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Apple Core Rot: Networking in macOS is Badly Broken for WiFi Hot Spot
Related: Apple, Apple Core Rot, Apple iOS, Apple iPhone and iPad, Apple macOS, Apple macOS Mojave, internet access, iOS, networking, USB
On my recent trip, I had terrible problems with networking (macOS Mojave, 2019 iMac 5K). This combination had been stable and reliable for 18 months and for years prior with the 2017 iMac 5K.
But sometime between December 2020 and now, everything went to shit, which is all you can expect from Apple today—unmitigated incompetence in software quality—Apple Core Rot.
As shown below, I had no luck with iPhone USB or WiFi for my internet, something I’ve used reliably for many years until now (cell phone hot spot). Something is seriously broken in macOS support for personal hot spot.
No other bug matters more to me than this, since I travel months of the year. It is how I get internet on the road. It is critical that it work reliably.
I use both the iPhone 7 and iPhone 6. Both connect to the computer, can be synced, can have photos downloaded and everything else a connection implies. Yet the computer just would not enable the connection over USB and rarely would it succeed with WiFi. So two different phones and two different cables (4 combinations).
Outright bug
The message shown is self-evidently false/erroneous. It claims that “”
There no other network connected. Indeed, there isn’t even another network service enabled—all others are disabled! Nice work Apple.
WiFi doesn’t work more than 1 time in 10
But it gets worse.
While I preferred to use USB for the connection (faster, more reliable, charges phone), I settled for WiFi. OMG—WiFi was so unreliable that most of the time it could not connect, even with the phone about 10 inches from the computer.
Fallback to Bluetooth
In the end, the only thing I could get to work was Bluetooth, which made me suffer with poor performance for a month.
When I need internet connetivity in places like this, for a month, it’s a big deal when things don’t work right.
When if ever will Apple get their shit together on making core features work properly?
Sony A7R IV + Sony FE 50mm f/1.2 GM
ENV: PatriarchGrove, altitude 11300 ft / 3444 m, 45°F / 7°C
RAW: LACA corrected, vignetting corrected, push 1 stops, +100 Shadows, -59 Highlights, +20 Whites, +30 Dehaze, +15 Clarity
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