I'm suspicious of that conclusion. I run a 2018 MacBook Pro. Most of the time a spend in virtual machines and some development activities. I don't have performance issues with Sonoma.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Sonoma is the worst MacOs in years
- Thread starter macohmac
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I'm suspicious of that conclusion. I run a 2018 MacBook Pro. Most of the time a spend in virtual machines and some development activities. I don't have performance issues with Sonoma.
Sonoma has issues with PCI card mounted SSDs not showing up at boot time.
There is a long thread in the Mac Pro group.
Everything worked fine for several users prior to upgrading to Sonoma.
Some have reverted to previous versions of Mac OS.
I am one of those people experiencing the issue but reverting is a huge task.
Have lost a lot of faith in Apple due to this foundation level issue.
There is a long thread in the Mac Pro group.
Everything worked fine for several users prior to upgrading to Sonoma.
Some have reverted to previous versions of Mac OS.
I am one of those people experiencing the issue but reverting is a huge task.
Have lost a lot of faith in Apple due to this foundation level issue.
as if, somehow, everything is perfect at .5 or .6?
upgrade when you want, as all OSes are, always, a work-in-progress, and there's no 'perfect' moment.
I only just recently upgraded to Ventura and still remember how buggy it was seen by some members here when it was new. The Mac is actually snappier than it was on Monterey and I consider Ventura to be the best MacOS at the moment. Now with Sonoma there seem to be issues and bugs again, so in another 6 months or so I'll either revisit the upgrade topic or I might skip Sonoma altogether if it turns out to be another leopard/yosemite.
But it's the same topic every year. If the Mac runs great then why risk an early upgrade? I remember when we got long overdue new features like dark mode with Mojave that I wouldn't wanna live without now. But I can see nothing like that on Sonoma, at best everything works like before. Maybe there are Stage Manager improvements but I it's usable enough now and certainly not worth risking the upgrade.
You can always go back to Ventura. I am not sure how easy it is on Intels, at least on M1 and later directly after a MacOS upgrade the recovery will still offer to reinstall the older MacOS. That option is supposed to remain until you installation of a minor version update. I suspect that might not be the case on Intels, but in the worst case you can update the TM backup, wipe the thing and get the data back after with the migration assistant. Takes a couple hours but most of that is waiting for progress bars and I'd rather revert than have a broken Mac for weeks.
But it's the same topic every year. If the Mac runs great then why risk an early upgrade? I remember when we got long overdue new features like dark mode with Mojave that I wouldn't wanna live without now. But I can see nothing like that on Sonoma, at best everything works like before. Maybe there are Stage Manager improvements but I it's usable enough now and certainly not worth risking the upgrade.
You can always go back to Ventura. I am not sure how easy it is on Intels, at least on M1 and later directly after a MacOS upgrade the recovery will still offer to reinstall the older MacOS. That option is supposed to remain until you installation of a minor version update. I suspect that might not be the case on Intels, but in the worst case you can update the TM backup, wipe the thing and get the data back after with the migration assistant. Takes a couple hours but most of that is waiting for progress bars and I'd rather revert than have a broken Mac for weeks.
This morning, when I booted the computer, one volume on an external disk did not show on the desktop. It was mounted under /Volumes and Time Machine backed up to it without a problem. Is that the issue you're talking about? Would you link to the thread that you mentioned, please?
I have no faith in Apple's ability to execute complex software reliably. It's been that way with me for a number of OS releases. The Location Services bug in Ventura (no apps showing in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services) was astonishing; it made the front page on MacRumors.
Personally I run Sonoma 14.2.1 on two Macs (a Mac Studio M1 Max and a MacBook Pro M2) and I have nearly no issues.
Same.
It sounds like there is something wrong with the OP‘s particular system and I hope that they are able to get it fixed.
I do not have the issues that the OP is having, but I too feel that Sonoma is not as stable or as fast as previous macOS releases. This is aside from things that were never fixed from previous releases, and the 'features' that I think are useless or gimmicky or feel like downgrades (to me) as that is all subjective, of course.
While Sonoma is not running slow on my Macs (M2 Mac mini 24GB/1TB, and M2 MacBook Air 16GB/1TB), there is a laggy feeling here and there. It just doesn't feel as 'snappy' as Ventura does on my Macs that I've not upgraded yet.
For example, open Settings > Wallpaper, click on one of your wallpaper folders so that all the thumbnails are revealed, then minimize the settings app in this view using Stage Manager. See that very un-polished, un-Apple-like choppy and jittery descent as it minimizes. This happens on both my Macs.
By the way, Sonoma killed the 'Drift' screen saver on both these Macs during the upgrade process. I am not sure why, but it can't be a coincidence on two different modern macs. An upgrade never broke anything on my Macs before. I think this screen saver had to be selected at the time of the upgrades for this to happen. I will see if having another screensaver selected changes anything when I upgrade my other Macs.
These are not big issues of course, and I expect some new-release bugs that need to be ironed out with point releases, but we are up to .3 of a major macOS release now, and I am just not feeling that macOS fit, finish and smoothness that you expect from Apple. I am wondering if 'clean installs' would help in some of these cases, something I typically do after a couple of upgrades, even though I was always told that this is unnecessary with Macs (and I've been a Mac user since the 90s).
While Sonoma is not running slow on my Macs (M2 Mac mini 24GB/1TB, and M2 MacBook Air 16GB/1TB), there is a laggy feeling here and there. It just doesn't feel as 'snappy' as Ventura does on my Macs that I've not upgraded yet.
For example, open Settings > Wallpaper, click on one of your wallpaper folders so that all the thumbnails are revealed, then minimize the settings app in this view using Stage Manager. See that very un-polished, un-Apple-like choppy and jittery descent as it minimizes. This happens on both my Macs.
By the way, Sonoma killed the 'Drift' screen saver on both these Macs during the upgrade process. I am not sure why, but it can't be a coincidence on two different modern macs. An upgrade never broke anything on my Macs before. I think this screen saver had to be selected at the time of the upgrades for this to happen. I will see if having another screensaver selected changes anything when I upgrade my other Macs.
These are not big issues of course, and I expect some new-release bugs that need to be ironed out with point releases, but we are up to .3 of a major macOS release now, and I am just not feeling that macOS fit, finish and smoothness that you expect from Apple. I am wondering if 'clean installs' would help in some of these cases, something I typically do after a couple of upgrades, even though I was always told that this is unnecessary with Macs (and I've been a Mac user since the 90s).
what do you see in system settings>sound>output? is the headphone port showing there?
Today I just realized I can't do search on a specific Mailbox in Apple Mail. I only use iCloud mail. It always defaults to all mailboxes...so that must be a bug. Again this is a new set up, no migration from old computer. As clean OS as they come.
Edit: Not a bug. Just a change in process on the new system.
Edit: Not a bug. Just a change in process on the new system.
Last edited:
I finally brought the MacBook Air to the store on last Friday and just received it. They replaced the audio board and now the port is usable.
I found a cheap used late 2009 21.5 inch iMac for sale on Friday. It had High Sierra installed, the last supported version of macOS that is supported for it. Spent yesterday doing the OCLP patch and installing Sonoma on it. only had 4gb of ram at the time and still has the spinner hd. It ran Sonoma decently but knew it could be better so looked around and had another 4gb of the same spec ram, and installed it just a little bit ago, I will be having the spinner hd replaced with a ssd shortly, not comfortable with opening the iMac to do it myself, need to find out if my friend knows how or if his friend that runs the IT department at his job knows how and then install the ssd. Just by adding the other 4gb of ram, it is 100% faster, and will be a total rocket ship when the ssd is installed. It seems to run faster than high Sierra with the exception of being slightly slower to open apps due to the hd when Sonoma is actually optimized for a ssd. Have absolutely no complaints about Sonoma 14.3 and basically used it most of the night last night and most of today with only 4gb of ram, so it now having double the ram at 8gb seems like a brand new machine and much faster than my much newer dell laptop running windows 11 which is the supported OS for that laptop.
Just a little heads-up; I've opened and swapped the HD with a 2.5" SSD once on a 27" 2010 imac. It went well except for one thing; roaring fans because there was no connection for the temp sensor wire on the SSD. I got it reasonably quiet with fan control software, but could never get it silent, and would have to set the fan speed every so often.
I know this is a known issue, but I never persued it to find a fix. You should do a search or maybe create a new thread about it, because it's pretty off-topic for this thread I think.
I'm not so sure about needing to have an ssd installed, after doubling the ram to 8gb. I used this iMac all day yesterday as I work from home, had 7 safari tabs open, apple mail client open, the slack app for work and a training program and not one time did the iMac stutter, hesitate, freeze or sneeze at any time. worked smoothly and quickly all day. So far I am quite impressed with how well this late 2009 iMac runs Sonoma 14.3 considering its age and it is running it via a patch to install it. Just shows that the hardware is capable of running the newer versions, but if they were not locked out of being able to do so without the patch tool..... there would be no reason to purchase new hardware.
Just got an M3 pro laptop.
The change from an old Intel macbook is significant. It's fast. But holy smokes, the things that just don't work on a new computer!
The "allow this USB accessory to connect?" window has stung me multiple times today. Sometimes I don't see it because it appears on a secondary display and/or behind another app. My webcam wasn't working even with an Apple USB C adapter with a USB A port built in, because I didn't spot the "allow this USB hub to connect?" window hiding behind my company teams chat.
I also lament the death of energy saver startup/shutdown times. Is that a Sonoma change?
So many little changes, so many little frustrations. I just need to do my work!
In two weeks I'm sure I'll forget all of this, though.
The change from an old Intel macbook is significant. It's fast. But holy smokes, the things that just don't work on a new computer!
The "allow this USB accessory to connect?" window has stung me multiple times today. Sometimes I don't see it because it appears on a secondary display and/or behind another app. My webcam wasn't working even with an Apple USB C adapter with a USB A port built in, because I didn't spot the "allow this USB hub to connect?" window hiding behind my company teams chat.
I also lament the death of energy saver startup/shutdown times. Is that a Sonoma change?
So many little changes, so many little frustrations. I just need to do my work!
In two weeks I'm sure I'll forget all of this, though.
Last edited:
I agree there are many frustrations in trying to learn, navigate workaround a new "System Settings..." changes.
I did find a workaround for the startup/shutdown times using a free app that will set them in the system settings.
See my post;
macOS 14.2.1 - Bug fixes, changes, and more
You can use the free OnyX to adjust the startup, shutdown or cancel scheduling. https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html
forums.macrumors.com
This is amazing, thank you!I agree there are many frustrations in trying to learn, navigate workaround a new "System Settings..." changes.
I did find a workaround for the startup/shutdown times using a free app that will set them in the system settings.
See my post;
macOS 14.2.1 - Bug fixes, changes, and more
You can use the free OnyX to adjust the startup, shutdown or cancel scheduling. https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html
To Always "Allow accessories to connect";
Finder>System Settings...>Privacy & Security>scroll down to "Allow accessories to connect"">select "Always" in the drop down.
Another good one, thanks! Been stuck on an OLD machine too long.
Yes. With a new machine, it can be surprising how often you have to give some app permission to access something, even if it is just the downloads folder. Still, it’s better to have security and controls for that security. It’s just a PITA on a new box.
An ssd will have a lot (I mean a LOT) more impact on speed!