version 2025.1 build 7955

[treehunter]

The preview for Affinity Photo files is not working. See attached screen shot.

[ahoward]

Please send us a copy of one of these files. It would be best if you can send it to support@camerabits.com

[treehunter]

I assume that you mean an affinity photo file? These files are big and can be larger than one gigabyte - equivalent to Photoshop files. What I will do is just load a RAW file and save the resulting .APHOTO file. That will mean just one raster layer but no adjustment layers or other post processing. If it is too big to email, I will send you a dropbox link. I am a bit snowed under with photography projects and teaching but will do it as soon as I can.

[Kirk Baker]

An Affinity Photo file is a proprietary file format that has a PNG file embedded at the end of the file.  If this PNG preview isn't in your files, PM isn't going to be able to generate thumbnails or previews from it.  There may be a setting in Affinity Photo that controls whether it adds this preview data or not.

I expect PM to have logged failures to load the PNG data from your .afphoto files.  You can share PM's log files with us which should help us determine what is going on.  I'd like to see your Photo Mechanic log.  In Photo Mechanic go to the Help menu and choose "Reveal Support Data..." and moments later a Windows Explorer window will come forward with the zipped log file selected.  Use the 'Attachments and other options' link when you're composing your reply to this message and there you'll be able to upload your zipped PM log file.

Thanks,

-Kirk

[treehunter]

Hi Kirk,
Yesterday, I sent the support group a link to download an Affinity file.
But Windows 11 file explorer shows a preview of the same Affinity files that Photomechanics cannot show a preview of. Furthermore, examine the attached screen shot of "what's new in Photo Mechanics" put out by some company called er... um... oh yeah! Camerabits.

It states that affinity files can be previewed by Photo Mechanic.see this link  https://home.camerabits.com/whats-new-in-photo-mechanic/


     

[ahoward]

It states that affinity files can be previewed by Photo Mechanic.see this link  https://home.camerabits.com/whats-new-in-photo-mechanic/

And they can... as long as the file has that PNG embedded in the file (as Kirk stated).

Your file does appear to have this embedded PNG, as I downloaded your sample file, made no changes to the file that I downloaded, and it previews just fine on build 7955 on my computer (screenshot attached). Please send us the log file that Kirk requested so we can look into it further.

[treehunter]

Attached is the zip file containing my photo mechanic log, that Kirk requested.

[Kirk Baker]

Attached is the zip file containing my photo mechanic log, that Kirk requested.

Thanks for the file.  If you move the Affinity Photo file from your networked drive to a local disk, are you able to view it successfully?

-Kirk

[treehunter]

Hi Kirk,

I have attached two screen shots and a pm log file, below your message. One screen shot is from ingesting a folder directly from my desktop. The other is from ingesting the same folder from my Synology NAS. The results are identical. However, you will see that occasionally, PM does load the png file so that a preview of the Aphoto file is correctly shown, now and again!

Reading the log file, I see where PM says it cannot load a png file but can't see anything in the log file when a png file is successfully loaded.

Regards
Steve Smith




Hello Treehunter,

Re: https://forums.camerabits.com/index.php?topic=16714.0

I noticed from your log (thanks for providing it) that the images are stored on a Synology server.  If you take one or more of those images and copy them to a local drive and browse that location as a contact sheet in PM, do the images display correctly?

If not, then something truly strange is going on.  On our systems, we're able to display the image you provided us just fine on the same build you're running.

Kind regards,

-Kirk

Kirk A. Baker
Senior Software Engineer
Camera Bits, Inc.

[Kirk Baker]

It looks like the file that renders successfully is the same file in both locations and likewise the one that fails is the same file.

Is the file that renders successfully much smaller than the one that does not?

Would you be willing to download, install, and test a special build with more logging in it?

-Kirk

[treehunter]

Hi Kirk,

The file that successfully loaded the png file is 2.43 gig, the file that did not load properly is 352 mb ?? yes, I am willing to download, install and test a special test build because this is a strange happening.

Steve

[treehunter]

Hi Kirk,

No eureka moment but some info that may be helpful.

1. I selected 5 raw files and applied processing in a set of additional steps:

(a) opened the raw file in the develop module, no processing, no duplicate layer - saved as .aphoto file - all five displayed previews correctly when ingested to PM

(b) opened the raw file, no processing, duplicated and locked the raw layer in the photo persona - saved as .aphoto file - all five displayed previews when ingested

(c) opened one of the raw files, duplicated and locked the raw layer, added one live filter layer - saved as .aphoto file - preview displayed correctly

(d) opened the same raw file, duplicated and locked the raw layer, added one live adjustment  layer - saved as .aphoto file - preview displayed correctly

(e) opened the same raw file, duplicated and locked the raw layer, added 3 live filter layers and 2  live adjustment  layers - saved as .aphoto file - preview would not display

Aha! - but aha turned into WTF because:

(f) opened the same raw file, duplicated and locked the raw layer, added the same 3 live filter layers and same 2  live adjustment  layers - saved as .aphoto file - preview displayed correctly

(g) opened the same raw file and repeated (e) and (f) but kept adding more filter and adjustment layers and all of the saved .aphoto files correctly displayed the .aphoto files.


I have attached the log file. I changed the file names as I went so I may have added some confusion there. I am using the latest release of Affinity Photo - 2.6.2


I will play a bit more to try and understand why .aphoto files are generated that that do not display previews correctly. My previous screenshots included files processed with version 2.6.0, 2.6.1 and 2,6 beta versions.

Hope this helps.

Steve

[Kirk Baker]

Steve,

Thanks for testing the logging build I linked to you.  Would you mind copying a single Affinity Photo (that won't render) to a new folder and then browse only that folder?  I added a lot of logging and it's hard to follow when multiple images are being loaded simultaneously.  Please post the updated log when you can.

I appreciate your efforts to do some sleuthing and experimentation, but a clean log will help me the most at this time.

Thanks,

-Kirk

[treehunter]

Hi Kirk,

Moved single file that doesn't display preview to new folder and have attached log file. Also screen shot.

Steve

[treehunter]

 not sure if log file attached properly - sending again.