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Blocked from signing in to Affinity Beta. More money demanded


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Hmmmmmmm. i purchased Affinity Designer back in March 2017.

Accepted the free download offer of the Beta version in August. 

Purchased the book back in August or September.

 

Now my attempts to use Affinity Designer are blocked by a demand for $49.99.

i paid once, how many times am i expected to pay ?? 

 

Where do i go for a solution??  Affinity ??? Serif Labs ?? Apple ?? Where ?? 

 

Please reply to       growerjohn11tokamak@gmail.com

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Hi John, I take it you mean that when you launch the Designer Beta, it tells you it has expired? This is because the current App Store version is newer (since 1.6 was officially released), so you would simply need to update it through the App Store and run that version. The beta version validates against the official version - if it's older, it won't run.

 

In the future, when a newer public beta is released, you'll be able to download it and run that once again. For now, though, there's absolutely no reason to try and run the beta since it's actually an older build than the App Store release. And just to confirm, you shouldn't have to pay anything further than your initial purchase of the app. Hope that helps.

Product Expert (Affinity Photo) & Product Expert Team Leader

@JamesR_Affinity for tutorial sneak peeks and more
Official Affinity Photo tutorials

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hehe, happens to me too!

The dialog box that pops up is slightly intimidating and doesn't explain that your problem might be that the MAS version is newer than the beta - after all this time; whenever I read the "A purchased copy of Affinity X must be installed", I still get momentarily shocked ("oh no, what happened to my purchased copy? Did it expire?") :D

Screen Shot 2017-11-13 at 16.05.21.png

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On 13/11/2017 at 2:12 PM, F_Kal said:

hehe, happens to me too!

The dialog box that pops up is slightly intimidating and doesn't explain that your problem might be that the MAS version is newer than the beta - after all this time; whenever I read the "A purchased copy of Affinity X must be installed", I still get momentarily shocked ("oh no, what happened to my purchased copy? Did it expire?") :D

Screen Shot 2017-11-13 at 16.05.21.png

Hmm, perhaps this could be worded to be a bit more friendly. I'm not gonna lie, I still get that small shock when I do it :P

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Well, never thought this would be an issue for anyone participating in the beta (since such users can be reasonably expected to be more aware of what's going on with the software they are betatesting) but clearly it is an issue. Maybe a simple check if MAS version > beta version when validating whether AD is installed in the Appliations folder + an appropriate message would do the trick... Or validate it against your servers if the user is online, I'm sure you'll find a better solution than me :-) 

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It's a bug to show that message in this situation. The message is for when a valid version is not installed, not for when a newer version is released. It's a bug, however fixing it is hard because of the way sandbox MAS apps work. We cannot add code to detect the app until we have released it, by which time the beta is already live. So that needs fixing by some other way of detecting the released app is installed, which is not the same mechanism as allows beta builds to run if a purchased one is installed. 

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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On 11/19/2017 at 10:07 AM, Patrick Connor said:

It's a bug to show that message in this situation. The message is for when a valid version is not installed, not for when a newer version is released. It's a bug, however fixing it is hard because of the way sandbox MAS apps work. We cannot add code to detect the app until we have released it, by which time the beta is already live. So that needs fixing by some other way of detecting the released app is installed, which is not the same mechanism as allows beta builds to run if a purchased one is installed. 

Well, a more general message would probably help, like “either you don’t have a valid copy of AD installed or the installed application is not in the Applications folder” – at least for a quick fix.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/19/2017 at 10:07 AM, Patrick Connor said:

It's a bug to show that message in this situation. The message is for when a valid version is not installed, not for when a newer version is released. It's a bug, however fixing it is hard because of the way sandbox MAS apps work. We cannot add code to detect the app until we have released it, by which time the beta is already live. So that needs fixing by some other way of detecting the released app is installed, which is not the same mechanism as allows beta builds to run if a purchased one is installed. 

Well, I believe it's not that big problem to create a new API function on Serif's side to detect whether there is a newer version already avaliable in the App Store. I also believe that hardly any user would block AD/AP access to the Internet, so it should be quite easy to announce there is a newer MAS version available instead of this confusing dialog, that has been around since I remember (two years for sure). Actually, the beta versions work in the same manner - announcing there's new beta available and offering the link to the forums. Why not to detect a newer MAS version with a link to open App Store app to make the update easier?

On a different note, switching from beta chain to MAS version is a bit of a tedious work. I mean, files associations have to be changed, settings, custom brushes etc. have to be updated in the MAS version... I understand this is a burden that we - the beta testers - have willingly decided to bear, but let's be honest - is there a real difference between the beta RC version and the MAS version finally released? I doubt so. Is there any REAL reason, why not to leave the latest beta version live, until the next beta version is available? For the past 3 years, I almost only work with betas. They are perfectly stable most of the time and offer new features that I appreciate and use widely in my workflow. However, once or twice a year, there's an unpleasant "window", when I'm forced to switch to the the MAS version because the beta version refuses to launch. Not cool from my point of view, namely when I'm satisfied with what the latest beta RC offers.

Thank you for considering these points. I believe many of the other users would agree ;)

UX/UI designer, IT analyst & consultant, Business Architect at Cool Ticket (www.coolticket.co).

MacBook Pro 13'' Early 2015, 3,1 GHz Intel Core i7, 16 GB 1867 MHz DDR3, Apple Thunderbolt Display 27'' (2560 x 1440).

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+1 for @VIPStephan's answer ;) Of course a more automated version would be welcome, but I'm quite sure we humans can still use some reasoning :D

also

+1 for @Lojza's suggestion that the Beta doesn't expire. It's a big inconvenience moving settings between MAS and Beta Versions; which makes it inevitable that at some point every single beta tester will eventually "retire". And not because of the rough edges, or that he/she wants to stop testing out the software and give feedback: But because there is unnecessary overhead in maintaining the beta-tester status!

 

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