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Thoughts on macOS Ventura

Update: 11/8/2022:
It appears there is a bug in macOS Ventura 13.0 which impacts security software, such as Malwarebytes: https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2022/11/macos-ventura-bug-disables-security-software

There is currently no permanent fix. We’re waiting for the macOS Ventura 13.1 update (currently in beta).

This is an excellent example of why it makes sense to wait and NOT install the initial release (.0) of a major operating system update.

Update 11/7/2022:
In regards to the loss of the ability to manually prioritize/reorder which WiFi networks are joined when a Mac running Ventura wakes from sleep or restarts, Apple has provided the following (quite confusing) Support article: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202831

Update 11/5/2022:
As noted below, Apple replaced the familiar “System Preferences” interface with a newly rewritten “System Settings” application. I’m not a fan. System Settings sports an entirely new user interface which requires some digging around to find familiar settings (Time Machine, Software Update, Startup Disk, etc, are now listed under different categories and take a bit of digging to find). But my biggest complaint is that System Settings no longer has the ability to re-order and prioritize which WiFi network(s) a device joins when waking from sleep or restarting. This is a major step backwards, particularly for users who join a number of different WiFi networks and need to make sure their machine joins the right network, every time.

From 10/25/2022:
Apple released macOS 13.0 (“Ventura”) to the public today (10/25/2022). Here is a list of the reported new features: https://www.apple.com/macos/ventura/

And a more detailed features breakdown: https://www.apple.com/macos/ventura/features/

In marketing copy and technical documentation, Apple specifies that macOS Ventura runs on these Macs:

Compared to the previous version of macOS Monterey (macOS 12) — macOS Ventura no longer supports these Macs: 

As of this morning, my 2022 MacBook Air is running this new operating system quite smoothly. I do *not* recommend installing Ventura on any Mac with a spinning hard drive (i.e. some entry-level iMac models).

Initial notes and observations:

  • System Preferences has been renamed “System Settings” and has a completely different user interface. If you spend any time configuring your Mac in the System Preferences app (i.e. Network, Displays, Privacy & Security, etc.), expect to spend some time scratching your head and searching for settings which may have been relocated. For example, the Time Machine settings are now hidden in the “General” section and there is no longer a way to prioritize which WiFi networks your Mac looks for when it wakes from sleep.
The new “System Settings” in Ventura

A good article on the newly redesigned System Settings: https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/get-to-know-the-system-settings-app-on-macos-ventura/

I will update this post as new features or bugs dictate mention.

“Top Sites” Missing in Safari 14

Apple released Safari 14 on September 16, 2020 and introduced a new “Start Page”, replacing the previous “Top Sites” feature.

For users who used the “Top Sites” feature (a collection of up to 12 frequently used sites), the websites previously configured in Top Sites are simply gone.

For example, here is how Safari 13 looked on my laptop. These are 12 sites/tools I visit several times a day:

Here is what Safari 14 looks like now – (note ALL of the frequently visited “Top Sites” are nowhere to be found):

The website addresses are not saved anywhere in Safari 14. This can be very disconcerting for users who are used to seeing their Top Sites and even more concerning that Apple hasn’t saved the URLs for any of the sites listed in Top Sites. Most people don’t have their Top Sites addresses saved elsewhere.

If Apple’s fail with the Safari 14 upgrade impacts you, here is a way to recover the website URLs which were previously stored in Top Sites:

  1. Click on the Desktop (switches you to the Finder application)
  2. Hold down the Option key and click on the Go menu. With the Option key down, the “Library” item appears in the Go menu.
  3. Scroll through the Library folder and find the Safari folder
  4. Inside the Safari folder is a file named “TopSites.plist”.

The TopSites.plist file contains the URLs of the sites you had stored in Top Sites before upgrading to Safari 14. Copy/paste these addresses as needed and bookmark or favorite them as needed.

Just Say No to Desktop & Documents folders in iCloud Drive!

In a recent set of software updates, Apple has begun asking users if they would like to store the contents of their Desktop and Documents folders in iCloud Drive (Apple’s Dropbox-like repository for files and folders “in the cloud”).

I’m not a fan.

The idea here is to upload everything in these two folders to your iCloud account and keep it all in sync, across multiple computers. While this seems like it might be a good idea, the current implementation has some drawbacks and things to consider before simply checking the box:

  1. If you have lots of files and folders (i.e. Gigabytes) on your Desktop or in your Documents folders, enabling this feature will require you to pay for extra storage space in your iCloud account. Uploading that much data over your internet connection could take days/weeks. This isn’t clear in the initial setup dialog.
  2. Enabling this feature means you have to pay attention to whether a document is stored “locally” or “in the Cloud”. For files/folders which are only stored in iCloud, you must be connected to the internet to work with them.
  3. Disabling the feature isn’t as simple as unchecking the box – there isn’t a simple ‘undo’ command which puts things back they way they were previously. This can be scary because unchecking the box makes everything disappear from your Desktop and Documents folders. The process of disabling the “Documents and Desktop in iCloud Drive” feature requires multiple manual steps to restore the files and folders to their original locations. Here are the instructions:

http://osxdaily.com/2017/07/06/disable-icloud-desktop-documents-mac/

I recommend against enabling this feature in the first place: