Troubleshooting Affinity 3.0 Object Tool Freezes on Windows 10

Affinity 3.0 kept freezing on my Windows 10 machine whenever I selected or used the Object Tool. The window would show Not Responding, and the only option was to force-close the app.

Before you go reinstalling, there are a few things worth trying.

On newer Windows installations, Affinity may also not appear in the traditional Control Panel → Programs and Features list. Depending on how it was installed, it may instead be managed through Windows Settings.

Where Affinity keeps its settings

Affinity stores application data in different locations depending on how it was installed.

Common locations include:

• %APPDATA%
• %LOCALAPPDATA%
• C:\Users\<Your-Username>\.affinity\

On my Windows 10 installation, the Affinity 3.0 configuration directory is:

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C:\Users\DELL\.affinity\Affinity\3.0\

Your username will be different if you're using another Windows account.

Inside the 3.0 directory, you may see folders and files such as:

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AffinityFonts
autosave
backup
CrashReports
EBWebView
LensProfiles
Plugins
printing
profiles
Samples
Settings
temp
temp-critical
user
Workspaces
preferences.dat

Force-close Affinity

If Affinity is showing Not Responding, force-close it through Task Manager.

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
2. Find Affinity under the running processes.
3. Right-click Affinity.
4. Select End task.

Wait a few seconds before launching Affinity again.

Reset Affinity's settings

If the Object Tool continues to freeze, a corrupted preference file may be worth ruling out.

Make sure Affinity is completely closed before changing anything.

Navigate to:

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C:\Users\<Your-Username>\.affinity\Affinity\3.0\

Back up the Settings folder

Locate Settings, right-click it, and select Rename.

Rename it to:

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Settings.old

Do not delete the folder. Renaming it gives you a backup that can be restored later if necessary.

Back up preferences.dat

Next, locate preferences.dat and rename it to:

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preferences.dat.old

Your directory should now contain something similar to:

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3.0/
├── Settings.old
├── preferences.dat.old
├── CrashReports
├── autosave
├── backup
├── temp
├── temp-critical
└── ...

Now launch Affinity again.

If Affinity recreates the settings files, create a new blank document and test the Object Tool.

Testing a blank document is important because it helps you tell whether the problem is with Affinity itself or with a particular document.

Check hardware acceleration

If the Object Tool still causes Affinity to freeze, check the performance settings.

Open Affinity and go to:

Edit → Settings → Performance

Depending on your Affinity version and configuration, look for graphics-related options such as hardware acceleration or renderer settings.

If a hardware acceleration option is available, temporarily disable it and restart Affinity.

Then create a new blank document and test the Object Tool again.

If the freezing stops after changing the graphics settings, the issue is probably related to the graphics renderer, GPU, or graphics driver.

Check your graphics driver

Graphics-driver problems can cause instability in applications that rely heavily on GPU-accelerated rendering.

To identify your graphics hardware on Windows 10:

1. Press Windows + X.
2. Select Device Manager.
3. Expand Display adapters.
4. Note the graphics hardware listed there.

For example:

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Intel UHD Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce
AMD Radeon

Once you know your GPU model, check the manufacturer's official website for the appropriate Windows 10 driver.

Avoid downloading graphics drivers from random third-party websites.

Check your Windows version

To check your Windows 10 version:

1. Press Windows + R.
2. Type:

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winver

3. Press Enter.

Windows will display your current version and build number.

For example:

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Windows 10
Version 22H2

Check Windows app settings

If Affinity doesn't appear in:

Control Panel → Programs and Features

check the modern Windows application settings instead.

Go to:

Start → Settings → Apps → Apps & features

Search for:

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Affinity

If Affinity appears there, open its available options.

Depending on the installation, Windows may provide options such as:

• Repair
• Reset
• Uninstall

If Repair is available, try that before using Reset or uninstalling the application.

Check Affinity crash reports

If Affinity continues to freeze, check the crash-report directory.

For my installation, the location is:

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C:\Users\<Your-Username>\.affinity\Affinity\3.0\CrashReports\

These reports may provide additional information about what happened when Affinity stopped responding.

If you're comfortable digging into the issue further, open the most recent report and look for references to graphics drivers, rendering components, or other modules.

The checklist

Before reinstalling Affinity, work through these steps:

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[ ] Force-close Affinity using Task Manager
[ ] Back up Settings by renaming it to Settings.old
[ ] Back up preferences.dat as preferences.dat.old
[ ] Restart Affinity
[ ] Test the Object Tool in a new blank document
[ ] Check hardware acceleration / renderer settings
[ ] Identify and update your graphics driver
[ ] Check your Windows version with winver
[ ] Check Windows Settings → Apps for Affinity
[ ] Inspect CrashReports if the problem continues

Final thoughts

If the Object Tool works normally after resetting the settings, the problem was likely with Affinity's stored configuration.

If the problem continues even in a completely new document, the next things to investigate are the graphics driver, GPU-related rendering, Windows compatibility, and Affinity's crash reports.

Before you do a full reinstall, identify which of these areas is causing the freeze. That way you won't reinstall the application without actually dealing with the root cause.