Affinity Designer Beta-No access

[Jim Monson]

I have purchased Affinity Designer (AD) and then downloaded beta (1.4.2). I did not have a problem bringing up the beta version earlier today but my colleague (who also purchased his own copy of AD) received the following message when he tried to open the beta version: "A retail version of AD must be purchased to use this version.” There was no option for entering his serial number. When I went to the AD site I saw that AD 1.4.2 now appears to have been released. I then told my colleague to go to the iTunes store and update (as I had just done). His updated and so all is fine now.

 

It appears that I did not get the message that my colleague did since I was already had the beta up, but he did not. In any event, it might be wise for you to change your message from the one he received (i.e., he had to purchase a new copy) to simply that the user has to update his 1.4.1 version. Thought I'd pass this along. 

[anon1]

The beta looks for the MAS and so the MAS is the "key" for the beta to work.

The every MAS has a different key (maybe the beta just creates a hash from certain parts of the MAS install?).

Anyway, the current MAS is as new if not even more up to date than the latest beta so in theory there should be no need to access the beta.

 

One valid problem I see though is that the beta descriptions states "This build should be considered more stable than the current MAS version (1.4.1) and should be used in preference to that build."

- if people follow that rule and build presets etc. in the beta, they now loose access to those presets which is unfortunate.

[LilleG]

I'm hoping they will consider adding a "reminder" in the MAS Update notice to save any presets, uploaded brushes, etc in the Beta before installing a MAS update.  You tend to remember to do that the second time it happens to you but that doesn't lessen the pain of the first one.  Plus there is enough time between MAS updates to forget that little chore.

[MEB]

Hi MBd,

That info is specifically for users who are already using the Beta and understand its implications/risks. It's also only stated when the Beta reaches release candidate status which means the MAS version should be available soon and as such there's no need to install the Release Candidate just for a few days if you never installed the Beta before. Sometimes for technical reasons, we may also need to reset the Beta to its default settings or something may go wrong, so you should avoid create any type of dependencies or rely on the Beta if you depend on the software for critical/production work.