macOS Catalina (10.15) is now available

[Lifeisabeach]

I think Vista is a bit strong, I seem to have been relatively lucky with Catalina so far.

After a couple of days fiddling, and courtesy of updated printer drivers from Canon, I only have one outstanding issue left - when I print onto the surface of a disc it misses it completely and prints on the tray!! I suppose it would be easier to just write on the disc.

Maybe a bit strong, but it's easily their weakest release since Lion. It's been largely smooth for me, though the nags get old after a while, even if I understand why they exist. I wish I could just dial back the security a little myself. My only other main issue for me is the undetectable "Relocated" folder. There's a symlink in it that I can't trash because macOS has it flagged as required by the system (brought up in another thread). The hoops I will have to jump through to actually get rid of it is just inexcusable. I also had to re-add much of the music track artwork in my wife's user account. I didn't need to for myself, but did for her. This in particular is a widespread problem for others.

There are just so many issues other people are reporting, though much of it is growing pains (loss of 32-bit support, which I get sucks for some people, but that's progress). On the other hand, someone here did a nuke and pave, but when migrating their user data over, it got jumbled. Something this critical is inexcusable. I just had to buy a new MacBook Air (literally just an hour ago) due to what now appears to be an unresolvable hardware or firmware issue I developed right before Catalina came out that is getting worse, and I will have no choice but to manually migrate bits and pieces over to the new MBA. "Just works", my eye.

 

[chscag]

I just had to buy a new MacBook Air (literally just an hour ago) due to what now appears to be an unresolvable hardware or firmware issue I developed right before Catalina came out that is getting worse, and I will have no choice but to manually migrate bits and pieces over to the new MBA. "Just works", my eye.

I believe I mentioned it another post.... Catalina includes a firmware update for certain devices. The only one I know of is the Mac Mini. Folks have reported that even when going back to Mojave, the firmware update sticks. Maybe you got caught up the same way.

 

[pm-r]

@pine man

After a couple of days fiddling, and courtesy of updated printer drivers from Canon, I only have one outstanding issue left - when I print onto the surface of a disc it misses it completely and prints on the tray!! I suppose it would be easier to just write on the disc.

You should be able to correct the alignment with whatever app Canon provides for direct-disc printing and they used to use Canon CDLabelPrint you can find here:
Canon Cd-labelprint Mac Os X 10.9 - download

Or whatever other app they use these days.

I guess I'll have to check my own Canon PIXMA MX 922 some day as I haven't used its direct-print to disk option.


- Patrick
======

 

[Slydude]

What's baffling to me is that many of the bugs being reported did not appear for me in the betas. Some of the bugs seem to be associated with software that I don't use on a regular basis and therefore may not have fully tested during the betas.

The one bug I can think of that's here for me now and wasn't in the betas is that relocated items issue. It's here for me now and I don't think I saw it at all in the betas.

 

[MacInWin]

Just out of curiosity (I didn't participate in the beta) did the beta create the two volumes like the release does? One with the system, the other with the user data? From what I've read, the Relocated issue comes from some system files from third party software that Catalina doesn't know what to do with (orphaned? 32-bit?) so they get stuffed into the Relocated folder. Then because the files are on the System Volume, which is read-only, the user cannot delete the file until they go into the Recovery mode and get to the file on the System drive. At least, that's what I've read.

 

[Slydude]

If I remember correctly the betas did indeed create the two volumes but I don't remember the relocated items folder being on the desktop. I'm working from memory so I could be wrong.

 

[chscag]

The one bug I can think of that's here for me now and wasn't in the betas is that relocated items issue. It's here for me now and I don't think I saw it at all in the betas.

I got it in beta 1 and it continued throughout the betas and it appeared in the final gold release.

And yes, I agree with Sly, the betas also divided the container into two volumes. When I first saw it, I thought it was an error with my drive. I do like that feature as it provides additional security for an already secure operating system. One strong reason why there are no viruses that can attack macOS.

 

[MacInWin]

I like the two drive design as well, but I find it curious that Apple chose to put them together again in Finder in Catalina. At least that's what I have heard, as I cannot get a good install on a USB thumb drive so far. I would think they would just step up and say what they have done, that the System drive is simply not available to users anymore as a security measure. System wizards would figure a way around that eventually, of course, but the average user would just say "OK" and move on with life.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I believe I mentioned it another post.... Catalina includes a firmware update for certain devices. The only one I know of is the Mac Mini. Folks have reported that even when going back to Mojave, the firmware update sticks. Maybe you got caught up the same way.

No, it's definitely pre-Catalina. Interestingly, I had the issue start right about the same time AdGuard had to update their "AdGuard for Safari" app for compatibility with Safari 13. AdGuard would frequently stop responding, forcing me to force-quit it. It's a known issue as far as it locking up, but entirely coincidental to my MBA locking up entirely. Unless it was unusually sensitive to whatever is going on. Basically, the MBA is locking up hard some time after going to sleep. It can happen in as little as 15 minutes, sometimes it takes a couple hours. It happens when booted into Windows too, so it's not a macOS issue. It doesn't seem to happen when plugged in to power. I've tried the usual troubleshooting steps, including resetting PRAM and SMC. No effect.

So check this out. On the new MBA here, I clean installed Catalina to it, then re-created my user and am slowly copying all my files back manually. Now you know that issue with the Apple ID preference panel constantly wanting my name and password to "update" the settings? I was asked once; I entered it; and done. On the old MBA, my iMac, and on my wife's Mac mini, we had to do it several times before it stopped asking (day of installs). Today, my iMac started asking for it again, over and over before I gave up.

 

[pine man]

Patrick

You should be able to correct the alignment with whatever app Canon provides for direct-disc printing and they used to use Canon CDLabelPrint you can find here:

That is what I used to use but it was only 32bit so I started using a different Canon app found within Image Garden, which appeared to be 64bit, and it worked fine until I catalina'd my mac and it transpired that it was a 32/64bit app. You can manipulate the positioning within the app but not far enough to get it properly in the centre. I expect they'll issue a new one soon but in the meantime I can use the same software on my wife's PC to do the occassional disc print.

Thanks for your interest and advice.

Peter

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Well that was painful. Since the nuke-and-pave went so well on the new MacBook, I decided to do the same on my iMac with manually copying apps and files back over. That nag to enter my passwords to update my Apple ID never went away, and I had an odd graphic glitch during part of the login process. And of course that "Relocated" folder with the symlink that can't be deleted. This took basically all day due to the much larger base of apps and data. I've done this a few times over the years since it is a good way to clean out the cruft, but it is tedious. But all is well now. Well mostly. Even though I had put the iTunes library files back in place, Music decided this time to lose all the artwork. I decided to just rebuild that library from scratch. Oddly, I have one game (Pro Pinball Remastered) that worked fine on the upgrade-install of Catalina, although there was a minor glitch in trying to access a menu item. Now, there are severe graphical anomalies and I can't even see the menus or launch the game. Very odd, but the developers appear to have abandoned it, so there's no hope of a fix.It actually works fine on the MBA (aside from one issue where the menus don't work when in full-screen), so maybe it's just a driver issue that Apple needs to fix.

Anyway, with all the under-the-hood changes and given the issues I and others have had (minor as they may be), it seems this is the best approach to get a fully functional system... but it's not for the faint of heart.

 

[Rod]

Tedious it sure is. I had to do this once with Mojave and it is a slow process although I didn’t do it all in a day. I elected to just redownload or copy the apps I used most and did the rest over a week.
My music library also lost all the album artwork so I just hit the get album artwork button and all was restored. A little later I discovered the original data had been there all the time in the music > media folder just didn’t load. I still think I took the easiest way out and I deleted the old album artwork folder with no issues.


Sent from my iPad using Mac-Forums

 

[pm-r]

@Peter

You can manipulate the positioning within the app but not far enough to get it properly in the centre. I expect they'll issue a new one soon but in the meantime I can use the same software on my wife's PC to do the occassional disc print.

Peter, are you sure that you have and are using the correct optical disc tray for your Canon printer as the alignment shouldn't be that far off got the software can't align it correctly???

If you really wanted to, you could probably modify the disc printer plist with TextEdit, or any text editor.

Or try some other software if any of them would work better:
CD Labeler et all
CD Labeler 2.1 Free Download for Mac | MacUpdate


- Patrick
======

 

[chscag]

If you really wanted to, you could probably modify the disc printer plist with TextEdit, or any text editor.

No you can't Patrick. You can not edit plist files with a text editor, it doesn't work and only screws them up. You need a plist editor app that can specifically edit plist files.

Here's one in the Mac App Store for $3.99.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Well another day, another round of hassles with Catalina. I was trying to upload a file to my user account on my wife's Mac mini and I kept getting prompted that Finder wanted to read that folder, was asked for a password, then it rejected the action anyway. I finally just got on it directly and immediately it starts on me with the looping "update your Apple ID" nonsense. Grrrr....

So to make a long story short... the looping problem for the Apple ID is reportedly solved by signing out of iCloud (Overview tab in the Apple ID preference pane), rebooting, and logging back in to iCloud. That seems to have worked here.

The Sharing issue I resolved by disabling file sharing on my user account on the Mac mini; rebooted; then re-enabled it. I also deleted the Keychain entry that stored the login credentials for the Mac mini on my MacBook Air.

In retrospect, all fairly basic troubleshooting steps that I never considered as far as the looping issue. I'm losing my touch. Well at least the sharing one I figured out myself. *grin*

 

[Slydude]

Thanks for that update LB. I tested several of the public betas and I don't think I've experienced the sharing problem that you mentioned. I have experienced the Apple ID bug you mentioned but hadn't got around to fixing it. I was going to have to do that soon though just to update several things from the App Store.

 

[pine man]

Patrick

Peter, are you sure that you have and are using the correct optical disc tray for your Canon printer

Yes, definitely the correct tray (it's the only one I've got!).

It's definitely the old 32/64bit Mac driver as it used to work ok before Catalina and it still works ok linked to my wifes Windows 10 PC. I am loathe to start modifying things and have been in touch with Canon to see if they are going to issue a true 64bit driver. They have already issued Catalina printer and scanner drivers.

I'll have a go at that link you provided later.

Thanks

Peter

 

[pine man]

I have heard back from Canon who acknowledge the need for new Catalina drivers for their 'My Image Garden' app which contains the app for disk printing.

Their reply, 'Canon are currently working on development of these drivers and updates for MacOS 10.15 and will be available as soon as possible. Unfortunately, we do not have a release date of when this will be.'

 

[georgelza]

... Ye sitting also with this "non of my printer drivers, scanner drivers" work now... To be honest haven't even gone looking at I can pretty much imagine the "we are working on it" message waiting for me.

G

 

[pine man]

Patrick

'You should be able to correct the alignment with whatever app Canon provides for direct-disc printing'

After all the help you provided I thought I would update you and any other Canon printer users that might be affected.

After Catalina was installed, each time I used the printer to either scan or print i was encouraged, by pop-ups, to use AirPrint and did so with no problems. I then wondered if AirPrint was having an undesirable effect on printing disks and, once I had found the settings for Disk Printing in My Image Garden and unticked 'Print/scan using AirPrint', it worked perfectly.

Thanks again for all the help you offered.

Peter