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I Broke Affinity Designer - Please Help


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Hi There,

I have posted a few comments recently about issues I'm having with Affinity Designer, but I thought I would put them all in this post:

 

---------

 

Can't Save -

Error Message - You Don't have permission to Save in that location

 

Can't import brushes - 

Error Message - Unexpected Brush Format

I have made sure that I am importing the raster brushes in the pixel persona and have tried right-clicking in the finder and choosing open with Affinity

 

Can't place Images -

I go to File / Place… then choose an image and hit ok but the image doesn't load and I am unable to place it

 

--------

 

To try and remedy this I have done the ol' restart and shut down and re-set the p-ram. I tried resetting the preferences and re-installed Designer and even updated to the latest version of Sierra.

 

My system specs are

Mac OS Sierra 10.12.3

 

Macbook Pro Retina (mid 2012)

2.6GHz Intel Core i7

16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024MB

Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536

 

 

I'm not sure what is causing any of this I'm sure it can't be happening to too many people because this is making Affinity designer unusable for me. If any one has any idea what is causing these problems please let me know

 

Cheers

Dave

 

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  • Staff

Hi Dave,

Can you please press and hold ⌃(ctrl) while launching the app then select Clear form the dialog that appear to reset the app? Does it work correctly after the reset?

 

If it still doesn't work  can you check disk permissions using Disk Utility?

- open Disk Utility (it's in the Utilities folder)

- select the startup disk.

- Press the First Aid tab and select Run. Repair them if necessary.

Does Designer run/work correctly after this?

 

If not, Can you run Affinity apps properly from a new user account?

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Woah that was scary! I ran first aid, it discovered some issues so I ran it from recovery mode. First aid failed and told me to back up my files. I then tried restarting my mac and it wouldn't restart, then tried restarting in recovery mode and it didn't recognise my hard drive only the boot camp disc! So I shut down my laptop and had some lunch and restarted and thankfully it started up. So now I have just saved my work files onto a portable hard drive (they are now backed up on crash plan, time machine and a separate hard drive).

AD is still not working...but...that's fine I'm glad I didn't just lose my hard drive :) I've just ordered disc warrior so I'm hoping that might help.

Thanks for your advice

Dave

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I do not know if this will help, but if you are having permissions errors on more than one user account, you could try repairing permissions. As you may know, Disk Utility no longer offers this repair in recent OS X versions, but it can be done from the command line (with Terminal.app) by following the instructions here, or with a utility like Onyx (make sure you have the correct version for your version of OS X). TechTool Pro also offers this, but unlike Onyx it is not free.

 

However, like with the old Disk Utility repair this will not touch permission settings on folders and files in user account Home folders, which is where user-specific preferences & most document files are saved. If you are having permissions issues with just one user account, or you just want to be thorough, you can reset permissions for individual accounts following the instructions in this article. (Note that this requires starting up from the Recovery partition. Since you said you had some problems with that, this may not work for you.)

 

Permissions repairs can't fix very many problems, & there is no point in running them regularly, but for something like this they may help. That said, as a test I did both of the above on my iMac (running 10.11) which I thought was running perfectly & the first found & repaired dozens of mis-set system level permissions. The second did not report anything about what it might have found or repaired, but to my surprise, after both were completed & I restarted normally, my iMac seems to be running a bit faster & smoother.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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What permissions do the accounts have for the files you are trying to open or execute?

 

I have no idea what damage was done before you got the "back up files" message, but that can be a a bad sign, or a really ba-a-a-d sign. Read, file system corruption or worse, random hardware failure.

 

I have to suppose that your original account, which would likely have had admin permissions setting was damaged. The Mac OS will revert to the last stable config when there is a large failure  and changes made after that are lost. I've maintained machines that rebooted as if the last 3 weeks haven't happened.  Permissions to write to Affinity files, or even read ones you made could be gone. If you click on an icon, either an app or a data file, and use"get info," you will be able to see what rights you have. A machine and software owner should have read, write and execute permissions on everything. If not, using admin account password, reset the rights to what is needed.

iMac 27" Retina, c. 2015: OS X 10.11.5: 3.3 GHz I c-5: 32 Gb,  AMD Radeon R9 M290 2048 Mb

iPad 12.9" Retina, iOS 10, 512 Gb, Apple pencil

Huion WH1409 tablet

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A machine and software owner should have read, write and execute permissions on everything.

That is not true. Admin user accounts do not & should not have read, write, & execute permissions to everything, particularly to system level functions.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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That is not true. Admin user accounts do not & should not have read, write, & execute permissions to everything, particularly to system level functions.

I will differ. Sudo gives one access to a lot, and you have to be admin status to use it. Tread w. care if you use it.

 

I never knew about the system level stuff. Guys I worked with could. But it was way beyond what I needed to do. Boot into single user mode, and reconfig files, geez. They would ask me before "what's your back-up status?"

iMac 27" Retina, c. 2015: OS X 10.11.5: 3.3 GHz I c-5: 32 Gb,  AMD Radeon R9 M290 2048 Mb

iPad 12.9" Retina, iOS 10, 512 Gb, Apple pencil

Huion WH1409 tablet

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Hi Guys

 

Many thanks for your replies.

I have now reset my permissions using this method

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203538

which involved typing this into terminal: diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u`

The one that you mentioned R C-R doesn't appear to be possible in Sierra 

 

Unfortunately I am still having the same issues. 

I have also checked the files that I am trying to open using get information and they do show that I have 'read and write' permissions

 

it seems strange that all my other software is working just fine. I am only having issues with the Affinity ones!!

I have tried the latest Beta and thats not working for me either

 

Any other ideas?!

Cheers

Dave

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@gdenby:

Not even booting into single user mode will permit access to everything on El Capitan or later. See for example the Apple article About System Integrity Protection on your Mac. Even the system user (a.k.a. "superuser" or "root") cannot alter certain parts of the OS.

 

@Macmonkey:

I am not using Sierra but from what I have read elsewhere, the method mentioned in the OSX Daily article should work on OS X versions from Lion onward, including Sierra. It does require being able to boot into the Recovery partition (the CMD+R restart), so it might be useful if you will tell us if you can now do that, or what specifically happens when you try to open Terminal from the Utilities menu on the Recovery startup screen or try using the utility launched by entering the "resetpassword" command if you are able to open Terminal.

 

It is also not completely clear if your permissions problems occur with all the user accounts you have tried or just the one you normally use, if the Affinity apps are still in their default location in the Applications folder, or if you are saving/opening Affinity files somewhere in your user account's home folder or in some other, non-standard location. Any additional info you can provide will help.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Hi R C-R,

Thanks for your reply. I didn't try the first option that you mentioned yesterday as I am not currently having permissions issues on more than one user account but I will give it a go this afternoon.

 

So… just to clarify… I am only having these permissions issues on my main user account. I have another user set up and Affinity software is working fine there. All Affinity apps are in their default locations. All files that I am trying to open are saved in my user accounts documents folder, and I have checked 'get info' and I do have permission to read and write. I also tried duplicating one of my files and trying to open it from a portable hard drive just in case, but that didn't work either.

 

I will report back once I have tried the 'reset password' in recovery mode.

 

Thanks again

Dave

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Hi R C-R,

 

I tried that first option entering "sudo /usr/libexec/repair_packages --verify --standard-pkgs /" into terminal but received the following message:

 

"sudo: /usr/libexec/repair_packages: command not found"

 

And also just to clarify I tried entering 'resetpassword' in recovery mode following the instructions of the other OSX Daily article but in Sierra I am unable to carry out step 4 as there is no hard drive icon or dropdown only the user icons and when I click those there is no option to "Reset Home Directory Permissions":

 

 

Best Regards

Dave

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The first option probably won't do anything since you are not having permission problems with multiple user accounts. I do not know if the method I mentioned for resetting user permissions will do anything different from the method suggested in the Apple article, other than giving you the option to reset them for any user account -- the Apple method only works for the currently logged in user. The Apple article says nothing one way or another about resetting ACL's (access control lists), a secondary level of permissions that allows more flexible control, while the method in the OSX Daily article explicitly resets them to defaults. So possibly it will do more to help than the Apple article method.

 

Just to make sure there is no confusion about this, note that each user account has its own home folder, & that with the default permissions setup users can only access files in their own home folder. So for example if you are logged into your secondary user account you will not be able to access documents stored in your main account's Documents folder. This is normal & nothing to worry about.

 

If you do try the recovery mode method, I suggest either printing out the instructions or writing down the steps to refer to while you try it since you will not be able to access the article while doing it. Note that you are not actually going to reset the password. The Terminal command only launches the utility that allows you to reset permissions & ACL's.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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OS X versions from Lion onward, including Sierra

 

<pedantry>

Sierra is a version of macOS, not OS X. :P

</pedantry>

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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<pedantry>

Sierra is a version of macOS, not OS X. :P

</pedantry>

<pedantry, level two> 

Whatever Apple chooses to call it for marketing purposes, it is still a version of OS X (pronounced as "oh ess ten" according to Apple dogma), specifically version ten point twelve.  B)

</pedantry, level two>

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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And also just to clarify I tried entering 'resetpassword' in recovery mode following the instructions of the other OSX Daily article but in Sierra I am unable to carry out step 4 as there is no hard drive icon or dropdown only the user icons and when I click those there is no option to "Reset Home Directory Permissions":

I have seen this mentioned in a few comments, with the suggestion that it is caused by the hard drive being locked or fully encrypted with Filevault 2, but I do not know if this is actually the cause. However, if you are using Filevault 2, you probably do need to decrypt the drive temporarily for this to work.

 

And confusingly, according to this recent article, you should not even see the same Reset Password screen for Sierra as for El Capitan after launching the utility via the Terminal command. If you see the one shown in that article for El Capitan, which apparently you do, it could mean that your recovery partition is still based on El Capitan rather than Sierra.

 

At this point, I am not sure it is worth continuing to try any of the permission resets. Instead, concentrating on the fact that only one user account has problems, it could be that something you are running in your normal user account but not the secondary one is the culprit. If you have any login items in your normal one set in System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items tab, please list them in a reply (& make sure they are the latest versions compatible with Sierra).

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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I tried that first option entering "sudo /usr/libexec/repair_packages --verify --standard-pkgs /" into terminal but received the following message:

 

"sudo: /usr/libexec/repair_packages: command not found"

As a footnote to confirm this is not an indication of anything wrong with your system, from yet another article I just found, it seems in its infinite wisdom Apple included the repair_packages executable in Sierra v10.12 but removed it completely in v10.12.1. Apparently, they want Sierra users to use only the method mentioned in the Apple article you found.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Hello again :)

 

I have just closed out all of my login items system preferences/Users/LoginItems and restarted. Still no luck.

I have attached a pdf from the activity monitor of all the processes that are occurring with only Affinity designer open. I don't know if there is anything there that could give a clue ?!

 

Best regards

Dave

 

 

Activity Monitor (My Processes).pdf

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It is very difficult to read the pdf but aside from the fact that it seems to list several times as many "My Processes" items as run on my iMac, nothing obvious jumps out at me.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Hi R C-R,

 

Thanks for taking a look at the Pdf apologies for the formatting ;)

I also wanted to say once again thank you for taking  time to help troubleshoot this with me over the last few days, that was very kind of you.

I have sent an email to the Affinity team in hopes that they might be able to shed some light on this issue.

Thanks again and have a great day.

Kind Regards

Dave

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  • 3 weeks later...

I finally got AD back up and running after following this advice:

 

Hold down the option key and select Go  Library from the Finder menu bar. From the Library folder, delete the following items, if they exist:

          Containers/com.apple.Preview

          Containers/com.apple.quicklook.ui.helper

          Group Containers/com.apple.Preview

          Preferences/com.apple.Preview.LSSharedFileList.plist

          Preferences/com.apple.Preview.SandboxedPersistentURLs.LSSharedFileList.plist

          Saved Application State/com.apple.Preview.savedState

Log out and log back in. Launch the application and test.

 

 

which i found here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7269642?tstart=0

 

Hopefully that's the end of that (fingers crossed)

Dave

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