{"id":28835,"date":"2019-10-14T09:54:13","date_gmt":"2019-10-13T23:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.geeks2u.com.au\/?p=28835"},"modified":"2023-07-28T17:15:16","modified_gmt":"2023-07-28T07:15:16","slug":"macos-catalina-new-features-and-problems-mean-its-worth-waiting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.geeks2u.com.au\/geekspeak\/macos-catalina-new-features-and-problems-mean-its-worth-waiting\/","title":{"rendered":"macOS Catalina: New features and problems mean it\u2019s worth waiting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Apple released the latest full version of macOS for its range of desktop and laptop computers recently. It\u2019s a free upgrade to macOS Catalina as long as you\u2019ve got a qualifying iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air or MacBook Pro model, with the promise of plenty of new features. Most of macOS\u2019 core applications have been given a significant redesign with streamlined workflows. There\u2019s a new feature called \u201cSidecar\u201d that lets you use any Apple iPad compatible with the Apple Pencil as a secondary display for your Mac.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who disliked how bloated iTunes had become over the years can rejoice, because just like it said it would<\/a>, iTunes is no longer the one-stop shop for your music, video app and iOS device backup needs. Instead, they\u2019re handled by what are essentially ports of their iOS counterparts, except for device backup and syncing, which is handled directly within the Finder. If you\u2019re an iPhone user on a Windows PC, however, iTunes is still where all of those services reside; it\u2019s only on the Mac side of the fence that Apple\u2019s killed off iTunes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The general sensible advice on any major update like this is to hold off until the bugs are ironed out. That holds true too for macOS Catalina, because despite a public beta period that undoubtedly quashed a number of software problems, there\u2019s still plenty of reports of unusual app behaviour from early macOS Catalina adopters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of these issues are with Apple\u2019s own included apps, but there\u2019s also the prospect of third-party applications misbehaving, at least until their developers patch around or fix issues with those software packages running smoothly on macOS Catalina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an issue exacerbated by the fact that macOS Catalina drops support for 32-bit apps entirely. That\u2019s a step Apple underwent some time ago for iOS devices, but the Mac\u2019s history of apps with only 32-bit support stretches back even furhter than iOS. If you do run older apps (and especially if you\u2019re already getting the warning that the app will be \u201cunsupported\u201d on future macOS upgrades, you may find that they don\u2019t work at all once you do upgrade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To further complicate matters, if they have their own uninstallers, you\u2019ll need to run those before you upgrade, because the odds are pretty good that if the core app itself is only 32-bit, then the uninstaller will be too. You could be left with an app you can\u2019t use or in fact even easily remove from your Mac if you\u2019re not careful!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how can you know if it\u2019s ever going to be safe to upgrade? Thankfully it\u2019s not too tricky to check your Mac for apps that won\u2019t work under macOS Catalina if you\u2019re using the prior version, macOS Mojave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open up Spotlight search by pressing command and the space bar, and type in System Information. Press enter, and it will show you the details of your Mac in a new window. Scroll down to the area headed up with \u201cSoftware\u201d and there should be an entry labelled \u201cLegacy Software\u201d. These are all the apps you\u2019ve currently got on your Mac that won\u2019t work with macOS Catalina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there\u2019s nothing there, you\u2019re at least OK from a direct apps support point of view for upgrading. If there\u2019s lots of applications there that you rely on, the smart move will be to at least check if you can get upgrades to 64-bit versions, or find equivalent applications that will fulfill the same purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get professional Mac repair<\/a> services for reliable solutions – trust our experts to fix your Mac and restore its optimal performance.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apple released the latest full version of macOS for its range of desktop and laptop computers recently. It\u2019s a free upgrade to macOS Catalina as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":28837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,342],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-28835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apple","category-macos","tag-apple"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.geeks2u.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.geeks2u.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.geeks2u.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geeks2u.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geeks2u.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28835"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.geeks2u.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44729,"href":"https:\/\/www.geeks2u.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28835\/revisions\/44729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geeks2u.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.geeks2u.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geeks2u.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geeks2u.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}