Rooty: Thanks for the feedback. I think I will fully investigate FTM and make the leap if we are stuck "in limbo" with RM.

You could always try RM7 under the full version of CrossOver. I’ve been running that for several years and it is absolutely rock solid for me with the current highest versions of everything. I do not use the Ancestry function but am a very heavy user of the Family Search interface. I just leave RM running for days, with my iMac sleeping when I’m not using it. When I switch to RM, it just continues and any use of FS just continues from where it was. No need to re-login or anything like that. I’m not sure when I last had to kill (force shut) RM, but it has moved over the years from not that infrequently to very very infrequently.

Yes, Crossover costs money, but worth the pleasure I get out of the genealogy hunt.

PS Yes, it is still a 32bit application in Mac terms, so won’t run on Catalina as is. One has to assume that they will fix that or they will no longer have a Mac market. So, if you were to go that way, there would be an interesting race between a Crossover update, RM8, and your possible desire to get on to Catalina. You have to decide whether an interim extra cost is a price worth paying.

So RM7 for Mac (with wrapper) is having a lot more problems working well with Ancestry and Family Search than the full Crossover/RM setup?

 

Darn!  I was so relieved to hear I didn't have to deal with Crossover when RM7 for Mac came out. In the past it has not been very easy or simple for us non techies to use.

 

Is the presence of Crossover 15.1 on my computer while using RM7 for Mac a possible source of the freezing up problem or is it just a RM7 for Mac problem, or Safari, or Sierra?  I have a 2012 Macbook Pro and cannot upgrade it past Sierra, although I have a 1T SSD hard drive.

 

If I want to stick with RM7 for Mac, should I uninstall the Crossover 15.1?

 

If I want to go with the full Crossover setup, I see that it is going to cost $40 to $60 per year to upgrade to 16, 17, or 18.

Wondering if my current Crossover 15.1 will do OK, and if so, how do I get a standalone download of RM7 (without wrapper)?  I don't see it on the Crossover website, only the option to order a 14 day trial of Crossover 18.  

They do have a button for downloading RM7 for Mac which takes you back to the RootsMagic website.  Been there, done that.

 

A good Windows version of RM is sorely needed!

 

I'm not sure you can conclude that ALL RM for Mac users are having more difficulties than those using full CrossOver. What you will tend to hear from on the forums is those who do have problems. Note also that some of the problems have been when users have moved to a new version of MacOS - those doing it early, and Mac users tend to do that more than Windows users would - have hit issues that have sometimes needed updates to the wrapper. Full CrossOver users would tend to get these automatically by the CrossOver update process.

 

I wouldn't have thought there was a clash between having CrossOver 15 and RM for Mac installed, but I'm not an expert on that. I have both installed but both are at similar levels from a CrossOver perspective.

 

I'm surprised you found CrossOver needed a techie approach. I've just selected the "Install a Windows Application" on the CrossOver - All Bottles panel, entered Rootsmagic, selected the Rootsmagic 7 option and then Continue, and it has installed RM7 in a new bottle (independent of my existing RM bottle. (Yes, if you click on the RM7 panel, it throws up an RM for Mac download option, but if you just continue, it just installs the Windows version and supporting Windows stuff.) Of course, to get that far, I assume you have to be a signed in and therefore paying CrossOver user. Mine is CO 18, but I assume there was a similar option on CO 15.

 

Having done the above, RM7 started, asked me for registration details or did I want the Essential version. I deleted the bottle at that stage, but it seemed very straightforward to me (though I do know what is going on behind the scenes, so maybe I'm not the best judge of ease of use).

 

CrossOver costs - well, they often have offers on - 30 percent off today - and I seem to recall that having originally installed a trial version, I was made an offer. Annual renewals seem to come at a reduced price. It all depends on how much time and effort you put into your genealogy as to whether it is worth whatever the cost is. From my perspective, given the time I spend at it and the enjoyment I get from puzzling things out, both RM and CrossOver seem quite cheap.

 

I assume your very last comment should have said a good "Mac version". One observation - if RM8 were to appear tomorrow, it is a question as to whether it will support Sierra. We could be on to the next version of MacOS before it appears - we all hope not - but that would mean supporting 4 versions of MacOS. Supporting a new version of RM will be challenging enough, especially with a Windows and a Mac variety, so there may be an attempt to limit the scope by limiting the OS versions supported, possibly for both Windows and Mac.

I first got my Macbook Pro in 2012, and started using Crossover with RM at that time.  The Crossover program is still on my Mac, The last modification to Crossover was on March 30, 2016.  I have installed the latest RM7 with the wrapper.  Do I need to do a complete uninstall of Crossover?

You need to be clear on what you are wanting to do. Either you run RM for Mac, which includes a cut-down version of CrossOver that is included in the RM for Mac product, or you run the Windows version of RM under the full CrossOver product, with RM installed using the “install script” (this is the wrong terminology, but you should be able to find what I am referring to on the CrossOver website).

If you want to use RM for Mac, then follow the standard instructions for complete uninstall and reinstall. The included version of the CrossOver wrapper appears as version 7.0.3 if you use the Mac Get Info against the installed package. It is certainly at a higher level than CrossOver V15.

If you go the full CrossOver route, then the current version is V18, and that supports all versions of MacOS from Sierra to Mojave - you say you are on Sierra. For Mojave support, you need V17 or V18.

I use V18 on Mojave - all latest versions - and RM is still running after many days, including very heavy use of the Family Search Family Tree interface. My Mac sleeps overnight but every time I interact with it, RM seems happy to continue (? reconnect under the covers) with FSFT. I used to try to remember to sign-out and then sign-in again to FSFT before doing anything with RM when I woke my Mac from sleep, just in case, but have not done that now for quite some time, and I can’t recall when I last had to kill RM. The full CrossOver/RM combination has now become amazingly stable compared to my previous experience, though mine was no-where near as bad as some others seem to have experienced.

Les: I tried parallels and vm fusion  10 for windows 10 but my macbook pro 13 (2014) is really not up to it. Parallels was terrible and neither program would properly handle a Yosemite VM. Fusion did pretty well on Windows 10 but it was slow and clumsy. Virtual box is probably not suited to my skill level.
 
Vyger: I did try Windows 10 on fusion but will wait for the native mac version of RM. It's only been over 6 years but who is counting. I am using FTM 2017 happily but my spouse is trapped in RM7 with a huge database. She was OK under Yosemite but tech support encouraged her to migrate to Sierra where they knew retina macs (most mac users) had problems they did not plan to fix.

I use RM7 under “full” - paid for - CrossOver and have had little trouble over the years moving up through the various MacOS versions including the latest version of High Sierra on a Retina 5K iMac. I have also used RM for Mac but there is a little more flexibility with full CrossOver - I changed the DPI setting in “Windows” (i.e CrossOver) and found some fonts that are OK (though admittedly could be a little clearer) and one gets the more recent updates to CrossOver.

I make very heavy use of Family Search and in general it works very well despite my slow internet speeds and I can usually keep going for hours and often even continue the next day without restarting RM or logging out and then in again using Family Search Central. Yes, from time to time I have to Force Quit RM, one assumes because the FS connection has died or gone away, but the overheads are far lower than when I used to use Parallels and the complications of keeping full Windows going, so any minor pain is worthwhile in comparison.

I find the combination of RM and full CrossOver very usable, though not perfect. Some others seem to have had more trouble, though this would seem to be more prevalent with the cut-down CrossOver included with RM for Mac. OR is it that I am in the UK, so probably using FS mainly only up to about 1300 EST, so not exactly peak time in the US, and Family Search will therefore be under less stress.

jp: Arial 16 works well for us on a macbook pro 13/15. The smaller screens have different display settings.
 
I saw a control panel initially but now it does not show up at all in crossover so no ability to tweak settings.
 
Am getting several error messages from time to time.

I didn’t see the control panel when I first looked last night with the all bottle view selected, but when I selected the specific RootsMagic bottle, it appeared (with other tools), perhaps after a few seconds delay, towards the bottom of the panel.

I’m just an amateur who is at least happy to try tweaking things - one can usually recover from nasty side effects one way or another.

jp: i had not thought of using crossover directly and we have just used the RM7 wrapper version from Bruce. 
 
I had tried installing RM years ago but at that time it did not work well. Family search is what my wife is focused on using now and is having sreious RM7 issues under Sierra. Things were fine in Yosemite.
 
Is there a set of instuctions or coded install app available if one buys a crossover license?

Yes, there is a straightforward process for RM7 that installs CrossOver and then RM7. Search for RootsMagic on the CrossOver website. There is also a 30 day free trial - I suppose you have to cancel within the 30 days - but you could try it. There is a “control panel” function that allows you to tweak the “Windows” environment, where I played with the DPI setting. (I also run my iMac with a non-default screen seeking as I found the default resulted in fonts a little small for my eyes at my age - nothing to do with RM but other applications.)

However, I’m still a little concerned that you had major issues going from Yosemite to Sierra. Maybe there was something more to it, or RM for Mac was more flakey at that time.

JP:  First I installed RM7 from Bruce and confirmed my wife's problems with displaying sources and research notes. I am on High Sierra and she is on Sierra. Then I removed Bruce's app and related files in case of conflicts. Tried Crossover from codeweaver and it installed rootsmagic 7 very well. Setup is a pain with folder location and fonts (we use arial and helvetica 16) BUT the display problems seem cured. Trial lasts 2 weeks now and purchase is $50/year. 
 
I will try further setup and use to confirm these results but it does look like Bruce is using an older version of Crossover that works for only some mac users. The apparent cure seems too simple and easy for Rootsmagic not to have fixed this problem that I remain skeptical of my "success". 
 
Thank you for suggesting this approach. It never occurred to me that Bruce's wrapper might not be kept current.

I don’t know whether it will help but thought it might be worthwhile listing some of the values I use:

In RM, I use Microsoft Sans Serif 12 point for all the fonts you can specify in Program Options

For my 5K iMac, the display parameters are set to scaled with a size that “looks like 2048 x 1152” (the default middle setting is like 2560 x 1440) - so characters appear a little larger that the default

In CrossOver, using the Wine Configuration control panel for the RM7 bottle, under the graphics tab, I set the dpi to 150.

I’ve run with those values for quite some time, though I did use other less satisfactory fonts until a few months ago when I inavertently reset my RM parameters and needed to respecify the fonts.

This has begun to worry me a little, too. I normally update my OS fairly soon after a new version has been released, so I wouldn't want to have to wait too long before doing so.
 
An added complication is that I am considering changing my iMac this year, and if RM8 is going to be very late, I would clearly have to do so *before* the new 10.15 is released, otherwise my RM (probably) wouldn't run on it. This means I would have to update the OS separately later, which is no big deal, but even so, irritating to haver to do so.

And, of course, if you end up with a new new model of iMac (which may or may not happen, of course), it may only run 10.15. In that case, you won’t be able to run RM for Mac at all. Ugh! (I suppose that is what you were saying.)

CATALINA KILLS ROOTSMAGIC 7! Catalina does not allow any 32-bit programs to operate any longer when you upgrade to Catalina. Done deal. 
 
Your option at this point since RM currently has no 64-bit version for the Mac? Supposeldy run an older version fo Mac OS in Virtual Mode and store RM7 there or put the Mac OS older version on a thumb drive and load RM7 on the same unit. 
 
Virtual Box does not function fully under Catalina. Does the latest CrossOver?
 
Feel like McGyver yet?

A quote from a CrossOver forum responding on this topic - dated 26 June.

-

Maintaining support for 32-bit applications on macOS 10.15 Catalina continues to be a top priority for us. We appreciate that September is right around the corner and that macOS users are eager for a solution - we are confident that this support will be available when Catalina is released.

CrossOver 19 will move to beta later this summer. I invite all who are interested in the latest CrossOver development updates and are willing to provide feedback on pre-release versions of CrossOver to join here: https://www.codeweav...patibility/beta

-

It would seem that work has been on-going for some time, but as is often the case for software companies, they aim new functionality for GA availability rather than beta availability of new OS levels.

Thank you for your help, Renee.  Not sure if you were the one to respond on Facebook earlier, but between the help here and on FB, I was able to follow the youtube video produced by Bruce on uninstalling and reinstalling RM7 and it worked flawlessly.  Now I have Mojave *and* RM7 and the restore of my data went smoothly as well.
 
Thanks again!

The key thing here is to make sure that your RM “data” files are somewhere that you control. Do this by using Tools - Program Options - Folders. The best place to use is some subfolders under your Mac Documents folder, so ensuring that all your data is well clear and independent of RM for Mac.

The current wrapper to allow RM to run on a Mac will not work on the next version of MacOS, Catalina. That is because Catalina will not allow the execution of 32-bit applications, only 64-bit applications, and the current wrapper is a 32-bit application. (It does not matter whether the application running under the wrapper, such as RM, is 32-bit or 64-bit.)

The wrapper is a stripped down version of a product called CrossOver that allows Windows programs to run on the Mac. Users of the full version of CrossOver are expecting a 64-bit version to be available around the time that Catalina becomes generally available, so in the next month or two.

Whether RM will be prepared to pay whatever the cost is for a matching updated version of the wrapper is a question for them, but if RM8 becomes available in a similar timeframe, or a little longer given our expectations are for sometime in 2019, then maybe it wouldnt be sensible for them to pay that cost.

That might leave some RM for Mac users with the issue of whether to delay implementing Catalina until RM8 becomes acceptably reliable. I can foresee interesting times ahead.

(Windows users might consider such concerns as rather academic, but many Mac users tend to update to new versions of the OS rather more enthusiastically and promptly than Windows ones.)

CrossOver just posted their latest update. The latest Mac beta just posted the error message above. When will we see the latest CrossOver update for the Mac version of RM7?

This is a reference to the recent release of CrossOver 18.5.

Going back to the topic of this thread, presumably the pop-up will go away after full Crossover introduces a 64-bit version (which probably depends on the availability of a 64-bit version of underlying open-source Wine). The pop-up is warning us that a 32-bit application will not work on the next version of MacOS (see below), which we assume will be generally available in October or November this year. For those who will want to try the beta versions, these could well start being available from June or July, and I guess that such early users will be the ones that could hit this problem. For those of us who are happy to wait for general availability but want the latest software (or our new hardware requires it), it looks like it could be a race between RM8 on Mac and a 64-bit version of CrossOver and then the CrossOver wrapper.


Quote from Apple:

Apple began the transition to 64-bit hardware and software technology for Mac over a decade ago, and is working with developers to transition their apps to 64-bit. At our Worldwide Developers Conference in 2018, Apple informed developers that macOS Mojave is the last version of macOS to run 32-bit apps.

I deleted and reinstalled the program. Now I open the program, I search & search for an existing file, but all of my .rmgb files are greyed out. What am I doing wrong? Thanks so much.

RMGB files are backups, so you Restore those rather than Open them. You open RMGC files.

You have to transfer the marriage from the Share Data panel, couple by couple. When you add a person from RM to FSFT, only the details for that person are transferred. Once both partners are matched, then you can transfer the marriage fact from RM to FSFT, but be careful if more than one partner appears in the Family Members part of the Share Data panel.