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Apple Bugs

Entry 2126, on 2021-05-06 at 23:10:49 (Rating 2, Computers)

My primary job is Mac computer support. I also do some programming, and repairs, and networking, and server administation, and web site creation, and hardware work, but I mainly do general support work.

Many years (yeah, OK: decades) ago, I was a PC programmer, but once I started working with Macs I realised PCs really suck and I preferred Apple's hardware, operating system, and software. This attitude hasn't changed much since then, and I am still a big Apple fan, because PCs have got better but still have numerous issues.

But Apple is far from perfect. Every day I encounter numerous bugs and glitches with Apple software, and at various times their hardware has been problematic as well. It has got to the point where, if I am attempting anything even remotely out of the ordinary, I am surprised if it works first time, or even works at all.

For example, I recently had to upgrade a Mac laptop to a new operating system. I had to do this because the email system the person needed to use was not supported any more on the older system. The changes didn't really give any new functionality, they just broke a lot of older email clients. note that this was for a Microsoft email server, so I'm not really blaming Apple for that part.

Many years ago a major update was a risky procedure and I would make sure I ran a backup first. But now the process is generally far more reliable and backups take a long time, so I didn't do one this time.

As you might have guessed, things went horribly wrong. The update got to almost the last step then failed with an obscure error message which didn't seem to be documented anywhere. In fact, the disk (an SSD, in this case) was totally scrambled, and even the "heavy duty" disk recovery programs I have couldn't fix it.

Luckily the owner of the computer had run a backup quite recently, so I installed a new SSD and restored to it from the backup. But I still face a tricky attempted recovery of the newer files from the damaged drive.

Another common problem is security. I had another client who needed to log in to their Apple account, but every time they tried it accepted the password but immediately returned to the login screen again. I know the password was right because it worked on a web browser, but even a restart didn't resolve the problem.

And how often do I try to generate a code to allow two factor authentication, only for it to never arrive? I know 2FA does give some significant advantages in terms of security, but if we have to use it make sure it is reliable please!

At this point you might be wondering why I persist with Apple products and why I don't use Microsoft, Google, or Linux instead. Well, there are two reasons for that...

First, however bad Apple is, those other companies and organisations are even worse. Problems similar to those I described above seem to happen even more often with Windows, and are often more difficult to recover from as well.

I know there are Windows users out there who claim to have had no problems at all, but I'm talking about all users, not just those who are lucky enough to have not encountered too many bugs! Also, when questioned more carefully, most people who have "no problems" in fact do; they have just learned to live with them.

Second, even when Microsoft hardware and software is working exactly as intended it is still horrible. The problem with Microsoft goes away beyond mere bugs. Their stuff is deficient to the core. It is ugly, slow, and confusing, even when it is working perfectly. At least most of Apple's products - both hardware and software - are pleasant to use when they are working properly.

And, while I have some admiration for Linux, I would never use it. In fact, I have installed Linux on my Mac and then wondered what to do with it. The fact is that with Unix on a Mac I can do anything I would ask Linux to do, plus I have a usable graphical interface, and access to a lot of great programs which aren't available on Linux.

So it's not just as simple as having a bug free system, because Linux is probably more free of bugs than either Mac or Windows. It's more about having a system with as few bugs as possible, but also having access to the required software and hardware I need, which Linux can't do.

In some ways I should be happy these bugs exist, because fixing them is a major part of my job and maybe I would have no role at all if the Mac systems were better. Ironically, that's the exact reason I have (partly facetiously) suggested might be why Windows support people like Microsoft so much!

I don't expect any system to be perfect, but I do expect a bit more Apple. They have access to almost infinte resources, and charge a premium for their products, and there is no excuse for producing sub-standard products, especially the OS. On the other hand, when macOS works it is excellent. When either Windows or Linux is working perfectly, it is still horrible!

Comment 1 (6632) by Anonymous on 2021-05-07 at 17:17:09:

One must always balance the number of times an error occurs against the number of times it doesn't. I remember when errors never happened when upgrading, and now they occasionally happen. Worse for sure, but still manageable.

In terms of MacOS, the boot volume structure is much more complicated now (mainly to deliver increased security), so things are more likely to fail now. Bottom line, backup immediately before major upgrades.

Comment 2 (6634) by OJB on 2021-05-07 at 23:23:23:

Yes, I agree with all of that. As I said, I always used to backup before upgrades and I fully understand the importance of backups. I backup my main machine three different ways, kept in three locations, and three different mechanisms!

Maybe I got too complacent. Also, the scrambled disk has only happened once in the last few years; maybe it was just a single glitch which will never happen again. I will certainly run backups before upgrading for a while until I establish whether these crashes really are happening more often.

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