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OS X El Capitan Out Soon (next major OS release)
Related: Apple, Apple macOS, Eastern Sierra, peak bagging, USB, Yosemite
MPG advice remains the same as with all other major OS X releases: if things are working well now, do yourself a favor and at least wait a week or so to upgrade, checking the various web sites for issues.
For professionals, waiting longer—1 to 3 months—is well advised, particularly those that rely on special hardware, printing support that is specialized, any special software or hardware, etc.
Currently on the road, I'll be upgrading in violation of my own rule—first on my laptop—because of course issues found are worth reporting on—so I’ll have to bite the bullet next week or so.
Michael S writes:
I’m writing this based on your “Apple Core Rot” columns that I’ve participated in before (reference USB connectivity under Yosemite, and Display issues). I’ve been working with Apple over the last 10 or so months to resolve the issues.
I ended up replacing my perfectly good (as it turns out) 27” HP dream color monitor because it would no longer work and switching to mostly thunderbolt drives due to the fact the system kept dropping usb drives off the system, which led to corruption.
This led to replacing my iMac as well, but the display issues continued, I must note at this point that all of the problems started with the Yosemite update. This has been extremely time consuming, between talking with apple support and a couple of trips to the apple store for genius support (it’ is a 70 min drive round trip to the nearest apple store). Replacing a perfectly good monitor and switching over to thunderbolt drives has also been extremely costly.
Then the 10.10.4 update comes out, basically stating that they have had issues with external monitors… Hmmm. I called Apple asking about restitution, they said they can’t do that (I’m sure they don’t want to set a precedent). They said they could offer me something… what it was never clear, I was supposed make suggestions, since then there has been no emails or phone calls. I’ve tried to contact them but to avail, someone else returns the call and says she will get back to me. Yep. Sure.
Now on to el capitan. Currently my midi controller isn’t working, my Home Drive SSD which is in a bus-powered USB3 enclosure , (the only USB drive on the system full time) is giving me an error message as the system wakes that it wasn’t ejected properly (same as before with 10.10) and iTunes is continually trying to download a movie purchase despite having the auto download turned off. I can’t find the download folder to delete movies.
I just finished a lengthy session with applecare and they are now aware of the issues and it took 20 minutes to find the movie download folder.
Thankfully I have a working clone of Yosemite on a SSD and I’m up and running. Core rot at its best, so disappointing.
MPG: the USB3 unmount bug is nothing new, and I’ve seen it also with Thunderbolt. Fortunately it is rare for me. But Apple quality control is declining. Will El Capitan be any better? I’m dubious, but when home from the mountains soon, I’ll find out.
Note well that bugs causing big costs in hardware replacement are no laughing matter. Class action lawsuit anyone? I'm no fan of such lawyering, but Apple is building a deep reservoir of ill will out there. I hear from other readers too, with issues clearly caused by new bugs due to changes to the OS that formerly worked fine, and it’s clear that the trend is all downhill on software quality. Not to mention the bugs that to this day impair my work. Mainly little ones, but they exert a cost each and every day. I won’t take Tim Cook at his (dubious) word that El Capitan is intended to improve quality, not until El Capitan proves out.
