Max 7 Standalones on Mac will not launch unless they are in a subfolder
I have been resisting moving from Max 6 to Max 7 as many of my patches require substantial effort to get them to look good and work in Max 7.
With the advent of High Sierra I found out that my Max 6 standalones do not work at all in this latest OS, so I have started the arduous task of converting them in Max 7.3.4. I started with a simple patch and hit a problem that does not occur with standalones created with Max 6.1.10.
Basically the Max 7 version of the standalone does not launch ( I double-click the application’s icon, I get the beachball and the application gets hung up, with no crash, until I force quit) if the standalone is located in one of the system-related folders on the Mac. For instance, this problem happens if the standalone is in any of the following directories:
/Users
/Library
/Library/Application Support
/Users/Home
/Users/Home/Library
However (and this is the big However), if I create a folder inside any of the above directories and place the standalone in it, it launches fine with no issues!
I tried for countless hours, in vain, many potential fixes including:
1. Repairing Permissions
2. Trying every conceivable setting and combination of settings in the standalone object in my patch.
3. Including or excluding various files in the Contents folder inside the application’s folder. The problem persists for even the thinnest version.
Some relevant info:
A. The problem occurs on both OS 10.12.6 (Sierra) and 10.13 (High Sierra), each running on a different MacBook Pro.
B. On 10.8.3 (Mountain Lion) (running on a Mac Mini) the same standalone in the above listed directory does launch but, anomalously, it takes up to 20 seconds. However (the same big However) if I create a folder in the the same directory, place the standalone in it and launch, it launches fine immediately.
C. The problem does NOT occur for the same standalone created in Max 6.1.10. Such a standalone launches and works fine one all Mac OS (and all directories) from 10.7 until 10.12.x. (But not with High Sierra, where, my Max 6 standalones launch OK but are corrupted and do not work properly).
Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated.
p.s. I would be happy to post the sample standalone on a server and give the URL if this can help anyone find a solution.
I had observed similar problem with older max versions.
The problem was loading java stuff, which kind of did not work
properly, so max searched the whole Applications Folder for the missing files.,
including package contents of other apps.
Putting standalone in a folder makes some sort of smaller playground
for searching.
MAybe You need to check standalone settings.
Thank you for your reply. I have tried many combinations of standalone object settings (including all on and all off) to no avail. Do you remember which particular setting fixed the problem for you?
After many trial and error attempts I was able to find a workaround for the problem I described at the beginning of the topic postings above, which I now believe is a bug in Max 7.
Here is the workaround to create a standalone patcher that worked in Max 6 but that has the problem I described above when created in Max 7.
1. Open a new empty patcher in Max 7.
2. Instantiate a standalone object in that patcher.
3. Configure the standalone options as you wish from the inspector of the standalone object.
4. Open the Max 6 patch of desired standalone, copy all contents to clipboard
5. Go to the Max 7 patch and paste content of clipboard
6, Save Patcher
7. Build Standalone as usual.
It is important to instantiate the standalone object before pasting the content of the Max 6 patcher. If you paste the contents of the patcher then instantiate the standalone object, the built standalone will have the problem reported above, i.e. it will not open (or take a very long time to open) in the following folders (unless it is enclosed in a folder):
/Users
/Library
/Library/Application Support
/Users/Home
/Users/Home/Library
I hope this would help others, who may encounter the same problem, save a lot of time trying to go around this bug.
Adam