No Problems With macOS Catalina

[WilliamDu]

Does anyone have firm experience with a Catalina upgrade that does not mess with Photos libraries or functions, iTunes libraries or functions, playlists or Genius components?
Previous upgrades over the years have totally lost lots of my iPhotos and Photos images.
I now dump all my images on external DVDs before any upgrades and figure Mojave is good for at least 6 more months.
After 35 years with Apple products I'm severely disgusted with their software QC.

 

[fisherking]

Does anyone have firm experience with a Catalina upgrade that does not mess with Photos libraries or functions, iTunes libraries or functions, playlists or Genius components?
Previous upgrades over the years have totally lost lots of my iPhotos and Photos images.
I now dump all my images on external DVDs before any upgrades and figure Mojave is good for at least 6 more months.
After 35 years with Apple products I'm severely disgusted with their software QC.

this is not normal (for catalina, or any mac os), and you should start a thread, describe things in detail, and get help. it's not the OS, it's what's happening for you with the OS...

 

[honestone33]

Last week, TechTool Pro finally came out with the Catalina-compatible version of Tech Tool Pro. That was the last of my apps that I needed an upgrade for, and hence I proceeded with moving from Mojave (OS 10.14.6) to Catalina (OS 10.15.2) on both of my Macs. I used dosdude1's patcher to download the full OS 10.15.2 installer. After I went through my process (described in detail on another thread), I began using both of my Macs with OS 10.15.2. So far, everything is working well. I am not having any issues at all. In fact, I have been using my 2017 MacBook Air for over a week now (currently in Texas visiting our youngest son), and am pleased. Not seeing any real differences between Mojave at Catalina, including speed.

Here are my third party apps I use, and which work flawlessly with Catalina:

1Password
VLC
EasyFind
LibreOffice
Thunderbird (EMail client)
Brave (been my browser of choice for about a month. So glad I switched to it!)
Quicken 2017
AppCleaner
Transmission
Onyx
TechTool Pro
SuperDuper!
ClamXAV
Klondike Forever
MemoryClean2
VueScan
VLCStreamer
SMART Utility
GrandPerspective
HandBrake

I also just let Catalina take care of handling my Canon Printer, with (again) no issues.

 

[honestone33]

As I have already mentioned, everything is working fine for me regarding Catalina, OS 10.15.2. Processing speed does not seem to be any different than with Mojave, but I'm curious if folks are seeing another "pleasant" surprise about Catalina.

Both of my Macs (a late 2012 Mac Mini, and a mid 2017 Mac Book Air) have 8 gig of RAM. The Mini has a 256 gig SSD, and the Air has a 252 gig SSD. I am only utilizing about 75 gig of space on each Mac.

I did the clean installation of OS 10.15.2 on both machines last Wednesday evening, the 11th. We left for Dallas on the 13th to visit our youngest son, and that is where I am at now. I have been using the Mac Book Air a few hours everyday, and the nice "thing" is that the memory use is much, much better. Almost 100% of the time, I run only 1 application at a time, with Brave being the one I use the longest.

When I was using Mojave, the amount of RAM being used would exceed 4.2 gig, and in some cases be as much as 5 gig. The "biggest" culprit was when I would visit yahoo.com, and click on some of the news stories there. Even after leaving that site and going to another, the amount of free RAM did not go up much, if at all.

But with Catalina, it is much, much better. I am entering this post right now via Brave, after visiting yahoo.com and other sites, and the amount of free RAM is 4.6 gig. I do have an application called Memory Clean 2 that I can run to clean it up even more, and in fact, I used it a lot while I had Mojave.

Again, this is with my MacBook Air. I suspect it will be the same for my Mac Mini (we are going home on the 26th), but I am wondering what others have experienced.

 

[WilliamDu]

this is not normal (for catalina, or any mac os), and you should start a thread, describe things in detail, and get help. it's not the OS, it's what's happening for you with the OS...

Nothing appears normal about Catalina, and I'm still waiting for someone to tell me it doesn't mess with iTunes or Photo libraries since it seems to have lots of other problems. During 35 years of IT work, I'd have been fired for releasing 10.15.
I have started a thread asking this question and have had no answers as yet.

 

[ZeuSGoKiL]

I am still having Blueetooth droppiong signal issue with Catalina albeit the PRAM and SMC reset and even with the latest Catalina OS 15.1.2 release.
It happens randomnly and i ntermittent but still the BT signal drop signal more times than one.

 

[Jeff Flowerday]

I'm down to one last issue. Printing to my Samsung printers, the jobs are getting messed up and printing garble gook on many pages. I have to run to the printer before I kill a tree.

 

[revmacian]

Nothing appears normal about Catalina, and I'm still waiting for someone to tell me it doesn't mess with iTunes or Photo libraries since it seems to have lots of other problems. During 35 years of IT work, I'd have been fired for releasing 10.15.
I have started a thread asking this question and have had no answers as yet.

If you're not sure then don't upgrade at all.. there is no rule saying that you have to upgrade. There's nothing wrong with staying right where you are.

 

[chrono1081]

I never had any issue with Catalina and neither did any of our work machines. I'm not saying issues don't exist for some people, but I've learned this forum is full of chicken littles and to pretty much disregard any "issue" I see listed on here.

The only issue in the last several years I was able to reproduce (with a lot of trying and experimenting) was the speaker pops on the new MacBook Pro. I can literally only produce it by loading a very specific instrument in Logic (the one violin one I forget which one it is though) and playing 3 specific notes (again, I forget which and my MacBook Pro isn't in front of me to try.)

Forums here made it sound like it was this non-stop popping all the time. I never heard it on any music I listened to, or any videos I've watched on it, I could only reproduce it using Logic.

 

[revmacian]

I never had any issue with Catalina and neither did any of our work machines. I'm not saying issues don't exist for some people, but I've learned this forum is full of chicken littles and to pretty much disregard any "issue" I see listed on here.

The only issue in the last several years I was able to reproduce (with a lot of trying and experimenting) was the speaker pops on the new MacBook Pro. I can literally only produce it by loading a very specific instrument in Logic (the one violin one I forget which one it is though) and playing 3 specific notes (again, I forget which and my MacBook Pro isn't in front of me to try.)

Forums here made it sound like it was this non-stop popping all the time. I never heard it on any music I listened to, or any videos I've watched on it, I could only reproduce it using Logic.

Agreed, most of the "issues" I've seen with Apple products are blown way out of proportion - apparently by people who seem to thrive on fear and panic.

The only issues I've ever seen on macOS Catalina were with the Mail.app and Reminders.app - but those issues were resolved.

The sad part is that once you fix one issue, the doomsdayers will begin searching for another one. And, if they can't find one, they'll blow something way out of proportion in order to obtain one. This is why I always tell people to research things for themselves and draw their own conclusions without relying solely on total strangers.

 

[fisherking]

Nothing appears normal about Catalina, and I'm still waiting for someone to tell me it doesn't mess with iTunes or Photo libraries since it seems to have lots of other problems. During 35 years of IT work, I'd have been fired for releasing 10.15.
I have started a thread asking this question and have had no answers as yet.

you left out "for me", ie "Nothing appears normal about Catalina for me"

 

[sugargliderdude]

will install Catalina when it's at 10.15.3, seems Apple is fixing most of the problems now

 

[fisherking]

will install Catalina when it's at 10.15.3, seems Apple is fixing most of the problems now

always amazes me that people make these things up; catalina's been (mostly) great here since official day 1. who said (outside of this forum) that .3 would 'the one'? and how does it 'seem' that apple is fixing most problems? how would you know what's going on at apple?

no harm in waiting for any point-update. but silly to imagine that there's a 'plan', where .3 would be the time to upgrade to the new OS.

 

[j2048b]

so i have a mac min late 2012 which updated, the issue i have is the folders on my desktop show a very very faint folders stack showing behind one of my folders, i have 9 folders on my desktop, and the folder stack says 9 folders yet the stack is unclickable, and unusable....its there wether i choose to stack everything or not...and not how to fix it....or even use it to stack all my folders together?

 

[Peadogie]

....its there wether i choose to stack everything or not...and not how to fix it....or even use it to stack all my folders together?

Right click on the Desktop: choose Show View Options>Stack By>None or whatever option you like.
Hope this helps.

 

[j2048b]

Right click on the Desktop: choose Show View Options>Stack By>None or whatever option you like.
Hope this helps.

thanks i had tried that, but i ended up restarting and now its gone.... how do i now stack all the folders i have? as now they wont stack...not sure i have to put all the folders into a folder? or what? it would be cool to keep them all stacked and clean up the desktop...thanks again for the suggestion

 

[stillcrazyman]

I have 10.15.2 running smoothly on my 2018 Mini.
All my apps seem fine.
My use case is fairly normal stuff and photo editing.

Only two things come to mind as 'issues' -
When I first installed 10.15.0 , there were several times that I had to log out and back in to my iCloud account - after a few tries, everything is synced and appears to be functioning properly.

Second 'issue' might not be related to the OS. I have an external Gpu attached. When I power on my Mini, the screen goes dark and usually comes back with the login screen. Until recently with the install of 10.15.2. Now I cannot boot with the eGpu attached. I've since removed it and have no issues with booting.

 

[honestone33]

Yeah, regarding issues folks are having with Catalina, much of it is due to "rushing to install" the new OS without a solid plan. It seems that some folks think they can just upgrade to the new OS without issues.

Myself, I am not having ANY issues at all with Catalina. But as I have done for just about every new Mac OS, I first of all NEVER, NEVER install the initial version. Even if my primary reason (compatibility with ALL the third party applications I use) was satisfied, I still would wait. With ANY version of the Mac OS, I have always needed to wait until TechTool Pro was compatible. All my other ones were either already compatible, or released versions/updates prior to TechTool Pro. For Catalina, High Sierra, and Sierra (most likely just about all the prior ones), the compatibility of TechTool Pro was typically after the release of the .1 version of the new OS, but close enough to the .2 release. For Mojave, it was after the .2 release, but before the .3 release. So, that is where I started from when I proceeded to do a clean, fresh installation of the applicable version. I have never had issues with that.

Regarding printers, for Mojave and Catalina, I have not needed the updated printer drivers (if they exist) for my Canon printer. The ones delivered with the Mac OS work just fine.

Additionally, I have yet to see anything earth shattering in the new OS that I absolutely want/need. As it is, I just read about all the postings that folks make about the new OS without having it installed. Besides how careful I am, that also allows me to be better prepared.

Finally, it just makes plain sense to wait until as many initial bugs are worked out before moving to the new OS. Again, for myself, that has always meant that I have waited until at least the .2 version of the OS was released before I did a clean, fresh installation. Has ALWAYS worked well for me.

 

[fisherking]

Yeah, regarding issues folks are having with Catalina, much of it is due to "rushing to install" the new OS without a solid plan. It seems that some folks think they can just upgrade to the new OS without issues.

Myself, I am not having ANY issues at all with Catalina. But as I have done for just about every new Mac OS, I first of all NEVER, NEVER install the initial version. Even if my primary reason (compatibility with ALL the third party applications I use) was satisfied, I still would wait. With ANY version of the Mac OS, I have always needed to wait until TechTool Pro was compatible. All my other ones were either already compatible, or released versions/updates prior to TechTool Pro. For Catalina, High Sierra, and Sierra (most likely just about all the prior ones), the compatibility of TechTool Pro was typically after the release of the .1 version of the new OS, but close enough to the .2 release. For Mojave, it was after the .2 release, but before the .3 release. So, that is where I started from when I proceeded to do a clean, fresh installation of the applicable version. I have never had issues with that.

Regarding printers, for Mojave and Catalina, I have not needed the updated printer drivers (if they exist) for my Canon printer. The ones delivered with the Mac OS work just fine.

Additionally, I have yet to see anything earth shattering in the new OS that I absolutely want/need. As it is, I just read about all the postings that folks make about the new OS without having it installed. Besides how careful I am, that also allows me to be better prepared.

Finally, it just makes plain sense to wait until as many initial bugs are worked out before moving to the new OS. Again, for myself, that has always meant that I have waited until at least the .2 version of the OS was released before I did a clean, fresh installation. Has ALWAYS worked well for me.

and then, many people simply update when they can (i did it when it was officially released), and are fine... without all the hoops and fuss.

do what works for you; for some, that means simply updating their OS.

 

[honestone33]

do what works for you; for some, that means simply updating their OS.

And for me, that means doing a clean, fresh installation, and then (already on a just completed SuperDuper! backup) a migration/copying of needed files, folders, apps, settings, etc. for that backup.

Regarding updating to the new OS, some folks skip too many versions of the Mac OS with that process. For example, Sierra, OS 10.12 to Catalina, OS 10.15. Besides the inherent risks with skipping 2 intermediate versions, I've seen many instances where the individual does not insure compatibility of third party applications too.

 

[fisherking]

And for me, that means doing a clean, fresh installation, and then (already on a just completed SuperDuper! backup) a migration/copying of needed files, folders, apps, settings, etc. for that backup.

Regarding updating to the new OS, some folks skip too many versions of the Mac OS with that process. For example, Sierra, OS 10.12 to Catalina, OS 10.15. Besides the inherent risks with skipping 2 intermediate versions, I've seen many instances where the individual does not insure compatibility of third party applications too.

sure (about compatibility), but... why are you posting about your process again? and what 'inherent risks' are you talking about?

 

[MacGizmo]

Does anyone have firm experience with a Catalina upgrade that does not mess with Photos libraries or functions, iTunes libraries or functions, playlists or Genius components?

Those are some of the things that always go 100% smoothly for me using iCloud syncing (though they're very slow to sync/update).

 

[ledzep1]

I updated my late 2013 iMac today from Mojave, early days but so far I have had no issues, runs just as good as Mojave did.

Installation took 40mins which I thought was very quick.

I do have an SSD so maybe that helped.

Anyway after reading the various issues and complaints on here I was a bit unsure about upgrading but pleased I have now.

 

[Traverse]

I want to update to Catalina to have my Reminders syncing across my devices again, but I'm holding onto Mojave for iTunes at the moment.

I've managed a library of local music for a few years now (not huge, about 70GB) with corrected metadata and many custom standard and smart playlists. I'm afraid to update to Catalina for all the complaints in this thread about the new Music app and transition issues from iTunes.

iTunes has always worked fine for me, so I'm afraid of changing.
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always amazes me that people make these things up; catalina's been (mostly) great here since official day 1. who said (outside of this forum) that .3 would 'the one'? and how does it 'seem' that apple is fixing most problems? how would you know what's going on at apple?

no harm in waiting for any point-update. but silly to imagine that there's a 'plan', where .3 would be the time to upgrade to the new OS.

I don't think anyone thought there was a plan or insidious plot, but just people being cautious. There are numerous examples in the past of the .0 releases of macOS updates having issues. The .1 release usually fixes most major bugs, .2 cleans up more little stuff, and I suppose .3 is just for good measure and lets developers have time to update their applications.
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Nope, if you bother to read the numerous articles, etc. that have been written about upgrading versus a clean installation, you'll see that others say similar things/fact.

Also to your point - thought this was only a one off it seems - people that waited several versions to update from Snow Leopard (I think) actually had to install an intermediary OS before being able to update the latest. I can't remember which OS set it was but it was like SL to Mountain Lion to Sierra or something similar.

I think Apple probably builds in allowance for upgrade from 2 OS's or so behind, but probably not much past that. Though it's likely not an issue - but something can always go wrong with computers.

 

[honestone33]

Also to your point - thought this was only a one off it seems - people that waited several versions to update from Snow Leopard (I think) actually had to install an intermediary OS before being able to update the latest. I can't remember which OS set it was but it was like SL to Mountain Lion to Sierra or something similar.

I think Apple probably builds in allowance for upgrade from 2 OS's or so behind, but probably not much past that. Though it's likely not an issue - but something can always go wrong with computers.

The problem is that Apple cannot control what light be problematic files, folders, etc. with third party applications. If one is meticulous about keeping such applications up to date, and doing associated disk maintenance, cleanup, and if needed, repairs, then most likely skipping two versions of the OS should be OK. The one instance, though, that would have had to most risk is when Apple implemented the APFS file system with High Sierra.