{"id":50292,"date":"2025-12-03T16:13:58","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T21:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=50292"},"modified":"2025-12-03T16:13:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T21:13:58","slug":"losing-confidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/03\/losing-confidence\/","title":{"rendered":"Losing Confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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Over the last few weeks I’ve been discovering problems<\/a> that have been eroding confidence in macOS. From text files that simply won’t show up in Spotlight search, to Clock timers that are blank and don’t function, there’s one common feature: macOS encounters an error or fault, but doesn’t report that to the user, instead just burying it deep in the log.<\/p>\n

When you can spare the time, the next step is to contact Apple Support, who seem equally puzzled. You’re eventually advised to reinstall macOS or, in the worst case, to wipe a fairly new Apple silicon Mac and restore it in DFU mode, but have no reason to believe that will stop the problem from recurring. You know that Apple Support doesn’t understand what’s going wrong, and despite the involvement of support engineers, they seem as perplexed as you.<\/p>\n

One reason for this is that macOS so seldom reports errors, and when it does, it’s uninformative if not downright misleading. Here’s a small gallery of examples I’ve encountered over the last few years, to bring back unhappy memories.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n