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benji888

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Sep 27, 2006
1,889
410
United States
This is just an FYI from a long-time Mac user, not an alarm, just my opinion.

10.8.4 update from 10.8.3 was very unstable. I downloaded the 10.8.4 combo (full update (found here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1659)) and much more stable, however, still Safari (6.0.5) is crashing quite often...more often, in fact, than I can think of, for literally years (since, IDK, pre-snow leopard?). Sometimes there is lag and the only remedy is to restart my mac.

I also see other people having wifi, sleep/wake, safari (6.0.5) or other issues since updating.

If you have 10.8.3 on your Mac, I'd wait before updating.

I think Apple may have rushed 10.8.4 out for the new MacBook Airs.

10.8.5 may be coming very soon, I'd wait. https://www.macrumors.com/2013/06/19/apple-seeds-first-os-x-10-8-5-beta-to-developers/

*edit: I am suggesting, if you updated to 10.8.4 and are having issues, to use the above link for the full 10.8.4 combo update, it could help :), it helped me overall, and others also, but, I'm still having safari issues. (Another option would be to go back to 10.8.3 if you can.)
 
Last edited:

SR45

macrumors 65832
Aug 17, 2011
1,501
0
Florida
I don't have a macbook, but a MacMini, and I have absolutely no lag issues, no WiFi, nor issues with Safari either. However, what I did was to download 10.8.4 to my desktop, burned it to a thumb drive, and than did a complete wipe, and reinstall fresh of the OS, if that matters. Many would not do this, but I did just to get a clean install. Just my experience. But I have heard of some with issues. Unknown the actual reason why some and not others. :confused:
 

Isamilis

macrumors 68020
Apr 3, 2012
2,049
956
Just restored back to 10.8.3. Got unusual high temp on MBA 2012. I suspect some resident-type applications are not fully compatible yet with 10.8.4. Am not sure which one, though I didn't found unusual CPU usage.
 

wsc9005

macrumors regular
Dec 12, 2011
208
49
Scotland, UK
The only thing I have noticed is that 10.8.4 tend to stack up inactive memory really quickly.

I had to run the command "purge" to release them manually for every couple hours. I have not encountered the similar issues before that and I only use iTunes, iMessages, mail, Calendar and Safari.
 

benwiggy

macrumors 68020
Jun 15, 2012
2,382
201
There is a large difference between "a problem I am having on my computer" and "buggy OS!!". You will be able to find people posting about problems that you don't have, on the same hardware/software combinations, and they won't have the problems you have.

Are there bugs in ML? Yes, plenty.**

I don't think many people are experiencing the complete range of issues that you have listed, so it may just be "one of those things". Certainly, a Combo updater will fix some issues as it replaces significantly more system components than a point update.

The 10.8.4 updater has been out a while, so if there were any major defects, I'm should there would have been a much larger shout. FWIW, I don't find 10.8.4 any less stable than 10.8.3. I don't have Safari crashing at all.

Most problems that are not experienced widely or universally are usually caused by incorrect or corrupt user preferences, settings, caches and other temporary data, rather than issues with the system files and frameworks themselves.

** There are even bugs in Our Blessed Lady of Snow Leopard. :eek:
 

madmacfan

macrumors 6502
Feb 19, 2012
282
2
London, United Kingdom
I have noticed safari intermittently freezing since I upgraded to 10.8.4 from 10.8.3, but other than that I haven't experienced any other issues. i was thinking about installing the 10.8.4 combo installer over the delta update I have already installed, but i'm unsure if it will make much of a difference. when this happens I usually have to force quit safari and then reopen it to continue browsing. It's strange because when this happens, I am still able to switch between tabs and use the drop down menus the the menubar, but i'm unable to select anything or click on anything on the actual webpage itself. I know it's not a network issue as I have other apps still functioning in the background with no issues whatsoever. Has anyone else experienced this issue, and if so, has installing the combo update over the delta helped in any way? ATM it only happens 1-2 times a day, but it's still annoying.
 

benji888

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Sep 27, 2006
1,889
410
United States
The only thing I have noticed is that 10.8.4 tend to stack up inactive memory really quickly.

I had to run the command "purge" to release them manually for every couple hours. I have not encountered the similar issues before that and I only use iTunes, iMessages, mail, Calendar and Safari.

oh, that makes sense! ...sometimes it seemed like mail or notes was doing this.

I will have to find out how to do the "purge", then I won't have to restart as often.
 

Bear

macrumors G3
Jul 23, 2002
8,088
5
Sol III - Terra
This is just an FYI from a long-time Mac user, not an alarm, just my opinion.

10.8.4 update from 10.8.3 was very unstable.
...
Funny, I'm not having a stability issue. Although as you found out for those having an issue, the Combo update will likely correct them.

The only thing I have noticed is that 10.8.4 tend to stack up inactive memory really quickly.

I had to run the command "purge" to release them manually for every couple hours. I have not encountered the similar issues before that and I only use iTunes, iMessages, mail, Calendar and Safari.
Having high Inactive memory is fine. If you're not having heavy pages outs, there is no need to purge memory. I do have a tad under 400MB of swap used, but it's been that amount for days and page outs is not really changing.

In other words, high Inactive memory on it's own is not an issue.
 

wsc9005

macrumors regular
Dec 12, 2011
208
49
Scotland, UK
Funny, I'm not having a stability issue. Although as you found out for those having an issue, the Combo update will likely correct them.

Having high Inactive memory is fine. If you're not having heavy pages outs, there is no need to purge memory. I do have a tad under 400MB of swap used, but it's been that amount for days and page outs is not really changing.

In other words, high Inactive memory on it's own is not an issue.

After I ran "purge", my system is noticeably faster. I have 8GB RAM but I can also see 8GB page files. Please could you suggest what might be wrong with my system?

As I mentioned earlier, I only use safari, mail, iTunes, notepad and iMessage. I also have skydrive and Dropbox running on the background not they're not syncing. I've also checked processes in activity monitor, nothing look suspicious.

This only happened after 10.8.4 :( weird
 

neurodave

macrumors member
Jul 3, 2013
46
23
Jersey City, NJ
I am skipping 10.8.4 because it negatively impacted my battery life. I usually got between 7-9 hours on a full charge, and with 10.8.4, I barely made it to 6. I haven't tried downloading the update directly from Apple, but I figure it wouldn't make much of a difference.
 

benji888

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Sep 27, 2006
1,889
410
United States
A month later...

ya, I was wrong, if you're still having issues w/10.8.4 after a full combo update, maybe going back to 10.8.3 until .5 comes out isn't such a bad idea.

Personally, I have found the tip for using the "purge" function w/terminal often helps :) (despite other's comments that this should have no effect), and have kept with 10.8.4.
 
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