Affinity Photo Crashing and Not Responding

[Lenni]

Benn using Affinity Photo for almost 2 yrs now with no issues. The past month it has been crashing and freezing more frequently. It is still making a recovery files after each crash but I'm worried about eventually losing my work one of these times. I can't even pin point when it will happen.  At first I thought the cause was adjustment and pixel layers.  Then tools started randomly not working with a Not Responding frozen screen.  Now it's crashing after a selection is made.  Resetting defaults doesn't help.  Operating system is windows 10, over 300 GB free.  No new software has been added with the exception of Designer and Publisher about a year ago respectively and no operating issues with either. I'm at a loss.

[Dan C]

Hi Lenni

Sorry to hear this, firstly I recommend checking your graphics card drivers and Windows 10 are up to date.

I'm going to need your crash logs to look into this, please open Windows Run (Windows Key + R or Right-click on the start menu and select Run) then copy and paste the following and press OK:

%appdata%\Affinity\Photo\1.0\CrashReports

Please attach the most recent 2 or 3 crash reports to your reply!

[Lenni]

Thank you very much for the reply. Graphic card drivers are up to date.  Attached screen shot, not able to find crash reports. I see the box pop up that a crash report is being sent to Microsoft and I insert my comments every time, so I know it must be there. The crashing and not responding issue is happening much too frequently. Today, I made a simple selection to paste into another photo and it froze. I'm at a loss and wondering if I should just reinstall the program again.

run.afphoto

[HVDB Photography]

48 minutes ago, Lenni said:

I see the box pop up that a crash report is being sent to Microsoft and I insert my comments every time, so I know it must be there.

to Microsoft ? to Affinity you mean ?

 

 

 

[jetstorm]

Hi, Lenni,

Try to delete all files under, User/Your Name/Appdata/Roaming/Affinity/Designer/1.0/temp.

Not Responding Error is very haunted major bug from first release of AD and AP Windows version. It is related with common modules(AF engine), maybe.

I think ordinary Affinity users already know this very major bug, and it does NOT generate any crash report by AD and AP, only Windows generate Application Error(application hangs).

I cannot understand why Affinity does not solve this very famous bug.

What tool or application of Affinity generate crash report while AD and AP get Not Responding Error ? Not Responding means AD/AP is entirely and completely freezing up. Only Windows generates App Error in Event Log.

If you check temporary folder under User...Local, you’ll find very interesting file related with this error.

This major bug still remains in AD/AF 1.7.

(When you get Unhandled Exception Error, you’d better check Graphic Card Driver or other Devices. When you get Not Responding Error, I never recommend you to update Graphic Driver or Windows. In this case, Driver Update is almost useless. To avoid this error; do not open many files, save file every 2 or 3 steps, do not open/make big size file, wait for a while after Export to terminate AD/AP process... Even if you do everything, you’ll get Not Responding Error often and randomly. And you have to kill AD/AP process with Task Manager. Input/Output/Import/Export/Conversion is/are very weak points of common modules of AD/AP, not yet fixed, unfortunately.)

 

[Lenni]

Jetstorm,  not responding and crashing are only happening with Af Photo... Designer and Publisher work perfectly with no issues. There were no files to delete -  Affiinity/Photo/1.0/temp,  folder was empty.  In the temp/local folder, there were many Photo.exe dmp .  I can't exactly pinpoint the tools since it happens unexpectedly. I'm a photo restorer so typical basic tools. Adjustment and pixel layers can easily be 30 or more, depending on the photo.  I thought possibly it was my Wacom tablet but ruled that out. I just cross my fingers Affinity generates a recovery file every time there is an issue. I switched from Photoshop to Affinity in 2017, so I guess I should be happy there were no problems until now. And yes, you are correct I have used the task manager to shut it down quite often. 

[Dan C]

Thanks for confirming that Lenni. If your crash reports folder is empty this means they have successfully been pushed to our dev log server - unfortunately this anonymises the reports so I cannot find yours specifically.

Could you please download the Photo beta and let me know if you experience the same crashing behaviour here?

 

[jetstorm]

Hi, Lenni 

Here my Check List is;

When using any graphic softwares, turn off Anti-Virus, or put these folders in Exception List of Real Time Scan(for ex, Program/Adobe and Program/Common/Adobe, if you use Adobe products...,Program/Affinity and Program/Common/Affinity, etc...).

If you meet with 1 or 2 sec freezing of mouse, and if you installed Realtek Audio Driver, you’d better install the latest version of Realtek Audio drv. It will improve this trouble.

Wacom drv is C*n. So, you’d better install stable version, not the latest version.

When using AD or AP, do NOT run other programs.

If you use HDD for your C Drive, you have to defrag it.

Microsoft changes very dramatically Win 10 every 6 months, especially Devices, Fonts, Display, DirectX, etc..., so, you may get various errors every 6 months. Be Cautious.

And, do NOT install any Beta programs, if you want to keep your PC stable.

About Official Release, Software company/house should have very serious responsibility for product quality.

However, if you use Beta, it’s At Your Own Risk. Affinity products, same.

I cannot understand some guys very easily say, try to install Beta, in this forum. It’s very Odd manner, isn’t it ? But, they don’t add this word, At Your Own Risk. If you want to join Beta test, or work for Affinity, please install Betas, but At Your Own Risk, though... (Betas have many new bugs, as you know.)

When you’ll try to install Beta, you’d better use Uninstall Tools which generate install log. You’ll be able to check AD/AP implants good or bad seeds on your PC.

I think Affinity products don’t run with sandbox or similar tools. So, use Uninstall tools, instead.

And, you’d better establish stable workflow and environment for your work.

If you want to use Wacom, you’d better find another or other choice/s, such as PS CS6 or....

[Lenni]

jetstorm thank you for the wonderful advice!  I'm in agreement with you about Betas.  I think you are correct with the updates for Windows 10, nothing I can do to control that but  I did change the driver for Wacom and turned off the anit-virus.  Full work day to test it out..  I'll let you know if it was a "not responding" free day.  Thanks again!!

 

[Steve Blackman]

Hi all Having tested the trial version I was very impressed with AP. Went for the full blown version with intention to give up a well known subscription based editor. However very disappointed with the regular 'Not Responding' glitch. The 'other' photo editor works fine on this high spec laptop but AP has this annoying unresponsive habit. Haven't lost work or had a crash yet but seriously thinking of sticking with Photoshop, which is sad as I love AP when it's behaving itself. Steve.

[Dan C]

Hi Steve Blackman,

Welcome to the forums

I'm sorry to hear this, could you expand on the issues you're having? ie at what point does your app usually enter the 'Not Responding' state? Is this replicable by following a certain workflow, or does this appear seemingly at random? 

[pxin]

Hi all, I'm having a similar issue with AP on an iMac running Catalina.

When the app is left open with files loaded for a while and the computer goes to sleep, when it wakes up again nothing is clickable, the files are all still there but nothing is active.

It doesn't show up as 'not responding' in the Force Quit dialogue box.

I can move the window around the desktop, but it can't be resized or minimised and nothing is active.

Can anyone suggest a fix for this?

Thanks!

[pxin]

Hi, just an addition to yesterday's post. This morning, AP has frozen in the middle of working, immediately after exporting a jpg that had been resized.

Nothing is active, and the program can't be quit via cmd + Q or via ctrl + Quit on the Dock. Only way to shut it down is via Force Quit, even though it isn't showing as 'not responding'.

Am running Catalina 10.15.5 on a 2019 iMac 27". AP is 1.8.3.

Am editing photos to and from a USB memory stick connected via an adaptor to the USB-C port.

Only Mail, Firefox and Word 365 are open at the same time.

Does anyone have an idea what is happening and how to fix?

Thanks!!

[Dan C]

Hi @pxin,

Sorry to hear you're having trouble!

16 hours ago, pxin said:

When the app is left open with files loaded for a while and the computer goes to sleep, when it wakes up again nothing is clickable, the files are all still there but nothing is active.

4 hours ago, pxin said:

Am editing photos to and from a USB memory stick connected via an adaptor to the USB-C port.

When using Affinity apps we always recommend moving your files from your external storage to your internal hard drive, as editing from an external drive can introduce multiple issues. It sounds as though when your Mac goes to sleep, access to the external USB is lost, then when returning from sleep Affinity is frozen as you had an image loaded from the external drive that has been disconnected and reconnected in the Sleep process.

If you move your files from your external drive to, for example, your desktop - I suspect you'll no longer see these issues.

I hope this helps

[pxin]

Thanks so much Dan, that makes sense, I will do as you suggest and see if that solves the issue.

This morning the app has quit unexpectedly in the middle of an edit (of a jpg on the USB drive) 3 times, each time bringing up the 'AP quit unexpectedly, send a report to Apple' dialogue box.

Do you know if this could be related to the same issue, or is this something else?

Thanks again Dan.

😀

[Dan C]

No problem at all, happy to help!

2 hours ago, pxin said:

This morning the app has quit unexpectedly in the middle of an edit

The best way to find out the case of this is for us to see your crash reports. Please go to Applications > Utilities and open the Console app. Crash Reports from our apps can be found in the User Reports section. You can Right Click the required Crash Report and select Reveal in Finder, then attach these reports to your reply here.

Many thanks in advance

[pxin]

Hi again Dan.

Sorry for slow response, attaching the crash reports for you to see.

Many thanks again.

Affinity Photo_2020-07-20-082455_Francess-iMac.crashAffinity Photo_2020-07-20-083032_Francess-iMac.crashAffinity Photo_2020-07-20-083832_Francess-iMac.crash

[Dan C]

No problem at all pxin, thanks for your files

It appears these are crashes when the app is responding to Notifications on your Mac, but I'm not certain of the exact cause of this.

Could you please take a screenshot of your app layout, then go to View>Studio>Reset Studio and let me know if the crashing persists after this?

Many thanks!

[pxin]

Thanks Dan, will do, do you need a copy of the screenshot?

 

[Dan C]

Sorry, yes please!

That will hopefully help us identify what may have caused this

[pxin]

No probs, here's the screenshot.

If you need any other info, just let me know.

Will let you know if the crash happens again.

Thanks!

[ColchesterDave]

Hello, I have had a 'Not Responding' issue start happening intermittently on my iMac today. When I click 'Develop' on an edited RAW file, AP freezes, but it doesn't happen with every file.

AP is currently showing as taking up 99.8% of the CPU in Activity Monitor, the Develop box was showing with a '100%' blue fill in AP, but I can't get back into it now that I have come out of it. A Force Quit will let me back in, but my work is lost.

I note the comments above about external drives; does this also apply to NAS drives? All my files are stored and have been edited/saved back to my NAS drive, previously without any issues, until this started happening today.

I also note the comments above about log files, but when I open Console, Crash Reports are empty but I found the attached in Diagnostic Reports.

Any help gratefully accepted - thanks!

Affinity Photo_2020-09-02-112728_Davids-iMac.hang Affinity Photo_2020-09-02-114719_Davids-iMac.wakeups_resource.diag Affinity Photo_2020-09-02-120054_Davids-iMac.cpu_resource.diag

[Dan C]

Hi @ColchesterDave,

My sincerest apologies for the delayed response here!

On 9/2/2020 at 12:27 PM, ColchesterDave said:

I note the comments above about external drives; does this also apply to NAS drives? All my files are stored and have been edited/saved back to my NAS drive, previously without any issues, until this started happening today.

It does, we never recommend editing directly from external drives (including NAS drives) - could you please try moving your RAW file to a local folder and let me know if you still experience the same freezing?

[ColchesterDave]

Thanks, Dan C - the problem was of my own making, I think.  Seems I had v1.8.1 and 1.8.4 of the software both installed on the iMac. The problem was only occurring when using v1.8.1, which I have now deleted.  I really want to avoid a workflow on the Mac that necessitates copying the files between NAS and iMac, do the editing, then copy back to NAS. I never had to do this with Windows and it seems pretty poor that, having moved to the (supposedly) superior Mac, I keep tripping over connectivity issues with the NAS! If the problem re-occurs, I will try copying the file and, if that doesn't help, will let you know. Thanks!

[Bob Grahame]

I'm also experiencing the Not Responding problem with both Photo and Designer (I haven't tried Publisher yet) on my MacBook Pro running Catalina. I first noticed it when I tried opening a few graphics files of .png and .jpg in AP a few days ago. I dragged them on the AP icon and also tried launching first, which was fine, then using Open Recent. I kept getting the spinning beachball and having to Force Quit. Today I attempted to open an AD file and had the same problem. There's no crash log in Console. I tried to open an AP file I made yesterday (Open Recent>) and same problem. I thought about restarting my Mac, but I just did that last night. Interestingly, the two AD files I double-clicked on to open, which never actually opened, do show up at the top of the Open Recent menu.

When I had the AP problem a few days ago, somehow I got it working. It was working fine yesterday, but not today. I'll try a Restart of my Mac.

AP and AD 1.8.6

macOS Catalina 10.15.7

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012) 16GB