Stocks-Tab: Unsplash not working

[LostInTranslation]

Hi,

When I choose Unsplash from the Stocks-Tab, it only says "Connection Failed" every time. I tried a couple of times since the 1.7 update, never worked.

Pexels and Pixabay work fine though.

Any ideas?

[Chris B]

Hey LostInTranslation,

That's odd—especially considering you can access the other two.

Can you get to the Unsplash website without any issues?

[LostInTranslation]

1 hour ago, Chris B said:

Can you get to the Unsplash website without any issues?

Yes, the website works perfectly.

[Chris B]

Hey LostInTranslation,

We have another report of this but that user is also crashing. We're currently investigating. Thanks.

[LostInTranslation]

Just in case, Unsplash DOES work for me on iPad.
But not on PC (Win7/64bit)

[Chris B]

And both are connected to the same WiFi/Network? Possibly anti-virus causing a problem? Do you have one running that you could temporary turn off? 

[LostInTranslation]

14 minutes ago, Chris B said:

And both are connected to the same WiFi/Network? Possibly anti-virus causing a problem? Do you have one running that you could temporary turn off? 

Yes, they are both on the same network.
I already tried disabling my antivirus and the Windows firewall but it still did not work.

Also the Unsplash website should not work if something on my PC was blocking it I guess.

[Alfred]

Unsplash works for me on both Windows 10 and iOS 12.3.1. The only slight oddity when testing just now was that the 18" by 12" image I chose came in at 17.987" by 11.94" in the desktop app, so there’s a gap at the bottom of the 18" by 12" canvas that I had set up to receive it. The image is 5396 by 3582 pixels @ 300dpi, so the ‘undersize’ is actually correct. I was misled by the figures I saw in the iPad app.

Please forgive me for wandering off topic, but (for the reasons explained in the post linked below) I’m disappointed that Pexels is the only other provider apart from Pixabay and Unsplash. I’d much rather see sites such as Morguefile and StockSnap.io included in the list.

Edited June 11, 2019 by Alfred
Updated info about image size

[Mark Ingram]

We think it may be caused by a Unsplash throttling the number of requests we can make. We're investigating...

[DavidHeatherington]

I've just registered for Unsplash and I'm getting exactly the same response "connection failed" within Affinity Photo but I can open on the website.

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, DavidHeatherington said:

I've just registered for Unsplash and I'm getting exactly the same response "connection failed" within Affinity Photo but I can open on the website.

For what it’s worth, I’m not getting a connection failure in either the Windows version or the iPad version of Affinity Photo.

Why did you need to register, David? As far as I’m aware, all images from Unsplash are freely available to use for any purpose.

[przemoc]

I'm also always getting "Connection failed" for Unsplash in Stock tab in latest Photo 1.7.1.404, just like I was getting it in previous Photo 1.7.0.367.

(BTW this stock thing is a really nice addition among other features added in 1.7!)

EDIT: Forgot to mention that in the web browser searching using https://unsplash.com/ works fine.

[przemoc]

I gave a quick look with Wireshark into this issue and it seems it may be old TLS version used to setup secure connection.

AP sends:
TLSv1 Record Layer: Handshake Protocol: Client Hello
    Content Type: Handshake (22)
    Version: TLS 1.0 (0x0301)
    Length: 119
    Handshake Protocol: Client Hello

AP receives:
TLSv1 Record Layer: Alert (Level: Fatal, Description: Protocol Version)
    Content Type: Alert (21)
    Version: TLS 1.0 (0x0301)
    Length: 2
    Alert Message
        Level: Fatal (2)
        Description: Protocol Version (70)

I suspect there is some difference in how you setup secure connections in Win 7 and Win 10.
There are no reports of Win 10 users having this issue, right?

In practice you shouldn't use any TLS < 1.2.

[LostInTranslation]

No luck with AP 1.7.1.404 here too.

@przemoc, I have no idea what TLS and stuff is.

10 hours ago, przemoc said:

I suspect there is some difference in how you setup secure connections in Win 7 and Win 10.
There are no reports of Win 10 users having this issue, right?

In practice you shouldn't use any TLS < 1.2.

Do you mean that Serif has to change the setup or the TLS or would that be something that I had to do in my version of Windows?
If the latter, how would I do that?

Cheers

[Ron P.]

TLS= Transport Layer and Security. How to check for the version you're using:

https://knowledge.digicert.com/generalinformation/INFO3299.html

[LostInTranslation]

7 hours ago, Ron P. said:

TLS= Transport Layer and Security. How to check for the version you're using:

https://knowledge.digicert.com/generalinformation/INFO3299.html

Thanks, I had all three enabled.
Tried different combinations, but Unsplash still just gives me "Connection Failed"

[RosomakPL]

AP 1.7.1.404 on windows 7 - same here. I'm getting "connection failed" when trying Unsplash. Alo checked TLS and I have all versions enabled.

[Terry44]

I have the same issue in the newly released Publisher 1.7.1.404.   

Unsplash Connection Failed but the other two works fine.

[carl123]

If this is a Windows 7 and TLS issue see this article

It's possible TLS may not be enabled by default on your Window 7 OS so you may need to activate it manually

https://support.cybersource.com/s/article/How-do-I-enable-TLS-1-2-on-Windows-7

 

 

[Terry44]

51 minutes ago, carl123 said:

If this is a Windows 7 and TLS issue see this article

It's possible TLS may not be enabled by default on your Window 7 OS so you may need to activate it manually

https://support.cybersource.com/s/article/How-do-I-enable-TLS-1-2-on-Windows-7

 

 

Not the issue.  I just checked and it is same for Photo as well, others work unsplash just gives connection failed error.

[LostInTranslation]

16 hours ago, Terry44 said:

I have the same issue in the newly released Publisher 1.7.1.404.   

Unsplash Connection Failed but the other two works fine.

Same here, just as in Photo. Hope this gets fixed soon

 

EDIT:
I entered the keys from the link carl123 provided manually into the registry.
After restart of Publisher, Unsplash is now working.
Thank you very much!

https://support.cybersource.com/s/article/How-do-I-enable-TLS-1-2-on-Windows-7

[Mark Ingram]

On 6/17/2019 at 10:57 PM, przemoc said:

I gave a quick look with Wireshark into this issue and it seems it may be old TLS version used to setup secure connection.

AP sends:
TLSv1 Record Layer: Handshake Protocol: Client Hello
    Content Type: Handshake (22)
    Version: TLS 1.0 (0x0301)
    Length: 119
    Handshake Protocol: Client Hello

AP receives:
TLSv1 Record Layer: Alert (Level: Fatal, Description: Protocol Version)
    Content Type: Alert (21)
    Version: TLS 1.0 (0x0301)
    Length: 2
    Alert Message
        Level: Fatal (2)
        Description: Protocol Version (70)

I suspect there is some difference in how you setup secure connections in Win 7 and Win 10.
There are no reports of Win 10 users having this issue, right?

In practice you shouldn't use any TLS < 1.2.

Great analysis, thank you. 

[przemoc]

Thanks, Mark.

I also confirm that editing registry as suggested in link provided by carl123 workarounds the issue. Thanks!

There is a useful tidbit there that I wasn't aware, which is worth quoting explicitly here.

Quote

Windows 7 supports TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2. However, these protocol versions are not enabled on Windows 7 by default. On Windows 8 and higher, these protocols are enabled by default.

Basically adding following stuff in registry is sufficient to make Unsplash work in AP:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Client]
"DisabledByDefault"=dword:00000000

I call it a workaround, because I think it should be fixed in AP without need for changing user's registry. Even if TLS 1.2 is disabled by default in Secure Channel (schannel) as configured in Windows 7 out-of-the-box, it remains supported, so it should be possible to enable it in programmatic way from any application that needs it.

[Mark Ingram]

@przemoc, thanks once again for your insight. I agree modifying the Registry is not great, but as we use .NET, we follow the recommended advise which is to let the OS decide the relevant TLS version:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/network-programming/tls

Quote

We recommend that you:

• Target .NET Framework 4.7 or later versions on your apps. Target .NET Framework 4.7.1 or later versions on your WCF apps.
• Do not specify the TLS version. Configure your code to let the OS decide on the TLS version.
• Perform a thorough code audit to verify you're not specifying a TLS or SSL version.

When your app lets the OS choose the TLS version:

• It automatically takes advantage of new protocols added in the future, such as TLS 1.3.
• The OS blocks protocols that are discovered not to be secure.

Unfortunately my recommended suggestion here is to upgrade from Windows 7. After all, after January 2020, it will be out of support from Microsoft.

[carl123]

For those not familiar with adding stuff to the registry, Alfred has provided instructions in the thread below

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/89954-stock-tab/&tab=comments#comment-476930

Please ensure you are on Windows 7 for this fix to apply to you

If you are unable to access any Stock Panel images and are on Windows 8.1, Windows 10, (or a Mac) then this fix is not for you and you should investigate other reasons for your "issues".