You should already be aware that Catalina boots from an APFS Volume Group consisting of a volume named Macintosh HD (by default) containing protected system files, and a volume named Macintosh HD - Data, which stores Home folders and writeable files. Although you may want to keep old audiobooks in iTunes’ successor Music, they’re now intended to go into the Books app, where support is still primitive. The Music app in particular doesn’t have the same features, and some users experience problems with cover art, playlists, and converting their iTunes library. If you’re a heavy iTunes user, be aware that in splitting that app up, its replacement components are far from mature and feature-complete. If you run into problems with Time Machine, download and install my free T2M2 utility and read its Help file: this details how you can use it to diagnose choking during backing up, and problems between automatic backups. Add that to the exclude list in the Time Machine pane before turning automatic backups on. DocumentRevisions-V100 folder at the root level of each writeable volume, particularly the boot Data volume. This appears to be the result of Time Machine choking on the hidden versions database in the. If you’ve let Catalina convert them, then they are lost.ĭon’t start Time Machine backups immediately your Mac has started up in Catalina, as you may well encounter a bug which makes the first full backup, and some subsequent backups, take a great many hours or days. If all goes horribly wrong and you revert to Mojave (or earlier), you’ll want your old backups back. Once you start making backups in Catalina, those and any older backups which are converted cannot be accessed by earlier versions of macOS. If you possibly can, archive your current backups, including the last you make before upgrading, and start a fresh backup set with Catalina. Partly because of Catalina’s new boot Volume Group, which installs most of macOS on a protected System volume, and writeable files on a Data volume, and changes in the backup process, Time Machine users should be very careful when preparing to upgrade. My solution is much simpler: I use Postbox, and there are several other excellent replacements for Mail, including GyazMail, MailMate, Airmail, Outlook and Thunderbird. From then on, you should be careful to copy or archive all important messages – something which is good practice in any case. You should then ensure that you upgrade fully to 10.15.5 before opening the Mail app for the first time in Catalina. He currently recommends that you should only upgrade to Catalina when you’ve made a complete backup, and if possible have archived all important messages, for example to his database EagleFiler. I don’t use Mail much myself, but Michael Tsai, who develops SpamSieve, has been tracking problems with Mail very carefully. Careful analyses have shown that this isn’t something likely to go away either: if you want to continue booting from a hard disk, then you should stick at High Sierra or earlier.Ĭatalina has many warts and minor bugs, but there are three areas which have generated the most problems: the Mail app, Time Machine, and replacement apps for iTunes. APFS is designed for SSDs, and performs poorly on hard disks. If your internal storage is a hard disk, that’s bad news unless you replace it with an SSD, or boot from a suitable external SSD. Some of these apps may require structural changes before they can be successfully notarized and fully compatible with Catalina.Īnother serious issue for anyone coming from High Sierra or earlier is that Catalina must boot from an APFS disk. Notarization and related requirements shouldn’t stop simple apps, but if you need to use apps which load external code modules, like the high-end charting and analysis app Igor Pro, they don’t fit Apple’s new security model well, and many have either limited functionality or still won’t run properly. If you’re still reliant on apps or any other software which uses 32-bit code, then you’ll only be able to run them in a Virtual Machine, or by dual-booting your Mac. Its two biggest problems for anyone upgrading haven’t changed, and will only get more challenging with 10.16: loss of 32-bit software support, and the security requirements imposed on executable code including notarization. With Catalina, there can’t be a clear answer. Is it safe to go ahead, in readiness for macOS 10.16, or are there still showstoppers which will make you regret it? Now’s the time that those who’ve been cautious, and let the early adopters find all the bugs in Catalina, consider whether to upgrade.
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