macOS Sequoia 15.3 Fixes An Annoyance That I Tripped Over… Are Other Issues Fixed As Well?
macOS Sequoia has been a bit of a mess in terms of the quality of the software since it was released. I say that because there were a number of issues and oddities that quite honestly, shouldn’t had made it to the streets. In fact, I have been actively telling my clients not to upgrade their Macs until a lot of these issues get sorted. With the release of 15.3 earlier this week, things might be improving.
Back in mid December when macOS 15.2 hit the streets, there was something odd that I tripped over. When a Mac such as my Mac mini was plugged into a TV via HDMI, it would show the icon in the menu bar that the screen was being mirrored. This would not happen if you had the same computer plugged into a monitor. I later discovered that it was apparently a change that Apple made. At the time I said this:
I honestly wish Apple found some more elegant method of doing this. I say that because I am sure that the AppleCare helpline is being hit with calls regarding this, which is something that could have been avoided by a better UI design. But what do I know? After all Apple knows best right?
I guess Apple must have figured out that this wasn’t a good change to make because in macOS Sequoia 15.3, it no longer shows that a Mac plugged into a TV over HDMI is being mirrored. I can only think of two reasons why this was fixed:
The AppleCare helpline got bombarded with calls and they needed to make that stop.
Someone internally got a clue and said that this was a stupid idea that they needed to change direction on this.
Either way, I am glad that Apple addressed this as this is one thing that is off my list of annoyances with Sequoia. Now in case you were wondering, here’s some other issues and oddities that I have been tracking since Sequoia came out:
The display issues which appear to be a design choice that Apple didn’t tell anyone about are still present. Which isn’t a surprise as I was not expecting this to be fixed.
I am in the process of testing to see if the issues with Time Machine which is the number one reason why I have told my clients not to update to Sequoia are still present. The last time I checked, the problem got worse under 15.2 when other backup software didn’t work as well. This latest version of macOS has only been available since Monday. So it’s early days in terms of if Apple has actually fixed this problem. Now in terms of backing up via third party utilities like SuperDuper, those issues have apparently been fixed.
That I can confirm is accurate via the WayBack Machine as the text on that page was completely different in late 2024. On the surface, it seems that Apple has made another design decision that was poorly communicated. Why Apple insists on doing these design changes and not telling anyone, I do not know. But it looks like we’re done with this issue as Apple clearly is done with this issue.
Now if Apple has fixed the Time Machine issues, I would start to feel comfortable enough with recommending it to my clients. That’s because many of my clients who aren’t businesses or enterprises use Time Machine to back up. Thus the fact that it doesn’t work reliably is a hard no for many of my clients. Stay tuned to see if that has been fixed, or if we’re going to be waiting until Apple decides that is something worthy of getting a fix from them instead of focusing totally on that dumpster fire known as Apple Intelligence.
UPDATE: It doesn’t fix the ongoing issues with Time Machine. Sigh.
This entry was posted on January 31, 2025 at 8:31 am and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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macOS Sequoia 15.3 Fixes An Annoyance That I Tripped Over… Are Other Issues Fixed As Well?
macOS Sequoia has been a bit of a mess in terms of the quality of the software since it was released. I say that because there were a number of issues and oddities that quite honestly, shouldn’t had made it to the streets. In fact, I have been actively telling my clients not to upgrade their Macs until a lot of these issues get sorted. With the release of 15.3 earlier this week, things might be improving.
Back in mid December when macOS 15.2 hit the streets, there was something odd that I tripped over. When a Mac such as my Mac mini was plugged into a TV via HDMI, it would show the icon in the menu bar that the screen was being mirrored. This would not happen if you had the same computer plugged into a monitor. I later discovered that it was apparently a change that Apple made. At the time I said this:
I honestly wish Apple found some more elegant method of doing this. I say that because I am sure that the AppleCare helpline is being hit with calls regarding this, which is something that could have been avoided by a better UI design. But what do I know? After all Apple knows best right?
I guess Apple must have figured out that this wasn’t a good change to make because in macOS Sequoia 15.3, it no longer shows that a Mac plugged into a TV over HDMI is being mirrored. I can only think of two reasons why this was fixed:
Either way, I am glad that Apple addressed this as this is one thing that is off my list of annoyances with Sequoia. Now in case you were wondering, here’s some other issues and oddities that I have been tracking since Sequoia came out:
That I can confirm is accurate via the WayBack Machine as the text on that page was completely different in late 2024. On the surface, it seems that Apple has made another design decision that was poorly communicated. Why Apple insists on doing these design changes and not telling anyone, I do not know. But it looks like we’re done with this issue as Apple clearly is done with this issue.
Now if Apple has fixed the Time Machine issues, I would start to feel comfortable enough with recommending it to my clients. That’s because many of my clients who aren’t businesses or enterprises use Time Machine to back up. Thus the fact that it doesn’t work reliably is a hard no for many of my clients. Stay tuned to see if that has been fixed, or if we’re going to be waiting until Apple decides that is something worthy of getting a fix from them instead of focusing totally on that dumpster fire known as Apple Intelligence.
UPDATE: It doesn’t fix the ongoing issues with Time Machine. Sigh.
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This entry was posted on January 31, 2025 at 8:31 am and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.