Alert for macOS users - Big Sur & Stitchmastery compatibility issue
UPDATE - please see the pinned answer ("Official Comment") below which highlights that Stitchmastery 3.1.0 works with Big Sur now, following Apple's update. If you are having problems with Stitchmastery on Mac, please make sure you have upgraded to the most recent version of Stitchmastery.
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Nov 2020 - Apple released Big Sur, the new Mac operating system, last week, and we've discovered several compatibility issues which means Stitchmastery won't run properly on that system. It will take us a wee while to work out the changes required and issue our own software update, so in the meantime our advice to any Stitchmastery users on macOS is not to upgrade to Big Sur, if it's your only machine for designing on.
If you've already upgraded, it should be possible to revert back to Catalina or an earlier system - please get in touch if you need any advice on doing this.
We'll post again when there is a Stitchmastery update available.
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Official comment
Apple have now released an update to Big Sur – version 11.2.1 – and Stitchmastery 3.1.0 seems to run almost perfectly on this new version of Big Sur – phew! We have asked several people to test this for us and for the most part, all seems well.
There is one minor issue we’ve encountered, whereby charts get stretched/skewed if you drag down the panel underneath the chart (the Outline View and Output Text panels). We will work on fixing this for the next update of Stitchmastery which Cathy is continuing to work on, but in the meantime, clicking on the chart itself will trigger Stitchmastery to redraw it properly.
If you’d like to try it, we recommend backing up your machine (backing-up tips here), updating Big Sur to at least version 11.2.1, and then run Stitchmastery version 3.1.0. If you need to update your Stitchmastery software, you can download version 3.1.0 from our downloads page.
We’ll post again when the Stitchmastery update is available.
Comment actions -
Our latest news about this - I spoke with Cathy on Friday and we are still looking at weeks, for a number of unrelated reasons. She also says:
There are two options for folk who have upgraded to Big Sur and now cannot run Stitchmastery;-
1) If a user has taken a full Time Machine backup then they can revert back to Catalina using the back up.
2) If a user has not taken a Time Machine back up or does not want to downgrade, then instead, if they have access to an external hard drive, they can install Catalina on that and boot up Catalina from the external hard drive.
Apple support should be able to help people with this and I am also happy to give links to reputable web sites that give details of how to do the above. This comes with the disclaimer of course that they should take a back up of their machine before making any changes, in case anything should go unexpectedly wrong, and be sure they understand the potential outcomes of making changes based on their own individual systems.
We’re also making calendar reminders for next autumn to remind everyone to back up before upgrading their systems, assuming Apple will issue an updated system at the same time. It doesn’t mean we’ll have any better an idea of potential issues with the new system ahead of it coming out (if only!!) but at least it might help ensure everyone has a back up to rely on in the interim.
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Another suggestion, and a bit more context info:
"It is being worked on. It is not a simple update though. It is not just a rebuild for Big Sur. It requires an upgrade of all the system libraries that Stitchmastery is based upon. There are always further issues that arise from new code in some of those libraries. Those issues need to be addressed and all the code thoroughly tested on all platforms, Windows, Linux and macOS. I do not have an ETA as the above process can be unpredictable and time consuming.
If reverting to Catalina on your machine is not possible then you have several options available. One used suggested using Boot Camp to run Windows on your machine. Boot Camp is an Apple utility that will allow you to have both macOS Big Sur and Windows installed on the same machine. You can find details about Boot Camp here;-
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/boot-camp
Another option is to install Catalina on an external hard drive and then run Catalina from that hard drive. This leaves your machine unchanged but gives you an option to run Catalina when needed. When you start your machine you can either run Big Sur as now from the hard drive in your machine or select the external hard drive and run Catalina from that. This Apple support article explains how you can switch between different macOS versions;-
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchlp1034/mac
I have tried to find an Apple support article that explains how to install Catalina on an external hard drive but couldn’t fine one. It is definitely possible though as I have done it myself. This is an article that I have found that describes the process but I cannot give any guarantee that the steps in this particular article are accurate as it has been a while since I have done this myself;-
https://www.chriswrites.com/how-to-run-any-version-of-macos-from-an-external-hard-drive/
As with any changes to your computer make sure that you have an up to date Time Machine backup before you try any of the above. Installing Catalina on an external hard drive (which will be a different hard drive to the one used by Time Machine) shouldn’t affect your machine but up to date Time Machines are always a good idea.
Hope the above helps. The Apple store should also be able to help you with Boot Camp (if you want to run Windows) or with installing Catalina on an external hard drive (if you want to stick with macOS). Please let us know if you need more help."
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