Originally published at: https://tidbits.com/2020/01/28/apple-releases-ios-13-3-1-ipados-13-3-1-macos-10-15-3-watchos-6-1-2-and-tvos-13-3-1/
Apple has updated all of its operating systems to address privacy and parental controls in iOS and performance in newer Mac hardware.
I can now pass on that the lost e-mail issue found in Catalina has been reported by the individual that originally identified and reported it to Apple as being fixed in today’s update to macOS 10.15.3.
Al, I looked at the release notes, and don’t see any reference to a Mail fix. Are you really sure? If so, what is the basis for that assurance?
Thx
Upon starting mail after upgrading to 10.15.3, it announced that mail database was being updated and to wait for completion. All seemed well except that a particular smart mailbox didn’t show any messages from before the update. I refreshed spotlight (placed startup disk in privacy and then removed it and wait for md processes to complete), but that didn’t seem to fix the smart folder.
What did fix it was to edit one of the parameters in the conditions. Then it was showing the messages I expected (taking into account the change). Editing the conditions again to put them back to the original got me back to where I belonged and all is well now.
That same question is being asked elsewhere, but as I said before, I heard directly from the IT Manager that reported it to Apple even before Catalina was publicly released that he was unable to replicate the problem when using the 10.15.3 release and migration from Mojave. That has been confirmed now by several other IT’s in the Slack MacAdmins #Catalina channel.
There’s this comment at the bottom of the original discussion in @mjtsai’s blog post:
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2019/10/11/mail-data-loss-in-macos-10-15/#comment-3159016
Adam, if you are referring to this statement:
“Update (2020-01-29): macOS 10.15.3 fixes one of the bugs but not the others.”
that is encouraging, but Michael’s “one of the bugs” is pretty non-specific. The bug I am most worried about is the loss of messages at the time of the upgrade, but I am also concerned about loss when moving messages. Michael doesn’t say which bug was fixed and which are not.
The opacity with which Apple is handling this is vexing beyond belief. Any clarification you (or other luminaries) can provide to ordinary folk would be greatly appreciated.
The comment from Shriner is pretty clear, I thought:
So – for the purposes of the bug that I know is fixed – the problem was with “On My Mac” mail being deleted if “Envelope Index” files were deleted (or Mail.app threw up the dialog that the Mail index needed to be rebuilt from the first launch of Mail after upgrading to Catalina). This is fixed in the current 10.15.3 betas. I’m confident in stating that specific bug – seems fixed.
I’ve not heard (here) about a way to replicate mail being deleted when “moved between mailboxes”.
I read all that as saying that the bug with conversion of a Mail archive from Mojave to Catalina has been fixed, but the problems that some people have seen when moving messages from one mailbox to another may still exist.
Thank you for pulling the different threads together. I sure wish there was something more definitive out there than “I know a guy who says…” even if that guy was “patient zero.”
I agree—I was disappointed that Apple didn’t mention the Mail fixes in the release notes too, especially given the press those problems have gotten.
I suspect Apple is unwilling to admit there ever was an issue as it would probably kick-off a bunch of law suits from users with permanently lost mail.
Al, excellent point. Thx
It still has not fixed my issue of both Mail and accountsd processes
consuming >300% of CPU…
I’m reminded of the Marathon Man scene: is it safe?
The 2020-01 security upgrade to macOS High Sierra (10.13.6) results in the lower right hand corner window sizer restraining Finder windows to expand only horizontally, and not vertically! Have not yet tried restarting. Initially I had same problem with Calendar and iTunes windows, but quitting and restarting re-established normal window sizing behavior for those apps.
Apple is notorious in this regard. Your (our) skepticism is certainly justified. I finally upgraded to Mojave (on an external SSD). I am unwilling to risk my iMac’s fusion drive with the APFS format, as most of the drive is an old fashioned HDD, and those work poorly with the new file system.
I wont’t be willing to move to Catalina for some time yet. I’ve still got a lot of 32bit apps, including Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Indesign CS6, among others. While the Adobe photographers’s plan makes the Creative Cloud versions of Photoshop and Lightroom affordable, at $10 a month, InDesign CC is still priced out of reach.
For smaller documents Serif’s Publisher is a great replacement for InDesign. But it won’t open a long, book length, document I’m working on, so I’m stuck with InDesign CS6—and Mojave. Up to now I haven’t experienced any serious problems with Mojave. Fortunately, Apple will be supporting it for another two years. I tried High Sierra for awhile but it was buggy and unreliable. My eyes are sensitive to light so I really appreciate Mojave’s Dark mode.
The answer to that is apparently “no” in regards to Catalina. It was unstable right out of the gate and many bugs have yet to be fixed. As with many macOS updates, the question is why bother? It’s a good thing I don’t need a new Mac because I would be stuck with Catalina in many cases.
It works fine in High Sierra on my iMac.
A restart took care of the problem.