Success running RoboHelp 2020 for MacOS on M1 Macs?

[Alan Houser]

Colleagues -

Has anybody successfully run RoboHelp 2020 for MacOS on an M1 Mac? I'm seeing some "unsuccesful" reports here, but no mention of success. For me, RoboHelp 2020 churns on the initialization screen.

I acknowledge that RoboHelp 2020 for MacOS is only supported on Intel architectures. But as an analogy, several people on the FrameMaker forums have figured out and shared how to run Adobe FrameMaker (2019 and 2022) on Windows 11/ARM architectures (also unsupported, but works with some configuration hacks).

I'm reaching out here on the chance that anybody has figured out the same for RH 2020/MacOS on the M1 chip.

TIA!

-Alan Houser

412-551-8882

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

Hmm, and just for clarity...you'd rather install the Mac Rh 2020 (latest release on Mac) than the Win Rh 2022 (using Fusion, etc.)?

I haven't tried the Mac 2020 install on an M1, but easily installed in on an Intel MBP. 

[Alan Houser]

Good Q, Matt. This is potentially for a college-level course in software documentation. It's getting harder and harder to teach conventional HATs ... 3/4 of the kids come in with Macs. I know ... virtual machine, install Windows, install the HAT ... but this is pretty high-overhead for the students, just so they can work with a HAT for a few weeks.

[Peter Grainge]

@Alan Houser We did meet many years ago at Writers UA. Portland? Seattle?

Anyway, I have asked an Adobe contact to take a look at your question as I believe it has been installed on M1. It is a separate installer but that's all I know.

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My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Alan Houser]

Hi @Peter Grainge! I know we've met F2F at WritersUA or elsewhere, and I certainly know you as a prominent member of the community. I'm grateful for your help!

-Alan Houser

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

Good news/bad news/interesting news: 

I got the app installed on an M1 MB Air, but I was prompted for (and I approved) an installation of the Rosetta software that helps with Intel-based installers/software.

The first time I ran the app, it threw an error with a reference code 205

The second time I ran the app, it started up, and allowed me to create a new project.

Hopefully, the error code will give tech support a starting point...

-Matt

[Peter Grainge]

From Adobe 

"RoboHelp is not supported on M1 or M2 versions of Mac.

Mac changed their processor from Intel to ARM and it requires a separate installer for ARM. We are exploring if we can provide support in Update 1 otherwise definitely in Update 2."

________________________________________________________
My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

Good to know...but not supported is different from seems to work.

While it may be whack-a-mole between OS and M-series processors, the combination I shared above does seem to work.

Of course, it's also Rh 2020, so for now I've chosen to use Rh 2022 via vmware Fusion.

-Matt