Storyline 360 instability on M1 Mac with Parallels/Windows 11 ARM version

Apr 29, 2022

Lon Goldstein
By Lon Goldstein

I have been building a course in Storyline 360 on a 2021 M1Pro Macbook, latest MacOS, 32Gb Ram using the latest Parallels and Windows 11 ARM version (which now installs automatically from the Parallels install).

It was working pretty well (a bit slow) for some time, but it started having weird glitches like losing line spacing settings. (I'd set exact line spacing for layout purposes, and after saving, closing and returning to the file I found that everywhere I had changed that, it was changed back to single line spacing, of course, making a mess of my layouts.)

Working with Articulate support, their best assessment is that "erratic behavior" like this means some sort of corrupted install. Now after uninstalling, and reinstalling all Articulate products, the line spacing bug is different, but now Storyline keeps crashing every 15 or 20 minutes. 

It is starting to look to me like Articulate is not completely stable running on an M1 Mac under Parallels. (Seems like it might be fine for some light usage?) This would be very sad since so many people seem to use Macs for working in Storyline, and the M1 Macs have been out for 2 years now. 

I am very curious to hear the experience of anyone who has been working in Articulate (not just a quick tryout) for some extended period of time on an M1 Mac in Parallels.

-  Would I do better going back to the Windows 10 ARM Preview instead of the Windows 11 for ARM version?

-  Will the Articulate support articles for Mac be updated to refer to the Windows 11 for ARM option that is being shipped now in Parallels?

- Do Mac users really have to buy a PC just to use this one program? (Or go back to an older pre-2020 Macbook with Intel processor?) 

Thanks,

Lon 

Pinned Reply
Eric Santos
11 months ago06/20/23 at 2:34 pm (UTC)

Hi everyone,

I have some great news to share! We just released another update for Storyline 360. In Update 77, we've included important fixes and new features.

One of the bugs we've fixed is: 

  • The trigger wizard performs faster on M-series Macs.

Launch the Articulate 360 desktop app on your computer to take advantage of this update, and click the Update button next to Storyline 360. You'll find our step-by-step instructions here.

Please let me know if you need additional help!

25 Replies
Jose Tansengco
2 years ago05/04/22 at 3:05 pm (UTC)

Hi Jonathan, 

I’m sorry to hear that Storyline 360 isn’t working properly for you. Apple’s M1 chip is still relatively new, so we are still learning about the best way to make it work with Articulate 360 applications. Here’s everything we know so far.

That article contains our recommended settings for running Articulate Software in a Parallels environment. The steps included will work best for Macbooks running Intel processors, but they are still worth performing so you can take advantage of any performance improvements that they can offer. Here’s the direct link to the recommended settings for your reference.

Additionally, some members of the community found the solution presented in this video worked for them, so it is worth checking out as well. 

Like many users, I also use Articulate 360 with Parallels so I know how frustrating it is to not have Storyline 360 run properly with the M1 chip. I do understand that switching hardware to run one specific application isn't an ideal solution, but if this is an option for you, then we recommend switching to a machine that meets the system requirements needed to properly run Storyline 360. 

Lastly, if you are already running Parallels with the recommended settings and are still encountering performance issues, please reach out to our support team here. We’ll be glad to take a look at your setup and figure out how we can improve things.

Lon Goldstein
almost 2 years ago05/12/22 at 7:03 am (UTC)

Thanks for the comments. After I completely uninstalled and reinstalled Storyline and Articulate 360 it seems to be a bit more stable recently on the M1. I do plan to go back to using Storyline on my old 2018 Intel MacBook. I have not noticed it to run significantly faster on the new M1 Mac anyway.

It would be great if Articulate would revisit the whole situation since the "latest information" offered in the support pages is now almost a year old and Parallels can install the Windows 11 ARM version in pretty much a simple seamless step during the basic installation. And yes, I did follow all of the recommended settings for running Storyline in a virtual PC (no shared directories, etc.)

Joe, I have to agree with Jonathan.

It is sort of funny that people keep pointing to Devlin's video from almost a year ago. Again, not the current information about Parallels and Windows, and if you listen through Devlin's review, it is far from glowing. He reported that many simple operations were very laggy (e.g. opening triggers dialog). When I watched it originally, I thought maybe this was because he was testing on the MacBook Air. But I find the same slow response using the 2021 MacBook Pro M1Pro w/ 32Gb RAM. This video was made early on and seems to be more of a "proof of concept" of something that is "possible", but not necessarily good. 

I did reach out to the Articulate Support team. They were very helpful in terms of recommended settings (no working off network or shared volumes for example...which I was not, and the universal fallback of a thorough uninstall/reinstall to address erratic behavior that could indicate a corrupted program...) but they are clear that Articulate is only currently approved to run on the the Intel-based Macs that were phased out almost 2 years ago. 

I'm not holding out hope that Articulate will decide to develop a Mac-based version (though I've seen compelling arguments here in forum posts that a company as large and successful as Articulate really has little excuse not to) but it would be great if you could look into the issues that come up with running in a virtual PC (Parallels or VMware) environment on the current Mac hardware instead of continually pointing to the fact that it will run on 2-year old hardware. 

Jonathan, I think you make good point as well about the software not seeming to be well-optimized even running on the native Windows platform. Cloud-PC sounds interesting, but it looks a bit pricey. 

Thanks,

Lon 

 

Lon Goldstein
almost 2 years ago05/12/22 at 7:04 am (UTC)

Thanks for the comments. After I completely uninstalled and reinstalled Storyline and Articulate 360 it seems to be a bit more stable recently on the M1. I do plan to go back to using Storyline on my old 2018 Intel MacBook. I have not noticed it to run significantly faster on the new M1 Mac anyway.

It would be great if Articulate would revisit the whole situation since the "latest information" offered in the support pages is now almost a year old and Parallels can install the Windows 11 ARM version in pretty much a simple seamless step during the basic installation. And yes, I did follow all of the recommended settings for running Storyline in a virtual PC (no shared directories, etc.)

Joe, I have to agree with Jonathan.

It is sort of funny that people keep pointing to Devlin's video from almost a year ago. Again, not the current information about Parallels and Windows, and if you listen through Devlin's review, it is far from glowing. He reported that many simple operations were very laggy (e.g. opening triggers dialog). When I watched it originally, I thought maybe this was because he was testing on the MacBook Air. But I find the same slow response using the 2021 MacBook Pro M1Pro w/ 32Gb RAM. This video was made early on and seems to be more of a "proof of concept" of something that is "possible", but not necessarily good. 

I did reach out to the Articulate Support team. They were very helpful in terms of recommended settings (no working off network or shared volumes for example...which I was not, and the universal fallback of a thorough uninstall/reinstall to address erratic behavior that could indicate a corrupted program...) but they are clear that Articulate is only currently approved to run on the the Intel-based Macs that were phased out almost 2 years ago. 

I'm not holding out hope that Articulate will decide to develop a Mac-based version (though I've seen compelling arguments here in forum posts that a company as large and successful as Articulate really has little excuse not to) but it would be great if you could look into the issues that come up with running in a virtual PC (Parallels or VMware) environment on the current Mac hardware instead of continually pointing to the fact that it will run on 2-year old hardware. 

Jonathan, I think you make good point as well about the software not seeming to be well-optimized even running on the native Windows platform. Cloud-PC sounds interesting, but it looks a bit pricey. 

Thanks,

Lon 

Sean Aitken
almost 2 years ago07/25/22 at 4:33 pm (UTC)

Hi Joe, I'm no longer trying to resolve the issue. This was just one of several issues I had trying to run Storyline on an M1 chip. Overall, the amount of troubleshooting I've had to do has been costly in terms of lost productivity. Just putting it out there for other users who are considering a jump to M1--it's not a good idea! 

Jose Tansengco
over 1 year ago12/01/22 at 5:40 pm (UTC)

Hello Patrick, 

We're still working on improving the overall experience of running Storyline 360 on Macs that use the M1 chip. If you are encountering any performance related issues when running Articulate 360 software on an M1 powered Mac, reach out to our support team here so we can provide you with further assistance. 

Steve Blane
over 1 year ago12/01/22 at 6:13 pm (UTC)

I'm disappointed in the performance I'm getting with my new Mac Studio. It crashes A LOT on when previewing single slides. I'm not blaming Articulate for me using software that their software isn't designed to work on though. It would be an added bonus if it did. I'll be returning the Studio and sticking with my intel iMac.

John Morgan
over 1 year ago12/05/22 at 4:11 pm (UTC)

Hi Steve,

I'm sorry you're having issues with Storyline on your Mac Studio! If you haven't returned the computer yet, I have a couple of articles you could refer to for a possible solution. 

I hope this helps and thanks for reaching out!

Lon Goldstein
over 1 year ago12/08/22 at 5:18 pm (UTC)

As an update to my previous posts...Running Storyline on Windows 11 under the latest Parallels for Desktop Mac on my 2021 M1 MacBook Pro w/ 32Gb Ram (with MacOS Monterey) finally became too frustrating. It was still unstable and very slow. It would take about 5-10 seconds to open a new trigger dialogue, and it took about the same every time I hit save. [And, yes, I was following all of the guidelines in that FAQ document from a year and a half ago, completely separating the Mac and Windows machines.]

I moved the install over to my old 2018 i7 Intel Macbook w/ 16 Gb RAM, after wiping it completely, and installing the latest MacOS Ventura. It is amazing how much faster it runs, and so far with no instability! I didn't understand how anyone could use this program before as it was so laggy. 

@Joe Tansengco I am curious, what is Articulate doing "on improving the overall experience of running Storyline 360 on Macs that use the M1 chip."? (In other words, all new Macs since Nov 2020.) What is Articulate's long term plan for Storyline 360 as far as supporting Mac users as Intel Macs fade into history? 

Thanks,

Lon 

Jose Tansengco
over 1 year ago12/09/22 at 3:49 pm (UTC)

Hello Lon, 

I am unable to share any technical updates right now, but if you'd like to discuss the performance issues you've been encountering with our support team, you can do so by opening a support case. They'll be able to provide you with more information about Storyline 360's performance with the M1 chip, as well as share some possible steps to improve it.

Kevin Thorn
over 1 year ago12/09/22 at 5:03 pm (UTC)

Lon, your story resonates with so many, and another example of why I'm limping my Late 2013 MBP (16 GB 2TB BigSur) as long as it can. I've used this Mac with VMware Fusion since day one with zero issues other than an occasional glitch. I'm still on Win10 because my hardware doesn't meet min requirements...mostly because of the integrated video card and GPU.

I also have an Acer ROG Zephyr PC gaming laptop with Win11, and Storyline works flawlessly on that machine. I'll also add the ONLY reason I used that laptop is for Storyline and other animation work (see video and GPU note above).

I hope to get another few years out of this Mac, but if it fails, I will not attempt to run Windows on a new M1 chip, regardless if it's just for Storyline. Working on two machines will be extremely inconvenient if that day comes.

I hope your issues smooth out soon. Good luck!

David Westra
over 1 year ago12/13/22 at 7:57 pm (UTC)

Honestly, I will never understand why Articulate doesnt make a native version of Storyline for the Mac. To use the program means you are a Creative, and Creatives tend to use Mac. I am constantly adding custom graphics and videos to my projects, content that would be so much easier to make on a mac. The only reason my work doesnt provide me with a mac is because of this program.

Having a mac native version of storyline just seems like common sense and a win-win. I feel like Articulate would see its customer base grow from this.

Stefanie Redmond
1 year ago03/20/23 at 4:30 pm (UTC)

This seems pretty unacceptable in terms of system requirements in this day and age. The solutions given are to go back and use an almost 5-year-old Intel mac just to be able to operate SL, or buy a windows machine specifically for this one application. It seems like a bad business practice if you want to retain customers. It would be easier just to find a less frustrating authoring tool at this point.

Eric Santos
11 months ago06/20/23 at 2:34 pm (UTC)

Hi everyone,

I have some great news to share! We just released another update for Storyline 360. In Update 77, we've included important fixes and new features.

One of the bugs we've fixed is: 

  • The trigger wizard performs faster on M-series Macs.

Launch the Articulate 360 desktop app on your computer to take advantage of this update, and click the Update button next to Storyline 360. You'll find our step-by-step instructions here.

Please let me know if you need additional help!

David Westra
11 months ago06/20/23 at 4:40 pm (UTC)

Great to hear! Now we just need the program to be 64 bit so it can use more than 4gb of ram. With higher resolution videos, photos, and other media becoming more standard and prevalent, integrating them into our projects slows down the program significantly. Would be nice to allow the program to take full advantage of the processing power of modern computers.

Matt Perknis
1 month ago04/03/24 at 8:01 pm (UTC)

I came here looking for solutions as well. I'm trying to run the current version of StoryLine with all of the current versions of MacOS, Parallels, and Windows 11. I have a brand new M3 Max and have assigned 8 cores and 20gb of ram to the VM and I've tried the Storyline x64 beta as well. It's slow to the point of being unable.

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