Software Family Tree Maker and the spinning beach ball

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Level 1

12 points

Software Family Tree Maker and the spinning beach ball

Firstly, I am not a Mac user, just have an Iphone

I am setting up my elderly parents MacBook Air loaded with Catalina 15.15.5

They have purchased the software "Family Tree Maker 2019" mac version, which has loaded fine, but I am having issues importing or opening any file. Just get the spinning beachball.

I can create a new tree and save it, as well as back it up to the hard disk.

The issue arrives when I try the following, when it appears to be going to use whatever the mac version is of a PC's File explorer

Click on the import button
Click on the open button

I checked the activity monitor and I can see the Family tree maker is Not responding but also

com.apple.appkit.xpc.openAndSavePanelService (Family Tree Maker 2019) (Not Responding)

Any ideas on what could be wrong?

Posted on Jun 23, 2020 1:42 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 23, 2020 4:04 PM in response to Old Toad

I think the problem is that the app developer says the app works up to and including MacOS 10.14.

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Answer 2

Jun 23, 2020 5:06 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

There is comflicting info on the FTM site. On the front page it says 10.15 but in their technical FAQ it says it only works with MacOS up to and including 10.14.

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

215,748 points

Jun 24, 2020 9:58 AM in response to Pearlesr

There is no reason to ever run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up" or anti-virus apps on your Mac. This user tip describes what you need to know and do to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community. Do a Google search to find out how to uninstall it according to the developer's instructions.

Regarding the iCloud Drive: you do know that it is not off computer storage, right. it's a syncing service and any file in the iCloud Drive is also on your hard drive. That's so you can access the files when you don't have internet access. So if you were thinking you were saving space by using the iCloud Drive you may want to stop using it as it can slow down performance.

Also with the minimum of RAM, you should strive to have only one app open at a time. Additionally, don't let the free space on the boot drive fall below 30 GB. This will help insure best system and application performance.

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Answer 4

Pearlesr Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 23, 2020 5:32 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

When I click on the Etrecheck File Save I also get the beachball?

And then it comes up with

iCloud Drive may not work properly. Please check the iCloud preference pane

Couldn't communicate with a helper application

But did get to the save part after 30 sec, so may not be related

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Answer 5

Pearlesr Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 24, 2020 12:51 PM in response to Old Toad

No I had no idea about the iCloud was that., or the virus part (spot the windows guy).

I really appreciate the time and effort you have put in.

I think you might be right about the app developer being the culprit. It was also there before I updated the system, but the was also Catalina. I am waiting for their reply, on the chat I got the "An Engineer will email you shortly" when it got to hard for them.

Sorry if my responses seemed a bit short, I am just a data guy.

Thanks and appreciated

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Answer 6

Pearlesr Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 23, 2020 4:09 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

looks like it will accept Catalina

Macintosh

OS X 10.10 or later, including macOS Catalina 10.15, 900 MB hard disk space, 2 GB of RAM (4 GB recommended), 1280 x 800 screen resolution.

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Answer 7

Pearlesr Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 23, 2020 4:12 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

Macintosh

OS X 10.10 or later, including macOS Catalina 10.15, 900 MB hard disk space, 2 GB of RAM (4 GB recommended), 1280 x 800 screen resolution.

from there web site

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Answer 8

Jun 23, 2020 4:14 PM in response to Pearlesr

That's great. Would you mind sharing the link to that info. All I could find for FTM 2019 was 10.14.

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Answer 9

Pearlesr Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 23, 2020 4:18 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

https://www.mackiev.com/ftm/#section-minspeq

Sorry exceded post limit, had to wait a few minutes to post more

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Answer 10

Jun 23, 2020 4:19 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

OK found it. Thanks for setting me straight.

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Answer 11

Pearlesr Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 23, 2020 5:02 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

Etrecheck

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Answer 12

Pearlesr Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 23, 2020 5:23 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

Thanks, I will chat with them now to check what they actually mean

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Answer 13

Pearlesr Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 23, 2020 5:25 PM in response to Pearlesr

When I click on the Etrecheck File Save I also get the beachball?

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Answer 14

Old Toad

Level 10

215,748 points

Jun 23, 2020 4:02 PM in response to Pearlesr

Have your parents run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up" or anti-virus apps on their Mac?

Boot into Safe Mode (How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support) by booting with the Shift key held down and check there to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing some system cache cleaning, volume verifying and directory repairing.

If it still doesn't launch and run download and run Etrecheck. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

Copy the report

and use the Add Text button to include the report in your reply. How to use the Add Text Feature When Posting Large Amounts of Text, i.e. an Etrecheck Report

IMPORTANT:

Before running Etrecheck assign Full Disk Access to Etrecheck in the Etrecheck's Privacy preference pane so that it can get additional information from the Console and log files for the report:

Also click and read the About info to further permit full disk access.

Then we can examine the report and see if we can determine what might be causing the problem.

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Answer 15

Jun 23, 2020 2:58 PM in response to Pearlesr

Check the system requirements for your version of FTM 2019. Maybe it does not work with Catalina.

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Software Family Tree Maker and the spinning beach ball

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