How to Run Articulate Storyline on a Mac with M1 Chip

[@martijnbos9705]

Thank you Devlin! Great video. Meanwhile, I wonder why a software company in 2021 thinks it's okay to not make their software available for the two dominant operating systems or even all operating systems. Come on, we're not living in 1990 anymore!

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Haha, we're all wondering the same thing! But in the meantime....this is what we're driven to, lol. Thanks for checking out the video :)

[@drbobelmore]

@@DevlinPeckYT I was told by someone at Articulate that they want to move all development online, so it won't matter what computer you use. In the meantime they don't think it is worth it to do a Mac version. By the way, the person who told me this said many people at Articulate use Macs to run Storyline.

[@DevlinPeckYT]

@@drbobelmore Thanks for letting us know! It would be very interesting to see a cloud-based version of Storyline...I wonder how that would work. And yes, it is definitely common to run Storyline on Macs at the moment. Thank you again :)

[@HajarJackoub]

I agree with you! it's super annoying smh

[@pd3018]

I've got chip M1 and downloaded Windows 11 (July 3rd) and there seemed to be no lag at all. Thanks, Devlin, helpful video and to the point like usual.

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Beautiful! I’m glad to hear that 😃. Thanks for sharing the update!

[@jaimecarajunior2268]

Same here. Download W11 and it seems to work just fine.

[@jennyedwards7142]

@@DevlinPeckYT any chance you can suggest what to do if the error "there is no virtual operating system installed on the machine" continues to pop up. I went through the Steps to download Windows 11.

[@JohnColangelo]

Hi Devlin, have there been any updates worth mentioning since you created this video?

[@alejandralanderos6214]

two years later there are some diferences from your tutorial but it totally helped me!! thank you from Chileeee!☺

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Glad it helped and it's still working :D Thanks for watching

[@djb6313]

Perfect timing. Been wanting to move to Mac and Storyline compatibility was holding me back.

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Glad to hear it! Thanks for checking out the vid 😃

[@chandlergianattasio8976]

Should I get a Windows 11 license in addition to a Parallels license?

[@marinazhoholieva2492]

That’s such a useful video! You’re really good at selecting crucial content! I wish had seen it a month ago! At first I felt extremely disappointed to not be able to install Storyline on my new and shiny Mac with M1-chip. If I hadn’t missed the deadline, I would have returned it to the store. I was furious :). So, I definitely learnt something new through that process. Parallels helped. PS. I like your new studio!

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Thanks so much, Marina. This was content that I wanted to see so figured what better thing to do than make that content, haha. That feeling helps sometimes. And I hope that you got Storyline up and running on your Mac without any trouble 😊.

[@DevlinPeckYT]

And thanks for the positive feedback about the new setup! It’s still a work in progress but I’m pretty happy with it at the moment.

[@flagshipbuilds]

You did do a hardware video! I wanted to do this with you! But like I said, whenever the 64 bit Storyline releases, Storyline will be work nearly seamlessly-- much less lag.

[@DevlinPeckYT]

It’s going to be glorious! And I haven’t done actual development on the MacBook…I use my PC build for that 😃

[@troyashman6917]

This is great Devlin! Thanks for doing this as I've been hesitant to purchase a new Mac.

[@DevlinPeckYT]

For sure! Check out the comment from @frumbert here to get some more perspective :)

[@JuliaRyan-m6c]

Hi Devlin! Thanks so much for this video! I have a new MacBook Pro with a M3 processor and followed your directions but got stuck when trying to download the Arm Preview Build as there were 3 options (the Canary, the Dev and the Beta) and I wasn't sure which one to pick. I'm assuming this is because of Windows 11 and the fact that so much time has gone by since you created this video. I did find an article that said the Dev and Beta were more technical so I'm assuming the Canary is the one I should download. I wanted to see what you would recommend.

[@DevlinPeckYT]

I'm actually not too sure. My best guess would be to use Beta for daily tasks, but I'd be curious to see how the others do. Feel free to report back if you find out!

[@nedaneda1420]

Can you updated us on your experience with Macbok pro? I a planning to buy Macbook air, but not sure if that is the right choice considering using SL, ( I am thinking of Macbook Air(M3) with RAM 24 GB, SSD: 512. considering the fact that we should use parallels for Storyline, these Specs work?)

[@coachg4537]

this helped so much thank you for taking the time to show us.

[@DevlinPeckYT]

You’re welcome! Happy to help 😃

[@JLWPHOTO20]

Did you have to purchase a Windows license? There's no mention of that here, but when I dowloaded Windows through Parallels, it's been asking me to input that license information.

[@swdigital_lxd]

That's cool Devlin! I'm waiting for the new Macbook Pro this fall!

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Thanks!! You’re going to love it 😃

[@fellowhuman557]

Thank you! Your videos are always so helpful

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Glad to hear it!

[@jaimecarajunior2268]

After installing Articulate, is it necessary to subscribe to the paid version of Parallels, or is the trial version enough?

[@VMT09271986]

I was wondering the exact same thing. I’m just leaving a comment to track if anyone has the answer.

[@nedaneda1420]

Did you figure out the answer?

[@jaimecarajunior2268]

Nope. I've given up and went back to Windows.

[@aliciavieralxd]

Great! Thanks for making this video, Devlin! I'll definitely save it for whenever I upgrade my Macbook Pro :)

[@DevlinPeckYT]

You’re welcome! Thanks for checking it out, Alicia 😊. Maybe things will be easier and better by that time!

[@kathryndelacruz1525]

This has been a big help!! thank you! I was wondering why I couldnt see Storyline. I had made so many different free trials with different emails trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. Thank you!! I love my Macbook, but it takes some extra steps when it comes to things like this. On my end it's only giving me 14 day trial for parallel.. do you happen to know if that can be extended?

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Great to hear!

[@jsmc2]

This is so exciting to see! I'm looking to get into ID and need a new computer, so I was looking at the desktop M1 iMacs. I'm that much more excited to see that I can learn Storyline on there! Stupid question - how much hard drive space does Parallels and Windows 10 take up? Just curious if I should buy a portable external HD to save space, etc.

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Thanks Justin! I’m not entirely sure about that, but I would probably try to get at least 500 GB SSD and 16 GB of RAM (so that you can devote 8 GB to Parallels). Let us know how it goes!

[@jsmc2]

@@DevlinPeckYT excellent to hear! Stupid question, but trying to save some money. Do you think going with 256gb ssd and then buying an external SSD would be workable? Just curious!

[@DevlinPeckYT]

@@jsmc2 yes, it would be workable! You could also use cloud storage instead of an external drive. But you know how frustrating it can be when the SSD does fill up 😜

[@vasundharak9536]

Great video again! Any tips on how to use Parallels desktop for free or if there's a one time purchase option? I thought switching from Windows to Mac was challenging and it took me almost a year to get completely comfortable. Now I have to use them together :|. Any suggestions on this will be really helpful!

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Good question! Last I checked they did have a one-time purchase option that was like $99. And yes, using them together is the best of both worlds! Lol, kind of.

[@seonahjo7464]

thank you so much for this video!!

[@DevlinPeckYT]

You're so welcome! Thanks for watching :D

[@ah_dan6572]

This is sick. Any chance you have a M1 iPad Pro to test this on? I'd love to be able to justify getting one of those for work!

[@DevlinPeckYT]

I do not, but that would be interesting to test!!

[@LearnAtMyExpense]

Was wondering about this - nice to see it works. Would be curious to see if throwing more RAM at it would help. Like you I only have the base model 8GB Air so can't test. Regardless, SL should be great on the next gen Macs with 16GB of RAM.

[@DevlinPeckYT]

I should do some testing! I also have the 16 GB MacBook Air. Stay tuned 😃

[@andrewvoor5814]

This was a life saver, thank you!

[@DevlinPeckYT]

You're welcome! I'm glad that it helped :D

[@_bernadette_smith]

Excellent advice. thanks. Worth noting that there's a Windows 11 ARM now. Also, I can't get Windows to find my Storyline files that are located in my OneDrive folder (on the Mac side) so you may have to find a workaround for that as well.

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Good point! Thank you for sharing 😃

[@simpleton7]

Adobe Captivate runs through rosetta, so you just click the app and it runs, and you can interact with other apps like drag and drop as normal, don't have to allocate resources to a virtual system or wonder if things will break with an update.

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Yes, good point! We’ve gotta jump through hoops with Storyline because no Mac version

[@the_end_boss]

Great video, mate! I am wondering if the lag is due to the trial mode of Parallels restricting the memory available?

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Thanks so much! Yes, people have mentioned that if you have a 16 GB RAM machine and can devote 8 GB to Parallels, then the experience is much smoother.

[@the_end_boss]

@@DevlinPeckYT confirmed it today! I bought the parallels subscription and can set it to maximum 8 cpu processes and about 57gb of memory that is then shared for GPU.

[@DevlinPeckYT]

@@the_end_boss nice one! And how much RAM does your computer have? I imagine there aren’t many computers out there with 50 GB+ of RAM!

[@nedaneda1420]

@Devlin Peck or others if have any experience, what do you think of Microsoft Surface laptops for SL & ID work? and which one is more important RAM or SSD? for example 16 GB RAM & 512 of SSD or 32GB RAM & 512 SSD? or 16 RAM 1TB SSD? (sorry for the detailed questions, but they make a difference in price)

[@kaoutherakid4433]

Love this 🥳 ! I have a mac and wasn't sure how I would make Storyline work on it. One question though if anyone knows the answer: which parallels plan would you recommend? standard or pro? not sure which one is better and if the choice will affect the performance of Storyline. Any idea?

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Thanks Kaouther! And I think you would be fine with either Parallels plan 😃

[@nerdypeachmango]

Is Parellels the only option for mac m1? Do you know of any free workarounds?

[@Marianne_the_Creative]

So helpful, thank you!

[@DevlinPeckYT]

You're welcome, Marianne!

[@Banhishikha1000]

i am planning to buy a mcbook pro also i want to run storyline on it. which one i should buy. please help me with the configuration

[@DevlinPeckYT]

I think the biggest thing would be getting 16 GB of RAM so that you can devote 8 GB+ to Parallels. Otherwise the base specs will work well. And perhaps getting additional storage...that never hurts :)

[@Banhishikha1000]

@@DevlinPeckYT thanks for the reply

[@DevlinPeckYT]

@@Banhishikha1000 You're welcome. Enjoy your new MacBook :D

[@nedaneda1420]

Can you share your experience please?

[@PradeepKumar-we8ek]

Thanks for the video, Devlin. The parallel is not free, is it?

[@DevlinPeckYT]

It is not. There’s a free trial and then it’s $99 for a lifetime license (unless you choose to pay $99 per year and get continuous updates).

[@nedaneda1420]

@@DevlinPeckYT so there is a license for parallels for $99 & it is lifetime?

[@michelkim5701]

What specifications/add-ons would you recommend for the MacBook Pro 14" for the ID field? (System, Memory, Storage)

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Good question, Michel. You will likely want to go for 16 GB RAM and as much storage as you can afford :D

[@JoshZlatkin]

Hi Devin, My experience is with PC so I was wondering what is the benefit of using the IMAC for ID work? Seem like a lot of hoops to jump through to get Storyline on the IMAC..

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Hey Joshua! If you're comfortable and happy with your PC, then there aren't really any benefits. Like you said, you need to jump through a lot of hoops and make compromises if running SL on a Mac. This is for people that only have a Mac or want to buy a new laptop and heavily prefer Macbooks. If a desktop is an option, then it's hard to beat a custom-built PC. Good question though :)

[@JoshZlatkin]

@@DevlinPeckYT Thank you for your quick response. Yeah I will stay with my PC

[@DevlinPeckYT]

@@JoshZlatkin Good choice haha :)

[@simpleton7]

The main benefit would be if you are creating heavy media in connection to your ID project, especially video. A portable m1 or m2 mac can do this off the power brick for a full workday and be silent, there is no PC workstation that can. Less bugs, driver issues, inconsistent workflows within the windows 10/11 OS (are the settings in settings, control panel, or the registry). There are benefits in security but that may largely come from the smaller market share.

[@crazycrypto9454]

Hi Devlin. if you were going to buy a new laptop and budget isn't a concern. Would you go for the M1 macbook pro? Or not take the risk and just get a beefy windows laptop? I will be mostly working with storyline, editing 4k videos and the like. What is your recommendation?

[@DevlinPeckYT]

I would get a souped up MacBook! MacBook + Windows desktop is ideal, but I like MacBooks too much to give it up for a windows laptop if I could only choose one.

[@crazycrypto9454]

@@DevlinPeckYT even with the storyline limitation?

[@crazycrypto9454]

@@DevlinPeckYT hey Dev. What’s the RAM recommendation for this to work properly with storyline? Am debating between the 16 vs 32 GB? Am looking at the MacBook Pro m1 pro. Is it worth splashing the extra $500?

[@marionsoichot1494]

Hi Devlin, thanks for this video! Still useful, as usual ;-). I work on a MacBook Pro I bought in 2020, and I started using Storyline a month ago with the Parallel Interface. I have been testing using Variables + Interactivity + Sliders + more thanks to Dave Anderson's videos from the Heroes Community, and the more complex my file became, the slower SL (I mean REALLY slow). I looked for some tips on the Internet, and I finally had to reinstall Windows properly (I use a Windows 10 Family Edition); more importantly, I also dedicated more than 4GB of RAM to see a significant improvement regarding SL's speed. I found that using about 8 (I have a 16GB RAM Memory) was much better, and the "Mac side" works great as usual. Maybe allowing between 5 to 8 GB on the new M1 MacBook Pro would be a good solution as well (and even better according to the MM& chip superpowers ;-) ). Thanks again for your precious help in the ID's community, Devlin, especially for padawans like me :-)

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Amazing suggestion, Marion. This seems to echo someone else's suggestion here in the comments. Devoting 8 GB of RAM to Parallels is the magic ticket to decent SL performance on a Mac. So opt for that 16 GB of RAM, friends! :)

[@teresacatford4014]

This is super helpful! I am running SL on a 2020 intel MacbookPro and sometimes notice big slow downs - just like you did - when there are multiple characters on one slide and complicated triggers. Devlin, would this kind of sluggish behavior occur on a windows machine anyway? Is there something about characters that cause this?

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Good questions, Teresa. This isn't typical on Windows computers...and I think it has more to do with memory / processing power. You may experience fewer issues on Windows computers because they can devote more system resources to the Windows apps, but having a powerful Mac device may solve this problem as well. I don't know of anything specific to characters other than them perhaps using a lot of memory.

[@CathEllis]

Nice one Devlin 👍

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Thanks Cath :)

[@bilders6701]

Do stories eventually start to lag when moving objects like it does in actual Windows on a PC?

[@chingszewong9629]

Hi Devlin, could I use the same method to download the articulate storyline in 2024?

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Yep! So far, it seems to be working fine as long as your Mac has the M1 chip or any of the variants after that.

[@catherinechesterton6180]

If we do have to buy Parallels - which vRAM would Storyline work best with? I have an M1 8bg and an Intel chip with 16GB

[@DevlinPeckYT]

I’m not sure where you’d see better performance. You could try dedicating 8 GB of RAM go Parallels on the 16 GB machine first.

[@rafdegreve]

I have a M2 new macbook air and does this video also counts for that one?

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Yes! Using a tool like Parallels to run Storyline works for M2 chips as well. 😁

[@rafdegreve]

@@DevlinPeckYT thanks for replying swiftly!

[@nedaneda1420]

Can you share your experience using SL on M@ Macbook air? any slowdown? what are the RAM & SSD of your Mac?

[@crisabato4529]

I think this might be a stupid question, but I have got parallels running on the mac. Should I "shut down" the virtual machine when I am done working on it? It is faded out at the moment and I can't actually shut it down, not sure why. Should I force close out Windows 10? What is the best way to go about this?

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Hey Cris! Quitting the app sounds like it would be fine 😃

[@soulofthedarkness]

Thank you so much!

[@yagmurbusebeydemir8925]

I bought it from the app store and installed it. When I turned it back on a day later it wouldn't turn on again. Win11 stays on black screen when trying to open it, what could be the reason? my device is m1 mac pro.

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Oh no! Have you tried with windows 10 as suggested in this video? I’ve heard that people are not having very good experiences with windows 11.

[@redtapenfr]

Curious about screen recording out of parallels to build simulations. Have you tested that on the M1 Mac?

[@DevlinPeckYT]

I have not! But I imagine it should work quite well if you have enough RAM devoted to Parallels :D

[@redtapenfr]

@@DevlinPeckYT when I would attempt on a intel Mac in and out of coherence, it wouldn’t allow me to record the clicks in video recording mode. It would only render a white screen. Is that still an issue with parallels and storyline?

[@DevlinPeckYT]

@@redtapenfr That doesn't sound good! And I am sorry but I am not sure about whether that would still be an issue.

[@sejaalbonnytilwani7147]

Hey Devlin, I have a question. I may sound dumb but I still want to ask, whether people buy this software after the trial ends or is there any other way out?

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Yes, I think most people buy the software after the trial. I am sure there are other options that may not be as legal though, lol.

[@halimah2274]

is the tutorial only for macbook m1?

[@DevlinPeckYT]

The process will be very similar (and even easier) if it’s not a Mac with an M1 chip 😃

[@hmcnally]

Any idea whether Storyline is running in x64 emulation under Win10ARM, which would be applicable either when running natively on an MS Surface device, or virtually on Parallels/Mac/Win10ARM? It's pretty amazing if the whole thing works in Parallels using what would be MS's emulation of the Intel instruction set (not Apple's Rosetta2). If Articulate were to come out with ARM-native apps, the M1/Mx Macs might end up being the fastest way to run them regardless of other concerns.

[@DevlinPeckYT]

I'm not sure! I don't fully understand what's going on under the hood, but we probably shouldn't expect Articulate to release ARM-native apps :(. Especially since it has been so long without a Mac version of the app.

[@themetaphysicalmermaid]

I tried all of this and it still is not working

[@danielcortez3835]

Hey Devlin! How much RAM do you think a PC/laptop (Win or Mac) needs for smooth SL development?

[@ChimpRiot]

The minimum is 2GB of RAM, but I would make sure you have at least 8GB. Storyline is a 32bit application so the maximum RAM it can use is 4GB - leaving at least another 4GB for system resources, Chrome tabs, Photoshop, etc. On a Mac, I would make the virtual machine with 4GB RAM.

[@DevlinPeckYT]

@@ChimpRiot great response, Michael. I suspected that with the 4 GB cap but hadn’t heard it confirmed like this. We appreciate you!

[@gryffin120]

Thanks!

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Glad it helped!

[@hughkremer4026]

I found it to be extremely laggy. So this is encouraging. I’ll try setting Win to 8gb. I really don’t like using Windows. With parallels I can use the Mac for everything except Storyline.

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Ok, giving windows more RAM will likely help :D. And yes, Parallels + Mac is a good combo :D

[@crazycrypto9454]

@Hugh how are you finding it now? Is it still laggy?

[@77NickDale]

I'm guessing this will also work with an M2 chip?

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Yep, Parallels is compatible with the M2 chip! Thanks for watching :D

[@v.angelpablico1710]

I have Boot Camp in my M1 chip Mac.

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Oh wow! Nice to know this is possible now 😃

[@torbenbisgaard4480]

@@DevlinPeckYT You don't have Boot Camp on M1 - its must be a Intel. Because its not possible

[@jonwaynem]

Dude! Your beard! I’m jealous.

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Lol! I actually messed it up trying to trim it haha. Pretty over it but we’ll see how it goes 😂

[@catherinechesterton6180]

Devlin - do we still have to pay for Parallels?

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Yes, unless you use the free trial for a couple weeks 😃

[@milan6439]

It is honestly very strange that an American company like Articulate does not make its own software for iOS, which is also American.

[@etxkevin7452]

There's lag on PC too so it's just trash software. Their other software works great but Storyline is SLOW and laggy.

[@DevlinPeckYT]

Lag can definitely be frustrating!

[@LuloDevineFunLearning]

Very helpful, thank you!

[@DevlinPeckYT]

You're welcome!