Huh. Okay, my other 32 bit software that I have had for years flashed a message for months stating that it was 32 bit and needed to be updated. SoundForge did not. I am not a computer nerd and do not use this (or any other) type of software 40 hours a week. I teach figure skating and use this software to edit skating music for my students. I had been paying for a subscription to Adobe Audition, but wasn’t using it to justify the subscription. My focus when buying the software was whether it was overkill for my needs, whether it was user friendly (I had used this like 20 years ago when it was Sonic Foundry so for the most part the learning curve was quick), that I did not want to f up my computer by downloading some random free software from the internet. Nowhere in the description when I was researching editing software did I see that SoundForge was 32 bit and was not going to be changed to be compatible with Catalina.

btw, what are crumbs?

@Kristine-Kerr

Hi

. . . . other 32 bit software that I have had for years flashed a message for months stating that it was 32 bit and needed to be updated. SoundForge did not . . . .

AFAIK and have seen of SF 3 installations on a MAC the program is 32 bit, I do not have access to a MAC at present so cannot check.

. . . . Nowhere in the description when I was researching editing software did I see that SoundForge was 32 bit and was not going to be changed to be compatible with Catalina . . . .

The system OS specification for Sound Forge 3 MAC is OS X 10.9 (Mavericks), through to 10.14 (Mojave) with no mention of Catalina.

John EB

Ah, so going forward, before purchasing software, I will look to see what operating system specification is, months or longer before the next one is due to come out. Got it. So how far in advance of a new operating system release should I expect that? And it is the same with every company who sells software, right?
I’m not surprised when a $1.99 app I buy is not supported in a new iteration of iOS, but it was not expected with software that’s been around for 15-20 years or more.

@Kristine-Kerr

Hi

This is a bit of a chicken and egg situation.

My recommendation would be to always purchase 64 bit software where available, if 64 bit is not available, then I would look for alternatives.

In the case of Catalina, not only has this dropped 32 bit support, it appears to have introduced other issues that stop some 64 bit programs working correctly.

Hopefully Magix and/or Apple are working on this issue with Catalina.

Apple appear to have a policy of planned obsolescence with MACs and the MAC OS, rendering older software redundant and in some cases perfectly good older MACS obsolete - this is also a good way to generate new revenue forcing MAC users into buying new hardware and programs or not upgrading to the latest OS.

. . . . And it is the same with every company who sells software, right? . . . .

Any software company is in the same situation - changing a 32 bit program to 64 bit is not a quick job for programs like Sound Forge - there are a lot of individual components that make up the programs functionality that have to be changed, what you see on the screen is basically the window/control screen for all those parts.

John EB

I am in the same boat, but have an older mac air that I have not updated to Catalina to still use Sound Forge. A less than ideal solution than using my brand new powerhouse MacBook Pro16... Has anyone else found a good alternative to Sound Forge that will run on Catalina?

I purchased Soundforge Pro 3 for Mac in October 2019 from Magix while I still had Mojave. I saw nothing in the description or specifications on the web page to say it wouldn't work with Catalina. Everything seemed OK so I went ahead and upgraded to Catalina. Now of course it doesn't work. This strikes me as misleading advertising. I have just switched to Mac after years with a PC using Soundforge and Vegas Pro. What an expensive disaster.

Jonathan, I thought it was misleading too for the company to continue selling a product they had no intention of supporting.

@Anthony-Donovan

Hi

. . . . I saw nothing in the description or specifications on the web page to say it wouldn't work with Catalina. . . . .

That is not how companies work when specifying system requirements - they tell you what it does work with and as you have seen there is no mention of Catalina - Mojave being the last quoted version of the MAC OS.

The issue is similar to when Microsoft released a new version of Windows a few years ago and broke many programs.

John EB

Forum Moderator

That is not an answer. I'm not talking about old and outdated software. I'm talking about something I bought after Catalina was released. Why did Magix not mention Soundforge for Mac would not work on Catalina and why is Magix still selling the program if they know it won't work on the latest computers? In New Zealand this behaviour would lead them to being investigated by the Government Commerce Commission for a breach of the Consumers' Guarantee Act. It is misleading loyal customers (in my case, of over 20 years).

@Anthony-Donovan

. . . . I'm not talking about old and outdated software. I'm talking about something I bought after Catalina was released. . . .

Neither was I - I had several up to date programs broken by a feature update, ie a biannual upgrade, to Windows 10.

. . . . Why did Magix not mention Soundforge for Mac would not work on Catalina . . . . .

Magix tell you which OS versions the program does run on, as I have said above, there is no legal requirement to say what it does not run on.

. . . . this behaviour would lead them to being investigated by the Government Commerce Commission for a breach of the Consumers' Guarantee Act . . . .

Unfortunately not - the CGA covers what happens when the manufacturers recommendation/requirements are followed and the product does not work as specified or fails.

By analogy - if I buy a car and the manufacturer states it runs on petrol (gasoline), Gasohol or E20, and I try to run the car on diesel (it is also a fuel for cars) - do I have a clam through the CGA for the car not working correctly?

. . . . It is misleading loyal customers (in my case, of over 20 years). . . . .

The CGA logic as with any other consumer protection laws, when looking at a claim, the logic used to determine validity will be similar to the analogy above - ie does it run as intended on the recommended OS versions as stated in the product advertising.

There is no misleading as the advertising does not claim it will run on Catalina as there is no legal requirement to do so.

HTH

John EB

Forum Moderator

This is what they replied (4/23/2020) to my support request regarding Sound Forge Pro Mac and Catalina.

"Greetings from Sound Forge Support,
Thank you for contacting us.  Unfortunately, at this time there is no clear answer to what the future of Sound Forge Pro Mac will be.  There are no plans in the foreseeable future to update the program to be compatible with Catalina, and it is hard to say whether or not the Mac line will continue at all.  I apologize for the inconvenience of this and we thank you for your time and understanding."

I have been using SF since 1995 (Sonic Foundry) on Windows. I thought Magix was going to keep going forward with the Mac version making it as good as the Windows one but I guest I was wrong.

@johnebaker

Apple took the decision to drop support for 32 bit software with the release of Catalina and this has affected everyone who upgrades to Catalina and are using 32 bit programs.

You should have been receiving notices from Apple for nearly 2 years now that this was going to happen, and, prior to updating, made aware of the software installed on your machine that would not be supported .

Apple waited to remove support for 32-bit apps until many years after most developers moved to 64-bit apps, and many years after Xcode routinely compiled apps to 64-bit by default. SFPM is a 64-bit app. This is trivial to verify via the Applications list in System Profiler.

Do you have evidence that this is a 32-bit issue? Or are you just guessing?

Perhaps SFPM is using a 32-bit library, and the "Bad crumb" error is related to that. But there's nothing in that message itself that points to a 32-bit problem. Someone brought up the message on the Apple Dev forum; no one there has seen it outside of SFPM, so I strongly suspect this is a problem unique to SFPM, and probably not involving a 32-bit library.

This is just the latest evidence of Magix dealing in bad faith with SFPM users. They charged an unusually large amount for their first "update" of SFPM after the purchase from Sony. The few updates added little to what Sony had produced, and in fact added bugs. I spoke with Magix reps at two AES conventions in the last few years, and they confessed that Magix just didn't have the expertise to manage a complex Mac app. Well, fine, but you don't charge customers near new-app prices to be unwilling beta testers while you attempt—and fail—to build the expertise to build what you are selling.

My SFPM upgrade purchase from Magix is the worst software purchase mistake I've made in decades of computing. I'm a developer myself and my leaning is to cut devs some slack; I don't complain lightly. But it's not really the devs' fault; Magix clearly didn't invest sufficiently in SFPM. The least they could have done was to refund the upgrade price.

—Tom