macOS Catalina. Beware take care.

[Alan Beastall]

Apple have just released macOS Catalina, a 64bit operating system which replaces the macOS High Sierra 32bit operating system. Before you install this new OS please read the articule below as many of the 32 bit apps. will not be supported which may include Photoshop and Ligthroom.

 

https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/12/20908567/apple-macos-catalina-breaking-apps-32-bit-support-how-to-prepare-avoid-update

[MDM]

I think it goes without saying that one should be very wary before upgrading to a new OS as there will always be stuff that doesn't work straightaway or perhaps never - software and hardware. Apple have been issuing numerous warnings about the final transition to 64 bit for some time now and they don't shove it down your throat unlike some other OS vendors. Make sure to turn off all the auto-update features anyway just in case. I am still running High Sierra (last version was Mojave by the way). 

 

If using Adobe software professionally or semi-professionally then it is certainly most unwise to update immediately or even soon until everything one uses is known to be working. No doubt this will hit those still using CS6/LR6 and before so wait for the squeals and roars before the death knell eventually sounds but the simple solution is not to upgrade ever. A more complex solution is to install on a separate partition. I have done this previously so I can run Filemaker Pro which either doesn't run or runs really badly on more recent versions than El Capitan. The other OS can be on the internal drive or on a fast external drive (SS or Thunderbolt). I don't know if Apple will make it difficult to download and install older versions of the OS though but it is a useful solution. 

 

No doubt Adobe will make everything CC fully compatible before too long. 

 

 

Edited October 14, 2019 by MDM

[Marianne]

6 hours ago, Alan Beastall said:

Apple have just released macOS Catalina, a 64bit operating system which replaces the macOS High Sierra 32bit operating system. Before you install this new OS please read the articule below as many of the 32 bit apps. will not be supported which may include Photoshop and Ligthroom.

 

https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/12/20908567/apple-macos-catalina-breaking-apps-32-bit-support-how-to-prepare-avoid-update

 

Thanks for the head's up. I bought Rosetta Stone Spanish about a year ago, but have barely started to learn it and when I got the 32 bit warning, contacted Rosetta Stone and they said I could buy some online version for ~another $10 a month to use that as the stand alone has not been made compatible - all this after paying around $250-300 for the software.

 

I have one backup using carbon copy cloner that is bootable of my old computer (which ran Mojave) and I have another partition for the new computer, just for this reason, in case an update gives me problems so I can boot off the old one while they iron out the problems.

 

Ugh! We pay so much for this stuff and then it's obsolete in a year or two. Really frustrating. 

Edited October 14, 2019 by Marianne

[Ed Rooney]

Yikes! I had just started downloading iOS 13 on my iPhone 7 before reading this. It gave me a jolt. The download took 20 mins and seems okay . . . so far.  I'm on Mojave 10.14.6 with both my MacBook Pro and Air.   

[Phil Crean]

37 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

Yikes! I had just started downloading iOS 13 on my iPhone 7 before reading this. It gave me a jolt. The download took 20 mins and seems okay . . . so far.  I'm on Mojave 10.14.6 with both my MacBook Pro and Air.   

I did the upgrade on iphone 7 and so far all is ok.  😉

Phil

[MDM]

3 hours ago, Marianne said:

 

Thanks for the head's up. I bought Rosetta Stone Spanish about a year ago, but have barely started to learn it and when I got the 32 bit warning, contacted Rosetta Stone and they said I could buy some online version for ~another $10 a month to use that as the stand alone has not been made compatible - all this after paying around $250-300 for the software.

 

I have one backup using carbon copy cloner that is bootable of my old computer (which ran Mojave) and I have another partition for the new computer, just for this reason, in case an update gives me problems so I can boot off the old one while they iron out the problems.

 

Ugh! We pay so much for this stuff and then it's obsolete in a year or two. Really frustrating. 

 

I think the key thing to remember here is that MacOS updates are free and are not compulsory. You do not have to update your OS or spend a penny if what you currently have is working. Apple do continue to support older versions of the OS for quite some time as well in relation to security updates so it is quite feasible to run an older version of the OS on a separate partition for specific purposes and you seem to be ok with that. It seems like your real problem is with your Rosetta Stone Spanish and it is not quite clear what the problem is but you should be able to install it on an older OS on a separate partition. 

 

64-bit has been happening for a long time and the warnings have been coming for some time now that MacOS was not going to continue to be compatible with 32-bit programs. The surprise to me is that Adobe are not ready it seems. I think PSCS5 was the first 64-bit version for Mac (2010) and it had the huge advantage of being able to use much more RAM than earlier versions which had massive benefits in terms of speed. While built-in redundancy is a fact of life, not every change or upgrade is an effort to force people to spend more money. Technological improvements in hardware mean that stuff eventually gets left behind. We can't expect software to be backword compatible indefinitely and the benefits of moving on are often very significant.

 

But I think it is wise to let others be the guinea pigs for the first few months at least. That is why I am still on High Sierra a year later - I was warned by a guy who works for Permajet to hang on as there were incompatibilities with Epson printers and I just never got around to it. I will hang in a bit longer now.

 

 

 

[Jools Devon]

My MacBook Air upgraded to Catalina with no issues......

 

My iMac is being more problematic!

It failed during the upgrade with "Storage system verify or repair failed"

 

It obviously does some disk check before it starts the upgrade process......

 

So - use "First Aid" on the disk - It says its found a checksum issue, and that I need to run First Aid from recovery mode.

 

First Aid, ran in recovery mode doesn't find any issues - disk is fine......

 

I have a full backup, so following various bits of advice, I decided to take the drastic move of erasing and reformatting the drive.......

 

All went well....... until I tried to do the clean install........ I still get the "verify or repair failed"

 

So - Its a trip to the Genius bar in our local Apple store tomorrow to see how they fix it!

 

(Its a fairly new iMac - April this year...... 3TB Fusion drive - I think it might be the fusion bit that's causing the problem, as the disk seem to check out OK - Mojave was running fine 😞 )

 

Jools

[MDM]

1 hour ago, Jools Devon said:

I have a full backup, so following various bits of advice, I decided to take the drastic move of erasing and reformatting the drive.......

 

So - Its a trip to the Genius bar in our local Apple store tomorrow to see how they fix it!

 

(Its a fairly new iMac - April this year...... 3TB Fusion drive - I think it might be the fusion bit that's causing the problem, as the disk seem to check out OK - Mojave was running fine 😞 )

 

Jools

 

Have you tried reinstalling Mojave?

 

 

EDIT: see this advice from Apple about how to reinstall MacOS. I wonder why you decided to totally reformat the drive by the way. It is usually unnecesary with Macs. I have done it when I thought my security may have been compromised due to silly messages from Google (gmail) that turned out to be nothing.

Edited October 15, 2019 by MDM

[Jools Devon]

Yep - I've followed all the advice!

 

From recovery - the disk utility "first Aid" reports that everything is OK

 

But, when you boot normally and run disk utility it reports an error - that it says can only be fixed in recovery mode.....

 

So - I took the rather drastic action of erasing and reformatting the disk - and still get exactly the same issue!

 

My thoughts are its something to do with how the Fusion drive is created - So the physical disc checks out fine when it is unmounted in Recovery - But once the OS mounts it and creates the Fusion drive, things aren't quite right.

 

So - I'm going to see the Genius's tomorrow morning!

[Allan Bell]

 

If I am going to upgrade to any new OS I always wait till around March the following year.

 

But I am fed up of the constant barrage of reminders to upgrade from Apple on my mac.

 

Allan

 

[MDM]

1 hour ago, Jools Devon said:

Yep - I've followed all the advice!

 

From recovery - the disk utility "first Aid" reports that everything is OK

 

But, when you boot normally and run disk utility it reports an error - that it says can only be fixed in recovery mode.....

 

So - I took the rather drastic action of erasing and reformatting the disk - and still get exactly the same issue!

 

My thoughts are its something to do with how the Fusion drive is created - So the physical disc checks out fine when it is unmounted in Recovery - But once the OS mounts it and creates the Fusion drive, things aren't quite right.

 

So - I'm going to see the Genius's tomorrow morning!

 

OK not ever had a Fusion drive so no experience there. Have you got an exteral drive (Thunderbolt or SSD preferably) you could try installing on? That could rule out any other problems with the Mac.

 

43 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

 

If I am going to upgrade to any new OS I always wait till around March the following year.

 

But I am fed up of the constant barrage of reminders to upgrade from Apple on my mac.

 

Allan

 

 

You can turn off Automatically check for updates in the App Store app in your System Prefs, App Store - Preferences which should stop you getting reminders. However, it is a good idea to keep the OS up  to date for security reasons. I leave Automatically check for updates and update when convenient. I don't get reminders about upgrading the new OS.

Edited October 15, 2019 by MDM

[Allan Bell]

5 minutes ago, MDM said:

You can turn off Automatically check for updates in the App Store app in your System Prefs, App Store - Preferences which should stop you getting reminders. However, it is a good idea to keep the OS up  to date for security reasons. I leave Automatically check for updates and update when convenient. I don't get reminders about upgrading the new OS.

Edited 3 minutes ago by MDM

 

Hi Mick, Thanks for the advice. I would rather leave update notifications on for security reasons.

The reminder I am/was getting, not had one today, was flagging up in top right from Notifications.

 

Allan

 

[sb photos]

3 hours ago, Jools Devon said:

 

(Its a fairly new iMac - April this year...... 3TB Fusion drive - I think it might be the fusion bit that's causing the problem, as the disk seem to check out OK - Mojave was running fine 😞 )

 

Jools

 

Personally I would never use a fusion drive unless it had multiple backups, both time machine and carbon copy cloner.  A fusion drive consists of a 3.5" 7200rpm standard hard drive, and a small custom SSD socketed on the rear of the logic board. If either drive completely fails there is no way to recover any data, hence the security of multiple backups. Although rare, I've seen time machine fail to restore in times of need.

 

The Apple Store have more advanced diagnostics than disk utility. If they find no issues, they may break the fusion drive, then recreate it via terminal commands. This isn't your issue, but sometimes a macOS install can fail due to third party memory incompatibility. 

 

Hope all goes well and you are up and running again soon.

[MDM]

7 minutes ago, sb photos said:

 

Personally I would never use a fusion drive unless it had multiple backups, both time machine and carbon copy cloner.  A fusion drive consists of a 3.5" 7200rpm standard hard drive, and a small custom SSD socketed on the rear of the logic board. If either drive completely fails there is no way to recover any data, hence the security of multiple backups. Although rare, I've seen time machine fail to restore in times of need.

 

 

I changed back in 2014 to using mainly external Thunderbolt drives for data and a smallish internal SSD as the OS drive. Works really well for me and is really fast - faster now no doubt as well with Thunderbolt improvements in terms of speed. I would not get a Fusion drive when I next upgrade.

 

24 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Hi Mick, Thanks for the advice. I would rather leave update notifications on for security reasons.

The reminder I am/was getting, not had one today, was flagging up in top right from Notifications.

 

Allan

 

 The notification centre is where they notify you of updates funny enough 😀. You might be able to change it but it seems pointless having Automatically check for updates on and not knowing about it 🤔.

[NYCat]

Red River Paper sent this warning about people having trouble printing after upgrading to Catalina....  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwDrlRLFJpkSvjpnFMLxvFbFchL

 

Paulette

[MDM]

4 hours ago, NYCat said:

Red River Paper sent this warning about people having trouble printing after upgrading to Catalina....  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwDrlRLFJpkSvjpnFMLxvFbFchL

 

Paulette

 

Yes. Printer compatibility is why I never upgraded to Mojave and is one big reason why I would never jump into a new OS. 

[rickboden]

My biggest concern is printer compatibility as well as my monitor calibration tools.  Here's a nice freeware/donationware app that will let you see which 32bit applications you have and will let you delete them right from the app if you want.

 

https://www.stclairsoft.com/Go64/index.html

[Marianne]

16 hours ago, sb photos said:

 

Personally I would never use a fusion drive unless it had multiple backups, both time machine and carbon copy cloner.  A fusion drive consists of a 3.5" 7200rpm standard hard drive, and a small custom SSD socketed on the rear of the logic board. If either drive completely fails there is no way to recover any data, hence the security of multiple backups. Although rare, I've seen time machine fail to restore in times of need.

 

The Apple Store have more advanced diagnostics than disk utility. If they find no issues, they may break the fusion drive, then recreate it via terminal commands. This isn't your issue, but sometimes a macOS install can fail due to third party memory incompatibility. 

 

Hope all goes well and you are up and running again soon.

 

I spent over $2,000 on data recovery when Time Machine failed to restore my crashed drive, and haven't trusted it since. That's when I started using carbon copy cloner to two bootable drives as well as a RAID array. (I had a backup in addition to Time Machine on another hard drive at the time, but it was attached to the computer and both got fried when a bolt of lightning hit a transformer outside my house - a freak thunderstorm in the winter of 2011). Now I'm drowning in backup drives.  

 

On 14/10/2019 at 17:34, MDM said:

 

..... It seems like your real problem is with your Rosetta Stone Spanish and it is not quite clear what the problem is but you should be able to install it on an older OS on a separate partition. 

...

But I think it is wise to let others be the guinea pigs for the first few months at least. That is why I am still on High Sierra a year later - I was warned by a guy who works for Permajet to hang on as there were incompatibilities with Epson printers and I just never got around to it. I will hang in a bit longer now.

 

 

 

 

Yep, that software is the issue. All the other 32-bit warnings I've gotten are apps I never use and I've been clearing them off my hard drive.

 

I bought Rosetta Stone  a couple of years ago, then we had to cancel a trip abroad so I hadn't gotten around to using it much.  Now, however,  I've started volunteering with Spanish-speaking pre-schoolers (whose English, thankfully, is better than my Spanish) and I figured it was time that I learn more than the year's worth of Spanish I learned in college a very long time ago.

 

I like having my computer & apps up to date - which is why I also like the CC subscription plan -- but I always wait for them to work out the bugs, especially as Adobe programs seems to lag behind Apple's updates. 

[MDM]

6 hours ago, Marianne said:

 

I spent over $2,000 on data recovery when Time Machine failed to restore my crashed drive, and haven't trusted it since. That's when I started using carbon copy cloner to two bootable drives as well as a RAID array. (I had a backup in addition to Time Machine on another hard drive at the time, but it was attached to the computer and both got fried when a bolt of lightning hit a transformer outside my house - a freak thunderstorm in the winter of 2011). Now I'm drowning in backup drives.  

 

 

Yep, that software is the issue. All the other 32-bit warnings I've gotten are apps I never use and I've been clearing them off my hard drive.

 

I bought Rosetta Stone  a couple of years ago, then we had to cancel a trip abroad so I hadn't gotten around to using it much.  Now, however,  I've started volunteering with Spanish-speaking pre-schoolers (whose English, thankfully, is better than my Spanish) and I figured it was time that I learn more than the year's worth of Spanish I learned in college a very long time ago.

 

I like having my computer & apps up to date - which is why I also like the CC subscription plan -- but I always wait for them to work out the bugs, especially as Adobe programs seems to lag behind Apple's updates. 

 

I just back up my data only and don't worry about having an up-to-date restorable copy of the OS as it is easy to reinstall if you really want to (Jool's problems aside) so my internal drive is small and all the data lives on external Thunderbolt or USB3 drives (these for backup). 

 

Rosetta Stone sounds incredibly expensive. I just had a look at it on the App store and it is free with in-app purchases for iOS which tends to make me look elsewhere as there doesn't seem to be any way of knowing what else you need. I learnt basic Spanish some years ago using the Hugo Learn Spanish in 3 Months book with CDs (seems quite dated now) but I don't use it enough to improve and in fact have gone backwards from lack of use. My vocabulary has gradually eroded from its peak point when I was making an effort to learn. The hardest thing I find with Spanish is understanding what native speakers are saying once I start a conversation as they speak so fast. Talking to little kids is great though because they tend to speak clearly and slowly. Buena suerte.

[rickboden]

It's kind of funny, I had not planned to upgrade to Catalina in the near future, but my iMac started crashing randomly and I could not figure out why.  Even a call to Apple did not help as the suggested fixes (resetting PRAM, etc.) did not work.  With little other choice I decided to re-install the OS but decided I might as well try Catalina which I installed yesterday.  So far, everything is working fine with a few minor bumps that are not even worth mentioning as it was just a matter of updating some apps.

 

I haven't used any of the fancy new features and likely won't.

 

Rick Boden

[Jools Devon]

Good News - I'm back up and running again!

 

The Apple Store visit was useful - Their initial attempt to run their own diagnostic tools sat at the Genius bar from a network boot failed, and so my machine was taken into the "repair room" for a bit of a seeing to!

 

In the end it didn't need and hardware replacing - What I gather was the problem was the state of the Fusion drive - The solution was to split the SSD and Hard drive, reformat them both separately and then re-fuse them.

 

I believe this was all done at the command line level in terminal - I guess they don't like you seeing that bit - all the stuff that they do at the Genius bar uses their diagnostic tools.

 

So - When I got home....

- Clean install of Catalina

- Re-Install of Apps from the App store (Only the ones that I currently use)

- Restore Data from my TimeMachine

 

Its now running much better than it was before - and I don't have any of those pesky legacy apps running in the background - That you thought you had uninstalled, but keep on popping up with warnings!

 

Jools

[CAROL SAUNDERS]

OMG my head is hurting...... my newish lovely iMac did auto install of Catalina.  I thought all was ok until I downloaded some new images today.  I use photoshop cc and bridge.  The raws will not save as tiffs, only jpegs and when I close them I cannot open them.

 

I'm not sure whether I need to go back to Mojave and not a clue on tech things.  I've been only apple who can guide me through it if necessary (at the moment all is being backed up to external hard drive, another few hours to go).  Been onto Adobe who have given me the following work around.....

 

1.Please quit Photoshop.

2.Click on "Apple Logo"> System Preferences.

3.Click on Security and Privacy.

4.Select the "Files and folders on left side menu. 

5.Click the lock in the bottom left corner and enter your password to make changes.

6.Find Adobe Photoshop CC on the right side menu.

7.Select Removable Volumes to provide access to scan files on external drives. Select Network Volumes to provide access to scan files on network drives. Select Downloads, Documents, and Desktop folders to provide access to scan files in these folders on your local disk. Click the lock to save changes.

Once done, please launch Photoshop, if you do not see Photoshop in list, click on "+" symbol and Add it after step 5.

 

Not tried it as yet and not sure whether to or not ??

 

Guess I may take it into my favourite apple authorised dealer who I hope may read this.

 

Any thoughts appreciated.

 

Carol

[Harry Harrison]

Carol,

 

I don't do much under the bonnet stiuff on a Mac but this thread sounds similar:

 

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/photoshop-2019-cc-vs-macos-catalina-doesnt-save-files

 

The instructions that Apple gave you are pretty straightforward to do so I'd try that first, it seems that security settings for external drives is the problem - though you don't say whether you are saving to an external drive. Don't know why it wouldn't affect saving jpegs though.

[CAROL SAUNDERS]

Many thanks Harry, the instructions re: Photoshop were suggested by Adobe.  I've not tried them yet as the system is still backing up to an external hard drive.

 

 As others have said, I think - the problem is with Adobe and not Apple.  I have spent a good part of the day trying to sort it out with Adobe but they are aware of the problems and trying to sort them.  When this will be who knows??  In the meantime I have found a workaround in that I can just change the file extension manually i.e. jpeg to tif and save as tiff and it seems to work for now and now at least they will re-open in photoshop whereas when I was saving as tif and in actual fact unbeknown to me they were actually saving as jpegs they were impossible to re open in PS - if that makes sense !  Also if I actually save as hi res jpegs they will also re-open in PS.  Think I will probably leave everything alone now and hope it's not too long before Adobe sort things out.  Reading other threads such as the one you kindly gave me, leads me to think, not only am I the only one, but others have far worse problems.

 

Thank you for responding, appreciated - think I'll have a large glass of wine now.

 

Cheers

 

Carol

[MDM]

2 hours ago, CAROL SAUNDERS said:

Many thanks Harry, the instructions re: Photoshop were suggested by Adobe.  I've not tried them yet as the system is still backing up to an external hard drive.

 

 As others have said, I think - the problem is with Adobe and not Apple.  I have spent a good part of the day trying to sort it out with Adobe but they are aware of the problems and trying to sort them.  When this will be who knows??  In the meantime I have found a workaround in that I can just change the file extension manually i.e. jpeg to tif and save as tiff and it seems to work for now and now at least they will re-open in photoshop whereas when I was saving as tif and in actual fact unbeknown to me they were actually saving as jpegs they were impossible to re open in PS - if that makes sense !  Also if I actually save as hi res jpegs they will also re-open in PS.  Think I will probably leave everything alone now and hope it's not too long before Adobe sort things out.  Reading other threads such as the one you kindly gave me, leads me to think, not only am I the only one, but others have far worse problems.

 

Thank you for responding, appreciated - think I'll have a large glass of wine now.

 

Cheers

 

Carol

 

You could try going back to Mojave on your main drive once you have the new system backed up. That is what I would do in any case. See instructions from Apple on how to reinstall MacOS including how to go back to the system that came with your Mac. It should be very straightforward but don't reformat your drive if it is one of those Fusion drives discussed above. And turn off whatever it is in the App Store app that is allowing your Mac to download a new OS and autoinstall it.