So long Midnight Apps. And go to hell.
I tried to load my beta of Cha-Ching 2 but was told the beta had expired and I needed to check the site for updates. I go to the site and get the latest version. Install it. Still no good. Apparently I was already running the latest beta. Luckilly they have a blog post about the problem! But, the blog post just tells me we are screwed for a bit, until they get their shit together. I feel their pain in their iPhone app being rejected by Apple (which is a whole different issue that has nothing to do with Midnight Apps), but to claim they can’t just roll out a new version of beta 99 with a different expiration date because of hard drive failures and faulty backups?! That doesn’t fly these days. Do they not use a version control system? Do they not have offsite backups? Do they not use something like Dropbox to backup their data? Sorry, guys. But if you can’t be trusted to make backups of data, you can’t be trusted to make financial software! Period. End of story.
So now I need to get my data out of Cha-Ching, somehow, and find a new home for it. Any suggestions?
[If you roll back the system date to the 29th, you can open Cha-Ching 2 and export all of your accounts to CSV files. Then set your date back and you should be good to go. It looked like setting the date back caused Dropbox to stop syncing, so I'd quit Dropbox before doing that just to be safe. And to be really safe, I'd close every app possible before rolling the clock back. Who really knows what kind of havoc that can create. However I do appear to be in the clear now.]
4 Comments
I’ve been using Cha-Ching since the initial beta giveaway through MacHeist 1.0 years ago. I love the app, both on the iPhone and the Mac, but unfortunately, I have to say I agree with you. I’ve never been impressed with this “company” in terms of release dates or customer support. They never communicate with their customers, ever. That blog post almost caused me to have a heart attack. ChaChing 2.0 golden master was supposed to be ready months ago. Yet, we’re still stuck with a beta that won’t even open. I did exactly what you did – I rolled back my clock, added yesterday’s transactions, and exported the file. I’m off to a company who actually cares about its customers and doesn’t give lame ass excused out all the time about how this or that happened. Midnight Apps has been, and continues to be, a shit magnet. Sorry, Juan. I love your app, but you have some serious work to do as a company. Maybe I’ll come back someday, but for now, see you later!
I’d been using it since MacHeist 2.0 and was going to gladly pay for version 2.0 when it got out of beta. No more… I started importing my CSV files into iBank, which seems to be well established. It looks like it’s overkill for my needs, but I’m more concerned about the company being around in a few years. And I don’t want to jump on the Intuit train. iBank also seems to have a solid iPhone version. I never trusted Cha-Ching enough to try their iPhone app, so I’m looking forward to having a desktop/iPhone combo.
Agree.
Now I’m trying to find the Saint Grail of the financial management programs. I’ve tried many: - Moneywell – ugly - Money 2 – not too intelligent, buggy - Cha Ching – too simple, buggy - iBank – ?, not liked it.
Is there any other? What would you recommend?
I dunno, Andris. What don’t you like about iBank?
My needs are pretty simple. Hell, I might even go back to doing it all in a Numbers spreadsheet. Free and simple.
People love (or loved) Mint, but that’s been bought out by Intuit. Maybe someone else can chime in and tell us an app they love that we should use.
Erik