Apple Releases OS X 10.11 El Capitan With Improved Spotlight Search, Enhanced Performance, and Revamped Apps

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Yes but having it in the Applications folder doesn't mean it will work with El Capitan. And that's the question. So far, I've learned of at least one notable issue with the color choose pane.

My concern is not losing the Pages '09 file. It's about not losing the ability to use Pages '09 in full.

 

[Ebenezum]

So that means that Secure Empty Trash on an SSD is nothing more than a placebo, and is why it was taken out of El Capitan. Could Apple have repeatedly overwritten every empty block on the SSD? Of course, but SSDs only have so many writes in their lifetimes. That only serves to shorten the life of the SSD itself.

If you really need to securely delete files in OS X, enable File Vault when you install the OS.

I was very disappointed when I noticed this change in 10.11 Security Content document. It seems Apple forgot that people are still using hard drives? Using FileVault for this feels like using sledgehammer instead of hammer. Why not keep this option visible when user has connected hard drives to Mac?

Using only SSD is not practical because I have need for large amount of storage and SSD are currently way too expensive for my purposes. It seems I have to rely on password protected disk images if I upgrade to El Capitan.

 

[steve333]

Anyone else seeing a lot of spinning beach balls? I see it when first starting up, opening safari, etc.

 

[Mr. McMac]

I was very disappointed when I noticed this change in 10.11 Security Content document. It seems Apple forgot that people are still using hard drives? Using FileVault for this feels like using sledgehammer instead of hammer. Why not keep this option visible when user has connected hard drives to Mac?

Using only SSD is not practical because I have need for large amount of storage and SSD are currently way too expensive for my purposes. It seems I have to rely on password protected disk images if I upgrade to El Capitan.

Both of my Mac Mini's have regular spinner HD's. As far as File Vault, I'm not interested in slowing down my Mini's. I'm going to search for an app that will do a secure erase.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Anyone else seeing a lot of spinning beach balls? I see it when first starting up, opening safari, etc.

Yes, and my max spec iMac has been booting, running for about 2-3 min, beachballing, and freezing up, requiring a hard reset. & then doing it again.

Awesome.

 

[Prof.]

i performed a clean install of 10.11, and re-downloaded all my files from the cloud. With the exception of the rare beachball, El Cap is running almost perfectly stable on my 2015 MacBook Pro. Programs launch noticeably faster than they did on the PB. Overall, speed and stability has improved over 10.10 and 10.11 PB.

 

[colourfastt]

Anyone else seeing a lot of spinning beach balls? I see it when first starting up, opening safari, etc.

Constantly .. and not with just the pre-loaded Apple apps, but with almost all apps. And it's also rather ridiculous that apps take upwards of 60 seconds to open. Not that it isn't fun to watch the icon bounce on the dock for 45 to 60 seconds.

 

[Wolwerine]

Apple today released OS X 10.11 El Capitan to the public, making the newest Mac operating system available for free to Mac users around the world. OS X El Capitan went through eight developer betas before the golden master version of the software was released on September 9.

OS X El Capitan is still rolling out to users, but it can be downloaded using the Software Update function in the Mac App Store, and it will run on all Macs capable of running OS X Yosemite. Here is a direct link for the update: OS X El Capitan.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

As an update complementary to OS X Yosemite, as the OS X El Capitan name suggests, the new operating system builds on the features introduced last year. OS X El Capitan focuses on improving user experience and performance.

OS X El Capitan looks like OS X Yosemite, but it includes a new systemwide font, San Francisco, and it introduces a new Split View option for Mission Control, allowing two full-screen apps to be used side-by-side. El Capitan includes an improved Spotlight Search and several new app features. Safari, for example, has gained Pinned Sites and a universal mute button, while Mail has new iOS-style smart suggestions.

Photos in OS X El Capitan supports third-party photo editing extensions from Mac App Store apps, Notes has new features, and Maps includes Transit directions. Under-the-hood improvements in El Capitan also make a number of apps and processes on the Mac faster, and the introduction of Metal makes system-level graphics rendering 40 percent more efficient.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

More information on OS X El Capitan can be found in our El Capitan roundup, which includes details on major features and some little tweaks that were added throughout the beta testing period. Discussion of El Capitan's new features is also taking place in our OS X El Capitan forum, and we encourage all of our readers to join in with questions and new discoveries.

Article Link: Apple Releases OS X 10.11 El Capitan With Improved Spotlight Search, Enhanced Performance, and Revamped Apps

Hello, i've been using Mac OS X system for some time,,i've already try Snow Leopard, Lion, ML, Mavericks, Yosemite and this last version El Capitan,,and honestly,,i don't think that this El Capitan is so good as people says,,well,,i don't speak for nothing, i've tried the First release of El Capitan Beta for developers, and at that time, i've got installed successfully, however, many bugs and crashes,,so i get back to Yosemite 10.10.05,,now, finally El Capitan Public is release and some people after install can't boot their Mac,, in my case is deferent, i got a Kernel Panic, not on the boot, he was working, and suddenly he shutsdown,, i've make screenshot of Kernel Panic,,

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

i performed a clean install of 10.11, and re-downloaded all my files from the cloud. With the exception of the rare beachball, El Cap is running almost perfectly stable on my 2015 MacBook Pro. Programs launch noticeably faster than they did on the PB. Overall, speed and stability has improved over 10.10 and 10.11 PB.

I performed an update install since Leopard on my 2008 MBP and it runs full speed and is perfectly stable. This isn't Windows. WTF is up with "clean" installs? Do people think OS X has a registry or what?

Constantly .. and not with just the pre-loaded Apple apps, but with almost all apps. And it's also rather ridiculous that apps take upwards of 60 seconds to open. Not that it isn't fun to watch the icon bounce on the dock for 45 to 60 seconds.

I've seen a lot when I first loaded it up but they seem to have gone down over time. Mostly it happens with Apple's apps and utilities, not 3rd party stuff. I have seen the beach ball more in the past week, though than I have seen it in the past YEAR on Mavericks. So much for "faster". Nothing has taken anywhere near 60 seconds to open, though and I don't have an SSD.

 

[Mr. McMac]

Constantly .. and not with just the pre-loaded Apple apps, but with almost all apps. And it's also rather ridiculous that apps take upwards of 60 seconds to open. Not that it isn't fun to watch the icon bounce on the dock for 45 to 60 seconds.

I get those beachballs for a few seconds occasionally when I open an app for the first time on a re-boot. Since I only reboot every couple of weeks, it hasn't been a major problem as of now.

 

[Prof.]

I performed an update install since Leopard on my 2008 MBP and it runs full speed and is perfectly stable. This isn't Windows. WTF is up with "clean" installs? Do people think OS X has a registry or what?

idk, but something definitely happened because my MacBook Pro is noticeably faster. Also, before the clean install, my SSD was showing 80GBs of just apps when I didn't even have that much space used on my SSD. Perhaps a disk utility would have fixed it and I could have avoided a "clean-install." Something was bogging down my system.

 

[sracer]

Fortunately, iWork '09 is still on your Mac. It's in the Applications folder in a folder of the same name. I personally prefer iWork '09 over its newer counterpart, particularly because it's more functional and it doesn't have the annoying sidebar.

I also use the older version of iMovie because it can keep separate project files (unlike its newer counterpart) and it can have video playback on one monitor and the video timeline on the other.

Yes but having it in the Applications folder doesn't mean it will work with El Capitan. And that's the question. So far, I've learned of at least one notable issue with the color choose pane.

My concern is not losing the Pages '09 file. It's about not losing the ability to use Pages '09 in full.

Exactly. I wish people would be a little more careful in claiming that iWork 09 "works" in El Cap. If someone had posted what I posted about iWork 09 on El Cap then I wouldn't have upgraded. (I really don't have the time to wipe my system out and reinstall Mavericks)

There are so many features in iWork '09 it will take me a while to determine if anything else is broken.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Again, I would so appreciate it if you would either remember this thread or PM me if you find some other issues. I'm clinging to a prior OS X version until I get more on this (or decide to go the separate partition or separate boot drive route).

I'm hoping that this is a .0 to .1 issue that maybe the .3 to .4 upgrades will address.

Thanks!

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

I got my new Thunderbolt To HDMI adapter and my 2nd monitor is working again. The problem now is that every time I reboot, the background screens on both monitors resets to the El Capitan default rather than the ones I selected. If I bring up the background preference it will show the correct image in the window and if I switch from "fill screen" to something else and back again, it will put the image I used back in place, but I have to do it one Desktop at a time. Rebooting resets them all over again.... WTF is going on? It doesn't do this if I disconnect the second monitor. Anyone else using two monitors notice something similar?

Edit: OK, I don't even have to reboot for the problem to occur. Just logging out and back in will change the background screen to the mountain photo. In Mission Control, the screens look "blank" grey or blue. When you click on them, they turn into the mountain photo. If you bring up the preference pane, it shows the correct image selected, but won't change it on the actual background unless you click on something else first (i.e. fill screen or change every 30 minutes or another photo or whatever). Log out. Resets again. Lovely bug. I sent feedback to Apple. I doubt they will do anything about it on my account.

Edit 2: OK, I disconnected my 2nd monitor and logged out. Same thing. Changed the desktop picture and logged out. Same thing again. Whatever happened when I first connected my 2nd monitor upon a reboot now seems to prevent the background picture from loading even in single monitor mode. I even tried deleting all my Desktop spaces. No dice. When I log out, I can see a blurry version of the one I actually selected, but logging back in it loads the mountain photo until I open the preference pane and click on something. Really really bizarre bug.

Edit 3: I tried selecting one of Apple's other images (earth from orbit) instead of my own image and that one stuck on a log out. I then tried my image again and it didn't work. I don't get it. I set these folders up in Mountain Lion and/or Mavericks. Maybe I should delete the folders from the preference pane and re-add them. Something has to work....

Edit 4: It seems that El Capitan doesn't like the images to be on an external drive? I moved the photos I used to my "Pictures" directory inside my home directory (it's a default directory listing in the preference pane) and if I set them from that folder they stick. They worked from the external drive until I connected the 2nd monitor and then started behaving as above.... At least I can get the images to work again. Hmmm, that's not even totally true. Once they stuck on the primary monitor, plugging in the secondary monitor loaded up the last background I had set on it from the external drive even though I wiped out the folder. Really, it's got to be some strange set of sequences.... But all seems to work again now loading the photos from the internal drive in any case.

 

[jblagden]

I'm downloading it now in the UK. I put El Capitan into search in the Mac App Store and it showed up. Its a 6.08 GB download though, download's a bit slow, but its too be expected at this time.

Yeah, I waited a day to download it because I knew that a lot of people would be trying to download it on the first day it was available.

 

[jblagden]

And you mean Pages 09, not the "new" and "improved" version of Pages that stripped out the DTP side of Pages '09, right? It's that DTP side that matters most, so I need the former version of Pages to work well or I have to consider making a separate boot drive of the "as is" before considering this OS X upgrade. Thanks for any clarification.

I'm not sure if he's talking about Page '09, but it works fine for me. I just had to recreate my standard Times New Roman Size 12 template. Though, for some odd reason, even though that template was gone, my Critical Reading Guide from a year or two ago is still there. I've also noticed a "Save as Word Document" option in the Save dialog box, which I don't remember. Though, I tested it, and it just saves your work as a Word document. I was hoping that it would save it as a Pages document and as a separate Word document, which it would update when the Pages version was edited, particularly because as much as I like Pages, its greatest weakness is that it can only use the Pages format, which is why I've been using TextEdit for the past several months.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I'm not sure if he's talking about Page '09, but it works fine for me. I just had to recreate my standard Times New Roman Size 12 template. Though, for some odd reason, even though that template was gone, my Critical Reading Guide from a year or two ago is still there. I've also noticed a "Save as Word Document" option in the Save dialog box, which I don't remember. Though, I tested it, and it just saves your work as a Word document. I was hoping that it would save it as a Pages document and as a separate Word document, which it would update when the Pages version was edited, particularly because as much as I like Pages, its greatest weakness is that it can only use the Pages format, which is why I've been using TextEdit for the past several months.

First THANKS so much for replying to this niche (requested) topic. So I take it you have upgraded to El Capitan and you are checking some documents designed in the "Page Layout" mode (not the mode where Pages functions like a Word Processor), right? And you are not seeing any issues opening, editing or saving page layout Pages '09 documents in El Capitan, though you did have to recreate one of your own Pages '09 templates.

Another guy who offered some input opened up the color picking pane/window which would be used when you want to change the color of text or lines/boxes. When he chose the option in that window that looks like crayons, it showed a "smeared" image instead of the crayons. See post #593 for a picture of this. Do you see that too or do you have normal images of crayons showing?

I'd so appreciate it if you would either remember this thread or PM me if you do find any other issues with using the page layout side of Pages '09 on El Capitan as you continue to use it. I need that whole part of Pages '09 to work well before I choose to make that upgrade myself. Several clients depend on it and the new Pages "upgrade" basically deprecated much of that (DTP) functionality to make it compatible with iDevices.

 

[jblagden]

First THANKS so much for replying to this niche (requested) topic. So I take it you have upgraded to El Capitan and you are checking some documents designed in the "Page Layout" mode (not the mode where Pages functions like a Word Processor), right? And you are not seeing any issues opening, editing or saving page layout Pages '09 documents in El Capitan, though you did have to recreate one of your own Pages '09 templates.

Another guy who offered some input opened up the color picking pane/window which would be used when you want to change the color of text or lines/boxes. When he chose the option in that window that looks like crayons, it showed a "smeared" image instead of the crayons. See post #593 for a picture of this. Do you see that too or do you have normal images of crayons showing?

I'd so appreciate it if you would either remember this thread or PM me if you do find any other issues with using the page layout side of Pages '09 on El Capitan as you continue to use it. I need that whole part of Pages '09 to work well before I choose to make that upgrade myself. Several clients depend on it and the new Pages "upgrade" basically deprecated much of that (DTP) functionality to make it compatible with iDevices.

I've never used Pages' Page Layout Mode before, particularly because never noticed it, and I haven't had to make a brochure or anything like that in years. But I tested it out today, and I made a test document, which I have stored in my Dropbox Public folder: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5jat0wv61xv5dk0/Pages Page Layout Mode Test.pages?dl=0. So that functionality is still there. Whether or not older documents which were created with Page Layout Mode, I don't know, but at least I can confirm that this feature is still there. I can test it out for you if you send me a document which you've prepared with Page's Page Layout Mode.

And yeah, I upgraded to OS X El Capitan last Thursday.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Anyone else notice a lot of small hard disk writes going on in the background since upgrading to El Capitan? Activity Manager shows me it's not my imagination hearing the disk drive doing things, but I don't see a way to find out which application or process is actually writing to the drive at a given moment. You can find CPU use in real time, but I don't see a way to watch for small writes in real time. I would imagine this would be even worse for a SSD drive over time as they have a limited number of write cycles. I don't recall hearing the drive doing this all the time in the background in Mavericks. And no it's not MDS (Spotlight) as it's not active at the moment.

The only process I can find that seems to be doing something noticeable offhand is in Network Activity and it appears to be "postgres_real" for user _devicemgr and _xserverdocs which appear to be SQL database instances. Hmmm, I just installed Server. Maybe it's doing something in the background? The drive will never go to sleep with all that activity going on. I'm only using File sharing locally at the moment anyway and there doesn't appear to be any controls over what the heck it's doing in the background constantly. Watching those processes in Disk Activity, the _devicemgr instance is definitely slowly writing to the hard drive over time. What "device" it's doing it for, I have no idea.

 

[dubmick]

Did you do a clean install or no?

late reply but no just did an upgrade

 

[sracer]

I've never used Pages' Page Layout Mode before, particularly because never noticed it, and I haven't had to make a brochure or anything like that in years. But I tested it out today, and I made a test document, which I have stored in my Dropbox Public folder: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5jat0wv61xv5dk0/Pages Page Layout Mode Test.pages?dl=0. So that functionality is still there. Whether or not older documents which were created with Page Layout Mode, I don't know, but at least I can confirm that this feature is still there. I can test it out for you if you send me a document which you've prepared with Page's Page Layout Mode.

And yeah, I upgraded to OS X El Capitan last Thursday.

I think you overlooked @HobeSoundDarryl 's question regarding the color picker.

in Pages 09 running on El Cap, does the crayon tab of the color picker look like this?

View attachment 588728

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Exactly. I wish people would be a little more careful in claiming that iWork 09 "works" in El Cap. If someone had posted what I posted about iWork 09 on El Cap then I wouldn't have upgraded. (I really don't have the time to wipe my system out and reinstall Mavericks)

There are so many features in iWork '09 it will take me a while to determine if anything else is broken.

sracer, checking in to see if you've had time to find anything else "broken" in Pages 09 Desktop Publishing mode as a result of upgrading to El Capitan? Other than the crayon color pane being a mess, is it otherwise functioning OK? Any page layout issues?

And did it work fine in Yosemite (with no problems)? I'm still using Mavericks where it does work as it always has. I may step up to Yosemite if you confirm it worked normally there... but wait on El Capitan to see if maybe a point update or two might "fix" any issues of Pages 09 DTP. Thanks for any update.

 

[sracer]

sracer, checking in to see if you've had time to find anything else "broken" in Pages 09 Desktop Publishing mode as a result of upgrading to El Capitan? Other than the crayon color pane being a mess, is it otherwise functioning OK? Any page layout issues?

So far the only functional issue that I've encountered is the crayon color pane. When launching Pages 09 there is an annoying pause as it loads where black rectangles are predrawn before the dialog windows appear. This happens only upon initial startup of Pages.

I'm more comfortable with iWork '09 working properly on El Cap... especially since I haven't run into any additional functional issues. But one thing that I'm doing is installing any future updates on only one OSX device (I am fortunately enough to have a few) and running some tests with iWork '09 before committing my more critical systems to an update.

And did it work fine in Yosemite (with no problems)? I'm still using Mavericks where it does work as it always has. I may step up to Yosemite if you confirm it worked normally there... but wait on El Capitan to see if maybe a point update or two might "fix" any issues of Pages 09 DTP. Thanks for any update.

Sorry, can't be of any help there. I went from Mavericks to El Cap. Never installed Yosemite.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

So far the only functional issue that I've encountered is the crayon color pane. When launching Pages 09 there is an annoying pause as it loads where black rectangles are predrawn before the dialog windows appear. This happens only upon initial startup of Pages.

I'm more comfortable with iWork '09 working properly on El Cap... especially since I haven't run into any additional functional issues. But one thing that I'm doing is installing any future updates on only one OSX device (I am fortunately enough to have a few) and running some tests with iWork '09 before committing my more critical systems to an update.

Sorry, can't be of any help there. I went from Mavericks to El Cap. Never installed Yosemite.

Again, thanks so much for replying. If the crayon color pane seems to be the only tangible issue, I can work around that. If you notice anything else of substance (like that), I'd appreciate a reply.

Going forward, I'm going to do the same kind of thing (using dedicated boot drives to be able to step back to what worked for key programs). I wish Apple would split off the Pages 09 DTP section as Apple Publisher or something like that. Apparently, with only minor updates, they could add a DTP program to iWorks that only runs on Macs and will work well with El Capitan. If they would resurrect just the DTP side of Pages 09, that would pretty much yield all I needed from Pages 09. I don't expect Pages for iOS to ever get such features.

I'm actually encouraging clients who need simple DTP to buy older Macs running older OS X variants so they can fully utilized Pages '09 DTP as I haven't found anything from anyone else that balances simplicity with the right amount of DTP power as found in Pages '09. Indesign/Quark are overkill and many third party options (I've tried) are simply lacking features that shined in Pages '09.

 

[jblagden]

I think you overlooked @HobeSoundDarryl 's question regarding the color picker.

in Pages 09 running on El Cap, does the crayon tab of the color picker look like this?

Unfortunately, yes it does. It still works, but it doesn’t look quite right. This is something Apple should improve in iWork ’09.