{"id":31665,"date":"2021-02-18T20:19:37","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T01:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=31665"},"modified":"2021-09-06T10:19:06","modified_gmt":"2021-09-06T14:19:06","slug":"why-reporting-bugs-to-apple-may-harm-software-quality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/18\/why-reporting-bugs-to-apple-may-harm-software-quality\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Reporting Bugs to Apple May Harm Software Quality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Howard Oakley<\/a> (tweet<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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In recent years, I’ve grown concerned – as many of you have – at the increasing number of obvious bugs in release versions of macOS. In the last week or so, I’ve come across some real howlers: the Rich Text Spotlight importer which can’t import the content of RTF documents, Bluetooth status which is never up to date when you first check it, and most recently Big Sur installers and updaters which don’t work on external SSDs connected to M1 Macs.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Although Dave tested the changes he’d made, he didn’t have time to test whether the mdimporter still indexed the content of RTF files.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It doesn’t help that recent security changes have made it more difficult to test Spotlight importers.<\/p>\n

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I’ve now reached the stage where I simply don’t have time to report all these bugs, nor should I have to. Indeed, I’ve realised that in doing so, I only help perpetuate Apple’s flawed engineering practices. […] We let Apple get away with this by devoting our time to testing and documenting for Apple. […] Above all, there’s the threat. If we don’t complete Feedback, then Apple won’t know of the bug, and it won’t get fixed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I’m frustrated, too, and I can certainly understand not having the time to report all the bugs one encounters. But I just don’t see how filing can hurt. Apple would still “get away with it,” and the bugs would be fixed even later, if at all.<\/p>\n

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If you’re an Apple engineer, please don’t take this personally. I don’t think the current system is good for you either, but at present Apple only seems to respond to public criticism.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I haven’t seen much correlation, personally. Some very public bugs go a long time with no fix. Some obscure ones that I file get fixed right away. Some serious ones get fixed 6 months or a year after I was forced to develop a workaround. Most never get fixed and are seemingly ignored.<\/p>\n\n

Dave Wood<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Got a response to a radar I filed 3 years ago, about a bug in iCloud. They say they can’t look into it now because “the server logs from that date have rolled off”.<\/p>\n

This is why I barely file bugs with Apple anymore. Just a waste of everyone’s time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

See also: How to Report Bugs to Apple So They Get Fixed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n