Forum Discussion
Storyline 360 instability on M1 Mac with Parallels/Windows 11 ARM version
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
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!
Please see my post about an issue that has made Storyline unusable to me using iMac M1 and Windows 11. No resolution after several months.
Hi Sean,
I can see that that my colleague Carlo is already assisting you in a support case. You're in good hands, and we'll continue troubleshooting your issue there!
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.
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!
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
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.
False alarm. The slide properties were set to "custom for selected slides" instead of "Player defaults."
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.
Thanks SO MUCH for the Shadow PC tip! I've been trying to run Storyline in parallels on my new M1 Mac Studio and it. is. so. slow. Painfully sssssslllllooooowwwww. $30 a month for the incredible jump in speed is totally worth it for Shadow PC.
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.
Hi Matt!
Sorry to hear you're experiencing slowdowns when accessing Storyline through a virtual machine!
I see that you've also opened a support case that's been received by our senior support engineers. You're in excellent hands troubleshooting with them and they should be following up with you shortly! In the meantime, do you mind elaborating on which tools or features within Storyline were performing slowly?
Looking forward to hearing from you!
@Steven - Everything is performing slowly. Selecting objects on the screen and in the timeline, moving them around, changing styles, any dialog that appears, etc. It feels like the whole app is "stuck in mud."
