Application: ActivePresenter
Version: 9.3.0 - 64-bit build. (Released: 2025.04.08)
macOS Version: 15.3.2 (24D81)
Hardware: Apple Silicon (M2)
Architecture: arm64e
Summary
ActivePresenter consistently crashes when attempting to use the Insert Snapshot dropdown (ribbon button bar). The crash occurs immediately after clicking the dropdown, before the popup window is rendered.
Steps to Reproduce
- Launch ActivePresenter.
- Open or create a new project.
- Click on the Insert Snapshot dropdown button in the ribbon.
- Application crashes.
Expected Result
The snapshot dropdown should display normally without crashing.
Actual Result
The application terminates with a segmentation fault (EXC_BAD_ACCESS) on the main thread. The crash seems related to popup window rendering through wxWidgets (Cocoa backend).
Crash Log (Excerpt)
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000c367193c62c8
Termination Reason: SIGNAL 11 Segmentation fault: 11
PC register does not match crashing frame (possible pointer authentication failure)
Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0 libwx_osx_cocoau-3.1.6.0.0.dylib 0x113a84e03 wxGUIEventLoop::OSXDoRun() + 51
1 libwx_osx_cocoau-3.1.6.0.0.dylib 0x11397e2dd wxCFEventLoop::DoRun() + 29
2 libwx_osx_cocoau-3.1.6.0.0.dylib 0x1138db415 wxEventLoopBase::Run() + 85
3 ActivePresenter 0x105702ef6 RLPopupWindow::Show(bool) + 428
4 ActivePresenter 0x105225d74 CRealLiveView::OnInsertSnapshotDropDown(wxCommandEvent&) + 4684
...
25 libwx_osx_cocoau-3.1.6.0.0.dylib 0x113e1da52 wxRibbonButtonBar::OnMouseUp(wxMouseEvent&) + 402
...
47 ActivePresenter 0x10570f431 main + 22
48 dyld 0x2078012cd start + 1805
Analysis
- Crash occurs during a wxWidgets 3.1.6 Cocoa event loop call (
wxGUIEventLoop::OSXDoRun) triggered byRLPopupWindow::Show. - Logs suggest a pointer authentication failure (specific to Apple Silicon ARM64e) → likely invalid or corrupted pointer passed during popup rendering.
wxWidgets 3.1.6is known to have compatibility issues with newer macOS releases and Apple Silicon pointer authentication.
Possible Cause
- Outdated wxWidgets 3.1.6 framework bundled with ActivePresenter is not fully compatible with recent macOS versions and Apple Silicon.
- Popup windows (
wxRibbonButtonBar→RLPopupWindow::Show) trigger invalid memory access due to pointer authentication mismatch.
Suggested Fix
- Update ActivePresenter’s wxWidgets dependency to wxWidgets 3.2.x or newer, which has better support for macOS 12+/Apple Silicon.
- Add additional null pointer checks in
RLPopupWindow::Show(bool). - Consider testing Intel build under Rosetta 2 to confirm ARM64e-specific issue.