downgrading to v12

[Greg Terry]

I have tried several times over the course of several days to activate v12. I have completely removed all accordance files with AppZapper and tried installing Accordance totally clean. Everything goes fine until I get to the point of signing in to my account at the end of  the installation process. then I get this error message below. It seems I am doomed to failure with Accordance.

 

Any clues how to get around this error>?

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

You can’t downgrade to V12. V13 is the lowest version of Accordance that supports connection to our servers. If you don’t have a license for V13, call into our Customer Service team, and they can take care of you.

[Abram K-J]

2 hours ago, Nathan Parker said:

V13 is the lowest version of Accordance that supports connection to our servers.

Is this a recent change?

 

Too bad, if so. I had actually thought about going back to version 12 until such a day when version 14 would be usable for me. 13 has been surprisingly buggy with me lately. Of course, the underlying issue is all of the bugs in version 14 that some users continue to experience. I suspect if those were resolved, @Greg Terryand others wouldn’t be thinking about the need to go back a version or too. 

[Kristin]

3 minutes ago, Abram K-J said:

13 has been surprisingly buggy

 

I agree with @Abram K-J and am concerned that Accordance is abandoning the most stable version. 😢 I had no problems at all until I "upgraded" to version 13. At least v.13 is not as unstable as v.14...

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

It is since we’re working on some changes to improve the communication between Accordance Desktop and Accordance’s servers. 

[c. stirling bartholomew]

I have long suspected that there is a not so subtle "Operant Conditioning" that gradually creeps into user behavior, resulting in an appearance of increased software stability because the user learns that certain actions result in crashes and those actions are avoided.

 

I have noted a similarity between Apple Mail on Mac OS and Accordance. Editing text seems to be dangerous. Almost all my crashes in Apple Mail on Mac OS happen when revising text in an email. Similar to this is using features in Accordance which involve writing data to storage not just reading data from storage. Over three decades of Accordance use I have gradually completely eliminated from my workflow all features that involve storing user created content. I use Accordance exclusively as an analytical tool for searches of tagged ancient language texts. I still occasionally experience a unexpected shutdown but it doesn't happen more than once or twice a month. I can live with that. By comparison Lightroom 6.14 perpetual running on Mac OS High Sierra  crashes perhaps once or twice a year. Almost never.

 

Been testing software since February 1979.

 

 

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by c. stirling bartholomew

[Greg Terry]

so we are locked into a crappy, buggy and at times nearly unusable program for which many of us have spent hundreds or thousands of dollars.

 

Great! Superb customer support.

[Kristin]

59 minutes ago, Greg Terry said:

so we are locked into a crappy, buggy and at times nearly unusable program for which many of us have spent hundreds or thousands of dollars.

 

Great! Superb customer support.

 

Hi @Greg Terry,
I don't personally blame customer support, as I think (I might be wrong), but I think sales and tech support are totally different departments from whoever decided to get rid of v.12. That said, I agree with you 100% that given that v.13 STILL has corruption issues and no way to export, and v.14 has far more problems than v.13 ever had, getting rid of v.12 (the only version where I had zero stability problems) seems like very unusual timing.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

By the way @Kristin, in addition to your feedback on highlighting, what are some other user file corruption issues you’ve been encountering? I want to document all of those.

[Kristin]

3 minutes ago, Nathan Parker said:

By the way @Kristin, in addition to your feedback on highlighting, what are some other user file corruption issues you’ve been encountering? I want to document all of those.

 

Hi @Nathan Parker,
Thank you for your interest in making sure these issues are noted and hopefully addressed. Corruption I have noticed has been the following:
1. Highlights becoming corrupted to the point of them being unusable. The highlights start highlighting words I never highlighted, delete highlights I made, etc. As reported to tech support before, it is as if the highlights got "shifted".
2. Notes becoming corrupted to the point of them being unusable, with the notes self-deleting, and lines typing over lines above them. This has happened when I just open the note after it had saved without a problem.
3. Notes written in English turning into something that looks like Wingdings without being able to be converted back to English.
4. Tools having major language issues and converting Hebrew to something that looks like Wingdings.
5. If have a Note open in parallel as I am reading the Bible and I scroll (regardless of the speed I scroll, but more likely if scrolling faster), the Notes start typing over each other as described in point 2. The distinction here though is if I close the Note and re-open it in parallel, the text appears normal again, where as in point 2 it is not retrievable.

There may be other issues, but those are the ones coming to mind. ALL of these issues started with v.13.

Everyone knows what highlight corruption looks like, I have posted several on the forum, and the issue is widespread enough that I think a lot of people have seen it themselves. I will, however, attach a screenshot of a sample of what I mean by "note corruption" and how it makes the note unusable. The screenshot is a sample of issues 2 and 3.

I would also like to clarify that the screenshot sample is so that you can have a better understanding of what I mean. Tech support has seen these screenshots and more.

Thank you for realizing the seriousness of these issues.

Kristin

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Thanks for all of this! I’ve copied the text from your post into a report, plus I’ve linked to this thread. I’ve highlighted it as one of the major areas we need to address.

[Abram K-J]

7 minutes ago, Nathan Parker said:

I’ve copied the text from your post into a report, plus I’ve linked to this thread. I’ve highlighted it as one of the major areas we need to address.

 

What does this mean? And what does "filed a module request" mean? Aren't these forum posts already reports and "filed" requests?

[Kristin]

9 hours ago, Abram K-J said:

Aren't these forum posts already reports and "filed" requests?

 

Hi @Abram K-J,

Since no one has said anything yet, I guess I will mention that I have never thought so. Actually, I have always had a lot of confusion why people post tech issues here, as I know it had been said that tech support "sometimes" checks the forum. I finally decided that the point is to see if users have ideas, then if not to contact support directly? I think it would make sense if reporting issues on the bug forum was going to tech support, but I remember being told before that is just not so.

[Andrew Patterson]

12 hours ago, Abram K-J said:

 

What does this mean? And what does "filed a module request" mean? Aren't these forum posts already reports and "filed" requests?

 

I don't work for Accordance, but I've done software customer support before. In my experience, Dev worked almost entirely independently of clientele to avoid undue influence on how to program. Thus, issue reports and requests are only fileable by employees (usu. sales, customer support, QA, etc.), who in turn triage issues from customers themselves.

 

Not sure how Accordance handles it, but that's basically what I presume they do.

[Lawrence]

6 hours ago, Kristin said:

 

Hi @Abram K-J,

Since no one has said anything yet, I guess I will mention that I have never thought so. Actually, I have always had a lot of confusion why people post tech issues here, as I know it had been said that tech support "sometimes" checks the forum. I finally decided that the point is to see if users have ideas, then if not to contact support directly? I think it would make sense if reporting issues on the bug forum was going to tech support, but I remember being told before that is just not so.

 

I also have the impression the forum is primarily for users to interact with each other, and for the company to make announcements.

Having tech issues posted here is a way for users to help other users, share experience, etc.

Being searchable, it is also a place to try for quick answers, especially to common problems.

 

There isn't any obligation for the company to even look at the forums.

Nathan's initiative in bringing user feedback into the developer loop is therefore all the more welcome.

[Jordan Gowing]

1 hour ago, Lawrence said:

There isn't any obligation for the company to even look at the forums.

Nathan's initiative in bringing user feedback into the developer loop is therefore all the more welcome.

 

If this is true, then they probably shouldn't have the description for the "Bug Swatters" sections of the forums be, "Check or report on those pesky critters on ______." That seems to imply that the forums are an appropriate avenue for reporting bugs. I operate under the assumption laid out by @Andrew Patterson above, but I wouldn't say that the company isn't under an obligation to look at the forums if they claim that this is an appropriate way to report said bugs.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

I won’t go into extensive detail of our processes (I don’t want to publicly broadcast company operations), but basically one of my jobs on the forums is to act as a liaison between customers and other Accordance team members so that other Accordance team members focus on their duties.

 

The short answer is: I scan the forums daily, collect and organize any feedback that comes in, and ensure it is given where it needs to go. 

 

I’ve already done that with all feature requests and module requests that have had interaction since the first of the year. If there are any back feature requests or module requests I’ve missed, I can take a look at them as well (just show one to me).

 

All current bug reports on Accordance 14 have been given to our teams. Starting with the next update to Accordance 14, I’m also jumping into personally testing all bug reports that are posted to the forums (Mac and Windows, as well as mobile) so that I can even better communicate with our teams on how to reproduce any bug reports that come in.

[Greg Terry]

This policy also eliminates any possibility of using Accordance on Linux. If memory serves me I think v10 was the most recent version of Accordance that had a fairly stable experience on Linux.

 

I wish we could at least go back a few versions more. I know I don't understand all that is involved but it seems like an intentional effort to force upgrades.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

An Accordance user is attempting to get Accordance 13 running on WINE, taking over where I was unable to pull it off. If they are successful at it, they will post the instructions here. Plus we will also have Accordance Cloud as another option.