Affinity Designer Node Tool Not Working? [How to Fix It]

Affinity Designer is fantastic graphic design software that allows many things to be created and adjusted to the designer’s needs or wants. However, there has been a growing complaint among users that Affinity’s issues are more frustrating than its positives. 

While Affinity has its issues that are extremely frustrating to its users, its developers and creators are working hard to ensure Affinity is constantly being fixed and improved, so the user experience is better. 

Fixing The Node Tool

One big issue with Affinity is the issue with the node tool working consistently. While it works a good portion of the time, it also has enough issues that users have consistently reported on the forums hoping for answers for a few years. 

If your node tool isn’t working, you can fix it by doing a few things such as:

  1. Unlocking the artboard
  2. Restarting The software
  3. Making sure something is selected
  4. Updating Affinity
  5. Contact Customer Support

Thankfully, some moderators have discovered quick fixes and causes that have helped many users fix the issue with their own software. 

1. Unlock The Artboard

In some cases, while you are working on your project, you may have locked the artboard without knowing, or sometimes the software does it on its own. When the artboard is locked, it often causes issues with the node tool. 

If you can unlock the artboard, chances are your node tool will start working again with no issues. It’s always a good practice to ensure your artboard is always unlocked from the beginning, so you don’t have an issue with forgetting to check and your node tool not working. 

2. Restarting The Software

Sometimes Affinity gets confused or slowed down by having too many actions or things open in it. When this happens, certain options or tools can be inaccessible because the software believes it can’t be used while everything else is happening at the same time. 

Most of the time, if this happens, you can restart your software after you save everything. Once you bring Affinity Photo back up again, you should be able to use the node tool successfully. 

3. Nothing Is Selected

Unfortunately, an issue with Affinity is if you don’t currently have anything selected, you aren’t able to select anything. The node tool won’t be capable of being selected if you don’t have anything selected. 

Since the node tool is for changing and managing certain aspects of the image or design, your node tool will stay grayed out until you select a part of the design. However, once you select a part of your design, the node tool should be able to be selected. 

4. Updating Affinity

Affinity is an ever-growing and changing software that needs regular updates to be able to continue to function. However, if you haven’t connected to the internet in a while or your internet has been spotty or slow, there’s a chance Affinity hasn’t updated like it needs to. 

No matter if you think Affinity needs an update or not, it’s always good to check to ensure that’s not what is causing your issue. You can search in your settings for an update, let the software update, and then restart everything. 

Once this happens, your node tool should start working again. However, if this doesn’t work for you, you still have a few solutions that may help. 

5. Contact Customer Support

Now, while this doesn’t happen very often, there are some cases where you can’t fix the node tool using these few quick fixes and solutions; this usually means your only option is to contact or communicate with customer support through the support forums. 

These support forums are run by moderators who have worked with Affinity and their company for long enough to know a good amount of quick fixes and solutions to issues, so chances are they would be able to help you before anyone else would. 

These forums are also involved with the user base, and this means if the moderators can’t offer up a solution, the users might be able to help you through trial and error. Either way, the customer support forums are a fantastic place to go when you need answers and help. 

Final Thoughts

Affinity photo has been around for quite some time, but it’s not without its issues and problems that cause the users to find some tools unusable for periods of time. 

However, the great thing is that many users and moderators have discovered solutions and fixes for several problems, including fixing the node tool that doesn’t work.