Is Catalina a problem installation wise ?

[macguru9999]

I am a consultant and I am seeing a number of failed Catalina upgrades that leave the user's hard drive in a dreadful state. The install repartitions the drive into 2 volumes, system and data, and if there is not enough room or some other hiccup it leaves the computer unable to boot and a data recovery is required to restore the files. Often the people that have these issues are the same ones that do not have a time machine backup meaning many hours work to get everything back...... yuk !

 

[fisherking]

compare that to the number of people out there who've moved to catalina and are fine (or mostly) fine. like every OS before it, some do well, some have issues.

creating a thread with the title "is catalina a disaster?" is juvenile, and useless. you're a consultant? help your clients, or get them help.

 

[chrono1081]

No it's not. I and many at my workplace use it and we haven't ran into any issues upgrading to it or using it.

The dual volume thing is a security feature, you can read more about it here:https://www.macworld.com/article/3451363/why-you-might-see-a-new-data-disk-in-catalina.html

The computer itself shows it as one drive and it is, it's just split into two APFS volumes.

 

[Fuchal]

N of 1, but I haven't had any problems, and it actually fixed a huge issue from Mojave for me.

 

[Fishrrman]

I see nothing in Catalina that I like or prefer.

Many of the (admittedly older) applications I have are 32-bit, with no "modern equivalent" that I wish to use.

The file system/structure (with the read-only system) is a pain -- and I WANT to be able to "muck with the system" if I feel like it.

I specifically went out and bought a 2018 Mini so I would have a "late model Mac" that would be capable of remaining a 32-bit computer for the next 6, 7, 8 years. After that I may not even NEED a computer any longer (gettin' old).

I always keep the latest/greatest developer beta on an external SSD, and have a newer version of Catalina than do most folks in this forum. But it's NOT USED by me. It's just "there" for test purposes only.

My "main OS" is and will remain Mojave into the distant future...

 

[fisherking]

I see nothing in Catalina that I like or prefer.

Many of the (admittedly older) applications I have are 32-bit, with no "modern equivalent" that I wish to use.

The file system/structure (with the read-only system) is a pain -- and I WANT to be able to "muck with the system" if I feel like it.

I specifically went out and bought a 2018 Mini so I would have a "late model Mac" that would be capable of remaining a 32-bit computer for the next 6, 7, 8 years. After that I may not even NEED a computer any longer (gettin' old).

I always keep the latest/greatest developer beta on an external SSD, and have a newer version of Catalina than do most folks in this forum. But it's NOT USED by me. It's just "there" for test purposes only.

My "main OS" is and will remain Mojave into the distant future...

zzzzz. but might be interesting to see what we're doing with our macs in '6, 7 ,8 years'... while you run mojave, the equivalent of running mavericks in the present.

 

[chabig]

Come on MacGuru. You’ve got a respectable posting history. This thread title just reeks of trolling. That’s not you.

 

[IowaLynn]

You can't force users to read instructions. Those without backups are their own enemy. Can't stop users from opening suspicious emails and clicking on the link and falling prey to phishing or ransomware.

Apple has a support article on how to install macOS.

It wasn't pretty or polished, it was the proverbial "dot zero" release you learn to be suspicious of. I've seeded a lot of betas but this took the cake.

Testing misses too many real world issue scenarios.

This releasing hardware and new OS Mac and iOS has been a disaster and needs reform.

 

[fisherking]

You can't force users to read instructions. Those without backups are their own enemy. Can't stop users from opening suspicious emails and clicking on the link and falling prey to phishing or ransomware.

Apple has a support article on how to install macOS.

It wasn't pretty or polished, it was the proverbial "dot zero" release you learn to be suspicious of. I've seeded a lot of betas but this took the cake.

Testing misses too many real world issue scenarios.

This releasing hardware and new OS Mac and iOS has been a disaster and needs reform.

of course, your experience is not everyone's (read some of the posts, above). and these discussions are no different than they were when mojave/high sierra/sierra/etc ad infintum were released.

when 10.16 happens next year, we'll see the same threads, with people bemoaning about updating from catalina... some of the same people who currently won't update to catalina.

 

[bpeeps]

I've never had any issues upgrading MacOS until Catalina. Every single step along the way has been buggy. From something as simple as trying to login to the Music app but it continually denies my correct username and password, to the iCloud connectivity issues Sidecar has attempting to connect to your ipad, and to the terrible Finder bug that doesn't refresh changes quick enough for you to access them. While there are solutions for most of these bugs, the process is tedious full of logging in and out of iCloud and restarting your various devices.

The entire experience has been awful. Catalina coupled with iOS 13 has objectively been one of the worst software releases by Apple, no matter how hard people who aren't experiencing problems try to paint it. A lot of the problems seem to be tied to iCloud. There's a reason there is article after article written about how buggy both are in comparison to last year.

At any rate, I think this post is going to attract mostly people who don't have problems just because your title is a little over the top and they'll want to come in and knock it down a peg. If you had simply expressed the problems you were having, it would probably be a more even discussion.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I'm not sure about "disaster" (lots of implications with that term) - but I haven't really seen or heard any compelling reasons to move to it from Mojave either.

I have seen lots of bug reports and niggle and issues reported. If you combine that with "what am I getting by upgrading?" (not much if anything) -- it's hard to actually "want" to upgrade to it - at least for me.

 

[Spudlicious]

I'm not sure about "disaster" (lots of implications with that term) - but I haven't really seen or heard any compelling reasons to move to it from Mojave either.

I have seen lots of bug reports and niggle and issues reported. If you combine that with "what am I getting by upgrading?" (not much if anything) -- it's hard to actually "want" to upgrade to it - at least for me.

You speak with the voice of reason.

 

[fisherking]

ha ha; better thread title 👍

if you upgrade to catalina, and have issues... this forum is a great place to get help. if you don't upgrade... you really can't say much about an experience you're not having. simple, really...

 

[macguru9999]

ha ha; better thread title 👍

if you upgrade to catalina, and have issues... this forum is a great place to get help. if you don't upgrade... you really can't say much about an experience you're not having. simple, really...

Yeah, the kind of people i see with problems are NOT the kind who read mac forums ! often they do not have proper backups either... they just click when apple says upgrade and then panic when it takes too long.

 

[fisherking]

Yeah, the kind of people i see with problems are NOT the kind who read mac forums ! often they do not have proper backups either... they just click when apple says upgrade and then panic when it takes too long.

then help them, and come here for support when u need it; much better than a troll-style panic thread; there's enough of them here already...

btw, u might want to change the text color in your sig; it's black text on a dark background, and impossible to read..