 Max, so no Intel. And, I don't know what Rosetta is, so am fairly certain I don't have that. 

[TanBrae]

On 2/23/2025 at 7:58 AM, MikeTO said:

The machine learning modules are preset in Photo and Publisher but not Designer.

If the machine learning options are not available in Settings on an Apple Silicon (M1 or later) processor, then the most likely reason is that it's set to Open With Rosetta. Check all of your Affinity apps for this and ensure you're running Affinity from the apps in Applications and not from another location.

Other than that, I'm out of ideas.

Good luck

I don't know what Rosetta is, so I'm fairly certain I don't have it. But, if it's in my Mac, some how (I'm not finding it), how do I check the Affinity apps??? 

I am running a Mac Studio with M2 Max.

[MikeTO]

8 minutes ago, TanBrae said:

I don't know what Rosetta is, so I'm fairly certain I don't have it. But, if it's in my Mac, some how (I'm not finding it), how do I check the Affinity apps??? 

I am running a Mac Studio with M2 Max.

Rosetta is Apple's emulator to allow old Intel apps to run on Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4).

Some users have it turned on by mistake, which is generally a bad idea because it takes longer to launch the apps the first time and they run slower. To check, right-click one of the applications in your Applications folder and choose Get Info. If "Open using Rosetta" is selected, turn it off. Repeat for the other two Affinity apps.

[TanBrae]

13 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

Rosetta is Apple's emulator to allow old Intel apps to run on Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4).

Some users have it turned on by mistake, which is generally a bad idea because it takes longer to launch the apps the first time and they run slower. To check, right-click one of the applications in your Applications folder and choose Get Info. If "Open using Rosetta" is selected, turn it off. Repeat for the other two Affinity apps.

Thanks! No to Rosetta. None of my Affinity apps were set to open with that. 

What if... what if I uninstall all the apps, then reinstall? I first purchased AP, from the App Store, then purchased the bundle directly from the Affinity site. Would any of that make a difference?

[MikeTO]

7 minutes ago, TanBrae said:

Thanks! No to Rosetta. None of my Affinity apps were set to open with that. 

What if... what if I uninstall all the apps, then reinstall? I first purchased AP, from the App Store, then purchased the bundle directly from the Affinity site. Would any of that make a difference?

It shouldn't but it's worth a try. But if you're doing to do that, I'd first try

• Check your performance settings (could you share a screenshot here)? Ensure you have set RAM Usage Limit to at least 8GB.
• Download the 2.6 beta. The last version is virtually identical to the retail version and installing it will not overwrite your normal installation. This would give you a second installation to test with.
• Start Affinity with Ctrl held down and reset everything - you might as well try this before going to the trouble of reinstalling.

Good luck

[TanBrae]

12 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

It shouldn't but it's worth a try. But if you're doing to do that, I'd first try

• Check your performance settings (could you share a screenshot here)? Ensure you have set RAM Usage Limit to at least 8GB.
• Download the 2.6 beta. The last version is virtually identical to the retail version and installing it will not overwrite your normal installation. This would give you a second installation to test with.
• Start Affinity with Ctrl held down and reset everything - you might as well try this before going to the trouble of reinstalling.

Good luck

Thanks again. I'll give your suggestions a try tomorrow, and let you (all) know if it worked, or not.

[R C-R]

18 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

Start Affinity with Ctrl held down and reset everything - you might as well try this before going to the trouble of reinstalling.

Note that this will wipe out most if not all of your stored preferences, custom brushes, etc.

[TanBrae]

On 2/26/2025 at 5:12 PM, R C-R said:

Note that this will wipe out most if not all of your stored preferences, custom brushes, etc.

I saw that, thank you. Not worth worrying about, because AP is WORTH re-loading. ;)

[TanBrae]

On 2/26/2025 at 4:52 PM, MikeTO said:

It shouldn't but it's worth a try. But if you're doing to do that, I'd first try

• Check your performance settings (could you share a screenshot here)? Ensure you have set RAM Usage Limit to at least 8GB.
• Download the 2.6 beta. The last version is virtually identical to the retail version and installing it will not overwrite your normal installation. This would give you a second installation to test with.
• Start Affinity with Ctrl held down and reset everything - you might as well try this before going to the trouble of reinstalling.

Good luck

I did the start holding Ctrl down, and that worked! THANK YOU!!!

[TimLW]

UPDATE: I figured it out. I ended up going to View > Customize Tools (not Customize Toolbar) and within this area, I found it and moved it to the toolbar. All is good now.

*******

Guys, I'm having the same issue as well. I'm running Affinity Photo 2 on a Mac Apple M2 Max (Sequoia 15.3.2) and Rosetta is not selected nor the issue.

Just upgraded to the 2.6.0, installed both Segmentation and Saliency Machine Learning Models and non of the new tools are showing up. I also checked the View > Customize Toolbar and nothing shows up here either.

I'm not going to reinstall the application, I have too many configs running on this install.

Any ideas why this is happening?

Edited March 20 by TimLW
Found solution