AppleTalk

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I have been using Macs since 1997, from my still-trustworthy PowerMac 7300/166, through an iMac G5 to my present 27-inch iMac.

Despite several offers from Apple to upgrade free of charge, I’ve stayed with Mountain Lion. I am becoming increasingly aware that upgrades to several of my apps require Yosemite.

Yes, I’m nervous! Why? In view of Yosemite’s diverse customer ratings: 265 five- and four-star, but 320 oneand two-star, and three on average from 5,022 people. Promises of “The apps you use every day will have powerful new features”, “It’s like getting a whole new Mac – free” and “The 10.10.2 update improves the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac” apparently need to be taken with a pinch of salt.

Among the thousands of comments are complaints about speed, Wi-Fi, battery and other problems. Can MacFormat help with some wise, in-depth, definitive guidance, and urge Apple to put right Yosemite’s reported shortcomings? Kenneth Watkins Alan Stonebridge says… Issues like those you mention certainly are a concern, but also consider that people are likely to leave negative feedback in anger, and that many more just accept something works and so don’t bother. One of our MacBooks had Wi-Fi issues, but that seems to have cleared up with one of the small updates – at least for us. That doesn’t negate all bad feedback. Problems that look the same might be caused by different combinations of software and hardware, so it’s worth sending relevant details to sos@macformat.com – say, your router make and model for Wi-Fi issues. If a flood of people tell us about a problem, we’ll ask Apple what’s going on. Major things, like the update that broke many iPhones’ mobile networking tend to get fixed very quickly.

Not rushing to upgrade for the sake of it is wise, though. Time Machine helps with trying out OS X updates (difficult to do on iOS). Recovery mode can roll back your setup even to an earlier major version from a full backup, though take care to preserve work from the interim.

It’s difficult to feel reassured that software updates will make your Mac run better when you hear other people’s horror stories, but there are things you can do to protect your setup.