I believe you can install macOS server (https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/os-x-server/id883878097) on one Mac and then use that to download & locally distribute software updates to your other macOS & iOS devices. I don't do it myself; but it may be a good fit for you...
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Apple Releases macOS Catalina 10.15.7 With Fixes for WiFi Bug, 27-Inch iMac Graphics Issues
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I believe you can install macOS server (https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/os-x-server/id883878097) on one Mac and then use that to download & locally distribute software updates to your other macOS & iOS devices. I don't do it myself; but it may be a good fit for you...
You don't need macOS server any longer for that feature, Content Caching is available in macOS by default (System Preferences -> Sharing -> Content Caching).
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I loathe Catalina and deeply regret upgrading to it. It should come with a health warning. Here’s the round of warnings I emailed to a friend…
1. The upside of upgrading from Mojave isn’t great. Installing Catalina disciplined me to remove old and defunct 32-bit Apps, and I can see how the splitting of iTunes is long overdue (though Music and TV are irritating in their constant nagging to get you to upgrade to more Apple services). However I don’t keep my iTunes library on this Mac, and won’t be updating the Mac that does have it until Apple iron out the following issues.
2. Major problems with multiple IMAP accounts and Mail: mail requires repeated password input, won’t sync across devices. Apple Mail in Catalina refuses to display such mail in chronological order.
3. All my hundreds of colour-coded Stickies turned grey and stacked over each other.
4. When Saving as, file name no longer preselects filename only (omitting filetype suffix), but includes entire file name. The former version was a timesaving godsend to jpg workflows – all you had to do was type over the previous filename. Why change it? There’s no conceivable way this is an improvement. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251637697
5. There’s only one typeface for Mail message list view and it’s Helvetica, which a great typeface, but does not work for list view. It can not be changed, despite what Apple claim.
6a. In Mail's column layout view, the columns cannot be moved, nor altered. Don’t want to see inbox info? Tough, you’re stuck with it. Want to see how many attachments a message has? (and nowadays most have one as a logo). Again, hard luck, you can’t. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251577490
6b. Sort by size in Mail works, but no longer shows the size of the attachment to emails.
7. The slide-to-delete/mark as unread feature in Mail isn’t sticky enough, meaning it’s easy to trigger inadvertently. This feature isn’t needed in Mac OS anyway.
8. In non-column view, it’s not possible to see the contents of the message (the way it works on iPad and the way Apple advertise Catalina). This could be a hardware compatibility problem, but Apple don’t mention it.
9. Thumbnails generated by Photoshop randomly come out low def.
10. I now have two folders in my Trash (sorry Bin) that I can not delete, even using Terminal.
11. Spotlight search now runs like a slug on a valium overdose.
All of the above should have been sorted out in the pre-release version, never mind the seventh iteration almost a year after launch. When Apple degrade/deprecate a feature it’s usually for long-term gain. These cork-ups just look like sloppy, don’t-give-a-fork design.
If anyone has solutions for any of these problems (Apple Support don’t), please let me know...
1. The upside of upgrading from Mojave isn’t great. Installing Catalina disciplined me to remove old and defunct 32-bit Apps, and I can see how the splitting of iTunes is long overdue (though Music and TV are irritating in their constant nagging to get you to upgrade to more Apple services). However I don’t keep my iTunes library on this Mac, and won’t be updating the Mac that does have it until Apple iron out the following issues.
2. Major problems with multiple IMAP accounts and Mail: mail requires repeated password input, won’t sync across devices. Apple Mail in Catalina refuses to display such mail in chronological order.
3. All my hundreds of colour-coded Stickies turned grey and stacked over each other.
4. When Saving as, file name no longer preselects filename only (omitting filetype suffix), but includes entire file name. The former version was a timesaving godsend to jpg workflows – all you had to do was type over the previous filename. Why change it? There’s no conceivable way this is an improvement. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251637697
5. There’s only one typeface for Mail message list view and it’s Helvetica, which a great typeface, but does not work for list view. It can not be changed, despite what Apple claim.
6a. In Mail's column layout view, the columns cannot be moved, nor altered. Don’t want to see inbox info? Tough, you’re stuck with it. Want to see how many attachments a message has? (and nowadays most have one as a logo). Again, hard luck, you can’t. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251577490
6b. Sort by size in Mail works, but no longer shows the size of the attachment to emails.
7. The slide-to-delete/mark as unread feature in Mail isn’t sticky enough, meaning it’s easy to trigger inadvertently. This feature isn’t needed in Mac OS anyway.
8. In non-column view, it’s not possible to see the contents of the message (the way it works on iPad and the way Apple advertise Catalina). This could be a hardware compatibility problem, but Apple don’t mention it.
9. Thumbnails generated by Photoshop randomly come out low def.
10. I now have two folders in my Trash (sorry Bin) that I can not delete, even using Terminal.
11. Spotlight search now runs like a slug on a valium overdose.
All of the above should have been sorted out in the pre-release version, never mind the seventh iteration almost a year after launch. When Apple degrade/deprecate a feature it’s usually for long-term gain. These cork-ups just look like sloppy, don’t-give-a-fork design.
If anyone has solutions for any of these problems (Apple Support don’t), please let me know...
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A software update does not necessarily mean it is a software problem when it comes to hardware like GPUs, where drivers get tweaked all the time to get the right balance of performance, compatibility, and stability. There have been a lot of complaints around Navi and the 5700 series since it launched over in the Windows world. Based on the amount of negative feedback I’ve seen, I‘m not convinced the hardware isn’t at least part of the problem. It’s much harder to lay the blame, as AMD makes both the hardware and the software (drivers) to get the device to work correctly. I wasn’t especially excited about the 5700XT I owned before. It definitely felt like AMD was pushing the hardware as hard as it would go in order to compete with NVIDIA. There were a lot of new features in Navi to eek out more performance, like hotspot monitoring and aggressive boosting that would vary from card to card. All of that is great, but it was all 1.0 features for AMD GPUs. It’s also probably not a coincidence that AMD didn’t really fill out the RDNA1 lineup, and are quickly moving on the RDNA2 cards. I think they want to get the 5x00 series behind them.
I could see that for sure. I really meant more of a "not imminent" than trying to nail down a specific timeframe.
So, Notification center/Notifications on the left side of main screen on first boot but works after reboot. 🤞
Is this still a thing? I haven’t had a t2 related crash for more than a year. In fact I don’t remember ever having any OS crash for so long.
Would you prefer they waited longer to resolve issues to keep the .x down? A fix is a fix—I'm grateful they're on it.
I just ordered an iMac with a 5700 XT, so I'm glad to see that I won't need to worry about the graphics glitches.
That said, what I really would have liked to see is a fix for the data-loss bug that some people have suffered moving mail around using IMAP in Mail.app. It doesn't appear to be super-common, and seems to be limited to people with multiple IMAP accounts who use Mail.app but, well, that would include me. I can only assume that if it's persisted this long it's not common even among power users, but if it's enough people for Michael Tsai to track, it's enough for me to be afraid of being one of the unlucky ones.
I'm sad to say that Catalina is the first version of MacOS I have not upgraded to (on version .0 at that) since the Public Beta, and it's entirely over fear of this bug. Glitches and quirks I can usually handle, but eating old mail I'm not willing to risk.
Now that I won't have a choice I'm debating whether to archive a bunch of old mail before migrating or use something else on my desktop to back up mail.
That said, what I really would have liked to see is a fix for the data-loss bug that some people have suffered moving mail around using IMAP in Mail.app. It doesn't appear to be super-common, and seems to be limited to people with multiple IMAP accounts who use Mail.app but, well, that would include me. I can only assume that if it's persisted this long it's not common even among power users, but if it's enough people for Michael Tsai to track, it's enough for me to be afraid of being one of the unlucky ones.
I'm sad to say that Catalina is the first version of MacOS I have not upgraded to (on version .0 at that) since the Public Beta, and it's entirely over fear of this bug. Glitches and quirks I can usually handle, but eating old mail I'm not willing to risk.
Now that I won't have a choice I'm debating whether to archive a bunch of old mail before migrating or use something else on my desktop to back up mail.
Yup, got bit by that one. And the iTunes library album art one too. Neither has been fixed.
Archive it. Restoring mail manually now is a major pain.
Apple doesn't officially have a support timeline, but generally, yes. They support N and N-1. Occasionally they will release patches for earlier OS's.
Catalina has been one of the worst releases in memory, so I can't blame you.
That's not the point. Of course I too am grateful they're fixing it. But them being "on it"? Clearly, they're not. QC is out the window. Been with the Mac since System 7. There's a distinguished drop in quality. Catalina has been an absolute mess compared to other macOS releases.
Show all tabs in Safari causes my iMac 27's screen to go crazy and freezes. Hopefully, this update fixed this.
That would definitely include me, and I can promise you it’s a true PITA. It’s wrecked our business email (resulting in the loss of $£€) and forced us to move to Exchange and Outlook – which I assumed would be temporary workaround, but could become a fixture. Nice own goal, Tim.
In a phone call to Apple Support, one of their tech people assured me they would not be upgrading from Mojave because of Catalina’s numerous glitches. Probably a sackable offence but I admired their honesty.
I’ve been an Apple user since 1984. This is the first time that they have truely, madly, deeply made me angry with an OS upgrade.
In a phone call to Apple Support, one of their tech people assured me they would not be upgrading from Mojave because of Catalina’s numerous glitches. Probably a sackable offence but I admired their honesty.
I’ve been an Apple user since 1984. This is the first time that they have truely, madly, deeply made me angry with an OS upgrade.
The more updates, the better for our old machines.
Applied the Catalina 10.15.7 update today to my late 2015 27" iMac. So far everything is stable, haven't had any complaints. To the person who asked about the Guest account suddenly appearing, Haven't seen that happen. At least it hasn't as of the initial reboot after install. Hope Big Sur is worth installing when it's public. If not Catalina has become stable in my situation, so I can hold onto it a while longer.
Anybody else run into problems after installing the update for Mojave? My 2015 iMac has become completely unstable. I thought this would be a routine minor update, but my Mac is so unusable that I'm just about ready to boot into recovery mode and restore from my time machine backup.
If delaying Big Sur for months makes it a stable OS I am more than willing to see more Catalina updates.
(Actually, the last Catalina update was pretty good... finally.)