f8lee Loc: New Mexico

I need to vent, and since this is about my attempt to install Luminar NEO this seemed like a good place to do it.

So - M1 MacBook Pro 13" with two external monitors running Ventura 13.4. 16GB RAM.
Got an email today from Luminar saying they are extending the sale for the new Neo panorama add on - $39 - so fell for it and paid, downloaded the Neo installer without incident. The installation process apparently went well enough - got to the point of being able to hit the button to "start Luminar Neo now". But when I did that, after a few minutes got the 'beachball of death" and opened "Force Quit" to see (shock!) Neo was "not responding". I did the Force Quit on it, and then figured perhaps I should re-download it entirely (using the installer tool I initially downloaded). But Finder would not let me move the application to the trash, saying it has open extensions. Nice - thanks, Apple (or Luminar).

At that point, I figured a restart was in order...first I manually quit the handful of programs that were also open (Mail, Firefox, Norton VPN and a couple more) and and a few Finder windows that were open as well. I then selected "Restart" from the Apple menu and....nothing. Well, while the two external monitors blacked out, the laptop screen stayed on - again, after waiting about 2 minutes I just held the power button down to force shut down the laptop altogether.

A minute later, I started the laptop - and for reason's only Cook & Co know, all the programs that I quit (using the menu Quit command) opened up, as did the three Finder windows that i also manually closed before attempting the restart.

Sorry for the lengthy venting here - now that the laptop is started up I am going to attempt starting Neo up with no other programs running.

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

Follow up note - after starting up again and having no other programs running, Neo did start up. But I am at a loss as to why FInder seems to behave very poorly of late - has Apple's QA gone so far downhill? This is not the first time I have experienced the odd behavior of Finder - where I could not shut down the laptop, where "Relaunch Finder" in the Force Quit window had no effect, where after manually quitting all open programs and restarting the computer all those "quit" programs came right back...it must be a Finder level issue.

Anyway, thanks for letting me vent...

JBRIII

The problem is that any modern PC is doing many things at once, running security checks, maybe checking internet for email, checking for keyboard inputs all while installing something. Many installers state you should stop all other programs, sometimes including anti-virus programs (seems like a good way for big trouble). It can not only be a pain, but problematic determining how to even turn off some of these I found. Also, I know at one time there were commands available at the assembly language level for DOS which developers were told worked, but weren't guaranteed for the future, so some used them, new versions of assembly did not and old software had problems, especially if no longer supported by long gone companies. I read this is happening today with open source code which can be incorporated into software, but not there in the future.
I don't have a MAC, but going thru 3 different forms of system chips over the years and getting most of the existing software to work is amazing to me.
I had an update to an Astro package a few years ago which refused to allow me to install the license. Installing complete new version same thing. I erased everything, no effect, support couldn't help, not a minor company here. Eventually, I erased an empty directory, no hidden files either and that solved the problem.
Know your frustration, but can offer no solution.

jhtall Loc: Gold Canyon, AZ

Apple permits applications to automatically run after a restart. Go to system settings, general, login items. Determine what you want to restart.

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

Appreciate the thought but none of those programs are on that listing - just things like Norton VPN and Memory Clean 3 are automatically booted at startup.

TonyBot

Had some issues with my then new M1 Mini with various programs not running well or crashing, and ended up making appointment at the Genius Bar. After about 10 minute of the same thing happening to him, the tech turned off my Norton antivirus software and I haven’t had a problem since (well, only one, surprisingly - with Apple’s Photos).

The tech said there is something with Norton that is not completely compatible with the M1 architecture.

Try that. Maybe it’ll work!

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Bob, those apps restarted automatically because they are in your set of startup items. You can remove them in Settings. It does sound as if you might need to back up everything and reinstall MacOS. I have essentially the same setup and don’t have issues with it.

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

Not really - first of all, the three Finder windows that I specifically closed were reopened on restart. And while NOrton VPN (not antivirus) is set to launch on startup, neither Firefox nor Mail nor MacJournal are. So this is not that simple.

But thank you for your thoughts.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Norton is bad news for many…

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I’ll bet that if you close all apps, shut down completely, wait 30 seconds, then reboot, it will behave normally.

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

Alas, as a matter of course, when weird stuff happens on the Mac I wait about 2 minutes before restarting...so unless LESS "off time" makes a difference I don't think that is it. But agin, thank you - you do have some of the most erudite and useful responses to folks on here.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Thanks. I guess I have run out of suggestions!

Be sure you are running MacOS 13.4.1 (c) (Build 22F770820d) — If you click on the version number in the Apple Menu >> About this Mac dialog, the Build # appears.

cbtsam Loc: Monkton, MD

I don't know anything about Luminar, but when I shut my iMac down, and restart shortly or the next day, it always opens every one of the windows I'd had open when I shut down. And that has been true when I shut down the hard way, as you did, by just hitting the power button, because neither normal shut down nor restart worked. And, yes Burk, I typically have many things running, having neglected to shut them down when I was done with them.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I have mine set to not do that…