Requirements for Pixelmator Pro

[Moonshine]

Was excited for Pixelmator Pro to release and bought it day one. Installed fine from the Mac App store and ran great on my work machine hackintosh (iMac14,2 + GTX760). However on my older home hackintosh (iMac14,2 + GT640) the App Store gives "This computer does not meet the minimum install requirements for the app"

Their site says "Pixelmator Pro runs on any Metal-compatible Mac running macOS 10.13 High Sierra." From that list at Apple I see iMac models from 2012 or later support Metal, so the 14,2 (late 2013) should be ok, and it is what I'm using on the work machine also. And from what I see in System Report, Metal is enabled/supported just like I see on my work machine:

So I'm lost as to what it's picking up on to deny me the pleasure.

What's even more fun is that I zip'd up the app from my work machine and it seem to run just fine on my home machine. I tried going through tons of features to see if I'd hit some snag, but it was solid.

So obviously I can do that every update , but I'd rather figure out what is stopping things in the App Store. Other applications install fine from there obviously.

Any thoughts?

Thanks..

 

[AvaRox]

I stumbled upon the very same problem as you. The System Report of my Mac Pro claims that Metal is supported. But the App Store refuses to install Pixelmator Pro.

 

[Moonshine]

FWIW I got a new video card for my work machine (GTX1080) which I swapped in last week. Pixelmator Pro still installs and updates fine there. I brought the old video card from that machine (GTX760) home and installed it, and Pixelmator Pro still won't install directly from the App Store. So I'm thinking it's looking at something like CPU definition when deciding.

 

[suderman]

I'm having this same problem with my 2009 Mac Pro / GTX 780. The free trial runs great. Mac App Store refuses to let me buy.

If I were to purchase this on my 2015 MacBook Air, I wonder if the App Store would allow me to download the purchase on my Mac Pro. Or maybe I would just get the same error. I really don't want to bother with this app if I can't run it on both machines.

 

[Moonshine]

I'm having this same problem with my 2009 Mac Pro / GTX 780. The free trial runs great. Mac App Store refuses to let me buy.

If I were to purchase this on my 2015 MacBook Air, I wonder if the App Store would allow me to download the purchase on my Mac Pro. Or maybe I would just get the same error. I really don't want to bother with this app if I can't run it on both machines.

Well the 2009 Mac Pro profile would "technically" be too old for Metal support: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205073

Although even if you bumped that up to something more recent, I'm not sure that would allow the Mac App Store download/purchase to work.

From what I've seen though, you should be able to buy it on your Air and copy the app over after downloading it. As long as both use the same Mac App Store account of course.

 

[suderman]

Well the 2009 Mac Pro profile would "technically" be too old for Metal support: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205073

Although even if you bumped that up to something more recent, I'm not sure that would allow the Mac App Store download/purchase to work.

From what I've seen though, you should be able to buy it on your Air and copy the app over after downloading it. As long as both use the same Mac App Store account of course.

Oh there's an idea! I wonder if it would handle updates, tho?

It's really too bad Apple's "requirements check" isn't smart enough to actually look at system capabilities.

 

[Moonshine]

Oh there's an idea! I wonder if it would handle updates, tho?

It's really too bad Apple's "requirements check" isn't smart enough to actually look at system capabilities.

Unfortunately it won't. Same requirements check comes up on updates. So you basically have to copy it over again. At least that's what I've been doing so far.

Hard to guess, but I feel like some CPU model/info check is the snag, at least in my case. As I have one working machine and that hits the problem, and both are very similar configuration wise (iMac14,2, Metal ready video, configuration, etc). CPUs are different though, and one is older that doesn't work via App Store.

 

[suderman]

Unfortunately it won't. Same requirements check comes up on updates. So you basically have to copy it over again. At least that's what I've been doing so far.

Hard to guess, but I feel like some CPU model/info check is the snag, at least in my case. As I have one working machine and that hits the problem, and both are very similar configuration wise (iMac14,2, Metal ready video, configuration, etc). CPUs are different though, and one is older that doesn't work via App Store.

I emailed support about this issue and received the following reply:

Thanks for getting in touch. Unfortunately, the App Store doesn’t let us check whether a specific graphics card is Metal-compatible, so if your Mac doesn’t fall under the net we use (basically the year it was made), the App Store won’t let you buy the app. We’ll continue working with Apple to see if this can be resolved, but it may take a little while.

 

[Moonshine]

I emailed support about this issue and received the following reply:

Thanks for getting in touch. Unfortunately, the App Store doesn’t let us check whether a specific graphics card is Metal-compatible, so if your Mac doesn’t fall under the net we use (basically the year it was made), the App Store won’t let you buy the app. We’ll continue working with Apple to see if this can be resolved, but it may take a little while.

That's odd. Both of my machines are setup as iMac14,2 "Late 2013" which meets the "iMac models from 2012 or later" restriction for Metal that Pixelmator Pro links to. Yet one works through the App Store and the other doesn't. So it seems like Apple's check also verifies other items related to the model it sees, or potentially has bugs.

 

[suderman]

That's odd. Both of my machines are setup as iMac14,2 "Late 2013" which meets the "iMac models from 2012 or later" restriction for Metal that Pixelmator Pro links to. Yet one works through the App Store and the other doesn't. So it seems like Apple's check also verifies other items related to the model it sees, or potentially has bugs.

Not being familiar with the App Store submission process, I asked Pixelmator if Apple requires the system check. Apparently not! So if they wanted to, they could lift this limitation themselves. Sheesh.

"It’s more or less voluntary. Not many people read the system requirements particularly carefully, so we’ve decided to err on the side of caution for now. However, I have some hope this will be addressed in the future."