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maternidad

macrumors regular
Mar 18, 2021
240
336
How can this macOS created hidden file appear in Spotlight?????
Screen Shot 2022-09-18 at 10.26.34.png

items.plist?

Every time I open an App Store page for an app I've downloaded, too, it claims that I have rated the app with its average rating.

I've never rated Microsoft Word with four stars.
Screen Shot 2022-09-18 at 10.33.52.png

Or iMovie with three.
Screen Shot 2022-09-18 at 10.34.33.png


In fact, I've clicked on other stars many times, and no change is made —the next time I open the App Store, my supposed rating is the same.
 
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B....

macrumors newbie
Mar 21, 2021
12
2
Well I do still get beachballing but it’s only with a couple of apps now, compared to almost every app with the previous release. Hopefully it stabilises at some point.
Me too. 3rd party apps. I find that strange as I have a brand new 14" MBP M1pro. But as you alluded to the 12.6 is only just installed. ( Re. 3rd party apps - Apple Support had no interest in assisting me with other issue I had with one of those despite my suspected correlation with the OS.)
 

okkibs

macrumors 65816
Sep 17, 2022
1,070
1,006
How can this macOS created hidden file appear in Spotlight?
It's not hidden, it's a regular file that Office creates when you open a document to indicate that the document is in use and locked, once you close Office the file is removed, except sometimes Office might not close correctly and leave these behind. They don't contain any data and can be deleted.

Me too. 3rd party apps. I find that strange as I have a brand new 14" MBP M1pro.
I don't think I've ever seen a beachball on my 14" except for very unoptimized software like Office 365 that will always beachball to no end on every one of my Macs because except for the MS Remote Desktop app, the MS apps are trash.

For me Monterey since the .4 release has been the most stable MacOS I ever had going back to Leopard. Even Snow Leopard which I thought were pretty good at the time I consider garbage now, looking back it's crazy that I found it acceptable to only get a kernel panic or hung Intel display driver once every 48 hours instead of once every 8-24 hours. Even my 2012 Mac still had to be rebooted every 2nd or 3rd day due to a non-responding Finder, crashed driver or some other software problem. It wasn't until one of the last Intel Macs (2020 MBP) with Catalina that MacOS would survive a full week (then the bad memory management and kernel_task and WindowServer memory leaks made a reboot necessary). Big Sur was the same and Monterey starting with 12.4 had a noticeably better memory management with the kernel_task leak finally fixed.

The 14" is the first Mac I haven't had to reboot in weeks without it crawling to a halt eventually. Although this is in part because I finally have 64GiB available, the Intel one was limited to 32GiB. No matter how bad the memory management is, it can't mess up that badly.

I originally come from a place where I would open a folder with about 1k small files that make up my video footage for a project, then having to somehow get that into an app without Finder beachballing for 20 minutes (quicklook would just refuse to even work on these, it would load forever or stop loading and just showing the filename as if the file type wasn't supported), and while I went through the footage I'd hit CTRL+S periodically because it was just a matter of time before the entire screen froze (audio would keep playing, ssh login was fine), and I'd have to reboot to get that Intel driver back on its feet. That was essentially my experience from 2007 through 2013/2014 before it got a bit better.

Using network storages (Samba) would eventually beachball the Finder indefinitely, and restarting Finder would result in Finder disappearing with an error message that an error occured opening Finder. Shutdown would then never complete and just hang at a beachball.

From where I come from, Monterey is the holy grail of MacOS stability and performance. These smaller "losing focus" and whatnot bugs are things I can really only laugh about, although some are indeed infuriating. When unlocking System Preferences panes, the cursor is always automatically in the password field even though I work with a non-admin account and need to fill out the username field first (it's empty). It's like nobody at Apple ever tested MacOS using a non-admin account. That's across half a dozen installations both Apple Silicon and Intel, so it's not like it's a rare bug, it's simply default behaviour.

tell me that Windows 10 or 11 isn't stable on those.
I agree, Windows has been extremely stable for many years of 10 now and even though the Windows 11 settings are a chaos and the taskbar seems like a step backwards, I prefer 11 over 10 now. It's equal in terms of speed and reliability to my 14" with Monterey in my opinion, although I do prefer the MacOS UI a lot.
 

maternidad

macrumors regular
Mar 18, 2021
240
336
It's not hidden, it's a regular file that Office creates when you open a document to indicate that the document is in use and locked, once you close Office the file is removed, except sometimes Office might not close correctly and leave these behind. They don't contain any data and can be deleted.
It is hidden, if not created by macOS. It appears in the Finder only if hidden files are enabled, and its graphic representation is never entirely opaque.
 

Yebubbleman

macrumors 603
May 20, 2010
6,025
2,617
Los Angeles, CA
Well, you're certainly posting in the correct thread. I see you have a few MS Windows machines, fortunately for me I have no need for Windows on anything. Monterey is very stable and smooth on my (unsupported) 2012 rMBP 10,1

I am very much a dual-platform user. But my affinity for Windows doesn't discredit my distaste for Monterey if that's what you're getting at. If anything, I give both experiences a fair shot and the ones that give me grief are the ones I complain about.

I wanted to love Monterey, but there's an annoying audio bug with Apple Silicon Macs that I keep encountering (not present on either Big Sur nor Ventura), and hell if 12.2-12.4 didn't have some really annoying bugs that didn't need to be there. It seems finally stable-ish (though that audio bug is still there) on 12.6, but I'm not not embracing it whole-heartedly and am hoping that, in macOS Ventura, Apple compensates for the annoyance of a needlessly redesigned "System Settings" app by making the rest of the OS rock solid.


I've been a Mac user since the 90s and have had to use various Windows machines for work over the years. With one exception, switching to Windows would never have even crossed my mind. That said, the one exception is my current Surface Laptop running Win11. It's an awesome machine.

Windows 10 and Windows 11 are way better than most on this site would give credit for. The transition from Control Panel to Settings is unfortunately slow-going, but with as many developers relying on the platform, that's how it is. But other than that, it's a pretty logical, stable, well-working OS, provided the hardware you're using it on isn't ******* and provided the right drivers are installed (which isn't anywhere near as hard to do as it once was). People don't like having to configure it, but if it comes to you already configured correctly, it's as smooth of a ride as the best of Apple's post-Jobs macOS releases.

Meanwhile, I haven't upgraded my MBP to Monterey because of some known bugs that still haven't been fixed and will absolutely screw me up.

I only have it on one machine. I'll install it on one-off machines that need specific tasks done, but I'm not installing it on any of my serious personal machines. Am hopeful that Ventura proves stable. Seems good so far, despite some of the annoying redesigned elements.
 
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yellowhelicopter

macrumors regular
Jun 5, 2020
202
115
trash operating system by a company that is turning into trash. apple does not give a **** about fixing bugs.

After switching from Win10 two months ago I must say I'm pretty impressed with Monterey. I haven't encountered any major problems so far, no lockups, no crashes, it's like Win10 in that regard. But much more stylish, beautiful and clearly organised. After 25 years on Windows machines, basically I love it. Settings panel and settings themselves, dock, launchpad, menu bar, even wallpapers and screensavers all are very pleasant and clean. Heck, I even have totally empty desktop because the system so well organised between dock, launchpad and notes application which eliminates any necessity to use desktop icons for me.
 
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goodLuckWithYourUSBhub

macrumors newbie
Oct 11, 2022
10
11
After switching from Win10 two months ago I must say I'm pretty impressed with Monterey. I haven't encountered any major problems so far, no lockups, no crashes, it's like Win10 in that regard. But much more stylish, beautiful and clearly organised. After 25 years on Windows machines, basically I love it. Settings panel and settings themselves, dock, launchpad, menu bar, even wallpapers and screensavers all are very pleasant and clean. Heck, I even have totally empty desktop because the system so well organised between dock, launchpad and notes application which eliminates any necessity to use desktop icons for me.

Very legal and very cool. You're in the honeymoon phase and that's a great thing. I am happy your desktop is empty.

Now try using a USB hub (powered or unpowered). Try using a 4k external monitor. Try using bluetooth. Try using multiple webcams. Or don't, I guess, if you want to stay in the honeymoon phase.
 

yellowhelicopter

macrumors regular
Jun 5, 2020
202
115
Now try using a USB hub (powered or unpowered). Try using a 4k external monitor. Try using bluetooth. Try using multiple webcams. Or don't, I guess, if you want to stay in the honeymoon phase.
I have had zero problems with bluetooth (logi mouse+KB, dualshock 4) or wifi so far on Mac Mini M1, I also use two external drives connected to USB-A and USB-C and old FullHD TV as monitor, all the periphery work fine for me.
 

eilavid

macrumors regular
Oct 25, 2021
121
890
Now try using a USB hub (powered or unpowered). Try using a 4k external monitor. Try using bluetooth. Try using multiple webcams. Or don't, I guess, if you want to stay in the honeymoon phase.
i literally use all these things on the daily, plugging in/out of a powered usb hub, 4k displayport + bluetooth for keyboard, trackpad and airpods. my mbp m1 2020 16 gb on macos 12.5 has been running for over 40 days without any issues. monterey has been very good to me, compared to the last os x version i used (catalina)
 

goodLuckWithYourUSBhub

macrumors newbie
Oct 11, 2022
10
11
i literally use all these things on the daily, plugging in/out of a powered usb hub, 4k displayport + bluetooth for keyboard, trackpad and airpods. my mbp m1 2020 16 gb on macos 12.5 has been running for over 40 days without any issues. monterey has been very good to me, compared to the last os x version i used (catalina)

Okay? There is clearly a subset of users experiencing repeated issues with Monterey. You are not one of them. What would you like me to say?
 
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svenmany

macrumors demi-god
Jun 19, 2011
2,280
1,533
Today Music stopped working for a couple of songs on an album. I had to switch to the web to play the music.

The things that get Apple's attention are the widespread complaints about specific issues. They have to get picked up in the media somehow. The real widespread complaint that needs to get serious media attention is the across the board poor quality software.

Sometimes I do wonder if the people with older hardware experience more bugs. I have a 2018 laptop and it's tiresome.
 
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Jack Neill

macrumors 68020
Sep 13, 2015
2,272
2,308
San Antonio Texas
I have mixed feelings on 12.x, it runs perfectly fine on my 2013 iMac, and my M1 Air, but on my 2017 14,3 15" its rather laggy, I've did an internet restore to 12.6 and it still isn't really that great. When I turn the Radeon on it gets better but still.. I hope Ventura is a better product.
 

Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
21,026
4,616
New Zealand
Sometimes I do wonder if the people with older hardware experience more bugs. I have a 2018 laptop and it's tiresome.
Some of the bugs I've run into have existed since the hardware was brand new.

Some other bugs are just embarrassing and baffling. For example, in Xcode if you open a .c file (not a project), make a change to the code and then click Close, it'll ask whether you want to save, discard or cancel. No matter which option you choose it'll save anyway. I reported that one 18 months ago and Apple hasn't even put a comment on it, let alone fixed it.
 
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Willeford

macrumors newbie
Apr 7, 2022
3
0
Milan, Italy
I held on to Mojave as long as I could, but in the end I was forced to install Monterey (I skipped both Catalina and Big Sur) because of Adobe's InDesign and InCopy, which I need for my job. Troubles have been minimal, I must admit, except for the Music app (I solved the problem with Retroactive) and the Books app, which in my opinion has been a major step backwards (so that I use Thorium now).
On the hardware side, everything has worked OK for me (Mac Mini 2018, i7, 32GB RAM, 512GB SSD; monitor Eizo EV2780). Of course, there are bugs. As always.
 

dotck

macrumors member
Nov 13, 2019
37
23
The problem with macOS (and probably all other operating systems) is the growth of dependencies and services they come with. On a modern macOS you'll easily have 600-700 processes running to do average workloads and that number is increasing with each release, so does the complexity and the possibility of bugs.

Monterey is the first release I had to permanently "downgrade" since I joined the ecosystem because the number of issues made it almost impossible to use it as a workstation. I wish Apple would focus on fixing bugs/optimizing and make the platform more stable instead of adding Stage Manager and such (questionable) features.
 

Blair110

macrumors newbie
Oct 14, 2020
19
22
Very legal and very cool. You're in the honeymoon phase and that's a great thing. I am happy your desktop is empty.

Now try using a USB hub (powered or unpowered). Try using a 4k external monitor. Try using bluetooth. Try using multiple webcams. Or don't, I guess, if you want to stay in the honeymoon phase.
I'm not an Apple apologist by any means, but I've tried and am using ALL of those things with Monterey and have not had a single issue. As I suspect many haven't either. So it's a little disingenuous to assume they'd have issues when it seems to be the minority.
 

goodLuckWithYourUSBhub

macrumors newbie
Oct 11, 2022
10
11
I'm not an Apple apologist by any means, but I've tried and am using ALL of those things with Monterey and have not had a single issue. As I suspect many haven't either. So it's a little disingenuous to assume they'd have issues when it seems to be the minority.

"It works on my machine"
 
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