I purchased the upgrade to the Nik Collection, Nik 4 because I love Silver Efex pro. Much to my chagrin, It didn’t work with on1, Nor could it work with my raw files as a stand alone. I was given some suggestions by a support person, but none of them worked. (on1 said it was aware of the problem, and was working on it, and by the fall should have a fix(in their new upgrade I would presume).I then asked for my money back. The support person told me that once I purchased I could not get my money back, but he said they would make an exception, but ONLY if they could access my mac to do the uninstall themselves. I said No to that because I don’t want them in my machine, and the collection came with its own uninstall, and I also have and use the App cleaner.
I then downloaded the trial of DXO Photolab4 so I could see how the nike upgrade worked. When I started to use it, I quickly saw that I could not access or use the nik collection, nor could I save to disk. Both those buttons were grayed out. A week ago I emailed that same person back and told him of the problem. He said I had to stare another ticket, which I did. It has been a week and despite sending two requests, I have heard nothing back, except for the automated response that says that hte request has been received.
I can not understand why I have not heard anything, and this seems to be very counterproductive on DXO’s part. I was already to spend the bucks to buy photolab4, But now am quite hesitant to do so.
Has anyone else had this problem trying to get support from DXO?
Yes, I bought Nik Collection 4 on 2nd June and it’s never worked on my Mac. I have couple of support tickets outstanding and have not had them answered as yet. I too asked for my money back and was told that someone would need to remote access my MacBook, which to me was totally unacceptable. Since then I’ve asked for an update on my support issues and have not had any reply.
I live in hope that one day I may get some working software, but don’t hold out too much hope. My advice would be to hold on to your money until they sort themselves out… even though Photolab 4 is really good.
In terms of having not got a response my guess is that the poor quality of Nik Collection 4 means that they’ve been overwhelmed by support requests and are unable to cope with the volume. I say this because the support team are usually very good and incredibly helpful, that was until Nik 4 hit the streets…
All this non action on their part has made me really afraid to buy Photolab, even though it looks wonderful,But If I can not access the Nik 4 collection or save to disk, it is useless to me
I’ve tried to contact support again, just to find out what’s going on with the issues I reported and still no response. This lack of communication and not having a working version of Nik Collection 4 two months after purchasing it means that my NEW advice would be NOT to but Photolab but take a look at an alternative. It’s what I’m currently doing and I’m most impressed with Capture One Pro…
I finally heard from support after 2 weeks. She apologized and basically said that it was due to vacations.
My Trial of photolab will run out in a day,so she gave me a code to extend it by 3 days…and you won’t believe this but on the day I received her email apologizing for the delay, the two boxes that had been grayed out, save to disk, and Nik were somehow turned back on, as if someone turned on a switch.
Looking at Photolab, it looks really like a good app, one which I most likely will buy, especially if they have a sale
Quite agree that Photolab 4 is a great app, but given my experience with Nik Collection 4 I think that I’d wait for a couple of months after PL5 is released before buying it, just to see what the market reaction is first.
If you get PL4 and PL5 comes out shortly after, then you usually get a reasonably priced upgrade offer.
Good Idea to wait for the new Photolab. I had no idea about how often or when a new PL is released. BTW, the extension she gave me was for 7 days not 3. So far, from what I have seen, it looks very good, and if this is the only way I can easily access and use by nik up grade, then I will buy it
Everyone’s experience is potentially different depending on how they use Photolab, the computer they’re using on, and the other software bring used with it. However, Photolab releases are generally very stable for the overwhelming majority of users.
One of the biggest issues new users have is support for their operating system. It’s important to make sure that the Mac or Windows operating system is included in the documented .minimum hardware requirements before purchasing. In addition, to get the best performance out of Photolab’s extraordinary DeepPRIME noise reduction a computer needs a graphics card with an appropriate GPU. The increase in the amount of processing time for DeepPRIME when a GPU is not used is very significant. And more generally, glitches will occasionally occur, often as a result of other software or somewhat unusual hardware configurations. It is always best to download the 30-day free trial and put it through its paces before purchasing.
I continue to be surprised that so many of those having problems with the Nik Collection did not test out the trial version before purchasing. I am also surprised that so many ignored Nik’s installation warning that previous versions of the software would be overlaid, and did not have copies of their previous version’s installation files and activation codes. It is always in our own best interest to be vigilant when installing new software on our computer.
Yes, upgrades are every year in the latter half of October.
In case you are not aware, Photolab has been around a lot longer then you might suspect based on its current version number. In 2017 Photolab 1 was released. However, it was a rebadging of its predecessor, DXO’s OpticsPro. If they had not renamed it, Photolab 1 would have been OpticsPro 12 and therefore the upcoming Photolab 5 would be OpticsPro 16! The software has a long history.
Mark, I’ve seen you say this before. The reason I bought without testing the trial is I put my trust in a company whose software I have used without problems since Optics Pro 8. Believe me they opened my eyes but good with Nik Collection 4. Where I used to buy early in the release, I will never be doing that again. You and I had a conversation a couple of years ago about needing to support DxO as they were coming out of a financially difficult period and I agreed. But, the over hype and low bar deliverable that was the first iteration of Nik Collection 4 is in excusable. Software development is complex. I know I too did it for several years. But, the first Nik Collection 4 was very much untested even on the basics. Believe me, if I do buy again from DxO it is going to be after I see if the product was released when ready or just to get it out the door to meet a deadline. I have no complaint with customer support or the developers but my bet there is someone at DxO who knew Nik Collection 4 wasn’t fully tested and ready to ship. If I made a bad decision in putting my trust in DxO then as you say shame on me. But, would you consider why this release of any DxO software has gotten so many complaints.You see I can’t imagine a company hyping and releasing a product that is not ready to be released.
I certainly understand your feelings based on your ongoing support of DXO and its products. The Nik Collection release was obviously flawed for many users especially depending on how they intended to use it. I too no longer trial DXO’s software before purchasing and installing it. The Nik Collection works as expected when used with Photolab. Of course even then, there are many people that do not like the changes made to Silver Efex Pro and Viveza.
My comments about the trialing were not really aimed at DXO supporters like you who purchased on faith. A lot of new or occasional DXO customers especially users of the original Google version had intentions of using Nik 4 with their third-party software, and purchased Nik 4 without first ensuring it would continue to work with that software. That is always a risky proposition.
Mark
You are absolutely right in what you say about testing and trailing software before purchasing it and checking that you have the correct specification of machine etc. I guess that my problem was that I trusted DxO, and that trust was based upon their previously flawless record (so far as the software I’ve previously purchased goes) of writing and selling excellent software and with that trust I looked at the new features on Nik collection 4 and eagerly purchased it.
The sad thing is that a couple of bad design decisions by the development team together with a lack of testing in all environments results in the release of sub-standard, poor quality software that ultimately flushes a good company’s reputation down the toilet.
I do hope that they can quickly fix the software, make it as good as the previous version and recover their reputation, but given the fact that it’s two months since I purchased Nik Collection 4 and it’s still unusable, I suspect that there are some fundamental, deep rooted issues, which means that it’ll be a long time before they do.
Personally, I’m okay as I’ve rolled back to Nik Collection 3 - which is still brilliant…