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!
25 Replies
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!False alarm. The slide properties were set to "custom for selected slides" instead of "Player defaults."
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.
Honestly, I will never understand why Articulate doesnt make a native version of Storyline for the Mac.
simple answer - there is no Microsoft .NET4.8 for Mac-OS
articulate would have to switch to another (multi platform) framework and rewrite the complete codeThere are newer versions of the .NET framework available from Microsoft for Mac. So it shouldnt be difficult.
.NET4.8 is not compatible to with the 'modern' .NET versions
storyline uses >700 third party libraries - they had to be migrated to 64 bit* multi platform solutions
* MacOs don't support 32 bit anymore
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.
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!
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.
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."
