How is Catalina going for you? (6 week check-in)

Fine now with latest update. Initial issues with Time Machine and then my printer of all things.

The only issue I have is very livable. For some reason any safari windows that are reopened at login show up on the screen such that the tabs/url/buttons are off screen.

I still can’t get over this screenshot from my first time turning on the computer after installing Catalina

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Catalina has been great for me other than a few trouble spots, all of which are now resolved. First was a huge issue I had with iCloud syncing regarding Notes (that’s been fixed). Second, was a severe issue with MS Word that would bring down my entire system (that’s been fixed by an Office update). Third, I had an issue with the people album in photos, but that is fixed and now the facial recognition seems substantially better than it was under Mojave.

Other than the rocky start, Catalina is world of improvement over Mojave. If you are playing it safe, you may yet want to wait for that next point update. I think it’s coming soon. But from my desk, I’m not seeing any of the unexpected behavior that I had been.

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That’s what I think I’m doing. I’m still on iOS 12 and Mojave. Both OSes have been fine for me (although I’ve been unable to run some intriguing Mac/iOS apps as a result).

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I’ve got a 7 year old iMac 27. Catalina is buggy on it. The MAS isn’t updating my apps, some applications forgot they have full disk access in Privacy/SystPres and a variety of other little things. Thankfully though I don’t hammer on this computer so they’re not show stoppers though I am looking forward to upgrading next year.

I realize many of my issues are just coming down to aging hardware that is breaking down.

I took the plunge this morning. The upgrade went smooth. I basically went away after starting the process and when I returned I was just a few clicks away from using Catalina.
The number of permission notifications is a bit disturbing. One could have thought Apple learned from Windows Vista’s disaster. But other than that, everything is running fine now. That being said, I haven’t used my printer and scanner (Canon MX925) yet…

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The Catalina update on my 15” MBP has been the buggiest that I’ve ever seen. It seems that each new day brings some new problem. I’m about to wipe it and start from scratch. I can’t remember the last time that I had to do that.

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Only issue I’ve had is the prompt to sign into Apple ID which stopped for no reason a few weeks ago.

No problems both on my mac mini 2018 and MacBook air 2018. I was aware of the 32 bit programme problem, so have removed scansnap and changed to VueScan with my Fujitsu scanner…thanks The main difference for me is the ease of SideCar with my iPad when working remotely. Having two screens is really good when dealing with documents…

New install onto a brand new MacAir that came with Mojave. Still working on getting required software up and running. Current issues are VMWare and Hazel, both of which are not working properly. I’ve still got more stuff to install and test. I’m 10 days into it and don’t yet have the system ready to replace my existing MacAir laptop.

My use case is simple, I do not do mail or calendars or reminders on this machine. I don’t use iCloud for anything but Safari bookmarks. In spite of that I’m still working to get it all up and running.

Part of the problem is I can’t just stop everything and work on it to the exclusion of everything else. I’m about 18 hours into the project. My best WAG is that I’ve got about another 8-10 hours to get it all working properly but a lot depends on how long the VMware issue takes. So far that one is now more effort than it was to get the new version of Android studio installed and update LambTracker to run under the new SDKs! I had a a lot of issues in the LambTrackeer code that took a while to fix but that pales in comparison to how long trying to get my old rev 8 Fusion virtual machine runnign under rev 11.5 of Fusion.

Once it is up and running I’ll run with it for about a month before decommissioning my old MacAir and turning it over to my husband, who plans to make it his new Linux laptop. He’s already got his penguin sticker ready to put over the top of the apple logo.:sunglasses:

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I spent a lot of time preparing for Catalina over the last few weeks on my Late 2015 iMac. I updated all my apps and dumped all 32-bit apps using MacUpdater and Go64. Uninstalled old apps and deleted files that I no longer use or want on my iMac. Ran CleanMyMac X and I recaptured about a 100Gs on my HD. Then I updated Catalina (10.15.1).

My upgrade to Catalina went very well without any hangups. So far the only issue I have found post upgrade was Parallels Desktop would not start, it would just hang and do nothing. I deleted the app and reinstalled it and it works fine now. No settings were lost either. Outside of that, so far so good!

Upgraded refurb MB Air from Mojave to Catalina right after purchase. No major issues in 4 weeks of use.

A few trouble spots…Carbonite transfer was less than seamless. Required their team to intervene. Sigh.

Command-Z in Mail does not undo a deleted email. A PITA.

And I can’t get Sidecar to work with my iPad Pro.

USB Apple keyboard still doesn’t work consistently if unplugged then plugged back in. Super frustrating as it requires a reboot.

Are you having weird problems with Catalina? – The Eclectic Light Company

Begins thus:

Just when you think it’s safe to upgrade to macOS Catalina, we start hearing of strange and serious problems, like its security checks getting completely out of hand and slowing app launch drastically. Over the last few weeks, as more Mac users take the plunge and upgrade, I’ve been hearing of more and more such cases. Are these bugs and should we still hold off upgrading?

Spoiler alert: no clear answer to that question is given.

I still don’t find myself needing anything in Catalina or really even wanting anything in Catalina, so I’m not running Catalina.

I sat out the entirety of the Sierra cycle and didn’t regret it. Might do the same here.

OTOH, I’ve heard people say that Sierra was better than High Sierra for them, so…

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I went from 10.4 to to 10.6.4 to 10.8 (no choice, new Mac) then finally went Mojave early this year. I upgraded to iOS 11 just a few days ago but from what I’m seeing I have no interest in Catalina until some time next year, I think.

I just installed Catalina a week or so ago and I’ve had only a couple of minor issues. I’ll admit, though, that my use cases are not very stressful.

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It’s been a while since release now, is there a consensus around Catalina yet? Is it still too early to upgrade from a nice and stable Mohave?

I’m also a bit unclear on what the big upside would be if I decide to pull the trigger. Given the rough roll-out, I am worried I might live to regret an update at this time. I am on an iMac 27" with 16GB of RAM.

All software and drivers have been updated to Catalina-ready versions, as far as I can tell (according to Go64).

It’s been a while since release now, is there a consensus around Catalina yet? Is it still too early to upgrade from a nice and stable Mohave?

I’m also a bit unclear on what the big upside would be if I decide to pull the trigger. Given the rough roll-out, I am worried I might live to regret an update at this time. I am on an iMac 27" with 16GB of RAM.

All software and drivers have been updated to Catalina-ready versions, as far as I can tell (according to Go64).

I’ve had Catalina from the outset on a 27"/16GB iMac and a 13"/8GB MBA.

For the most part it’s fine. I don’t think it offers that much over Mojave, so if you’re in doubt or you think there’s a risk, stay put with confidence. It’s been very stable for me, but there are some irritations - Mail can be slow to update, for example

There are some very specific potential downsides to Catalina that you should be aware of before upgrading anyway:

  • No support for 32-bit apps; may not be an issue for you but you do need to check carefully
  • If you use BusyCal or 2Do (maybe some other apps), their Reminders sync is broken if you update to the Catalina version of Reminders.
  • There’s an outstanding issue in which scripting for the Notes app is broken - if you use software that requires that, you should hold off
  • The Safari Extensions model has changed and many old extensions won’t work

Hope that helps

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