Are you ever going to fix what happens if we try to open a beta when it has been replaced by an updated MAS version?

[R C-R]

This is the notice that pops up if I try to open the Mac AP Customer Beta (1.10.0.251 - RC2) after I have updated my retail version bought from the Mac App Store to 1.10.0:

Obviously, the notice is wrong -- if it has to appear it should say that the beta has been superseded by the current retail version, & to use that instead. Better would be to let me open the beta if I wanted to, for example to export assets or something else that I had added to the beta but not to the retail version.

BTW, this also applies to the Mac version of AD I bought from the MAS.

I bought APub from the Affinity Store, & I can still open the last beta version even though I have the updated retail version installed as well. I think it should not matter which store I bought from -- let me open the beta if I need or want to!

[walt.farrell]

5 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Obviously, the notice is wrong -- if it has to appear it should say that the beta has been superseded by the current retail version, & to use that instead. Better would be to let me open the beta if I wanted to,

Obviously the message is worded incorrectly, and that has been pointed out before. If I remember correctly the beta app is looking for an older retail version, and not finding it. I don't know if Serif's intent is to force use of the retail version until a new beta comes out, or if the validation simply has a bug, because I think that the software from both stores should operate the same way for this

[R C-R]

Validation bug or not, if they are trying to prevent us from opening a beta version after an installed retail version supersedes it, then they have not considered that we may want to do that to export any of several things that we may have added to the beta but not to the retail version. Among them are assets, styles, user shape presets, swatch palettes, & keyboard shortcuts.

Even if they do not want us to import any of these things into the retail version, it is still sometimes very useful to be able to compare how things are set up in the beta vs. the retail version, including things that cannot (yet) be exported, like Studio presets or customized Tool panel layouts.

[Didge]

Yep - I had exactly the same experience.
I was using the 1.10.0.251 beta, and had to delete it after I upgraded 1.93 to 1.10.0, because I had that same screen asking for a Product Key.

I launched the 1.10.0.251 beta again just now, and it runs happily alongside the 10.1.0 release.

Gary

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, Gary.JONES said:

I launched the 1.10.0.251 beta again just now, and it runs happily alongside the 10.1.0 release.

Which store did you buy the retail version from?

[Didge]

Hi R-CR,

I bought v1.9 from the Apple App Store, and upgraded to v1.10 the same way. 

Im using them both right now - they work just fine alongside each other at the same time.

Gary

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, Gary.JONES said:

I bought v1.9 from the Apple App Store, and upgraded to v1.10 the same way. 

Im using them both right now - they work just fine alongside each other at the same time.

I'm confused. Earlier you said you had to delete the 1.10.0.251 beta because you were getting the product key screen. Are you now saying  you downloaded the 1.10.0.251 beta again & it runs without complaint, or something else?

[Didge]

Hi R C-R,
Apologies if I was a bit unclear ...

I didn't make notes of all the details, but this is what I recall of what happened :-

1. I downloaded the full version of v1.9 from the App store;

2. The next day I made a forum post that v1.9 doesnt open FITS files in the 'New Stack' menu option (only astro stacks).
Affinity Tech Support suggested I try the beta version - I only used v1.9 for 1 day.

3. I downloaded v1.10.250 - and subsequently upgraded to v1.10.251

3. I used the beta exclusively for a few weeks until the v1.10 full release came out;

4. I then upgraded to v1.10.0 on the App Store - so I had the full release of v1.10 and v1.10.251 beta on my system at the same time;

5. The full version v1.10.0 ran just fine;

6. I thought I'd see whether the v1.10.251 beta still worked, but got the same screen as you did - asking for a product key;

7. So I deleted the beta from my working drive (didnt need it any more), but kept a copy on an external backup drive;

8. Restarted the Mac, and used v1.10 ever since.

9. When I saw your post, I launched v1.10.251 beta directly from my external drive, and it runs just fine, even with v1.10 running at the same time.

I hope that helps

Gary

[R C-R]

14 minutes ago, Gary.JONES said:

When I saw your post, I launched v1.10.251 beta directly from my external drive, and it runs just fine, even with v1.10 running at the same time.

Interesting. I don't know why that works but it suggests that there is no good reason for the product key roadblock that prevents running the beta.

[Didge]

Yes, interesting.

Im running AP on Mac OS 10.14.6, with AP v1.10 on my boot drive, and AP beta on an external drive - if that makes any difference ?

Gary

[R C-R]

9 minutes ago, Gary.JONES said:

Im running AP on Mac OS 10.14.6, with AP v1.10 on my boot drive, and AP beta on an external drive - if that makes any difference ?

I don't know if the OS version has anything to do with it but I run Catalina (macOS 10.15.7) & just tried copying the AD & AP betas from my boot drive to a 32 GB Sandisk "Ultra" USB 3 thumb drive -- I know, a lame choice but it is what I had handy -- & I still get the product key roadblock if I try to open either of them directly from that drive.

[Didge]

Hi R-CR,

Hmmm - did you delete the beta from your boot drive ?

Otherwise, I'm sorry I cant help further - I'm out of ideas

[R C-R]

10 hours ago, Gary.JONES said:

Hmmm - did you delete the beta from your boot drive ?

No, I did not do that. Maybe I will try doing that tomorrow but I suspect it won't make any difference.

EDIT: I have now deleted the AD beta from my boot drive (although as a precaution I kept a zipped copy of it on that drive) & tried launching the beta directly from the Sandisk thumb drive. No difference -- I still get the product key window & cannot open the beta.

FWIW, making a zipped copy of the betas & then deleting the originals from the boot drive effectively removes the betas from the "Open with..." choices, unless the unzipped betas are available on a different mounted drive. But I still can't get past the product key window, whether or not the retail version is running when I try.

Edited August 13, 2021 by R C-R

[jos]

Did try all you wrote in these posts. No luck! I bought AP in the App Store (long ago). I have given up on using betas from Serif, but it’s a pity. It worries me that there is no reaction from Serif. 

[Didge]

R C-R and Jos,

I wish I could help - I had the same issue, deleting the beta *and deleting it from the trash (on Mac at least) made it go away.

The good thing is that the current release release 10.1.1 has all the features of the previous betas ...

 AFAIK there is no more recent beta available.

Come on SERIF - please help these users ...

Gary

[jos]

On 9/7/2021 at 11:29 AM, Gary.JONES said:

R C-R and Jos,

I wish I could help - I had the same issue, deleting the beta *and deleting it from the trash (on Mac at least) made it go away.

The good thing is that the current release release 10.1.1 has all the features of the previous betas ...

 AFAIK there is no more recent beta available.

Come on SERIF - please help these users ...

Gary

 

[jos]

Thanks for your reaction. Let’s hope Serif will come up with a fix so we can all try these Betas.