Six Reasons Why iOS 13 and Catalina Are So Buggy

Article Comments
21

My machine booted 3 or 4 times today. Wake on sleep is still a disaster in MacOS, so docking/undocking is a clown show. Will my machine wake up when I touch it? or will I get the apple after some time? Who knows?

I think some of the answers here are simplistic, for sure OO is not to blame for this. Yes companies want new features, but does anyone even know what all the new features in Catalina are? I don’t think there are that many, clearly the problem is that the understanding of what can and cannot be done given an amount of time and a pool of efforters (trying not to call people resources) is become problematic.

I too have been hoping Swift would make this problem better. SwiftUI was incredibly buggy, but by the same token, it is surprising how it was able to make a kind of finish line in a state that approaches usability.

Apple is a lot of things. I hope it will continue to dare to improve (a la SwiftUI) and not just become a shell-shocked withering servant of the feature police.

22

What machine is that? I’m starting to see patterns with certain models that aren’t universal.

23

Last time? I reported a bug to Apple, they got back to me one year later when I was running the next macOS asking me to quickly test for the bug again on the old system and report back. Yeah, sure. They simply are not going to receive reports on all the bugs that they have and likely have no idea about them these days. There is really no connection at all (nearly) to customer feedback these days in any big companies. Google for example apparently did not know that they Sync (Google Drive) app did not work with offline files on the Mac when they launched it. I only once got help from Apple ever with something since the 80’s and it was (of course) an Apple-ID related issue and mainly because not having direct access to their servers. I even got blocked by Apple for a week recently because their support webpages doesn’t work as they should in Safari … .

24

2018 Macbook Pro with 32GBs of RAM and 1TB SSD.

25

Appreciate the article from a dev perspective! Why Apple insists on tying major OS releases to their iPhone upgrade cycle is beyond me. Decoupling them would go miles towards ensuring quality software releases.

26

Appreciate the article from a dev perspective! Why Apple insists on tying major OS releases to their iPhone upgrade cycle is beyond me. Decoupling them would go miles towards ensuring quality software releases.

Releasing multiple announcements of software upgrades at the same time increases the chances of getting more column inches in the press. And since upgrades are generally a good thing, it usually means positive publicity and “how too” articles, avoiding the chance of headlines like this really recent one by Josh about a chain gang of product releases:

“Alexa, Throw Spaghetti At The Wall And See What Sticks”

https://tidbits.com/2019/09/27/alexa-throw-spaghetti-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks/

27

FWIW, just to comment on this part, I have read an article or two since iOS 13 was released that said that Apple doubled the number of binaries over iOS 12 that were compiled from Swift code, so maybe they agree with you. (As I wen to look for them, it turns out that the articles were all based on the same blog post: https://blog.timac.org/2019/0926-state-of-swift-ios13/ )

28

How tragic that today’s software engineers cannot be honest about their progress. I’m convinced that much of this problem is due to virtually all of Silicon Valley being run like a summer camp instead of a business with adults at the helm. If I were a manager and had been led down this road by my engineers, I’d want to fire the lot of them. “Just tell me your problems and let’s try to fix them”, would be my mantra.

29

Can we be so certain it’s the engineer’s being dishonest? Couldn’t it just as likely be that the engineers are quite clear about their abilities and communicate that too, but management simply refuses to adjust scope/timeline accordingly?

It’s a rather commonly found management “principle” these days to deliberately set goals too high, allocate resources too tightly, etc. in order to ensure (at least according to the proponents of this tactic) that people are always churning out at max capacity.

30

Yeah, when the article says “making it past Apple’s internal testing and the public beta phase,” I was thinking that meant that the bug survived through those phases, not necessarily that it wasn’t identified or reported. As David said, Apple triages bugs heavily, so lots of known problems won’t be fixed intentionally because of the risk of regressions.

31

@godrifle Why Apple insists on tying major OS releases to their iPhone upgrade cycle is beyond me. Decoupling them would go miles towards ensuring quality software releases.

I think there are two reasons Apple combines hardware and software announcements. First, new hardware (eg: improved cameras) enable new software features. Also, the more features Apple can announce at once, the bigger the media splash, and the more publicity Apple receives.

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32

All I know as a user is that when I loaded IPadOS 13 on my 4G Mini it really introduced numerous bugs to Mail and to the text editor. It looks like e-mails are formatted for a larger screen. The subject matter consumes the trash can, new email, and move to icons. One cannot type into the bcc or cc fields as the keyboard intrudes into those spaces.

Tapping on a word to introduce the cursor to make a change to a single letter selects the entire word. its impossible to place the cursor after a single letter, backspace to erase it and then type in a new letter…the entire word has to be retyped. This is such very basic stuff that I can hardly hold my breath to see what else is broken.

So many of these new “features” are about half past worthless. Sidecar would be neat, but you have to have the latest hardware to use it. Using Files to connect to an external USB thumb drive would be very convenient and a huge step forwards but it’s apparently overly sensitive to what kind of media and how it’s formatted in order for it to work.

Is all this complexity and interconnectedness really necessary? Especially when so much of it doesn’t work? Reminds me of Simon & Garfunkle’s 59th Street Bridge song, “Slow down, you’re moving too fast. Ya’ gotta make the morning last. Just kicking down the cobblestones, looking for fun and feeling groovy.”

33

Just a point … Could there be a strong profit motive in Apple’s frenetic update schedule? Could the breakneck pace that Apple has kept, be a market dominating move? Could it force customers to follow along with whatever Apple creates, and could it keep any competitors ( 3rd parties) at bay? Is it possible that Apple knows that by keeping customers on their toes and ready for anything by giving them shiny new ‘features’ every 6 months that it also is able to rope them into new limits, and profit windows at the same time? The Apple customer base is so stunned by the pace of updates that things like App Notarization in Catalina which give Apple control over programs that don’t even use the Apple store, slip in as new ‘realities’, along side arbitrary deprication of 32bit apps. I suspect thats the ‘Apple Genius’ using the software update as an offensive business tool to push growth.

34

I’d like to see Apple move their software releases to incremental, and unplug key apps like Mail from the OS. It will likely never happen, but I believe it would lead to more features, more refinements and more stability. The annual release schedule, based solely on marketing, is hurting them.

35

Yes, purely for hype. It’s sad.

36

I’m starting to feel like Apple needs to start paying beta testers…as it “feels” like Apple might be relying on public beta too much. Because if they are…obviously nobody that is detailed or actually uses the OS for real life is reporting back to Apple…other than reporters blogging stories about the “new macOS features”. :innocent:

I’ve been finding so many obvious things in Apple’ own stable of “standard apps”, from installing to just opening the new Photos App and it crashing and having to rebuild for hours…seriously seems someone there just needs to test their own work as I cannot see how anyone could possibly miss some of these glaring problems, sure seems they would have to find many of these issues, if they tried it themselves (so it would seem). Quality control is way down! Plus, 4 iOS / iPadOS updates in a month…dang.

So now for these other software developers…I say shame on them for both not testing there stuff and they have been warned for years and years that this was coming.

Yet, still Catalina is a BIG change…I compare it to leap that Lion was with no more Rosetta or PPC code. Catalina is a big deal…there are going to be some pains with this gain. :crazy_face:

37

I wonder which version of macOS, and which Apple apps Apple management use. Maybe they’ve all moved to Apple Music (the service), and don’t notice loss of music archives. Maybe they’ve all migrated off email, and use Messages, or Slack, and don’t notice the email bugginess. Maybe one day Apple Mail will be headphone-jacked/Dashboarded from the OS. Maybe macOS will continue to be free, and Apple will temporarily sell an email product called… Claris Emailer…

And Eudora will have the chance to rise again.

38

As an iOS/Mac/Watch developer I run into bugs/issues all the time. In the past, it was rare to run into something where it seemed like the Apple folks were inexperienced. Now I run into it all the time. They make changes or do something with no awareness of the impacts, so it breaks stuff in third party apps and it breaks longstanding conventions for how certain concepts or technologies should function. Some of these things make no sense at all, and I can only assume they have tunnel vision to their internal needs and internal apps, combined with a lack of experience and understanding of wider software development needs.

I suspect part of this perception is due to the fact that I am an old guy with decades of experience, and Apple is probably leaning heavily on fresh-out developers who lack experience. So my question is, where are the seasoned managers who should be running the team and keeping an eye on the big picture? I love working with young developers, but they absolutely need to be managed by a veteran or you’re going to run into the issues we’re seeing on a wide scale today.

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39

Just a point … Could there be a strong profit motive in Apple’s frenetic update schedule?

YES! And it’s one of biggest reasons why they recently broke the trillion $ mark once again. Apple’s software is just as important to consumers and businesses as its hardware. Remember Apple’s cloning disaster in the 90s?

Could the breakneck pace that Apple has kept, be a market dominating move?

Apple does not come near to dominating either the mobile phone or computer markets, Androids and PCs do by far. Apple dominates profits. This is why, except for some glitches here and there, is why its stock prices remain so high.

Could it force customers to follow along with whatever Apple creates, and could it keep any competitors ( 3rd parties) at bay?

If current or potential customers don’t like the stuff Apple is selling, they won’t buy it. Keep in mind that some major consumer electronics companies with a broad range of hardware need keep churning out unprofitable mobile phones and advertising them to maintain good positions in retail and online stores and reinforce the brand with consumers. LG is just one example of a large scale company that only has had very, very few profitable quarters for mobile phones:

https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/01/lg-mobile-still-losing-money/

Mobile phones are usually unprofitable for Samsung, Apple’s closest competitor in this market, and as heavy an advertiser for its mobile division as Apple:

https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/20748162/samsung-q2-2019-earnings-galaxy-s10-sales

I suspect Samsung is kind of stuck having to manufacture and ship a lot of phones to a lot of retailers across the globe to help sell their TVs, refrigerators, air conditioners, etc. It’s also why they’ve been building Samsung stores that are very much like Apple stores except they don’t sell anything in them so they won’t tick off Walmart, Best Buy, etc.

Is it possible that Apple knows that by keeping customers on their toes and ready for anything by giving them shiny new ‘features’ every 6 months that it also is able to rope them into new limits, and profit windows at the same time?

Apple became successful by reversing the “give away the razor to sell the blades” model. Because they give away better software to sell the hardware, and the software had better be really good in order to sell the overpriced hardware. This is the biggest reason why the Apple clones almost destroyed the company. Apple needs to have better software and to accomplish this, its software is frequently updated and problems quickly addressed, in comparison to its competitors. It’s why people buy and tend to stay loyal to Apple stuff. This week Apple reported a 50% adoption rate for iOS 13 for its mobile devices:

https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/16/20918359/apple-iphone-11-pro-ios-13-adoption-rate-google-android-10

I am not yet a member of this 50% club. It still sounds too buggy for me.

40


TEKnight Rider

    October 23

I’m starting to feel like Apple needs to start paying beta testers…as it “feels” like Apple might be relying on public beta too much. Because if they are…obviously nobody that is detailed or actually uses the OS for real life is reporting back to Apple…other than reporters blogging stories about the “new macOS features”. :innocent:

Personally, I think Apple didn’t have as many public beta testers as necessary. Not having as many testers leads to fewer data points, which allows problems to slip through the cracks.

So now for these other software developers…I say shame on them for both not testing there stuff and they have been warned for years and years that this was coming.

This is a big problem too, and a big quality control problem as well.