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Affinity Photo trial stoped because I bought designer, rofl


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I tried the 10 day designer trial and really like the program so bought it a few days after the trial ended. However just before the AD trial was up I downloaded AP for a trial and for a day or so it was really nice to compare and try both trial products together but I needed more much time to evaluate AP.  Anyway, when the AD trial was up I bought it a few days later and thought lets try it now with AP.  HAHAHA nope,  it says forget it mate, (or something like that). Basically it won't let me complete my AP trial because I bought AD and now the AP trial version says I don't have the right key to use it.

I'm not a Photoshop user or know much about using photo software (I use MS paint a lot if that tells you anything) so no big deal but I would liked to have had a good introduction to AP. Maybe some day in the future if there is a massive sale I will buy it anyway. Until then I am very happy with buying AD.

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2 hours ago, RTB said:

I tried the 10 day designer trial and really like the program so bought it a few days after the trial ended. However just before the AD trial was up I downloaded AP for a trial and for a day or so it was really nice to compare and try both trial products together but I needed more much time to evaluate AP.  Anyway, when the AD trial was up I bought it a few days later and thought lets try it now with AP.

 

How many days was “just before the AD trial was up” and how many days was “a few days later”? If you downloaded and ran APh two or three days before the AD trial period ended, and if you then waited a week or more before buying AD, the ten days for trying out APh would have elapsed already.

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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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17 minutes ago, Alfred said:

 

How many days was “just before the AD trial was up” and how many days was “a few days later”? If you downloaded and ran APh two or three days before the AD trial period ended, and if you then waited a week or more before buying AD, the ten days for trying out APh would have elapsed already.

Yes that is a definitely a valid question however in this case I downloaded AP on the 27th Feb and bought AD on the 4th March which is only six days difference. The error message was not the trial ended message, it was a message that I did not have the correct key to run the program.

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35 minutes ago, RTB said:

The error message was not the trial ended message, it was a message that I did not have the correct key to run the program.

 

Oops! You did say that in your OP. My apologies.

 

All very puzzling!

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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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2 minutes ago, Alfred said:

 

Oops! You did say that in your OP. My apologies.

 

Are you sure you have the trial version? I’ve never run a trial version of either of the Affinity apps, but I thought they simply have a time limit and don’t require a product key. The message you describe sounds like what you might expect to see if you were trying to run a customer beta version.

I am 100% sure they were trial versions if what the emails and installs told me were correct. I've also just noticed that the desktop icon says "Affinity Photo Trial".  You are correct that the trial versions don't require a key (at least mine didn't) and after the AD trial was over I got a message saying (something like) the trial was over and I was taken to the affinity website. I believe this conflict of stopping the AP trial is a case of somehow the two separate programs are sharing the same registry files somewhere to check for authorized versions and the paid-for AD has overruled the trial AP version. 

OK I just tried to load the AP trial version even though I know it's over and unlike the AD trial it does not give the message of it's over but instead it does load up but then gives the invalid product key message. The devs probably know about this issue already, it dosn't really surprise me that much, I just wish I could have tried AP out a bit longer. Maybe there will be a sale next Christmas :)

 

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22 minutes ago, RTB said:

I am 100% sure they were trial versions if what the emails and installs told me were correct. I've also just noticed that the desktop icon says "Affinity Photo Trial".

 

Sorry, I obviously wasn’t quick enough to edit my post after I noticed that you said you initially had the two trials running side by side for a couple of days before the first one expired!

 

22 minutes ago, RTB said:

Maybe there will be a sale next Christmas :)

 

On past form, the trial versions should be reset after retail version 1.7 is released (but it isn’t even in public beta yet, so you could have a long wait). There may be a sale to celebrate that release, too, and I hope it’s well before Christmas!!

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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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1 minute ago, Alfred said:

 

Sorry, I obviously wasn’t quick enough to edit my post after I noticed that you said you initially had the two trials running side by side for a couple of days before the first one expired!

 

 

On past form, the trial versions should be reset after retail version 1.7 is released (but it isn’t even in public beta yet, so you could have a long wait). There may well be a sale to celebrate that release, too, and I hope it’s well before Christmas!!

It's all good :) At the end of the day so far I really like AD and am learning so much every day about the features. If you saw how I was making graphics even a few days ago compared to now it's such a difference. I have been entering contests on Freelancer but no one likes my stuff so far, lol. See the few pics attached :) including my first go at a car. I could easily have given up by now but I look at every one as a learning experience and I am getting better. Normally I just design physical things with cad so this graphics venture is something new.  Did it snow last night near you? I'm in Scotland also, up near Tyndrum and we had a bit last night.

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9 minutes ago, RTB said:

Did it snow last night near you? I'm in Scotland also, up near Tyndrum and we had a bit last night.

 

Not that I noticed, but I’m near Glasgow so I’m quite a bit farther south than you are. I think we had a little snow two or three days ago (and a lottle last week, of course).

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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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3 hours ago, RTB said:

Yes that is a definitely a valid question however in this case I downloaded AP on the 27th Feb and bought AD on the 4th March which is only six days difference. The error message was not the trial ended message, it was a message that I did not have the correct key to run the program.

The trial runs for 10 consecutive days starting when you first run the program. If you downloaded it on Feb. 27 and ran it that day, the trial would expire on March 9 (today).

 

It's still a little unclear to me when you got the message about the trial having expired.

 

If you got the message today it's probably just that your trial has expired. If you got it yesterday it could have meant that you needed to download a new trial version, as they created a new one yesterday.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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7 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

If you got it yesterday it could have meant that you needed to download a new trial version, as they created a new one yesterday.

 

I’d be surprised if the trial app ‘knows’ that there’s a newer version, but if the 1.6 trial has only just been released then it should be available to the OP.

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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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1 minute ago, Alfred said:

 

I’d be surprised if the trial app ‘knows’ that there’s a newer version, but if the 1.6 trial has only just been released then it should be available to the OP.

Yes, it should be available, but only (perhaps) for today. His ten days are basically up if he started on Feb. 27. 

 

Also, they may track it based on what time of day he started the trial.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

Yes, it should be available, but only (perhaps) for today.

 

No, what I was suggesting is that if a 1.6 trial version has been released then the trial should have been reset as it was when the 1.5 trial version was released (so that prospective purchasers can try out the new features).

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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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The trial "resets" (as I understand it) only when there's a major version change. So it would be available again for RTB only when 1.7 is released.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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15 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

The trial runs for 10 consecutive days starting when you first run the program. If you downloaded it on Feb. 27 and ran it that day, the trial would expire on March 9 (today).

 

It's still a little unclear to me when you got the message about the trial having expired.

 

If you got the message today it's probably just that your trial has expired. If you got it yesterday it could have meant that you needed to download a new trial version, as they created a new one yesterday.

Hi Walt, to help understand what happened please see the attached a snapshot of the AP error message. The AP trial period is definitely now finished as you mention however the attached snapshot showing the start up message made a few moments ago remains the same as it was when trying AP right after I paid for and installed AD which was March 4th, still within the ten days for the AP trial.  In other words there never was an AP trial expired message up to this current time.  Affinity Designer had a different message when it was over which was a few days before the 4th March. When the AD trial finished won't matter, I only mention that to explain there was a different message. I think it is just a case of the two programs sharing the same security files but it is very strange due to the fact they are sold as two separate program. Maybe it's a case of one Serif account does all? Idk, but it's interesting.  PS: I didn't post what happened until yesterday as I have a lot going on plus it's not really a complaint. :)AffinityPhotoTrial.thumb.jpg.f65df7c8f9b6963f819b9cd72e667a2a.jpg

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UPDATE: As you guys mentioned there was an update I downloaded AP again, can you guess what happened? So I started it and I hear "ding" and I get a nice new message saying "This trial has expired. We hope you have enjoyed using Affinity Photo". ROFL, what a great update.  I did enjoy the trial that I only had for about a couple of days and used maybe twice for a short time because it's not as intuitive for me as AD is. Anyway, like I mentioned before maybe next Christmas will have a huge discount and I'll get it for something different to have.

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  • Staff

You seem to be running ADe 1.6.2 pk and APh 1.6.8 pk. These are Mac builds available from the Affinity Store. 

Look again in your account

Https://affinity.store/account/downloads and you will see that you already have a product key and email pair to insert into this software. You would also have been sent these by email when you first got the software, but the last build did not require you to enter them. 

You are not meant to be using these builds as trials, as you already have product keys that unlock them 

 

Those downloads is not (yet) being used as our Mac trial. It is mainly only available to download for those who have used a redemption code in the Affinity Store (and corporate accounts). 

 

The forum regulars may not be familiar with what you have seen as this is new thus week. I have written an email to all owners of the Mac Affinity Store version, which will be localized and sent soon to help alleviate the confusion caused 

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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9 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

You seem to be running ADe 1.6.2 pk and APh 1.6.8 pk. These are Mac builds available from the Affinity Store.

 

The latest screenshot posted by @RTB is from a Windows version, not a Mac version! o.O

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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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26 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

You seem to be running ADe 1.6.2 pk and APh 1.6.8 pk. These are Mac builds available from the Affinity Store. 

Look again in your account

Https://affinity.store/account/downloads and you will see that you already have a product key and email pair to insert into this software. You would also have been sent these by email when you first got the software, but the last build did not require you to enter them. 

You are not meant to be using these builds as trials, as you already have product keys that unlock them 

 

Those downloads is not (yet) being used as our Mac trial. It is mainly only available to download for those who have used a redemption code in the Affinity Store (and corporate accounts). 

 

The forum regulars may not be familiar with what you have seen as this is new thus week. I have written an email to all owners of the Mac Affinity Store version, which will be localized and sent soon to help alleviate the confusion caused 

What? Sry mate, I have no idea what you're talking about :)  Oh, something about Mac? I have a pc and I don't know about mac builds. EDIT: Ok, I'm confused now, are you saying I have a key to unlock a trial of AP for PC also? Are we talking about the same thing here?My trial of AP was cut short when I bought AD, that's all that happened.

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OK, forget about my last post, sorry to have confused the thread. 

 

I think that you may have found something very useful and important. In a very few cases we have had customers report that that the trial has expired even though they have not had the 10 days. Your post have given us a clue when it happens. 

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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35 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

In a very few cases we have had customers report that that the trial has expired even though they have not had the 10 days.

 

I'm sure I've seen posts from (potential) customers for whom the trial reported that it expired the very first time they tried to run it.

 

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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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1 hour ago, Alfred said:

 

I'm sure I've seen posts from (potential) customers for whom the trial reported that it expired the very first time they tried to run it.

 

Well yes, and I don't think that they already owned the other product, but it may just be the case, although it is unlikely that this would have gone undetected for this long if that's the case for all of them. 

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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2 hours ago, Patrick Connor said:

OK, forget about my last post, sorry to have confused the thread. 

 

I think that you may have found something very useful and important. In a very few cases we have had customers report that that the trial has expired even though they have not had the 10 days. Your post have given us a clue when it happens. 

Well Patrick, glad I could be of service in some way.  I am really enjoying AD and every day I'm learning new areas of it's features. Aphoto on the other hand in the short time I had to try it was not so user friendly or intuitive as AD, that was my first impression anyway. The reason (imo) that AD is so nice (other than the price) is the well made program itself and primarily (for me) the intuitive, easy way to use many of the features similar to working with cad (autodesk version). The learning curve is still steep as I don't really have a professional graphics background  but there are some great tutorials and if I really get stuck I know I can ask here and someone will help.

Many years ago I bought a Serif graphics program and to see how things have changed is amazing, from what I remember anyway. Another point is that Serif is even still an existing company (it's been a lot of years) which is great given the sometimes fickle nature of software providers. Carry on the good work :)

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My QA guys suggest that you may have installed the newly purchased Affinity Designer app into exactly the same folder (i.e a non-default personal choice) as you already had the Affinity Photo trial, is that possible?

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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Hi Patrick, sry for the delay, have had some pc issues but after a lot of trial and effort with hardware and software somehow (i really don't know what it was) it's is going again. The problem is now Designer has stopped working and I need some help...

To answer your first question, I probably put them in the same folder, I'm not sure but very likely. One of the things I did in my attempt the get the PC going again was try to delete the trial versions of both AD and AP but they don't seem to want to totally go away and the trial icons keep appearing in the start menu and also reappear in the control panel/programs/uninstall list of programs after deletion (win 7), I don't know why. I did not delete the paid Designer program, however now when I try to start Designer I get the "invalid product  key" (see attached) key error message and no option to enter the key again.

Seems I'm having quite a bad last few days, moon out of alignment with my pc or something, lol. Anyway, I think I will delete everything that I can, reinstall designer and see what happens. I'll send this anyway and update what happens with the reinstall.

EDIT UPDATE: After deleting everything I could find I downloaded AD again and with the fresh install it's good :) .  Although the PC is also now working again I have noticed previously that Designer has been lagging after to many layers and my CAD program never did like the current hardware so I've ordered a new mobo, coffee lake i5 8400 cpu (all I could afford) and ram to bring my PC sort of up to date. Maybe not the best cpu but a lot better than the 6yo i3 and board that is in it atm.

 

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