Versioning with any Affinity Photo file end up displaying non-AP images wrong

lnh · June 14, 2017, 11:08:44 PM

This is not a repeat thread about the lack of thumbnail display for .afphoto files. I know that is considered a non-issue due to defects in how Serif has implemented Affinity Photo and I accept that my .afphoto files will just display with a big icon in IMatch.

However...

If I add a .afphoto file to IMatch and version it and other derivative jpg and tif files with the original RAW file as the master (RAF in this case), I end up with the Affinity Photo icon as the thumbnail for the collapsed version stack. If I expand the version stack, each file's thumbnail displays correctly except for the .afphoto file (which I fully expect).

It's like Affinity Photo files are poison.

Could this be caused from some configuration error in my versioning setup?

Master Expression is \.(orf|rw2|arw|cr2|crw|raf|jpg)$
Link Expression ^(_*{name}).*\.(psd|jpg|jpeg|tif|dng|afphoto|afdesign)$

Attached show visually what is happening.

Art · June 14, 2017, 11:17:55 PM

Did you select "save thumbnails with documents" in the general tab of the preferences? For some reason it is not selected by default. At least I do get thumbnails.

Something else to take a look at, as I ran into that issue recently with PDF file thumbnails... is the QuickView panel or the viewer window open and showing a preview of the selected Affinity Photo file when doing a force update? If yes then the preview update will not commence. Closing the QuickView panel/preview window before doing a Force Update should solve that problem.

lnh · June 15, 2017, 03:08:01 AM

Turns out the "save thumbnails with documents" was selected. Maybe it was a default from the beta which carried over as I don't remember changing it.

I did have the QuickView panel open and retried a forced update with it closed. Unfortunately, it didn't change anything for me. Many thanks for sharing your experience. I'd really be OK with the thumbnail not showing up as long as the collapsed version stack showed the correct image and not the big AP icon.

Mario · June 15, 2017, 09:01:07 AM

Switch IMatch to debug logging and then close and re-open it.
Do a forced update of the file. Then attach the log file from that session.

You mentioned you had a Beta installed? Did you try to just un-install and re-install Affinity?

Please also send me the file. If I also get no thumbnail for it, maybe I can figure out what it is.
There are really only two methods to request a thumbnail from Windows, and IMatch uses both (in case one fails). This usually "just works", except for Affinity Photo (not Designer!) files...

Art · June 15, 2017, 09:04:28 AM

I just checked and surely enough, no previews anymore after updating. I used to have previews for the few afphoto files but I guess Serif changed something as now I also get the afphoto program icon. I'll file a bug/feature request on the Affinity forum if it is not listed there already.

As Mario just replied when typing this, I do have both the beta and regular version installed. Unfortunately the regular version is needed to be able to install the beta so I'll try with uninstalling the beta later and then update again.

Because the file format is basically a common file format for all Affinity programs one would think that if thumbnails work in designer they should work in photo as well.

Mario · June 15, 2017, 09:06:35 AM

Please send me the file so I can see if I can get a thumbnail here. I don't have Affinity Photo installed but I have Designer.

Art · June 15, 2017, 10:31:21 AM

Just sent you two test files by e-mail, one of Photo and one of Designer. Both are now only generating program icons as thumbnails. I'm currently on Windows creator update with latest service packs etc. installed, if that matters.

Mario · June 15, 2017, 12:12:33 PM

Thanks for sending the files. As I wrote in my email, some interesting findings...

IMatch can actually extract 2000 pixel images from them. But these images only show the Affinity logo! No error message is returned, all is well.

IMatch is not falling back to displaying the Windows icon for an unknown file format.
It displays what Windows has returned as the "preview" for these files. And this is apparently a 2000 pixel rendition of the Affinity logo....

Very strange.

Now I open Windows Explorer for the folder containing your files.
I switch to the largest icon size and also enable the preview pane in Explorer.
The files look "all green" there. No Affinity logo. Mhm.

I do a forced update in IMatch. No effect.

I close and re-open IMatch. I do a forced refresh. Now I can also see the green images in IMatch!

It seems that

a) Windows Explorer needs to show the large images or preview pane for these files once and
b) It somehow caches this information and IMatch needs to be closed and then a forced refresh is needed to update the files in IMatch.

Can you try that with some of your other images and see if this solves the problem?

Why Windows returns a 2000 pixel image with the Affinity logo instead of the real image is a riddle. Never saw that before.

Mario · June 15, 2017, 03:49:32 PM

It's seems to be the preview tab in Windows Explorer.
If a file has one been looked at when the preview panel is enabled, the Windows GetThumbnail function no longer returns the Affinity icon but the actual preview.
This is a must unique behavior, apparently only with the Affinity thumbnail providers.

lnh · June 15, 2017, 04:45:12 PM

I had the pre-release beta of Affinity Photo installed, but uninstalled that once the final version was released and have not installed any betas of the ongoing product. There were some configuration oddities what were left over from the pre-release beta which messed up some functions in the final product which required that some configuration file was deleted (don't remember the details at this point) but those problems are long in the past.

I can view the thumbnail of .afphoto files in Windows built-in file explorer in all sizes and preview without any weirdness. No green screen, no only icon; just an accurate rendering of the image itself. The same for Directory Opus (my everyday file management app).

I'm still curious about my original question. Why am I getting the .afphoto icon for the version stack collapsed view? I think it's wonderful that a better solution may be discovered to the overall problem, but I'd just like to see my RAF or one of the TIFs or JPGs as the image shown when the version stack is collapsed.

Do you still want me to send a .afphoto file, or do you have enough samples?

Art · June 15, 2017, 05:52:34 PM

Quote from: Mario on June 15, 2017, 03:49:32 PM
It's seems to be the preview tab in Windows Explorer.
If a file has one been looked at when the preview panel is enabled, the Windows GetThumbnail function no longer returns the Affinity icon but the actual preview.
This is a must unique behavior, apparently only with the Affinity thumbnail providers.

This works the same on my computer, though the designer file seems to already show the thumbnail, but photo had to wait for the windows explorer preview to generate the thumbail.

Art · June 15, 2017, 05:59:22 PM

Quote from: Mario on June 15, 2017, 12:12:33 PM
Now I open Windows Explorer for the folder containing your files.
I switch to the largest icon size and also enable the preview pane in Explorer.
The files look "all green" there. No Affinity logo. Mhm.

I do a forced update in IMatch. No effect.

Until this far it is the same on my computer

Quote from: Mario on June 15, 2017, 12:12:33 PM
I close and re-open IMatch. I do a forced refresh. Now I can also see the green images in IMatch!

It seems that

a) Windows Explorer needs to show the large images or preview pane for these files once and
b) It somehow caches this information and IMatch needs to be closed and then a forced refresh is needed to update the files in IMatch.

Can you try that with some of your other images and see if this solves the problem?

Why Windows returns a 2000 pixel image with the Affinity logo instead of the real image is a riddle. Never saw that before.

This part did not work on my computer for the sample images. I even closed the preview in windows explorer and made sure the files were not selected in windows explorer. Multiple forced updates, restarts and cache image refresh cycles made no difference. It still shows the application icon in the thumbnail and the QuickView.

Mario · June 15, 2017, 06:22:26 PM

Works here every time.
As soon as the preview for one of the sample .afphoto files was visible at least once, Windows returns the real preview and not the icon when IMatch later requests the thumbnail or preview image in a forced rescan...

lnh · June 15, 2017, 08:26:10 PM

Another test:

1) Uninstalled Affinity Photo.
2) Went to AppData\Roaming\Affinity and deleted all files related to Affinity Photo.
3) Reinstalled Affinity Photo (in latest version the preference to create thumbnails is checked by default)
4) Created a new .afphoto file, made modifications, resized and saved. Also exported a JPG.
5) Checked in Directory Opus and Windows File Explorer and saw thumbnails in all sizes.
6) Moved new files into a new folder but also included derivative images from the prior test (same master image), but did not include the old .afphoto files in the new folder.
7) Imported into IMatch 2017.
8 ) Updated using my versions/buddy setup.

The .afphoto file still just showed the big app icon, however when I collapsed the version stack it now showed an image of the base file rather than the big app icon.
This is an improvement for me. Didn't change my version of IMatch 2017 or the buddy/versions setup. Have no idea why I'm getting something better now and don't know if it will continue consistently. The whole thing is weird.