macOS Tahoe: Help wanted getting through all the macOS changes

AshmiNYC wrote:

Today marks a week since I moved from Sequoia to Tahoe. I can't recall such a jarring change in OS since I switched from Windows to Mac in 2006. The simplicity, elegance, and design aesthetic that I thought converted me for life are gone.

I feel back in a world of defragmenting disks and hoping for the best.

Buried in cryptic settings. Lack of control where I once had it (can't use Adobe RGB display profile/can't change the brightness of Apple's Photography profile).

Managing and dissecting settings to make sure what's running in the background, notifications, and the 10K others are set properly to not devour memory or give away my privacy

Never fully sure because the descriptions are so vague, I need to run to YouTube or Reddit to make sure I know what it actually is I'm setting.

My question: Is it just me? If not, what are we doing to adjust?

I probably could have done this on Reddit, but am too tired from managing Tahoe to deal with the inevitable flaming I would get.

14" MacBook Pro M4

16MB RAM

Studio Display

macOS Tahoe 26.2

Tahoe is not that much different from the last macOS Sequoia... so not sure why the issues...(?)

To trouble shoot further you can:

—A SafeBoot Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support will sort many anomalies

Does a quick disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled temporarily.

Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.

This test will tell you if third party interference; most extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.

—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account Change Users & Groups settings on Mac - Apple Support

This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 

*** (if you are using a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries— connect the charging cable, this will make the wired keyboard successful Safe Boot your Mac.)

unplug all non-essential peripherals when testing

Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS

I cannot determine what it is you seem to be having a problem with.

can you provide specific questions?

You mention background items. Everything noted in those settings were running before, in sequoia, but perhaps not stated. They are all processes you allowed to run in the background when you installed the software to which they belong. Quite often, especially older software, the name in the background items list is the name on the signing certificate, not a software title or company, because that is all the information the developer provided not knowing that Apple would create a list of those items.

Etrecheck may be able to show you to which software they belong, or just searching the item name and “etrecheck” can pull up reports that might help identify them.

In addition to the other replies, you may find the following Take Control eBook helpful in learning all of the features Apple introduced with macOS Tahoe.

Ref: https://www.takecontrolbooks.com/tahoe/

AshmiNYC wrote:

Today marks a week since I moved from Sequoia to Tahoe. I can't recall such a jarring change in OS since I switched from Windows to Mac in 2006.

Perhaps you should focus on all the new features in Tahoe that you were so excited about using. That was the big reason why you updated, wasn't it?

I probably could have done this on Reddit, but am too tired from managing Tahoe to deal with the inevitable flaming I would get.

Are you sure you're on the right internet? I'm sure your post would be welcomed with open arms on Reddit or any other big social media venue. In this forum, we're all about solving problems, meaningful solutions, and getting a better experience. Is that what's you're looking for?