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How is macOS 12?


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    96
Did a "Total Clean Install" from High Sierra on a 2017 iMac.

By total, I mean clean wipe of system disk, install from USB installer, manual re-install of desired apps from external disk of source files, manual reinstatement of all accounts, licenses and settings.

In other words, I approached it as if I had a blank iMac and built everything back from scratch.

So far it has worked very well, but I did have to upgrade some apps to Monterey compatible versions. Prior to upgrade, I verified and downloaded dmg's for each app to be re-loaded.

It appears there is an issue with setting a screensaver in System Preferences. Also, Carbon Copy Cloner can no longer create a "bootable" backup in Monterey. So its an expensive Time Machine.

It boots faster. Runs my Parallels WinXP and Win10 fine. Also MS 365 Office, FCP, Capture One, Affinity Photo, DXO PhotoLab, Topaz Video Enhance, Plex Media Server, etc. with no issues so far.

My main lose with upgrade so far is Carbon Copy Cloner (as stated) and Finders "Cover Flow" view.
 
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Did a "Total Clean Install" from High Sierra on a 2017 iMac.

By total, I mean clean wipe of system disk, install from USB installer, manual re-install of desired apps from external disk of source files, manual reinstatement of all accounts, licenses and settings.

In other words, I approached it as if I had a blank iMac and built everything back from scratch.

So far it has worked very well, but I did have to upgrade some apps to Monterey compatible versions. Prior to upgrade, I verified and downloaded dmg's for each app to be re-loaded.

It appears there is an issue with setting a screensaver in System Preferences. Also, Carbon Copy Cloner can no longer create a "bootable" backup in Monterey. So its an expensive Time Machine.

It boots faster. Runs my Parallels WinXP and Win10 fine. Also MS 365 Office, FCP, Capture One, Affinity Photo, DXO PhotoLab, Topaz Video Enhance, Plex Media Server, etc. with no issues so far.

My main lose with upgrade so far is Carbon Copy Cloner (as stated) and Finders "Cover Flow" view.
wow, nice write up! I'm on Catalina and like you, I planned on a clean install as well! With all the news about memory leaks, I think maybe I'll wait until 12.2. Why were you still on High Sierra and what was it about Monterey that made you want to make the jump?
 
I stayed on HS to use Cover Flow which Apple dropped in newer OS because of a $MMMMMMM lawsuit loss.
Cover Flow was a great tool to scan very large folders containing not only images, but PDFs, Office docs, etc.

I upgraded because the latest versions of Final Cut Pro, DXO PhotoLab, etc. would not work on High Sierra.

I may have experienced a memory leak with Monterey when using Plex Media Sever to display images from my photo library on our TV via network. After about a 100 jpegs or so, the images got blurry. I think it is a PLEX issue as backing out of that image folder and back in cleared it up.

My photo library has 26,000 images and PLEX was very responsive hopping around various sub-folders. I've also played some 4K DVD rips (The Martian) with no issues. Time will tell.

However, waiting for 12.2 might not be a bad idea.
 
I stayed on HS to use Cover Flow which Apple dropped in newer OS because of a $MMMMMMM lawsuit loss.
Cover Flow was a great tool to scan very large folders containing not only images, but PDFs, Office docs, etc.

I upgraded because the latest versions of Final Cut Pro, DXO PhotoLab, etc. would not work on High Sierra.

I may have experienced a memory leak with Monterey when using Plex Media Sever to display images from my photo library on our TV via network. After about a 100 jpegs or so, the images got blurry. I think it is a PLEX issue as backing out of that image folder and back in cleared it up.

My photo library has 26,000 images and PLEX was very responsive hopping around various sub-folders. I've also played some 4K DVD rips (The Martian) with no issues. Time will tell.

However, waiting for 12.2 might not be a bad idea.
I didn't know cover flow was such a beloved feature. I never gave it much thought, but now that you brought it to light, I miss it! I guess the big difference between CF and Gallery View is that GV doesn't auto highlight a file and show a preview as you scroll thru, forcing you to manually click the file to show a preview which is a pain
 
What's everyone experience with macOS 12 so far?
On my 7.1, no obvious problems so far - except for when I connect my iPhone to update/back it up. If I tap the button to see if there's an update available, I have three consecutive "No Update Available" boxes to get rid of; it only used to take one.

On my 2015 Macbook Pro, tons of problems seemingly associated with the OWC SSD that I installed to double the storage. I had to remove/replace the original/replacement SSD several times to get that one done. What an unwelcome hassle!

Tom
 
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I’ve heard too many complaints regarding this release. I will wait for some future updates before going to Monterey
MacRumors is increasingly becoming a place where software bugs affecting the fewest of users are inflated to the point where it looks like (almost) everyone is experiencing said issues... ...and more. Seven users worldwide reporting on Twitter they "bricked" their Macs during a software update? **Breaking News** It's heading straight to the front page!

If you wanna hold off upgrading until some future update that's fine. In case you're basing your decisions off of what you're reading here: I wouldn't do that too much. You'll be holding off indefinitely.
 
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Dear n-evo,

Thank you for your whiny, fact-free opinion. You have now joined a very exclusive club: users I've put onto my ignore list...

If you'd like a more meaningful experience, try this link: https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/monterey where there are three pages of comments (and growing) from Apple users who have had, um, sub-optimal experiences due to Monterey upgrades. Enjoy!

Tom
 
Dear Tom, you must be a real fun person to have a conversation with. ?

Let's be realistic, pages like that can be found after just about any new OS release. They tend to give a very skewed image of the real situation since the vast majority of people come to such support forums for help or to complain. Not to tell the world they're not experiencing any issues.
 
MacRumors is increasingly becoming a place where software bugs affecting the fewest of users are inflated to the point where it looks like (almost) everyone is experiencing said issues... ...and more. Seven users worldwide reporting on Twitter they "bricked" their Macs during a software update? **Breaking News** It's heading straight to the front page!

If you wanna hold off upgrading until some future update that's fine. In case you're basing your decisions off of what you're reading here: I wouldn't do that too much. You'll be holding off indefinitely.
Well…. First of all it’s my decision to go for the update or not!! Certainly my decision is not based on 7 users from Macrumors but several from different sources on the internet!! I’ve read a lot of people complaining about Monterey.

To add to this, even iOS 15 is not behaving too well in my iPhone 12 Pro Max, I’ve had some issues already so I’m a little skeptical about the latest software release not only for Mac but also their mobile devices.

I will wait some patches to the Monterey to upgrade… Big Sur is running like a charm on my current machine!!
 
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Tried it both on a intel 16" and m1 Air, no issue on either. If anything it made the 16" run better.
 
So far no real problems on my MacBook Pro 2015 running Monterey. ?
But I know I have been lucky. ?
 
Memory leaks, one SD card doesn't work, crashes when watching Youtube HDR video, Time Machine bugged out, Pro-motion kinda weak.

Looking forward to 12.1 ?
 
IMO, Monster-ray is designed to operate at the machine code level of the M1 RISC architecture. This means that Intel Macs have an emulation overlay built into the OS. And so it will take awhile before Apple tracks down everyone one of the emulation errors in the code.

On my M1Pro, I have had no issues as long as I pay attention to the requirements of the M1 and the new OS. For example, TM needs a drive formatted in APFS(preferably not encrypted), and not with snapshots from another computer---so a brand new formatted drive.

There is a bug with Monster-ray about leaks. I just keep Activity Monitor open in an unused desktop, and if I see an app or a OS process(like Control Center) creeping up with RAM usage that it doesn’t normally have, I just zap it down by force quitting it. Apple will fix this in a future upgrade.

Other than this, its worked great. I just make sure I know what’s actually happening before I shoot my mouth off about what I think is happening.
 
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IMO, Monster-ray is designed to operate at the machine code level of the M1 RISC architecture. This means that Intel Macs have an emulation overlay built into the OS. And so it will take awhile before Apple tracks down everyone one of the emulation errors in the code.

On my M1Pro, I have had no issues as long as I pay attention to the requirements of the M1 and the new OS. For example, TM needs a drive formatted in APFS(preferably not encrypted), and not with snapshots from another computer---so a brand new formatted drive.

There is a bug with Monster-ray about leaks. I just keep Activity Monitor open in an unused desktop, and if I see an app or a OS process(like Control Center) creeping up with RAM usage that it doesn’t normally have, I just zap it down by force quitting it. Apple will fix this in a future upgrade.

Other than this, its worked great. I just make sure I know what’s actually happening before I shoot my mouth off about what I think is happening.
Does the emulation mode slow down Intel Macs?
 
Monterey is universal and is compiled for both ARM and x86-64. No emulation.
Hmmm.... It seems that the Intel Macs are having more problems with the compiling than the M1’s. What would you see as the reason for this?
 
Does the emulation mode slow down Intel Macs?
Apparently I was wrong, and the code is compiled for both the intel and the M1. So it should not run slower on Intel Macs. And I have not heard that it runs slower, in fact. Most people say their Intel Machines run faster.
 
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