Family Tree Maker: Merging of Sources: Dialogue Boxes Grey Out

[McGroger]

I sent the following request for help to Mackiev’s Support Centre but have received zero response.  (I've also now sent the same query to the message board on Ancestry.) Just hoping someone else has experienced (and overcome) the same or a similar problem.

I have a 16” Macbook Pro with the Apple M1 Pro chip, running Ventura and version 24.1.0.520 of FTM.

When I try to merge ("replace") sources, the dialogue boxes are greyed out in the step after choosing the original then the replacement source. The only thing I can do then is close the app first (which leaves the greyed out dialogue boxes) then quit (or sometimes force quit) the app, which gets rid of the boxes but leaves a message saying the app quit unexpectedly.

To try to isolate the problem I dug out my old 13” Macbook, mid-2012 vintage, running Catalina and version 24.0.1.252 of FTM. I tested the old version of my family tree that is on the old machine and it had no problem with the merging of sources. I then sent a GEDCOM file of that tree (without media) to the newer Macbook; the same problem occurred as I'd already experienced with the newer version of the tree.

I did not update FTM versions on the old machine, fearful that if the new version of FTM was the problem I would lose the ability to merge sources at all. I did do a fresh install of FTM  build 520 to the newer machine. I also shut down and restarted the newer machine.

However, perhaps it’s  more likely that there’s some small incompatibility between FTM and the new Apple chip?

Hope you can help.

Cheers,
Peter

[UK4753]

I'm not a Mac person but I had an issue some time ago and the support desk recommended I check my drivers and get them updated if necessary.  That cured some of the problem I had so you can take that for what is's worth.
Good Luck.

 

[McGroger]

Thanks for the suggestion, UK473. Fairly new laptop and everything else works so I'm thinking it might be the other way around, that FTM's update might have missed something in making it 100% compatible with the new Apple chip. Thanks, again; I'll bare it in mind if nothing else cures the problem.
Peter

[McGroger]

Just bringing this up to date so that perhaps it can help someone else who has a problem with Family Tree Maker at some stage.

A member on the ancestry message board said that the only way to get a response from MacKiev was to go on their Livechat. (They even said that there were scammers out there offering to fix problems on FTM for money, masquerading as software technicians.) I went on the Livechat and the "support officer", after covering a couple of possibilities, asked if it was okay if he replied by email because the problem was not something that he could fix via Livechat. It looked like it might have to be referred to an "engineer". He asked a couple of questions by email. I replied. Then I heard nothing for seven days despite my sending follow up emails. Finally he sent an email with another question. I answered that. Then there was nothing for two days. Finally I received this email:

"Hi Peter,
"My name is Linda, I am senior technical support agent at Software Mackiev.
"I am writing regarding the investigation of the issue with Family Tree Maker you provided to us.
"After investigating the problem with engineers, we have been able to reproduce it on our side. This issues is caused by compatibility conflict with Mac OS Ventrua. The new application bug has been submitted and dedicated team of engineers have been assigned to develop a fix for it as it's our top priority to make FTM 2019 compatible with all the updates Apple releases.
"As soon as there is an update available to fix this problem, we will notify you via email.
"Sorry for the inconveniences occurred and thank you very much for reporting this issue to us!
"Regards,
Linda"

My takeaway from this is that they are trying, but perhaps the knowledge/training of the support officers and the responsiveness of those up the line is bit lacking (if it was passed up the line in a timely manner). Certainly the overall response is better than some other companies I've dealt with in the past.

Peter