Follow-up on Snow Leopard Compatibility with Fireworks CS4
Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard has been in the market for almost 2 months now, so it is time for a follow-up on our compatibility. The good news is that we haven't found anything yet that should prevent you from using Fireworks CS4 with Snow Leopard. There are three known issues that we'll discuss in this post.
First, if you haven't already, you should update to the latest version of Fireworks CS4 by using our 10.0.3 Updater. It is available via the Adobe Update Manager and on http://www.adobe.com/support/fireworks/downloads_updaters.html.
Crash on Quit issue
There's only one issue that we're seeing reported broadly and consistently, and that is that Fireworks CS4 may crash when you select File > Quit or Command-Q. Thanks to crash reports submitted by users, we have an idea of how common this is, and also, what the problem is. This crash only happens on some Snow Leopard installations where Fireworks CS4 is running.
If you are one of the people experiencing this issue, then we want to reassure you that it is not a harmful crash. Our engineers have found the offending code, and determined that all unsaved documents can be safely saved before the code that causes the crash executes.
The code that is causing this crash has been in the product since we first released Fireworks CS3, and did not cause crashes until it was executed on (some, but not all) Snow Leopard installations. It is conceivable that if you're using Fireworks CS3 on Snow Leopard that you may also experience this crash, although we have not been able to cause that to happen in our tests.
We'll continue to monitor these crash reports to determine if we can find a workaround, and to understand how common the crash is for our customers [edit: as Snow Leopard continues to proliferate]. At this time, we have no planned update release to fix this since it is harmless and causes no data loss. We regret any inconvenience this causes.
"Fireworks cannot run......" error message on launch
If you are one of the few people that are experiencing this problem, search your system using Spotlight for a file named "Song.dfont". If you have this font, then temporarily remove it from the "/Library/Fonts/" folder and launch Fireworks CS4. If the problem goes away, then your font may have become corrupted.
Hang when selecting the Text tool
This issue is happening less frequently than the crash on quit issue above, but also seems new and unique to customers using Fireworks CS4 on Snow Leopard. On some Snow Leopard installations, customers may experience a hang (a spinning beachball cursor that goes forever) when selecting the Text tool and manipulating text. Fortunately we have determined that this is caused by a corrupted GlobalResources file, and we have a simple fix for this issue. Follow these steps to resolve the problem:
- Quit all running applications. A restart is not a bad idea, but may not be necessary.
- Navigate to "/Applications/Adobe Fireworks CS4/Required/" folder.
- Rename the file, "GlobalResources" to something like "GlobalResources_original".
- Now download a new version of this file and place it in the same location.
- You should now be able to use Fireworks CS4 without experiencing this problem.
CAUTION: This solution needs to be used ONLY when you are experiencing the beachball cursor hangs when selecting the text tool. The other issue of crash on exit will not be solved by this file replacement technique.
A TechNote about this issue can be found at: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/519/cpsid_51981.html
If you are experiencing other problems using Fireworks CS4 on Snow Leopard, please let us know. Be sure to submit any Crash Reports because we look at everyone of these and they're very valuable in helping us find the issues and to understand how common an issue is. Also, please report your issue using our online Bug and Feature Request form.
Thanks!
Bruce
Bruce Bowman
Fireworks product manager
twitter: @brucebowman
Comments
i look forward to 'crash on quit' in FW CS5, seeing as how it's not very important to *you*.
LAME!!!
Posted by: anonymous coward | October 21, 2009 2:29 PM
Re: Crash on Quit:
The problem is reported "broadly and consistently" *and* you know what the problem is, but since it doesn't cause damage it's not worth fixing? That sounds like a product with no support to me. I WANT to like FireWorks but it just doesn't feel up to par with Illustrator and if you're not going to bother fixing tiny bugs like crashing on quit, I don't have much hope for it.
Posted by: Chris | October 23, 2009 3:32 PM
I am having the "Fireworks cannot run......" error message on launch. I searched for the Song.dfont and did not find it on my system. I have an open support tickets and I am growing very angry that I cannot use Fireworks CS4.
Snow Leopard came pre-installed in my brand new MacBook and I need someone to help me. I need to use Fireworks - not to mention I paid for it.
Posted by: Frank Stewart | October 27, 2009 11:34 AM
I'm so proud to be running "fully supported on Snow Leopard" software that crashes on quit, with no planned update to fix the issue.
I feel like telling the whole world how awesome Adobe is, and can't wait to buy CS5. In fact, I hope Snow Leopard starts giving me kernel panics when I shut down.
Seriously, the "our paying customers don't really need software that quits without spawning a crash report" attitude has finally pushed me over the edge. Adios, Adobe.
Posted by: Geoff | October 30, 2009 7:49 AM
This is not acceptable.
Posted by: Spirit | October 30, 2009 11:59 AM
Yeah I have to say I agree. Adobe software is far from cheap and I'm afraid with the type of attitude shown in the above post, I now know where I stand and I'll therefore be seeking alternatives ASAP. Adios, Adobe.
Posted by: Rob Welsh | November 2, 2009 9:09 AM
What are Alternatives to Fireworks and Dreamweaver ( which also crashes on quit) and unexpectedly every time I use it?
ALSO: YOUR TECH SUPPORT PEOPLE MYSTERIOUSLY DISCONNECT ME when trying to fix this problem.
WTF.
Posted by: bill Jacobson Consulting | November 3, 2009 2:47 AM
How could you be waiting "...to understand how common the crash is.." when you also say that the bug is being reported "broadly and consistently"?? How stupid do you think we are?!?
Posted by: Shrin | November 3, 2009 5:43 PM
What an absolute disgrace - you are the product manager for a market leading product and you announce that after several months of people griping about crashes, that you know what the problem is, but don't consider it harmful enough (i.e. important) enough to fix it.
Not only that buy you've had test/dev versions of snow leopard for several months prior to this, so really this problem has been in existence for somewhere approaching 6 months.
so in 6-8 months when you announce your "latest and greatest" CS5, you'll expect people to pay through the nose and upgrade? Me thinks not -
people pay a premium for excellence - a good product, with good support. So far you have delivered an untested, sub-par product and next to no support (bar the very lame posts from your techs on various sites asking for us to submit the crash reports - which as most of the posts indicate, this is being done more than daily anyway).
Absolute disgrace. You really need to get a new management structure in place and quick.
Posted by: fillyouin | November 10, 2009 12:42 PM
Fireworks cannot run - good one. Search for Song.dfont - why not search for 4711.ebodasihcsiloof -
cs4 master on a mac is banana software -> gets eatable in customers fridge. I dont zhink we will buy the next 10 cs5 releases
Posted by: peter | November 13, 2009 10:20 PM
This is disgusting. You may not think it's important, but you're not trying to use Fireworks every day to earn a living. It doesn't just crash when you exit, it crashes for no reason, when nothing is happening, all the time. I have lost count of how many crash reports I have submitted - you guys have no idea about customer service. (I had one very rare crash from Quark, I submitted a crash report and had someone calling me within 2 hours, without me asking for it!!) This is a significant issue affecting a significant number of users, you know what's causing it, you've stated that CS4 is fully supported in Snow Leopard - FIX IT AND STOP AVOIDING THE ISSUE. End of story. Yes, this is an angry rant. Your software is VERY EXPENSIVE even as an upgrade and customers deserve that the supported software works without issues that happen EVERY DAY SEVERAL TIMES A DAY. Get your act together. (And don't even get me started on your lame on-line store/account which states that my CS4 product is still not in stock when I have had it for over a year, and doesn't even list all the things I've bought from you. Not good enough.) I now use Coda for web development instead of Dreamweaver, Quark instead of InDesign and would be more than happy to find an alternative to Fireworks - but it's such a unique piece of software, ideal for web design. It just needs to work.
Posted by: Peter Labrow | November 14, 2009 1:22 AM