elliott937 Loc: St. Louis

While this is not exclusive to camera use, all of us photographers use computers for your camera work. I would like to learn IF I am being too cautious.

I'm an Apple iMac user, and enjoy it. HOWever, I've learned that anytime I must purchase a new iMac, or be "coached" by friends to update the Operating System, I find that I always lose (a) hardware, or (b) software, or both. When I replaced a 4 year old iMac, I lost *a scanner, *a Wacom tablet, and *a piece of software. In the past, I've lost a printer. I've believe in the conclusion "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", so every time Apple sends me a link to """upgrade""" my High Sierra OS, I decline. The computer is only 6 months old.

Am I the only one who has lost hardware, or software, or both over a """""new""""" operating system?

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Long time Windows user here - I've never experienced that at all.

elliott937 Loc: St. Louis

Wow. I've purchased three PC's over the years ... Sony, Gateway, and ?. Then I learned that PC and Adobe didn't play well together, and the reason why I saw the Blue Screen of Death so often. The reason why I switched. And since then, while I had continued using Photoshop, I never saw a BSofDEATH on an iMac.

And the PC world has had its Hell Roads with bad OS, Millennium for example. I've just been disappointed with Apple doing some of the same things. And that is why I was asking the experience of other iMac users.

My six month old iMac has High Sierra, and Apple has been pushing Mojave, and I see they will then replace all that with Catalina in "autumn 2019". What are other iMac users experiencing?

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

I don't understand what you mean by "lost".

elliott937 Loc: St. Louis

Well, my 4 year old iMac was replaced in February 2019. During initial powering up, there was no driver that would work with my Wacom tablet. That is what I meant by 'lost' hardware. Also too, the flat bed scanner I had been using for teaching was not identified by High Sierra, and there were no drivers for the scanner that would work with High Sierra. Don't get me started with what I lost in my $1,400 spent on all the Photoshop updates, along with the initial purchase of Photoshop back in the early 2003's. I was 'put in my place here' when I was asked: "What do you expect for a 5 year old software?" That as PSCS5. I was able to load it onto the computer, but would instantly close when I would attempt to print anything.

I'm not bitter about updating OS's, but I'm very disappointed in Apple making my hardware and software obsolete, so very quickly. And that is what I'm trying to learn from my fellow UHH members.

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

OK, now I understand the verb. Sympathy!

But along with blaming Apple, you might want to consider a criticism for the manufacturers of gear who are unwilling to update their own drivers. Example: Wacom won't support their gear for an OS that some of the best users of their stuff will be using? WTF?

Kudos to Windows for making it possible to run really ancient software. I can still run my wife's favorite 16 bit programs on her Win10 box. But I've had similar problems with some gear on that box anyhow, even from HP who makes our scanner-printer. I can run that ancient 16 bit stuff in a virtual machine, but it still won't correctly use the hardware that is attached to the OS - in some cases.

As a practical matter, it is not feasible for Apple OR Microsoft to make all past gear that required drivers able to work on their updated OS's. It does seem to me much more feasible for the maker of a piece of gear to update for only a few OS's. Just my two cents view. It's a math problem. If you are Wacom, for example, you have to deal with Apple and MS. If you are Apple you would have to deal with hundreds or thousands of gear makers and their versions going back how many years?

Yes, I think it would be nice if we could buy a container driver that would emulate the earlier hardware. No, I don't know if that is even possible. It would be a nice niche product for some clever programmer, though.

blackest Loc: Ireland

The drive at Apple is for fully 64bit software, so as you increase versions less of the older stuff works but at the same time a lot of the newer stuff requires a newer version of macos to run.

Apples usually quite good about upgrading apple software , third party stuff thats quite hit and miss. Affinity photo for example has ran on 10.7 (lion) and still runs on the latest macos as well.

So what to do if you want to run software that doesn't run on your preferred version of OSX / macos?
Macs will generally run versions of osx from when they first came out to current or even future if we include catalina. There are a few ways to approach this usually a mac hard drive has a small EFI partition and a single large main partition and sometimes a recovery partition. but it can have more and holding down the alt key will let you select which OS you want to boot. Macs will also boot quite happily from an external drive which might be connected by thunderbolt, firewire or usb2 or 3. For a regular hdd usb3 is as fast as an internal Sata drive the interface may be slower but a spinning hdd is limited to how fast it can transfer from the disk. SSD's are more likely to use all the bandwidth of USB3 so you can install any version of osx that you previously downloaded from the app store.

If its not there you can google running "insert osx version here" on an unsupported mac and you will likely find a page which has a small program that downloads that version of osx for you and installs it to a usb stick this can be then used to install that version of osx to a drive usually it will be a usb drive it could be a 2.5" or a 3.5" but the 3.5" is going to require power.

You might consider creating a data partition on your internal drive so you can give permissions for the user on the external drive to access the data on the internal drive. it can be less hassle than changing permissions on your internal drives user folder. You may find some applications on the internal drive are usable from the external drive.

Another option is target disk mode. I used to use this to run my macbook pros operating system on the iMac at work. It meant i had all the software I had on my macbook pro available on the iMac and I could work at home or work with the knowledge all the files and software I was using was available to me.
I have versions of osx from 10.7.5 to mojave and can pick and choose what I want to run.

You can also virtualise osx older versions anyway so that you can run two versions at the same time. So you don't really need to lose anything. I will pop back later if you have questions. Of course there can be a certain amount of inconvenience switching operating systems. A reboot can take a couple of minutes. Consider with a single 4TB drive you can split it to 8 500GB partitions and each can have a different version of osx from snow leopard to catalina. (a 4 year old iMac probably has unsupported hardware in snow leopard) but you get my point.

hpucker99 Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

I haven't lost hardware during the last two to three software upgrades on my late 2013 iMac, my Brother laser printer is relatively new. I will avoid the next upgrade (Mojave) that will require programs to be 64 bit binaries. I have several programs that are 32 bit and run fine on High Sierra, but won't run on Mojave unless the vendors recompile the programs to run as 64 bit binaries.

I plan to keep my 2013 iMac and run it in Target Display Mode when I get a newer iMac this winter. The 2013 version is the last year you can use a iMac in Target Display Mode.

hpucker99 Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Look into using Vuescan to run your scanner. They seem to be able to get older scanner to work with upgraded versions of OS X.

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

I 'lost' the Canon drivers for my scanner (thinking about it it is probably more likely Canon 'lost' the drivers) somewhere back about Windows 7. Vuescan works however with the Canon scanner. Now here is a few person operation that is able to update scanner drivers for pretty much all obsolete scanners for most/all manufacturers over the last 15-20 odd years. What does this tell you about all those much larger scanner manufacturing companies who can't manage it ? You know, the ones that have decided that customers aren't worth anything !

Rich2236 Loc: E. Hampstead, New Hampshire

I upgraded my I-mac last year. My new I-mac asked me to upgrade to Mojave, which I did. I had more problems with that upgrade than "Carter has pills." Apple said it was not their problem, Comcast said it was not their problem, and no-one wanted to take responsibility for all the problems I had. I had Comcast come to my home not less than 4 times and they absolutely stated that there was no problem with their equipment. I was on the phone with Apple no less than 5 times, each time I was rerouted to a "higher authority." I even took my I-mac to the apple store 2 times. NOONE could find the problems I had with Mojave, and no-one would take the blame for lost data, lost photographs, computer not running, not being able to get my email, etc. Oh, almost forgot, everyone said it was the fault of Earthlink that I could not receive my emails. I asked Apple to switch me back to my previous operating system and they said NO. I went to an independent apple repair and they took my old I-mac and transferred the old data onto my new I-mac. Everything is running well now. The only problem I have is that all my photographs are out of sequence and about half of them are duplicates, which I have to delete. I know that a lot of hoggers with Apple computers have had no problems, and some said it was probably due to the fact I had an older apple I-mac, which is not true. My problem I-mac was about 3 months old.
Rich...

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

First of all, if your iMac is only 6-months old, it should be running Mojave version 10.14.6 if you kept it up to date. Because Mojave is a 64-bit system, your older 32-bit software may not be compatible. If you go to both your Wacom tablet's webpage and the webpages for your printer and scanner, you will find updated software that will run on your new iMac.

I've been using 27" iMacs for years, always install all upgrades when they are issued and have never had the problems you describe. One thing you could do with your old iMac is use it as a second monitor for your new iMac. It will effectively become a dumb display using your new computer's hardware and software to direct what it displays; i.e., it won't matter if your old computer is up to date. By attaching the new iMac to your old one via a single cable, you can use your old iMac as a targeted display (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204592). It will allow you to do such things as have Lightroom on one display and Photoshop on the other under the control of a single keyboard, mouse or trackpad and your Wacom tablet. It really speeds up editing. You can also show a tutorial video on your old monitor which you can pause when necessary and perform the step-by-step instruction in the actual program (such as Photoshop) on your new computer.

One other thing; "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" is not always applicable to computer software upgrades. It is very important to keep your operating system up to date at all times. Apple and other software providers issue updates for a number of reasons including fixing coding errors that can cause symptoms, security, new or improved features, etc. From the sound of it, you should not be relying on instructions from your friends for updates. If you call 1-(800) MYAPPLE their experts will talk you through any updates or help you solve any problem you are having with your computer or Apple software. That is part of what you pay for when you buy Apple products. In addition, you can take your Apple computer to any Apple store and they can often fix the problem on the spot. Also, other software suppliers such as Wacom, your printer and scanner manufacturer, etc. usually offer similar help by phone or on line. If you take advantage of that support, you will discover how reliable your Apple computer can actually be.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

I have a Mac, and I have never lost anything when upgrading.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

I have upgraded Macs for over 15 years. OS to OS and I have never lost use of any software or hardware, although just like any computer system I have had to, on occasion upgrade a program or two to be compliant with the newer OS's code base.

Not upgrading is a one-way trip to problems (IMHO).

foathog Loc: Greensboro, NC

You shouldn't be "losing" your printer. A simple update of the printer driver should do the trick when you D/L a new OS.