As well as my newer iMac which is my main desktop machine, I have a couple of older Macs, one in particular a 2010 17in MBP. It runs High Sierra.
Since updating to the latest of RW and Stacks I’m getting lots of issues with it, namely crashes when things are deleted or moved. Plus, the smallest change on one page suddenly get the blue dot next to all pages, and so a full export has to happen.
I know it’s pushing things to expect a ten year old machine to run the latest versions perfectly, it’s just this is my “sit in front of the TV and play with websites” machine, and while I do have a couple of newer Macbooks, none have a 17in screen.
So, I’m wondering if others are seeing the same sort of issues on older hardware and OS under 8.6, and/or if going to 8.7 fixed things?
Well, I did notice some troublesome behavior in RW 8.6.2 and Stacks 4.1.2 but I am not able to say that this behavior is due to the age of my computer (which is quite old – MacPro bought in 2014). As a matter of fact, I have no idea what may be the cause of those troubles. I am in the middle of a troubleshooting ticket with Isaiah at the moment.
The symptoms:
Whenever I work with stacks for more than half an hour and I’m trying to type some settings into text boxes in the Inspector, a box loses focus and my cursor disappears. I have to click again inside the input box to regain focus, so that I can start typing. Sometimes this happens instantly, sometimes after a couple of seconds. Sometimes I need to click not once but twice to be able to type. Sometimes, the box loses focus in the middle of typing.
Again, after prolonged work in RW, especially on complicated pages, saving the project does not register the last operation. When I save and then switch to Preview mode, the last operation is not visible. So, I found a workaround. After saving I need to make another operation, promptly undo it and save again.
When I open a project that was previously saved with all wrappers/containers closed (shift+H), then all stacks inside those wrappers lose their labels.
@Fuellemann – if this question is for me, I don’t have 8.7 installed yet. Are you suggesting that you had similar problems and they were cured by this new RW version?
I have the missing inner stacks label issue on my 2017 iMac with latest everything. That does crash too, normally when deleting stacks etc. in large projects. Smaller projects it seems more stable.
The old 2010 is now more or less unusable though for RW work. Sad, but I guess at ten years old, it had a good run!
I do have very sporadic crashes. Those happen most often when I change contents of partials or undo things. Always on busy (complicated) pages.
So, crashes and missing stacks labels are common in our cases. Perhaps it would be good to turn @Isaiah’s attention to this thread, as he is already looking into my ticket? Now, he could get some input from you, Steve…
In my case, whenever I open RW, loading of stacks stalls at 94% – not just after a crash. This is an old one (I think, going back to Stacks 3.x). However, in my case, stacks complete loading after about 30 secs and I don’t need to restart RW.
Let me recommend doing two things immediately that I know will both help a great deal…
Please send me a crash report (or two or three) and your RW environment so that I can work on this problem for you.
Here’s how to send a crash report:
Here is how to share to share your project and RapidWeaver environment:
The bane of being a plugin developer is that I always get to hear about the frustrations and crashes users experience when they post about them on the forum – but unlike an app developer I don’t get see these crash reports unless kind folks who know this fact take the time to send them in. Only Apple and Realmac get to see these crash reports automatically. I just have to ask very very nicely.
So, I hope I’m asking nicely enough.
Please downgrade to Stacks 4.0 for your own sanity. v4.1 might be faster, especially if you’re working on a big project, but you can only realize that performance improvement when you have a stable environment.
Maybe just try again when Stacks 4.1.3 or 4.1.4 comes along. There’s no need to soldier on through crashes like that. Downloading and installing a different version only takes a moment.
NB: You’ll see a warning that files opened in v4.1 shouldn’t be opened in v4.0 – but it’s just that – a warning. There is no difference in the file format. The only risk to date is that you might have downloaded and used a stack that requires v4.1. However I’m not aware of any Stack that currently does this. So at least for the time being, there is no practical risk to downgrading at all.
One final note to everyone on this thread
I recognize most of your names from many many posts over several years. I’m happy to take crash reports and feedback from any of you in any way that is most convenient to contact me (including threads like this one – thank you) There are a variety of ways to get in touch with me. All ways are great – but some will get to me faster – and so get a fix faster. Listed in order of speed:
The forum is last on the list not because I don’t love you guys here – I do love you guys here – your input on everything about Stacks is invaluable – but it is very difficult to read/filter every post that might mention something that needs my attention – even though I have a decade and a half experience at finding all the important info on here I still miss more than I’d like to.
So If you have something you want me to see for sure – posting it almost anywhere else is your best bet.
It feels like I post it ad nauseam to no substantial affect, so if you regular folks can help other people find this info, I sure would appreciate it.
I’m back working on the big project and had another repeating crash: Everytime I tried to paste a Poster2 stack, RW crashed. I’ve sent you the report. Downgrading to v4.0.4 and now it’s working, so I’ll stick at this version for now.
Yes, I have been having crashes after updating to Stacks 4 and it happens especially when moving things around. I have a fairly old late 2012 Mac Mini with plenty of ram and running High Sierra. No problems at all prior to the Stacks 4 update. There doesn’t seem to be reason, it’s pretty sporadic but very annoying especially if you get engrossed in what you are doing and forget to save. I am running RW 8.7.
For what it’s worth @isaiah, even though there seems to be some issues with the latest builds of Stacks, you have my trust because you have always figured things out. You are there for us when things are good and even when they are not.
For me, it’s the reason that I never panic if there happens to be an issue with one of your products. Thank you!
The issue I am having seems to be the labels disappearing in partials AND this same partial no longer publishing. I’ll do my best to get you some more detailed info on your other channels.
Qustion Yourhead Apps I have RapidWeaver 8.xx on my new iMac looking to purchase Stakes and a few other apps.
Can I use the apps on my laptop as well as i use it a lot when out. as with RapidWeaver that will work on same account on several devices.
I have emailed both yourhead and RapidWeaver with no luck
Yep. It’ll work fine. Loads of people are using RW on a two-device setup like this.
I can speak with authority about Stacks and while I’m not sure the exact number that RW supports today, I’m certain that their license will support a laptop and a desktop.
As for Stacks, the exact detail is this: our license is per-person, not per device. But each person can have as many devices as they like.
Here’s a couple practical examples:
If you have 2 people in an office both working on Stacks, then you should own 2 licenses.
If you have 1 person with 2 devices, then you only need 1 license.
If you have 5 people in an office with 8 devices, then you’ll need 5 license – but you should contact us for a site-license discount.
Site Licenses
If you have a bunch of people that need license, let us know. We regularly tailor larger site-licenses for Stacks and/or multiple plugins with significant discounts. And we’ll give a smaller, but still nice, discount to small offices of at least 4 or more users.
Stronger Together
And lastly, since we’re talking about licenses…
I know that a lot of folks are really hurting right now. Some folks are out of work or just having real trouble making ends meet during the pandemic. Two of my longtime beta testers let me know last week that after some unexpected family layoffs their small Stack-developer hobby business is suddenly their family’s only income. Times are really tough for a lot of us – we all have to dig deep to help each other out.
If this sounds like you, please let me know personally, we have a hardship discount, a student discount, and, if it means you getting your resume/portfolio site posted today, I can personally float you a license and you can repay me later when you’re employed again or when you’ve released that great new stack framework.
– thank you) There are a variety of ways to get in touch with me. All ways are great – but some will get to me faster – and so get a fix faster. Listed in order of speed:
