You can contact us by sending email to support@abelsim.co.uk.
If you believe you have found a bug in the latest version of Abel, Mabel or Mobel, please do tell me, so that I can correct it and make a new version available to you and others. The latest versions of Abel and Mabel are available as an update for free download by buyers of the original software. Updates for Mobel are also free, via the App Store and Google Play store.
If you cannot find out how to do something even after studying the Help documentation - or simply want to share your experiences - please send an email to the address given above.
If you are having problems with Abel/Mabel/Mobel, please look through the known problems below and also look at the troubleshooting section of the Abel/Mabel documentation before contacting us for help.
If you've got a problem and you're not using the latest version of Abel/Mabel, download and install the latest version: the problem may already be fixed! For Mobel, download the latest update from the App Store or Google Play store.
Version 1.1g
There are no known problems.
Version 1.1d, 1.1e and 1.1f
A few users have reported that blue line diagrams that show the rows as well as the lines are not displayed correctly on some Android 13 and 14 phones, though there is no problem on most Android devices. This is fixed in 1.1g.
Version 1.1c
A minor problem, never reported by users, is fixed in 1.1d.
Version 1.1b
An obscure problem, never reported by any user, is fixed in 1.1c.
Version 1.1a
If a user added a method, giving it a short name of less than three characters, then used this method in a composition, Mobel crashed. Fixed in version 1.1b.
Version 1.1
If you used WaitForMe, it was possible for call prompts to be omitted if you hesitated when leading. Fixed in version 1.1a.
Version 1.0a-1.0L
These versions all had minor bugs which were fixed in the next release.
Version 2.4.4
There are no known problems in this version.
Version 2.4.3
On devices running iOS/iPadOS 18, there was a visual ugly on lists of methods and compositions. Fixed in 2.4.4.
Version 2.4.1
Wait for Me didn't work as well as in previous versions. A few users reported bells not sounding occasionally. Both are fixed in version 2.4.3.
Version 2.4.0
There was a 150ms delay between a screen tap and a bell ringing (a side effect of fixing another problem). Users didn't like it! This is fixed in version 2.4.3.
Version 2.3.7 and 2.3.8 and 2.3.12
On these and all previous versions of Mobel, on iPhone 14 and 15 the rhythm of the ringing was intermittently irregular - specifically, if the device's Auto-Brighntess feature was turned on, and it was in bright light. This is fixed in version 2.4.0.
Version 2.3.6
The orientation lock stopped working on devices with iOS 16, due to a change made by Apple. Since all modern iPhones/iPads allow the orientation to be locked in the device settings, the lock is no longer needed in Mobel, and is removed in version 2.3.7.
Version 2.3.5
An obscure problem, present in this and all previous versions of Mobel, affected a small number of users. It is fixed in version 2.3.6.
Version 2.3.3.and 2.3.4
If a user changed the devices Accessibilty settings, to use a very large font, this could cause a confused display of the various lists in Mobel. This is fixed in version 2.3.5.
Version 2.3.1
When ringing handbells, if a user touched and held one bell, then touched the other, the latter didn't ring. Fixed in version 2.3.2.
A user found yet another way of creating an invalid composition that caused problems for Mobel. Fixed in 2.3.2.
Version 2.3
There was a compatibility issue for those who used Block or Differential methods in previous versions of Mobel, then upgraded to version 2.3. Fixed in 2.3.1.
When using WaitForMe, if a user hesitated when leading, call prompts could be omitted. Fixed in version 2.3.2.
Version 2.0 to 2.2.7
People found various ways to make Mobel crash by adding invalid methods or compositions, or by doing strange things with the peal time. There were also a few other rarely-encountered issues. All of these are fixed in Mobel 2.3.
Version 1.0 to 1.3
Various small bugs got fixed in the next version.
Versions of Abel from 3.9.2 onwards require Pentium IV processors or later (any x86-compatible processor made this century!). If you have a very old PC with a Pentium III processor, contact the support address (above) for assistance.
If you use Handbell Manager with Abel 3.9.2 or later, you need to update to the latest version of HM. See the Handbell Manager section of the Downloads page for details.
Version 10.3.2 People who purchased Abel 10.3.2 before 17 May 2024 may have found a problem with one of the Moving Ringer pictures (the man in red). You can fix this by installing the latest 10.3.2 update from the downloads page of the AbelSim website.
Version 10.3.1 In the striking view, if you use keyboard up/down to scroll the view, the blue/grey lines are not drawn correctly. Fixed in Abel 10.3.2.
Version 10.3 In this and earlier versions of Abel, intermittent problems occured when changing Options>ExtBells. This is fixed in version 10.3.1. A minor bug when using extreme bad striking settings is also fixed in 10.3.1.
Versions 3.10.2 to 3.10.2b It was possible for Abel to get into a state where it wouldn't load; this happened rarely on Windows 10, but more commonly on Windows 11. This is fixed in version 10.3.
The striking display had a minor bug when using Moving Ringers from the keyboard, with User Starts Bell Movement turned on. This is fixed in version 10.3.
Key up/down ringing didn't work in 3.10.2. It's fixed in version 3.10.2a.
High resolution screens. With any Abel version before 10.3 (March 2022), on high resolution (4K) screens, Abel's blue line display, and some other text, may appear very small. To correct this, right click the Abel icon on screen, then click
Properties > Compatibility > Change High DPI Settings
then click High DPI Scaling Override, and select "System" from the associated dropdown box. (These instructions are for Windows 10; other versions of Windows should be similar.)
Version 3.10 and 3.10.1
A few users of Abel 3.10.1 found that Abel's toolbar disappeared, and wouldn't come back.
This is fixed in Abel 3.10.1a. There are no other known problems with Abel 3.10.
Version 3.9.2
When ringing up with Abel, sometimes bells do not start to sound the backstrokes. If this occurs, you can correct it after the ringing up by clicking Reset (or press F4). You can avoid the problem: immediately after you have started Abel you should pull one of the sallies and allow it to swing at backstroke. If anyone first pulls a sally and stops it without allowing the backstroke swing, click the Reset button (or press F4) then pull a sally and allow the backstroke swing. The bells will then ring up correctly.
Version 3.9
If you increased the number of bells by at least two, then rang a bell before
clicking Start, you got an error message, and sometimes strange behaviour afterwards.
Fixed in version 3.9.0a.
The CAS striking analyser requires upper case letters for bells 11, 12 etc (ie, E, T), but Abel 3.9 used lower case. Fixed in version 3.9.0b.
In the Learning Exercises method collection, there was an error in the 3-4 Long Places exercise. Fixed in version 3.9.0a.
If you opened a saved striking file, then tried to save in Lowndes format, the save failed. Fixed in version 3.9.1.
Version 3.8 and 3.9
On some older PCs, typically running Windows XP, there may be white flashes on screen
when using the Moving Ringers display. This is probably due to a slow graphics card
and/or a slow processor. It may be improved
if you run Abel immediately after turning on the PC (so that little else is running);
if you avoid having the mouse cursor pointing to the toolbar (which makes Windows use lots of
processor power looking for clicks); and if you set Abel's Options>Screen to "Long bell
pictures shown in a line", though this is regretable since it is less realistic than
having the pictures in a crescent.
Versions 3.0 to 3.7
Very few problems were ever reported in these versions. If you do encounter
a problem, please update to the latest Abel version that will run on your PC.
Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10 with old versions of Abel
If you are using Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10 with Abel 3.5.3b or earlier versions,
you may find that Abel's help system
doesn't work, or that you can't save changes to method collections, option files, etc.
These issues were fixed in version 3.6.
Installing old CDs
If you have a very old Abel CD, you may find that it will
not install on a modern PC
(because the PC will not read the CD, or because of an installer problem).
Email AbelSim at the address given above
to request a free download of the current version of Abel.
Apple warned in late 2018 that older apps, such as Mabel 1.0.2, would not run on future versions of macOS. Users of Mabel 1.0.2 must upgrade to a later version, to continue running on macOS 10.15 (Catalina) and later versions.
Version 1.1.1
There are no known problems in Mabel 1.1.1.
Version 1.1.0
When running on MacOS 14 Sonoma, prompts during ringing (eg, bobs and method names and call changes), and the striking information, did not display correctly. This is fixed in version 1.1.1.
Version 1.0.2
As in version 1.0, if you press the space bar at the start of a change, strange things may happen to the blue line display. It only seems to happen on some Macs, and with some versions of OS X. If this happens on your Mac, do not use the space bar as the key for ringing a bell or making a call.
Version 1.0
If you press the space bar at the start of a change, strange things may happen to the blue line display. It only seems to happen on some Macs, and with some versions of OS X. If this happens on your Mac, do not use the space bar as the key for ringing a bell or making a call.
For users with Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) only, there is a problem with opening method collections. When you click File>Open on the menu bar, the dialog that appears may not show the available method collections. It seems that Apple have introduced an incompatibility, or even a bug, in Lion. This is fixed in Mabel version 1.0.2 (see the download page).
There is a problem if you try to add a Treble Place method from the microSIRIL library. This is fixed in version 1.0.2. Users of Mabel 1.0 with MAC OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or later can upgrade to version 1.0.2 (see the download page).
For users with Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) only, there is a problem with adding and editing call change compositions.