Helicon Soft Forum

Hi. HF 8 executes fine on MacBook Air M5 with Tahoe. When I try and execute HF 9.0.5 nothing happens other than the Dock at bottom of screen expanding and contracting as if it is trying to show an app.

Hi,
Is there no "Application quit unexpectedly" pop-up after that?

No. Nothing displays.

Please open the Terminal (Applications - Utilities - Terminal), and run this command to start Helicon Focus and watch its diagnostic output. Paste the command and press Enter: Then, if it still doesn't open, please send us the full output that appears in the terminal after your command. You can paste it here or mail to [email protected].

If it does open - the the problem was related to OpenCL, the output still might be helpful.

Last login: Tue Sep 1 09:23:30 on console

The default interactive shell is now zsh.
To update your account to use zsh, please run `chsh -s /bin/zsh`.
For more details, please visit https://support.apple.com/kb/HT208050.
JohnHoffmansAir:~ johnhoffman$
JohnHoffmansAir:~ johnhoffman$ /Applications/HeliconFocus.app/Contents/MacOS/HeliconFocus --disable-opencl
-bash: /Applications/HeliconFocus.app/Contents/MacOS/HeliconFocus: No such file or directory
JohnHoffmansAir:~ johnhoffman$ /Applications/HeliconFocus.app/Contents/MacOS/HeliconFocus --disable-opencl
[I 2561602 * / +1ms] logging verbosity: info (info compiled-in), async-log: true
[I 2561602 * / +0ms] Arguments:
--disable-opencl
[I 2561602 * / +2ms] UI language: english.lng
[I 2561602 * / +5ms] Time: 2026-09-03T18:37:27Z UTC, 2026-09-03T14:37:27
[I 2561602 * / +0ms] Built from: 05e8520a
[I 2561602 * / +0ms] Helicon Focus 9.0.5 BETA x64 DISTRIB
[I 2561602 * / +0ms] Exiv2: 0.28.8, lcms: 2190, LibRaw: 0.22.1-Release, libtiff: 4.7.1, jpeg: 80, turbo: 3.1.4.1, spdlog: 1.17.0
[I 2561602 * / +0ms] Running on macOS Tahoe (26.6.2) (26.6.2) arm64
[I 2561602 * / +0ms] Built on Aug 27 2026 at 22:52:56 with Qt 6.10.2
[I 2561602 * / +0ms] Running with Qt 6.10.2
[I 2561602 * / +0ms] CPU: Apple M5
[I 2561602 * / +0ms] 10 physical cores, 10 logical cores
[I 2561602 * / +0ms] Total RAM: 16384 MB
[I 2561602 * / +0ms] Free RAM: 9197 MB
[I 2561602 * / +0ms] Total paging memory: 0 MB
[I 2561602 * / +0ms] Free paging memory: 0 MB
[I 2561602 * / +0ms] Application executable path: /Applications/HeliconFocus.app/Contents/MacOS/HeliconFocus
[I 2561602 * / +0ms] Working directory: /Users/johnhoffman
[I 2561602 * / +0ms] Maintenance files directory: /Users/johnhoffman/Library/Application Support/HeliconFocus
[I 2561602 * / +2ms] CO plugin installed
[I 2561602 * / +0ms] Adobe DNG converter installed, version 14.1
[I 2561602 * / +1ms] OpenCL disabled with command line option
[E 2561602 * / +0ms] Failed to create the cache folder (%d) 13
JohnHoffmansAir:~ johnhoffman$

Version 8 returned an error about not creating cache. Resolved that and set cache for 9.0.5.

Program now starts, but shows as trial. How do I transfer license to 9.0.5?

Thank you! We'll fix the cache folder issues.
The license: just enter your activation code in menu - Help - Register online. But before you do, could you please check if the version 8 shows up as registered right now? If the license exists on your Mac but didn't transfer automatically - that is also something we need to look into.

All set now. Retrieved my code; program now shows lifetime.

Very sorry for all that your country is going through. We have an organization near me that is sending support - affiliated with the CommonMan restaurant in New Hampshire USA. We are doing what we can.

Thank you! We know you are, and we appreciate it.

Catherine wrote: 03.09.2026 22:32 But before you do, could you please check if the version 8 shows up as registered right now? If the license exists on your Mac but didn't transfer automatically - that is also something we need to look into.

I have Helicon 8 registered, but when I installed Helicon 9.0.7, it did not transfer the registration automatically. (I could do it manually.)

This is known and unavoidable. Some users (machines), not all, will experience this, depending on how long ago they last registered their version 8.