- Joined
- Jun 12, 2011
- Messages
- 9,696
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- Location
- Melbourne, Australia and Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
- Your Mac's Specs
- 2021 M1 MacBook Pro 14" macOS 14.4.1, Mid 2010MacBook 13" iPhone 13 Pro max, iPad 6, Apple Watch SE.
In the last week I have posted to at least 5 threads where OP's have demonstrated an unwillingness to update or upgrade their devices.
I can understand that in some cases technical incompatibility may be the cause. Some older MBP's cannot be upgraded beyond El Capitan and some old iPhones/iPads cannot go beyond iOS 9.3.5 as with my old iPad Mini.
There are also the enthusiasts who want to keep Snow Leopard alive as long as possible and suggest it is the best macOS ever released and they are a bit like vintage car enthusiasts. Nothing wrong with that.
But then their are the OP's who insist that upgrading/updating only causes problems. App compatibility, changes in function loss of familiarity and plain old resistance to change for what they perceive as change sake. Of course it is not change for change sake it is keeping up with advances in the whole area of the communication industry and yes, it is competition driven to a degree. It is also driven by the need to update security as security breaches become more sophisticated and we become more reliant on maintaining our online security.
We will have no doubt noticed that before every major process, beit a repair, or a pairing process or indeed an upgrade there is a suggestion that first we should ensure that our device is backed up and running the latest iOS/OS available and not without good reason.
This ensures compatibility, function and smooth transition to either the next operating system or process.
I do not understand this devotion to one operating system and observe with frustration the problems it causes.
An OP who trades in his device on a new one only to find his backup cannot be used to restore his photos to the new phone because it was running an earlier iOS. Why didn't he upgrade it first? It was certainly able to run the current iOS 12. Why hadn't he already upgraded it? I assume there was a numeral "1"on his settings icon stating an upgrade/update was available.
Apple now only supports the previous two operating system prior to the current one so everyone running macOS El Capitan as of September last year is now running an unsupported OS and agree with it or not that is the way things are. This is a PITA for the people lucky enough to still have a funcioning device that's 10 years old or thereabouts but the days of unending support for legacy devices is passing. Just as iOS 10 shut out devices using an A5 chip the next macOS will shut out 32bit apps. After all functioning 10 year old devices are rare in today's world of planned obsolescence. This applies as much to TV's, cars and fridges so no surprises there.
So as others have wisely said, this is progress. Apple takes every opportunity to suggest that we update and backup as do forums and advice sites.
One OP does not want to update his wife's phone because that would mean updating iTunes which in turn might require upgrading his macOS then there may be compatibility issues with some software etc etc. Now he faces a connection issue with the phone which is probably due to security comparability issues with the 6s running iOS 10.3.3 and the newer version of iTunes installed when he re-partitioned his SSD and reinstalled macOS Yosemite which he uses to sync his wife's phone.
My answer to his problem: Update the partition to Mojave (or High Sierra) and the iPhone to iOS 12.....
There is also I resistance to backing up to iCloud. I bought and continue to pay a monthly fee of AU$1.99 for increased iCloud storage primarily to backup our combined 6 devices in case of loss or unavailability of our local backups and the encryption option offered to preserve settings and passwords. I used this recently to restore the email accounts on my iPhone and it was a breeze. Honestly worth the cost for that alone. I have 5 email accounts and they were all restored complete with passwords in 5 minutes over 3G. Why wouldn't anyone want that? Considering the backups are encrypted there isn't even a security risk. But instead I get, "Oh, I wouldn't want to trust that cloud thingy." from the same people who don't perform local backups of anything.
So is it laziness or just a matter of misinformation coupled with this blithe expectation that things should just work without any personal input on their part and if it fails its the fault of the developers or manufacturers.
I think having a PC is a privilege, like owning a car and it's incumbent on me to maintain it as per the manufacturers specifications and advice. Like the recent airbag scare. If my manufacturer says my airbag may be faulty and that it should be replaced then by golly I replace it.
Sometimes we just need to do as suggested without asking why. If not we do eventually find out why but that is learning the hard way and by then the damage is done and may not be easily reversible.
So backup and update and with luck you may never have to find out why it was a good idea.
I can understand that in some cases technical incompatibility may be the cause. Some older MBP's cannot be upgraded beyond El Capitan and some old iPhones/iPads cannot go beyond iOS 9.3.5 as with my old iPad Mini.
There are also the enthusiasts who want to keep Snow Leopard alive as long as possible and suggest it is the best macOS ever released and they are a bit like vintage car enthusiasts. Nothing wrong with that.
But then their are the OP's who insist that upgrading/updating only causes problems. App compatibility, changes in function loss of familiarity and plain old resistance to change for what they perceive as change sake. Of course it is not change for change sake it is keeping up with advances in the whole area of the communication industry and yes, it is competition driven to a degree. It is also driven by the need to update security as security breaches become more sophisticated and we become more reliant on maintaining our online security.
We will have no doubt noticed that before every major process, beit a repair, or a pairing process or indeed an upgrade there is a suggestion that first we should ensure that our device is backed up and running the latest iOS/OS available and not without good reason.
This ensures compatibility, function and smooth transition to either the next operating system or process.
I do not understand this devotion to one operating system and observe with frustration the problems it causes.
An OP who trades in his device on a new one only to find his backup cannot be used to restore his photos to the new phone because it was running an earlier iOS. Why didn't he upgrade it first? It was certainly able to run the current iOS 12. Why hadn't he already upgraded it? I assume there was a numeral "1"on his settings icon stating an upgrade/update was available.
Apple now only supports the previous two operating system prior to the current one so everyone running macOS El Capitan as of September last year is now running an unsupported OS and agree with it or not that is the way things are. This is a PITA for the people lucky enough to still have a funcioning device that's 10 years old or thereabouts but the days of unending support for legacy devices is passing. Just as iOS 10 shut out devices using an A5 chip the next macOS will shut out 32bit apps. After all functioning 10 year old devices are rare in today's world of planned obsolescence. This applies as much to TV's, cars and fridges so no surprises there.
So as others have wisely said, this is progress. Apple takes every opportunity to suggest that we update and backup as do forums and advice sites.
One OP does not want to update his wife's phone because that would mean updating iTunes which in turn might require upgrading his macOS then there may be compatibility issues with some software etc etc. Now he faces a connection issue with the phone which is probably due to security comparability issues with the 6s running iOS 10.3.3 and the newer version of iTunes installed when he re-partitioned his SSD and reinstalled macOS Yosemite which he uses to sync his wife's phone.
My answer to his problem: Update the partition to Mojave (or High Sierra) and the iPhone to iOS 12.....
There is also I resistance to backing up to iCloud. I bought and continue to pay a monthly fee of AU$1.99 for increased iCloud storage primarily to backup our combined 6 devices in case of loss or unavailability of our local backups and the encryption option offered to preserve settings and passwords. I used this recently to restore the email accounts on my iPhone and it was a breeze. Honestly worth the cost for that alone. I have 5 email accounts and they were all restored complete with passwords in 5 minutes over 3G. Why wouldn't anyone want that? Considering the backups are encrypted there isn't even a security risk. But instead I get, "Oh, I wouldn't want to trust that cloud thingy." from the same people who don't perform local backups of anything.
So is it laziness or just a matter of misinformation coupled with this blithe expectation that things should just work without any personal input on their part and if it fails its the fault of the developers or manufacturers.
I think having a PC is a privilege, like owning a car and it's incumbent on me to maintain it as per the manufacturers specifications and advice. Like the recent airbag scare. If my manufacturer says my airbag may be faulty and that it should be replaced then by golly I replace it.
Sometimes we just need to do as suggested without asking why. If not we do eventually find out why but that is learning the hard way and by then the damage is done and may not be easily reversible.
So backup and update and with luck you may never have to find out why it was a good idea.