Fortunately the scream has led to a soft gurgling sound now and I’m happier……but had you talked to me two hours ago…..you would have gone the duck and cover route!
Often my Mac will notify me in the morning that I have updates for the system. Lately I’ve ignored them and gone right to work. I think it’s the right response, ignoring them that is!
Yesterday I was feeling extra productive. When the OSX software update utility popped up I said, “Sure thing, let’s get caught up!” Oh yeah, bet you can see where the primal scream fits in.
This morning I had a list of canvas prints to do first thing. A client called late yesterday afternoon, and I spent the end of the day prepping her files, but not printing them. Figured I’d save that for today. Glad I did, or I would have been grouchy last night!
This morning I tossed Lightroom up on the screen and went into the print menu. Things had changed drastically when I hit print. My file setup was changed, the dialogue for Image Quality and Paper type weren’t available the way they had been. When I found the updated version I noted that I was no longer able to query the HP Z3100 about the custom papers I’ve loaded. My printing operation for the morning was completely crippled!
My first instinct was to replace the library files that were over written with yesterday’s update. Heck, I’ve got Time Machine running, just resurrect those files…… Mistake again!
Restoring only those files suddenly disabled my Photoshop, Lightroom, and the rest of my Adobe suite. All just going after the printer files and everything became supremely hosed……What to do next?
The next step was a simple decision. Totally restore the system to an earlier version prior to the update. Glad to say I’ve got my OSX disk here, so I booted off of the disk and asked Time Machine to do a full system restore. I chose Saturday as the restore date since it was the last time I’d used the system.
After nearly an hour the system finished its restore. Glad to say most everything came up right. A few issues with Mail that I’ve already resolved. And I’m glad to say that my Adobe apps are all working again! Better than that, my printer setup is functioning again!
Putting today’s glitch aside, I’ve now got a major complaint for Apple…. This isn’t the first time guys, and you know what? I expect more from you!
3 months ago when I was just getting the print side of our business setup I did an Apple upgrade on my new system. Everything was working fine, the new printer was happily communicating with the Mac, and then the upgrade happened. Completely hosed communication with the printer, and it caused several issues with other programs. I had to do a full restore that time as well.
I returned to Mac in 2002, and I’ve been an extremely satisfied customer. Upgrades were always proven out, and I never had issues previously. But I’ve been running into more issues in the past 6 months with updates, and I’m beginning to think about ignoring them going forward. Or at least reading around the forums to make sure that folks aren’t getting things broken with the latest patches!
In total, these two failures have cost me nearly 8 hours of my time. All due to updates! Almost makes me feel like I’m using a Windows system or something! 😉
Glad that Time Machine works! Otherwise I’d be really out of luck today……. Hope Apple gets back to their “standard” operating style soon, they’re starting to make me worry……
Comments 9
Man, don’t scare me about Mac’s! I am using one now (new MacBook Pro 15″). We also got a MacBook Air for office use. They have been fun to use.
If it was a windows machine it would suddenly just start telling you it was an invalid copy of windows…. even if you purchased it. Or it would just bundle in a nice .NET framework which hoses all sorts of SQL programs.
All in all, if you’ve only got eight hours wasted on it you’re ahead of the windows curve big time! 🙂
Author
Roger, sorry about that. I love my Macs, and we all know I’m a Mac fan. 1 IMac, 1 G5 tower, 1 Macbook Pro 15″, and one Ibook. Yup, love my macs…..
But I will say that the last few update cycles have left me feeling let down!
Tombo, you’re right. I’ll count my blessings!
Glad Time Machine worked right!
Here’s a bug that happened when I updated Quicktime about a week ago. It only affected my laptop running 10.4 and not my desktop running 10.5. The telltale problem was an automatic relaunching of the finder ever 90 seconds or so. I noticed that finder windows closed automatically. The problem was discussed on the Apple Support forum and laid at the foot of the often problematic Stuffit software. All I did was trash all the Stuffit files and associated stuff. Problem solved. Fortunately, Stuffit is no longer needed because all the compression/decompression functionality is standard in OS X.
Probably doesn’t relate to your problem except for the coincidental glitch with the latest round of updates. Hope this pattern disappears.
Author
I’m with you Mike! Hope the pattern of update issues ends soon. Not “normal” for Mac.
Wow, that sucks… I’ve never had problems with my updates.
We need to go out shooting again sometime soon… as of now this weekends weather isn’t looking to promising, but we should plan something for sometime soon.
I certainly hope this isn’t a preview of what’s to come since Mr. Jobs is off the job (so to speak)
(and you weren’t THAT bad this morning…but I’m very happy that the restore worked so well)
Yikes! Glad you were able to restore your system.
Sorry to hear about your problems with Mac OS updates.
When I’m alerted to new Mac OSX updates, I typically wait about two weeks before installing them. During this time I check Macfourms.com and the OS discussion group at Apple.com. If there is a problem with an update, it will often be discussed there.
Better to be cautious than sorry.
(BTW, just got back from Anza and with the recent rainfall the spring wildflowers should be spectacular… looking forward to seeing you there!)