HN Explorer

Tell HN: Consider waiting before upgrading to macOS Sonoma

13 points by kbns ↗ HN
I upgraded to it yesterday and noticed several bugs, two of which are quite annoying:

    1. The Touch ID feature is not functioning perfectly. It fails to detect fingerprints after only two unsuccessful attempts, whereas it used to allow around 5 fingerprint retries before requesting a password.

    2. Today, when I locked my computer and tried to log in to my main account, it displayed the profile picture of the standard account and the name 'main account.' I only realized this after restarting macOS.

    Occasionally, when launching new apps, the screen experiences a brief glitch.
It appears that there may not have been enough testing done on Sonoma.

14 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 292 ms ] thread
jzombie
I think bugs are common on every new release, from any software vendor.

Think about it, they've only tested things internally and haven't received bug reports from the masses yet.

If you really value stability, perhaps don't upgrade for a few months.

chatmasta
> they've only tested things internally

Nit: There is a public beta channel with external testers.

But otherwise I agree. Waiting for the first minor version after a major release is rarely a bad idea (assuming any security patches are backported to earlier major releases).

numbermess
My m2 mini can't seem to use DNS over an Ethernet connection since I updated yesterday. Luckily wireless still works so I can download an update to fix it someday.
tikkun
I've learned over the years to wait a week or two before installing new macOS and iOS releases, generally until the first or second point release. It's surprising to need to do it, given that they have their big public beta programs, but I know it's saved me from some frustration.
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
kevinherron
I updated my personal M2 MBP and it seems fine so far.

I usually wait a point release or two before updating my work MBP.

machinekob
Not happen to me for past month+ of beta testing (only problems I got was Xcode beta crashing few times with trying to debug metal stuff). (m1 ultra)
solarkraft
Bugs in macOS? No way.

Control Center and Stage Manager have been messes for years at this point, beside many other small but obvious annoyances.

danwee
Am I the only one who either:

- waits ~6 months (from release time) before upgrading to a major macOS version

- usually skips 1 version in between (e.g., I'm on macOS Monterrey, haven't updgraded to Ventura. I'll upgrade to Sonoma in a few months)

cpach
I sometimes go years and years between upgrading (:

There are rarely any new features that I really need. So by the time I upgrade, most bugs are usually sorted out.

2143
I do this.

And not just for OS updates.

For example, I have noticed that if a new model (or generation of and existing model) of a car comes out, it's better to wait for a year or two for them to iron out the issues.

(No I don't purchase cars frequently; just an enthusiastic who keeps track of the industry).

Exuma
I upgraded and didn’t have either of those issues
girishso
I’m skeptical of upgrading OS. Recently I upgraded my M1 16GB to Ventura from Monterey after waiting for almost a year, and I’m noticing a perceptible slowdown and increased RAM usage.
runjake
Seems like good advice overall, but I experience none of those 3 issues to describe on my Sonoma Macs (n=2 Apple Silicon Macs).