Hallmark Studio Greeting Card program not working on my iMac after updating to Sequoia 15.3

After several years of being tempted by Hallmark's E-ads, just last fall I upgraded my old Card Studio 2010 to their latest offering. I think I used it only once or twice since, but that's why I have it... so it's there when I need to make a card that I don't have time to go to a store for. So yesterday a great grandniece sent a graduation announcement, and due to medical issues keeping me home, and wanting to create a more personal congrats card for her, I went to my trusty new Card Studio version. Nope. Virtually brand new and it won't open either "Choose a Design" or "Design From Scratch".

I wasted an hour trying to figure out what was wrong, then noticed the complaints here. But that update page at Hallmark that Servant of Cats displayed is not new. As far as I can tell their idea of "soon" is many months. If they don't care enough about customers to fix such issues, or aren't connected enough with Apple to help their efforts, then maybe a bunch of us should demand our money back.

For now I'll see if my old Card Studio program is still languishing and functional on one of my older Windows machines with Vista and Windows 10, although they are slow and Vista won't talk to my current printers or even hook to our modern WiFi network. Maybe I can ferret a way around it, such as an ethernet hookup.

Re: [#303894] New Hallmark Card Studio For Mac

Hi Robert,

Ticket: https://avanquestnorthamerica.freshdesk.com/helpdesk/tickets/303894

It has taken longer than expected but the software went in for final approval today. Once we get the approval the software will be made available. 

Michelle 

Customer Service Representative

Great news. Although I spent a lot of precious time dealing with the problem already. Last night I finally managed to create a card and envelope for a graduating great grandniece, but had to use my old 2009 $200 Windows10 laptop and 2010 Card Studio. It was agonizingly slow, choked by the limitations of the 4GB Pentium 2GHz laptop and its ability to communicate with a newer printer (Epson 8500). But the job got done.

Hopefully future OS upgrades won't be such an issue or take so long to resolve.

Do you not comprehend? This has nothing to do with macOS updates/upgrades. It has ALL to do with Hallmark deciding not to support macOS any longer. It is NOT Apple’s duty to make sure every piece of software out there works. It’s up to the developer to keep their software compatible with macOS, Windows, Linux, and other operating systems.

So get off the “Its all Apple’s fault” bandwagon because you simply don’t understand what’s going in software development.

The only faint hope we have is that the website for the Mac version still advertises a future update. From past history October, November is sometimes the timing for new updates. Not sure whether it's Avanquest or Broderbund that Hallmark goes to for development, have heard both or someone else ...

The Hallmark brand is certainly not benefiting from this continuing fiasco of continual downtime for updates.

Mark ******s <mj****l.com>

11:20 PM (5 minutes ago)

to Avanquest

So I went to the site and it stated Now now fully compatible with macOS Tahoe 26 & macOS Sequoia 15, which is great.   Then I click on purchase download and I get this.  I already have one that does not work with 15, so what is going on?

Please confirm that your current Mac device is using macOS 10.14 (Mojave) through macOS 14.1.1 (Sonoma)

This software is NOT COMPATIBLE with macOS 15 (Sequoia).

I will update when I know more.

[Edited by Moderator]

I contacted Hallmark asking if a patch at no cost (or low cost) would be available for users who purchased the software to use with the latest Sequoia OS prior to this update. I was told no and I must repurchase the entire program. Not very good customer support.

I did purchase the new program and it ran up great. The problem I have is that the printing is messed up. The front and the back are good, but the inside is upside down. So what that tells me is that they did not try and print this at all. When you look at it it runs the same as always, but you can tell even from the print preview the inside of the card is upside down. Has anyone been able to make it print properly? When I worked with Customer service they said the following.

 I will raise the concern about it based on the picture you sent. As of the moment, if the quarter-fold printing won't work, most likely this might get addressed once there is an update or patch fix for the program.

​

Did you tell them you're a previous user? Many of us did and got the new version free.

In any case V22 the old version works with Tahoe just fine. I like it better than the new version 24.

Be careful with Tahoe, it's still buggy as all getout.

Not sure what is going on but I got another email frother today with a link & when I click it shows $19

https://enews.e-mail.hallmarksoftware.com/q/07Yvx1cFGZ0YPSsjdQ_MXzsyW-LyldAzi5O6ZcOJbXk4OWJuekBtZS5jb23DiAfg44Wmz_cpaPLKFXysTF_aXsIPwHope this works

I downloaded V23 to use with Sequoia and Tahoe today and paid the upgrade price. I can’t make it work right; can’t change text and save it, program freezes, I’ve submitted two support tickets and afraid I’ll have to request a refund. So disappointed. The older version worked so well for us.

I've been using Hallmark Card Studio for Mac for 15 years. Every year, I would update my program. Hallmark would offer a special price to current users to upgrade. Since the extraordinarily long wait for Avanquest to make the Hallmark Card Studio for Mac compatible with Sequoia 15.X the Price for the new upgrade currently is $39.

I stayed loyal and waited for the upgrade. Seems like I've wasted my time.

There are people out there claiming that it's $19 but they're looking at the Windows version.

I can understand if you're buying the Hallmark Card Studio for MAC for the first time that you would pay $39. But if you're upgrading Avanquest/Hallmark should be offering an upgrade discount to current users. Not the case as of today.

Disappointing....

The Hallmark v23 program is terrible. If you hit the undo button past the initial edit of the card, the program will crash. If you close a card and select "don't save", it will crash. Replicating the issues on both a 2020 imac (last of the intel) and a 2024 MBP both running Tahoe 26.1.

Definitely not working in Tahoe if you try to edit a predesigned card (which has always been what my mom does). Another quirk is if you make 2 edits and then hit undo 3 times, it crashes so hard that it sends a report to Apple.

I got a mail from Hallmark today indicating that it is now possible to upgrade to a new version available with GenAI functionality. I note that if you try to make an upgrade purchase on their website Hallmark Card Studio for Mac, the checkout page indicates you are still purchasing v23.

I just updated my 23.0.0.28 version to 23.0.0.29 and do not see any mention of AI in the help files. However, if you open a new project there is a Try AI button in the lower right corner that will actually generate images. And even though the documentation only mentions iPhoto everywhere, the software works fine with Mac OS Photos.