Looking for an ETA on Mac M1 client / processor support
Is than an estimated release date for the Mac M1 client? The current client installs sucessfully, but never registers in the control panel.
Answer
https://docs.connectwise.com/ConnectWise_Control_Documentation/Technical_support_bulletins/Rosetta_2_required_for_ConnectWise_Control_on_the_Apple_M1_chip is 4 months old, and the announcement is heading for close to a year. Can we at least get an ETA? I do not use Rosetta so screensharing is left using other tools for me at this point.
We need the M1 client for this already. SC and LT agents are exhibiting extremely weird behavior. Today alone we have Session IDs being swapped with other agents (example Agent for Laptop 1 on Automate is actually remoting us into Laptop 2, and laptop 5 is going to laptop 1). Everything is screwy. We have made sure not to update the devices to new versions of Big Sur so it's not a case of Rosetta 2 needing to be installed.
Please assist, or give us an ETA as to when this will be released. We have a lot of clients that are heavy Mac-users, and we're finding ourselves spending more time troubleshooting your agents than actually helping with the clients issues. This is becoming time-consuming and inefficient. We are considering looking elsewhere and cancelling CW if this is not rectified soon.
i'm a little concerned that native M1 support is taking so long. other companies like Anydesk got their remote control for M1 sorted out last year (2020). we plan to roll out new Mac's with an alternative remote control package that supports M1 natively to ensure we can support our clients adequately.
We have installed Rosetta 2, ensured all permissions are granted, unblocked the software (third party/unknown developer bit), restarted the computer, reinstalled the agent -- and the ConnectWise Control agent is still instantly crashing. The event logs indicate that it is being relaunched every 10 seconds but crashing with a run duration of 0 seconds and abort code 1.
I’m joining the chorus. I’d love to know when this is happening. Rosetta2 is a workaround, not the solution.
The current lineup of Apple devices (MacBook Air, Pro, iMac) all have M1 chips, the age of Intel is no more
Hi All,
Please reach out to Support if you're continuing to experience issues with M1 machines. I'm currently coming to you live from an M1 Mac on Monterey and have zero issues with the agent crashing or the other issues reported above. We'd love to troubleshoot as needed. Thanks!
Is this a native installation for the M1 processor support, or is the work-around still in use?? A standard install of the client app doesn't work. The install process runs to completion, but the app never shows up as installed. What steps should i be taking that are different from older Mac (Intel) installs?
On the latest stable version, Consent to Control doesn't work anymore. I tried on Mac OS Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey and Ventura. Intel or M1 it doesn't matter.
This has been resolved in the latest 22.10 release:
22.10.11109
some of us just don’t want to install Rosetta 2 at all. And there is no excuse why ConnectWise does not have a M1 native screen connect because they have a iOS version which is arm based code. Either unlock that in the App Store to run on M1 Macs or update your desktop client. This issue is annoying enough for me to dump ConnectWise completely and use competitors that have the ability to stay current and relevant
Their app on iOS is simply a client - very different from an agent. Key difference there.
All Intel-based programs will cause more power usage. So we are actively eliminating any Intel-based programs.
Very disappointing that we are more than 18 months from the update saying to install Rosetta 2, yet there has not been even a post from the company.
Also, if the Client software for connecting FROM a Mac to anther Control agent is easier, please do that at least.
Tidd.
I've not posted anything about this issue for several months, but I also find this very disappointing that a native install for the M1 chip hasn't been delivered. Fix this please! You're letting a good product fail in a big way...
We are actively investigating our options for the M1 chips, but have not yet determined the best path forward.
Apple makes it sound like it’s as simple as a recompile. It’s taken you almost two years to figure out how to compile the agent for Apple Silicon? Even Microsoft is releasing an AS version of Teams at this point.
The best path forward is to support Apple Silicon, I really don’t understand what else you could be considering.
hell teams runs natively on linux. This is the type of answer we got a couple of years before they abandoned linux..with it stagnating for a year before they finally killed linux support. Considering that macos is bsd based and now it's not an int3l x86 platform i would not be shocked if they abandoned mac now..given it is no longer an x86 platform.
I can assure you that there are no plans to drop Mac support.
I wish I could say we will have the updated app by a specific date, but that is just not possible; we have run into an internal issue with this issue but are actively working towards a solution.
we got all kinds of assurances about linux servers too..until you folks said nopers not doing it anymore..along with similar "issues" delaying progress for two plus years until you folks said nope. Given the track record...i will stay with you are preparing to move on from m-1,2,3 clients as they aren't a huge segment of the market anyway...the internal issues int his care..probably the venture capital owners now wanting to spend the money....
the last time you folks did this you waited two years and killed Linux server support...i am not confident in your track record here.
My remote connection issue could be resolved by simply publishing the iOS application for iPad and allowing install on Apple Silicon.
So many missed opportunities.
Todd.
All, I wanted to give an update on this. We have finished scoping out the work required and will soon be scheduling the work. I can't give a firm date on when this will be available yet, but will update when the work is nearing completion.
In hindsight this response make you seem pretty incompetent. M1 got released in November 2020, you give an update 18 months later saying it has now been scoped and will soon be worked on... then nothing for 6 months!!
At this rate, it's better to look for alternatives; any technology company that leaves their clients hanging for 3+ months on something critical to them makes it abundantly clear that they don't care.
This is only one example of the 'you get what you pay for' approach from ScreenConnect. They fit the bill for us but are a constant pain.
Yep, especially after the Linux fiasco. That took a few years off my life. It's not worth it.
They ended support very shortly after I contacted them, ensured it was going to be supported, bought a new Linux server, decommissioned Windows entirety, then had to re-do everything to host on windows again when they ended support. It was the singe most time consuming, expensive, and stressful migration in my tech career to date.
Yeah, except they are rapidly increasing prices (at least 10-15% increases every year for the past 4 years) even for the legacy on-premise licensing, so the argument that they are "cheap" compared to other options is gradually going away. Overall I do still like the product, but the development pace isn't where it should be given the constant cost increases. In many aspects it seems like ConnectWise has it in maintenance mode which is odd since it appears to be one of their most popular products.
given that they are working on a new platform solution at the moment, i don't expect that the existing suite of products will receive anything more than security updates. i haven't seen any notable changes on the labtech or screenconnect stuff for years.
all new development work is being done on the new platform. from last time i checked it hadn't yet reached feature parity.
you are falling behind more..now the m2 is out and another variant will be out soon. you have had more than ample time to prepare for this. The last we saw an answer like this you abandoned linux support. Be honest with us..do you intend to actually do m1 support or is this the final nail int he coffin for apple support on SC?
And this is why private equity is horrible. They take a good product and extract all of the value to just resell it. PE kills the company, product, and support.
There are several open source and free software programs that support the M1 natively. These include Fusion Player, a free virtualization software for macOS; Shotcut, a free, open source, cross-platform video editor; The Unarchiver, an app for opening RAR on Mac; VLC, a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and countless others. I use some of these applications and never spent a dime on them while CWC keeps raising the price every year and we're still waiting all this time. At this point, it looks like they don't even care anymore. Time to go shopping somewhere.
Finally got this working on an M2 chip. The steps are:
- First run the pkg installer. It will run the installer and appear to succeed but won't create the Application.
- Obtain the Application from an intel Mac and copy it into the Applications folder (maybe screen connect staff can help with this if you don't have an intel Mac, or alternatively it might be possible to extract it from the pkg directly)
- Run the Application. It will ask to install Rosetta (if you haven't already got it installed)
- The application and permissions should now work as per a standard intel Mac installation.
From the above the primary problem appears to be the installer not working on M2. It still requires Rosetta but at least it works
it looks like screenconnect has no intention of doing this. the last time they took us on this kind of ride they killed the linux server. I honestly do not believe at this pint they even intend to support he m series macs at all.
All, I wanted to give a quick update. We are making some headway on the creation of the Universal Mac App, development is expected to wrap up in the next 2 weeks, then we will be doing significant testing. Once that's complete, we'll decide which version of the product we will include this in, but it should be a release in the September-October timeframe.
Can you tell us what we're supposed to make of this development so far after the release of this chip? How is the public supposed to feel confident that you can Keep up with other changes within the industry when it took so long to get a reasonable response from you folks?
no they cannot..and will not. their track record is when they do this type of thing their supprt of said devices is going to stop...it may take years..but it will die. it took them two years of this behaviour for them to drop linux servers. i bet mac m-series devices are next to die.
Update:
This effort is currently in QA and is tentatively scheduled for our 23.8 release. I would expect the release will be available in late-October.
Update:
The development and QA testing of our new Universal Mac Applciation have concluded and is included in our 23.8 release.
If you are interested in early access it is available as part of our Canary build for 23.8 which was released last week, stable release is tentatively scheduled for release the week of October 23rd.
You can learn more about our release channels here:
Change release channel for a cloud instance - ConnectWise
3 years is to long and clearly they don't give a crap. This is a deal breaker for me, I've informed my boss we need to swtich to another company for tools and to drop Connectwise Control, Automate, Screen connect.
Customer support service by UserEcho
All, I wanted to give an update on this. We have finished scoping out the work required and will soon be scheduling the work. I can't give a firm date on when this will be available yet, but will update when the work is nearing completion.