Oct

7

Users Reject Bento 3

Filed Under Bento News 

I’m not the only one that found Bento 3 to be unstable, to put it mildly.
Just a few days after its release users complain everywhere on my site.
I’ll add more quotes as they come in.
If you’re still willing to stay with Bento 3, remember to back up your data before you do any important editing. As for me, as long as I’m only browsing Libraries and adding Records, Bento 3 at least didn’t crash anymore…

Here are the scary comments:

(John) I am so disappointed with Bento 3′s bugs, I finally had to chunk it.  I can’t believe they let this out the door. And here I am trying to export new records and templates out of my Bento 3 db, so that I can try to rebuild them now in Bento 2 since Bento 3 is so bug-ridden.

(Max) I was looking forward to some of the exact features that came with Bento 3.
But I have found so many bugs with Bento 3 in just a few days, it is unbelievable.
I’m really disappointed in Bento 3 and think the developers at FileMaker should’ve stayed and worked at the office a few extra weekends.

(Sandra) Bento 3 is crashing all over the place for me too!

(Aaron) I’ve been using Bento 3 for a couple of weeks now. Can’t say that the features they added were in any way worth a full version release. The one potential real great feature — home sharing — is so hobbled and limited that I won’t ever use it.

(RJ) Somebody better trace WHY this Engine is sputtering konking crashing???!! Cause it is happening also on iPhone Bento. Crashing so much can’t even use it on iPhone!!!

(Jolin) I have held off from upgrading to Bento 3 due to the information on this blog. I am very glad to have waited, because the instability that seems to come from Bento 3 would be a major problem for me in my work.

(Will) Bento 3 is the little engine that could… but probably never will, thanks to the company’s open willingness to cripple the software.
And a team of paid professionals spent a year to implement useless 2005-era no-server sharing capability, drag and drop Cocoa grid-view capability into the interface, graciously allow us to organize with folders (revolutionary), and add a field type? And they want us to pay for the favor? No thanks, Filemaker, Inc.

Comments

9 Responses to “Users Reject Bento 3”

  1. Aaron Weissman on October 8th, 2009 9:00 am

    I’ve been using 3 for a couple of weeks now. Can’t say that the features they added were in any way worth a full version release. C’mon — grid view? I mean, it is nice but it is just an incremental bit of eye candy. iPhoto integration is nice, but far from earth-shattering. The one potential real great feature — home sharing — is so hobbled and limited that I won’t ever use it.

    I am trying to use Bento for a lot of things for which I currently use Filemaker. Unfortunately, Bento is a hobbled product. Without the ability to write reports or do mail merges, I can’t way that I will ever rely on the product for any important data or to help manage an organization.

  2. Nina Sabrack on October 11th, 2009 7:41 pm

    I should have looked more thoroughly–I see the Sept 13 advice for Snow Leopard users. Thank you.

  3. Florian on October 11th, 2009 8:14 pm

    Nina, it’s always better to ask one question too many than not enough.
    Yes, Bento 3 actually works better in Snow Leopard. Make sure you set the preferences to “automatically check for software updates” because you should always run the newest version.
    I myself am hoping for the release of a bug-fixing update of Bento 3. Hopefully it will happen soon. But my Bento 3 is behaving pretty well recently. No more crashes. But I’m backing up my database file often.

  4. RJ on October 22nd, 2009 10:09 am

    Somebody better trace WHY this Engine is sputtering konking crashing???!! Cause it is happening also on iPhone Bento. Crashing so much can’t even use it on iPhone!!!

  5. Simon on October 22nd, 2009 10:12 am

    I’m not sure if you have done so already or not but it would be worth posting about your specific problems in the official Bento forums (http://forums.filemaker.com/fmbnto/) so that FileMaker Inc. can gather as much information as possible to try to fix these bugs.

  6. Florian on October 25th, 2009 3:19 pm

    RJ,
    do make sure that you have the newest version of Bento for iPhone.

  7. Ryuji on November 20th, 2009 7:21 pm

    Unfortunately what they changed in Bento3 are not something I personally find useful… like iPhoto integration (I don’t use iPhoto at all) and extra trimmings of little practical value, for me anyway. I’d rather like to see some Bento-specific functional modules to make project management easier, or simply beef up the relational functions of the database engines. Bento3 is just a new skin for Bento2, as far as I’m concerned.

  8. wayne on November 5th, 2010 8:48 am

    November 2010 – I have just downloaded the latest bento3 Version 3.0.5 (17444)

    Im on snow leopard.

    I got 2 questions
    Have they now got the product stable on mac?
    How about on Iphone

  9. Florian on November 5th, 2010 9:07 am

    Hi Wayne,
    I have to say that Bento 3 has been good to me for the past year – not a single crash. And I’m using it heavily, almost every day. The newest version includes even more bug fixes.
    That doesn’t mean that there isn’t some strange, unexpected behavior once in a while; so I hope that the developers keep on fixing that. Tell me if you run into unsusual problems.

    Bento for iPhone had an initial bug that has been fixed. It’s on my wife’s iPhone, but we haven’t used it much. Also check all the Bento forums for complaints and solutions.

    My bottom line recommendation: Bento 3 is a go right now. And to get the most out of it for your personal situations, keep playing with it – I figure out some new little thing all the time, for example hiding the Mac Dock, which gives you more Bento screen real estate: I hate scroll bars…
    I’m just very disappointed that Bento 4 hasn’t been talked about at all – the upgrade schedule is way off.

Leave a Reply