Problem report

[KatrinLeoPako]

I've purchased Helicon Focus and Remote. I have a MacBook Pro with an M2 chip, running Ventura 13.4.1.

Every time I try to use your software, my computer encounters issues communicating with it. Other programs get stuck, and sometimes the entire system becomes unresponsive, forcing me to completely restart the computer.

Additionally, Helicon Remote consistently experiences issues and fails to perform its job correctly. It can be unresponsive and unreliable. I'm concerned that I've paid for software that conflicts with my entire computer system, essentially feeling like I've wasted my money. How you can resolve this problem?

[Catherine]

On the screenshot I see that Helicon Focus crashed, but the important part of the error report is not visible. Please select and copy all the text from the "problem details" section (Cmd + A, Cmd + C) and send it in an e-mail to support@heliconsoft.com

As for Helicon Remote, please send a bug report (menu - Help - Report a bug) after an error of any kind occurs, e. g. after something didn't work the way you expected.

P. S. "Other programs get stuck, and sometimes the entire system becomes unresponsive, forcing me to completely restart the computer" - it is impossible for our software to do this, the purpose of the operating system is to isolate applications from each other. What you describe is a failure of the operating system itself. Which may or may not be triggered by something our software did in combination with a macOS bug; these kinds of issues are difficult to diagnose (often impossible).

One bit of advice I can give you is to never run more than program that can detect the camera at the same. E. g. Helicon Remote + Photos, Lightroom, Capture One etc. Or Lightroom + Photos, you get the idea. Always connect the camera first, close any pop-ups, close all other software that may communicate with the camera, and only then run the camera-related program you need (be it Helicon Remote or something else). A software conflict when two or more programs compete for the camera may lock up one or both programs. But it still shouldn't lock up the whole system.

[KatrinLeoPako]

Answering for that:

"One bit of advice I can give you is to never run more than program that can detect the camera at the same. E. g. Helicon Remote + Photos, Lightroom, Capture One etc. Or Lightroom + Photos, you get the idea. Always connect the camera first, close any pop-ups, close all other software that may communicate with the camera, and only then run the camera-related program you need (be it Helicon Remote or something else). A software conflict when two or more programs compete for the camera may lock up one or both programs. But it still shouldn't lock up the whole system."

I do not use Remote after few times crashed my entire work, I even don't touch it now.

Answering for that:
P. S. "Other programs get stuck, and sometimes the entire system becomes unresponsive, forcing me to completely restart the computer" - it is impossible for our software to do this, the purpose of the operating system is to isolate applications from each other. What you describe is a failure of the operating system itself. Which may or may not be triggered by something our software did in combination with a macOS bug; these kinds of issues are difficult to diagnose (often impossible).

"it is impossible for our software to do this" - It is possible, cuz I did a test. While I'm not using your soft after restarting my computer, everything work very well. Once I work with Helicon focus and it' opened, opened PS, cuz I work at the same time with it, my PS stucking, Helicon stucking and I have to do the "force quite" all the time, it's so frustrating. That I closed completely Helicon and started do focus stacking just with PS.

I would love to use your software, it could be really helpful for my work, but all the time issues with it. And I don't really want waste my time to report a problem of the software all the time by copy pasting, copy pasting, copy pasting. Also I've read the post of other people complaining and some of your answers that you don't know how to solve the problem. How I can get a refund, because I no longer want to use it now while you in a diagnose mode for this software. Maybe in a half year you can improve it and I'm happy to come back and get it. Thanks for understanding.

[Catherine]

Once I work with Helicon focus and it' opened, opened PS, cuz I work at the same time with it, my PS stucking, Helicon stucking and I have to do the "force quite" all the time, it's so frustrating.

This probably means your computer does not have enough system resources (CPU, RAM, maybe GPU memory) to handle both programs at the same time.
Does this only happen when a render is running in Helicon Focus, or at idle as well?

Adjust Helicon Focus settings for minimum hardware usage: in the menu - Preferences - Performance
* Memory cache limit = 0%
* Parallel image loading = Disabled
* OpenCL acceleration = Disabled

Do you have any other computer where you could try our software?

For a refund request go to Helicon Focus menu - Help - Contact support, say that you want a refund and submit the request.

[KatrinLeoPako]

My computer is 3 month brand new. Having M2 chip, has a 32 GB memory, and 1TB hard drive.
I can run at the same time Capture one, PS, Lightroom, Premier Pro, Telegram, Spotify and more softwares, NEVER had a problem with all of this working together at the same time, moreover it flies like crazy. Once I'm opening your software, that's it, everything can go down, even when It' open just one program and Helicon, right away I'm having a problem.

Thank you, I will go to contact support and ask for refund. Have a good one!