You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Catalina install gone bad

What now? I installed Catalina on a 2014 Mac Mini resulting in very long occurrences of

the spinning wheel when going to any app - the computer became unusable. The  Store

told me to bring it but I had to leave town so bought son's family a new SSD Mini - which

turned out to be fortunate as offices were closed and the Mini soon had Citrix installed and

became mission critical. I'll be receiving the Mini with the bad install soon here in Los Angeles.

Family photos etc. are on that drive. I may be able to network the Mac to mine - or back up with

Data Backup, copy to a USB drive, etc. but I'm not sure where to start. What do you suggest?

Should I try downgrading to Mojave? Thanks, Tom


Mac mini, macOS 10.13

Posted on Apr 9, 2020 6:15 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 9, 2020 7:43 PM

I understand your Mini has become so slow after upgrading macOS it's unbearable.


Please determine if the same problems occur in "Safe Mode": Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac.


If the problems persist in Safe Mode, Contact Support because it's quite likely a hardware failure is the reason.


If the problems do not manifest in Safe Mode but return after restarting your Mac normally, consider Using EtreCheck - Apple Community, which has instructions for posting its report to this site.


Revert your Mac to a previous macOS version - Apple Support is always an option.

Similar questions

6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 9, 2020 7:43 PM in response to Tom Meade1

I understand your Mini has become so slow after upgrading macOS it's unbearable.


Please determine if the same problems occur in "Safe Mode": Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac.


If the problems persist in Safe Mode, Contact Support because it's quite likely a hardware failure is the reason.


If the problems do not manifest in Safe Mode but return after restarting your Mac normally, consider Using EtreCheck - Apple Community, which has instructions for posting its report to this site.


Revert your Mac to a previous macOS version - Apple Support is always an option.

May 19, 2020 3:23 PM in response to Tom Meade1

Fixed!

While poking around, updating MS and  apps contributing to the slowdown I looked at

the Trash contents one more time - and before my very eyes the were dozens of items,

some the com.apple types. Realizing I was now over my head I called  Support at

(800) 692-7753 (keep handy). A tech somewhere in Texas looked at the trash and decided

we needed to put many items back in the prefs folder - which was going to be a daunting

task. I dint know how they got there but the tech started to poke around and saw that the

update to Catalina was recent - he then realized that the trashed items - some 130,000 of

them - which you could see by rotating folder arrowheads down - were words or lines of

code written in 32-bit characters - whereas Catalina's dispensed of in favor of 64-bit. Yes!

That meant Trash could be emptied - a process taking nearly 15 min. Apparently the Mac

had to read thru all items in Trash before executing a command - slowing it drastically.

Once the trash was deleted, the Mac ran at normal speed. End of story.

May 14, 2020 6:31 PM in response to Tom Meade1

Finally received this 2012 Mini from UPS - the one with the bad install of Catalina.


The problem is getting resolved simultaneous with updating not just  apps but Microsoft

ones - not in App Store (requiring recourse to MS). Office 365 is now Microsoft Office - I

assume it's a major rewrite as is Catalina. Remember how Explorer was built into Windows?

It seems  followed that model with Pages and Numbers so if they're not updated it causes

havoc in Catalina. There were other issues - the user had loaded the desktop with links, etc.

causing the OS to read all those during startup - but MS updates were most problematical.

I'm doing a full scan of the disk now to ferret out any other issues (viruses anyone?) but the

spinning ball has diminished - not entirely gone - but the Mini's useable now.


If you have any other ideas I'd welcome them. I'm used to an SSD - the Mini has an old spinning

platter drive - maybe that's why there are wait states I'm not used to anymore - anything else?


Thanks again, Tom



Catalina install gone bad

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.