Monday, September 24, 2018

macOS 10.14 Mojave Released

Apple:

macOS Mojave, the latest version of the most advanced desktop operating system, is now available as a free software update for Mac users. macOS Mojave brings a number of new features to the Mac, including Dark Mode which transforms the desktop with a dramatic dark color scheme, and a new Dynamic Desktop with a series of time-shifting images to match the time of day. New productivity features like Stacks cleans up messy desktops by automatically organizing files into neat groups. The Mac experience is also enhanced with the arrival of familiar iOS apps, including News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home, and a redesigned Mac App Store featuring rich editorial content that makes finding the right Mac apps easier than ever.

See also reviews from:

Adam Engst:

I’ve been running Mojave betas all summer on my MacBook Air, and honestly, I will not be installing the final release of Mojave on my 27-inch iMac right away. I’ve seen too many quirks and problems, a number related to the new privacy protections (see “Mojave’s New Security and Privacy Protections Face Usability Challenges,” 10 September 2018). Some of my Keyboard Maestro macros have stopped working, and I haven’t yet been able to figure out why. I’ve also been annoyed by the constant nagging of utility apps asking to control other apps or access privacy-protected data.

Therefore, I recommend that you wait to install Mojave on your main Mac until two things are true[…]

SK:

Several users report that their Mail crashes or quits unexpectedly after updating to macOS Mojave.

If you are experiencing this issue after updating to macOS Mojave, please follow the steps below and check if your issue is solved.

Previously: Mojave’s New Security and Privacy Protections Face Usability Challenges, Removed in macOS 10.14 Mojave, macOS Mojave: Back to the Mac.

Update (2018-09-24): VMware reports an error when I try to create a new VM from the Mojave installer app, but it works using an installer disk that I created using the Create macOS Install Disk command in DropDMG.

Joe Cieplinski:

If you’ve been on the Mojave beta and are wondering how to get the shipping version: (Wasn’t showing up in Software Update for me.) Go to the Mac App Store, search for Mojave, click Get. That’ll bounce you to the System Prefs Software Update pane and start downloading.

Update (2018-09-25): See also:

Josh Centers:

If you are running the macOS 10.14 Mojave beta, be sure to install the final retail version, as they are different!

Howard Oakley:

Over the last few days, Apple has updated many of its Support Notes, and added some new ones, to cover issues raised or changed by Mojave. Here’s a selection of the more important ones.

Stephen Hackett:

I have published two big updates to the Aqua Screenshot Library that I wanted to share.

Rob Griffiths:

Mojave Beta 11, the last developers received, was build 18A389. The release is 18A391.

So Beta 11 was not the GM—which means developers haven’t been able to test against what just shipped to consumers today.

Is that a first for Apple? Or did I miss something?

Marcin Krzyzanowski:

“Reduced transparency” in Mojave, means really JUST REDUCED transparency, while it disabled transparency in High Sierra. I found it quite annoying that everything is semitransparent again.

Christina:

macOS Mojave Dark Mode on non-retina displays is unusable (photos with and without font smoothing)

Update (2018-09-26): Joe Rossignol:

Apple provides a download page on its website for the special edition of iTunes, which originally had a version number of 12.6.3. Two updates have since been released, including version 12.6.4 and the current version 12.6.5.

As brought to our attention by a MacRumors reader, and confirmed by our own testing, however, iTunes 12.6.5 fails to install on Mac systems updated to the public release of macOS Mojave this week. It also appears that the previous 12.6.3 and 12.6.4 versions do not function properly on macOS Mojave.

Howard Oakley:

I will shortly be opening a separate article in which bad features, poor interface design, and problems with third-party apps, etc., will be recorded, and will add its link here. This article lists bugs which you and I have encountered in macOS Mojave itself.

Colin Cornaby:

The lack of fixes around Boot Camp (no eGPU support, Mojave dropping support for it on some Macs) makes me wonder if Boot Camp is abandoned or going to be abandon by Apple. Would be kind of a shame.

Howard Oakley:

Many users with MacBook Pro 2018 models with the T2 chip are reporting that upgrading to macOS 10.14 Mojave fails towards the end of the process.

Apple:

Background updates include security-configuration updates and system data files, which are automatically installed by default. They don't cause your Mac to restart, but some take effect only after you restart.

Via Jeff Johnson:

So many hidden updates!

I find this particularly interesting:

“TCC Configuration Data: Improves compatibility of specified software with macOS security features”

Update (2018-09-27): Scott:

Bluetooth is messed up in Mojave. My keyboard and mouse intermittently fail to reconnect on wake (it’s always one or the other).

Update (2018-10-09): Tom Nelson:

Having issues with Mojave? Seems like it’s a rite of passage to install a new version of the macOS, and then uncover issues we didn’t see in the beta version.

Howard Oakley:

Maybe we have just moved into an age of disinformation, but I keep seeing statements about macOS 10.14 Mojave which are plain wrong. Here are corrections to seven which you may come across. When you discover others asserting otherwise, please point them in this direction so that they can become better-informed.

Update (2018-10-12): Howard Oakley:

In most cases, the reason for this molasses-like behaviour isn’t a failed install, neither is it a bug in Mojave or its installer. If you rush in and restart in Recovery mode, you won’t be able to fix it, because much of what is going on is actually normal behaviour.

[…]

What happens when Time Machine can’t use the FSEvents database is that it then performs a ‘deep scan’ or traversal, in which the datestamps of all files are checked against an earlier record, and a new database is built. Inevitably, the more files there are on a volume, the longer that deep scan will take. Mojave can accelerate this process on APFS volumes by examining snapshots rather than the whole file system, but this still takes time.

Update (2018-10-24): Miles Wolbe:

[DVD Player] been moved from /Applications/ to /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/. Due to SIP, “Make Alias” is not available from the Finder’s context menu in that directory, nor does the new Make Alias keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Cmd+A - really, Apple?! Cmd+L does not appear to have even been reassigned!) work.

Ryan C. Gordon:

Some things that broke in Mojave OpenGL:

- renders to a black screen by default

- -[NSOpenGLPixelFormat initWithAttributes] inexplicably stalls for several seconds

- vsync no longer works

- swapping buffers on 2 contexts on 2 threads may deadlock

Update (2019-01-24): Howard Oakley:

This article lists bugs which you and I have encountered in macOS Mojave 10.14.3 itself[…]

Update (2019-01-29): Howard Oakley:

In the release of 10.14.3, Apple made two howling errors, though.

The first was in the Combo version of the standalone updater, whose scripts prevented it being installed on many Macs. Building such installer scripts isn’t easy, but it shows yet again that code checking and good quality management aren’t Apple’s strong suits, a year after Apple was driven to admit that some of the gaffes in High Sierra should never have seen the light of day.

The other was in the total lack of release notes, other than one remark which would only have been of interest to enterprise users, and some brief security notes.

Update (2019-02-01): Pixelmator Team:

We’re aware of some performance issues with Pixelmator Pro on certain 2017 & 2018 MacBook Pro models running macOS 10.14.3.

John Gruber:

Seems like an odd oversight that the description for Mojave system updates includes URLs, but you can’t select them (so you can copy/paste) nor click on them.

David Dunham:

I filed a bug on the iOS App Store (same issue for Apple’s Shortcuts) and they said it was expected. So someone there actually thinks this is a good idea.

Update (2019-02-27): Thomas Brand:

Photoanalysisd has been analyzing my photo library of 1,424 photos hard for a week now without sleep.

At this rate my child’s face and all the pictures I took at the zoo 5 years ago should be expressed in an algorithm.

Swap is at 39.79 GBs. So this is a big algorithm?

Photoanalysisd is using over 77 GBs of memory.

I only have 1,424 photos. My Photo Library is 6.87 GBs in size. I don’t know what my iMac is doing, but I can’t imagine doing it on a spinning hard drive.

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