March 20, 2013

Setback (Update)

Everything we do at Pixelmator Team is aimed at making your favorite app the best in the world. With every minor update, we strive to live up to a high-quality standard. We even put aside new features, such as layer styles, for the sake of quality improvements. So far, we are happy with what we’ve achieved. However, there is one issue we wanted to talk about a little bit more.

A month or so ago, after the most recent OS X update (10.8.2), we’ve bumped into a problem that causes certain Macs to restart when intensively using Pixelmator. Sometimes, the app would stop responding without restarting a computer, or just cause some graphical glitches.

We did everything to find the root cause of the problem. We’ve researched a vast amount of information about OS X internals. We’ve torn down our Macs. We even reached out to Apple. Finally, the picture was clear: It’s an issue with NVIDIA GeForce graphics card drivers.*

Although the issue isn’t with Pixelmator, we didn’t give up. We’ve searched for various workarounds, and then, we checked with you to see if any of them helped (thanks so much for being so patient and for taking the time to test those workarounds). But in the end, nothing worked.

Good thing, though—the guys at Apple are very helpful, and as soon as we hear about a solution, we’ll let you know about it that very moment.

To prove our commitment to you and to brighten up the holiday spirit, we are soon to release a Pixelmator 2.1.4 update that comes with tons of quality improvements.

* The following Macs with NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards are currently affected: GT 120, GT 320M, GT 330M, 9400M, and GT 9600.

1.- Since the release of the OS X 10.8.3 update last Thursday, we’ve been thoroughly testing Pixelmator on it. We can finally confirm that Pixelmator’s biggest problem (caused by NVIDIA graphics card drivers) is now solved! For that, we owe a tremendous thanks to the guys at Apple and NVIDIA for listening to us and probably many other developers, and then doing something about it. 

Go ahead, everyone, and download the OS X 10.8.3 update to your Macs!

Comments

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

  • Jonathan

    I suspected this was part of the reason Apple ran through so many betas asking people to test out graphics drivers. Whatever the case may be, I want to thank you guys (in addition to Apple and Nvidia) for getting it together and making sure that your product remained one of the best-supported and inventive applications available for OSX. Great work, guys.

    11 years ago
  • Warren Hill

    I am afraid that for me Pixelmator 2.1.4 crahes every time on launching under OS 10.8.3. No other issues with the OS update.

    Mac Mini i7 2.7 GHz, AMD Radeon HD 6630M Graphics card. Reports sent to Apple.

    Hope the excellent Pixelmator can be resurrected,

    11 years ago
  • Pixelmator Team

    @Warren Hill, email us the crash report to bugs@pixelmator.com. We’ll take it from there.

    11 years ago
  • ikir

    Yeah! never experienced this issue but i’m happy for Pixelmator and its users.

    11 years ago
  • Everett

    I had Warrens problem too. It was more pervasive though. I upgraded to 10.8.3, and anytime I launched non-apple software (from pixelmator to StarCraft2), I was logged out. When I logged back in I’d start over. My eventual fix was:

    1) Decrypt my HD (I was using FileVault)
    2) In Disk Utility, repair the disk
    3) There was no step three…

    I’m going to turn FileVault back on this weekend. At this time, everything is working.

    11 years ago
  • Pete Austin

    Seems to be a bug with the CSS on this page which makes the text unreadably dark on iPad. I’m still using iOS51.1. Thought you’d like to know.

    11 years ago
  • Robert E. Thompson

    Well I’m still kind of scared to try it. But I guess I will. MacBook Pro 15 in.  OS X 10.8.2, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB. I really hope it is fixed.

    11 years ago
  • Amit Singh

    I’ts a great news at last. Congrats

    11 years ago
  • Joel Oscarsson

    This is great!

    11 years ago
  • Nathan

    I have used PM for a while and NOW like the rest of its users are tired of having to forcequit the program and restart our comps. So FIX THE PROBLEM!!!! Why would I continue to use a product (That I unfortunately paid for) when there are others that might be more money but at least they do what they say they do. My comp is a iMac with only .25 memory and less then that used in RAM and all updated including pixelmator but still even with the COUNTLESS promises with NO results we continue to follow like sheep. NO MORE. Fix your program or stop selling!

    11 years ago
  • David Thompson

    The text on this page is so dark its barely readable. have to turn up the brightness to 90% on my 23″ cinema display.

    11 years ago
  • lemon-kun

    Hmm, just some minutes ago my Mac restarted itself while using Pixelmator. That is using 10.8.3. So unfortunately I have to report that the problem isn’t entirely solved, but at least it happens less often than with 10.8.2…

    11 years ago
  • Pixelmator Team

    @lemon-kun, could you email us the crash report? We’d be able to check whether it is the same problem.

    11 years ago
  • Brandon

    @Nathan, the problem is not with Pixelmator, did you not read the top of this blog? Please, give these guys a break, besides how much did you pay for pixelmator, 15 bucks. Good grief, your a baby.

    11 years ago
  • Pablo

    I have an iMac with NVIDIA GT120 and, although the issue was apparently solved once I installed 10.8.3 update, after several days using it I started to have system crashes again. So I think the problem has not been resolved yet at all. People in Apple’s forums are commenting the same.

    I know this is not a Pixelmator issue, but I’m sure that the Pixelmator’s team help on having Apple working on this issue can be a great assistance for so many frustrated Apple+Pixelmator users.

    11 years ago
  • Tom Cole

    I have PIXELMATOR 3.5. My computer which I bought a few months ago restarted repeatedly and I have had endless travail. We zapped the pram and coincidentally at the same time, I stopped using Pixelmator.

    Yesterday, I used Pixelmator and left it running and my computer began to restart again.

    Then I saw this 2013 page saying the problem was SOLVED.

    I have little doubt that Pixelmator is the culprit. How should I proceed? I have version 3.5. I want a version that will not do this.

    7 years ago
  • Tom Cole

    Oh, I have the latest El Capitan 10.11.6. There was no restarting for months until I used Pixelmator 3.5 again.

    7 years ago