Things to check:

> Do you have the minimum resources for your applications? Consult the software vendor's website to be sure. The requirements have crept up there for a lot of recent upgrades.

> Is AT LEAST a third, and preferably HALF of your startup drive empty? On Apple Silicon (M-series) Macs, the less memory you have, the more the system relies upon the SSD for swap memory paging. If your drive is more than 2/3 full, the system may not have enough places to put data, and may bog down or crash. I hit the wall on a huge project once, and it wasn't pretty. Offloading hundreds of gigabytes of data to a hard drive helped. Buying a FAST external SSD helped a lot more!

> Are you running an older Intel Mac that is barely capable of running Ventura?

> Do you leave your machine on overnight, in sleep mode, so all the automatic "housecleaning" routines can run? MacOS runs a bunch of UNIX utilities in the wee hours to keep things tidy. If you turn the Mac off, they seldom get run!

> Have you checked the SSD with Disk First Aid, part of Disk Utility?

> Have you tried creating a startup volume on an external SSD, to see if that runs properly?

> Is all of your data properly backed up on a Time Machine external drive, one other drive, and a cloud service?

If you don't know how to do some of these things, Google search is your friend. So is the Apple Support line at 800-275-2273.

I've been running Ventura since version 13.2, with no significant issues, on a 2020 M1 MacBook Air (16 GB memory, 1 TB storage).

My standard response is to upgrade to the latest version your hardware supports. EXCEPT if you have needed software that won't run on it. Usually, software vendors keep pace with OS releases, but sometimes there's a bit of a lag.

I have a number of macs, ranging from a 2015 11" MacBook Air to a 2022 M2 MacBook Pro. That means I'm running everything from Monterey (12.1) to Ventura (13.4.1) to Sonoma (14.1). I'm not overly impressed with the newest gimmicks... er, "features" Sonoma brings to the table, but as long as everything works, I'm happy.

Hi all. My MacBook Pro is currently running on Ventura 13.4. Not only do I keep getting messages to upgrade, but I've also had lapses in downloading email lately. The AppleCare tech attributed that to a need to upgrade my OS. My options are the later version of Ventura 13.6.1 or Sonoma 14.1.1, which the AppleCare person described as "next generation," with more significant changes than I'd get with the newer Ventura.

I'm looking to our Hogs for experiences and advice on the best choice. My main priority is choosing one that does not interfere with access to my Lightroom catalog. I'm currently running LR Classic 12.4.

Many thanks in advance for your guidance.

~jdm

In two words: BUGS and COMPATIBILITY of third party software and peripheral drivers.

> NO operating system's major release is without problems that could not be found during in-house beta testing and early field beta testing.

While that means problems are usually obscure, they just might affect your situation — your *particular* model and configuration of Mac, its firmware, and the software you choose to use with it. If there's a gaping hole in Internet security, that potentially affects ANY user, so hopefully, they find those holes before malevolent actors do.

> Third party application developers often don't react to a major operating system upgrade the way they should, whether by design or ignorance or incompetence. Ideally, they went to the Apple Developer's Conference (WWDC) back in June, asked their questions, went to work and made their changes, and released an update or upgrade if needed. But sometimes, it takes longer than anticipated to bring the code up to modern standards. Perhaps the coders no longer work for that company, and the new ones want to start fresh because the former ones left a mess.

Perhaps the company wants an ALL NEW version, but it isn't going to be ready for several months. In some cases, despite Apple's best efforts at communicating exactly what the new system will and won't do, and what developers can and cannot do that they once did, developers either don't pay attention, or don't react. Adobe got caught in that position once, with Photoshop 4. They dragged their feet with the transition to Apple Silicon in 2020, as well. It was months before some of their applications were optimized to run natively on Apple Silicon.

The point is, cautious users want to wait for these sorts of issues to be resolved, or at least we want to know the path forward.

Many corporations stay a full revision behind the current Windows release, just to avoid having to buy new computers, new peripherals, and new software, and having to deal with the inevitable fallout from that major sort of upgrade. My former employer ran Win XP SP3 until Win 7 was stable! They had the foresight to recognize that Windows Vista, the OS between XP and 7, was "a dumpster fire with a porta-potty in it," as our IT director described it. (I still have an HP laptop that has Vista on it, just for giggles. I need to pull the hard drive out of it, recycle the rest, and have my neighbor shoot the drive with his .45.)

One corollary of Murphy's Law says, "Any computer software that is ever perfected is immediately abandoned by its maker." THAT's why people use *nearly* abandoned systems until security updates are no longer available.

That reminds me, my wife needs a replacement for our ten year old iMac...

I had a problem with AppleMail- it froze with Monterrey on my MacBook Air when I tried to send an email with attachment. It had worked a couple days before. My IT consultant couldn’t fix it, said to delete my two email accounts and reload (no joy) and said upgrade to Ventura. Did that and was unable to reload either account. She couldn’t upload an account either on her Air, realized there’s a BIG BUG 🐛 in AppleMail (built into the IOS). This was mentioned in Apple forum and she would get a fix from Apple, then let me know how Apple responds. Haven’t heard. I don’t know if this relates to your mail anomalies.
BTW, my consultant say Sonoma, since it’s a newer IOS, likely still has bugs 🐜 needing fixes, so don’t upgrade. It irritates me to get notices for Sonoma updates.

Bill, Thank you so much for your thoughtful recommendations and suggestions. I'm not too technical, but here are some answers to your questions:

I'm on a 2019 MaBook Pro, 16GB memory, now on Ventura 13.6.1. I checked in utilities and it looks like I have 291 of 500 GB used. According to Adobe's system requirements for the Adobe Photography Package, I need 1-16 GB RAM and 4 GB hard disk space.

I do leave the machine in sleep mode over night. No idea on the SSD first aid and start up stuff but I will look into that. My data is backed up on one Time Machine external drive, one other drive dedicated to my LR catalogue only, and BackBlaze.

I don't want to overstep boundaries, but I would welcome any further concerns or recommendations you have on the above. You are very generous with your knowledge. You are a great example of why I love the UHH community.

~jdm

Thanks! Unfortunately, I think you've stumped the Burk...

It *sounds* like you are using the right hardware and up-to-date Ventura.

But be sure your computer meets or exceeds all the specs, not just memory and storage. The GPU must have Metal support and you need 4 GB of GPU memory for 4k or greater displays. (I'm pretty sure that 2019 machine does.)

There could be some sort of corrupt preference file or cache file buried in your hidden [Username]/Library/Preferences folder. I had that with Lightroom 12 Preferences. Deleting a certain file took care of the problem.

I would open a chat with Adobe Support and let them guide you from here.

As for your email delays, most mail client software only polls the server periodically. Some software has a "Check for new messages:" feature you can set to various intervals. Apple Mail has that option. See Mail Settings dialog, below. The drop-down menu offers Automatically, 1, 5, 15, 30, and 60 minutes, or Manually, as choices. You may be able to change the Preferences setting for better performance.

I only recently upgraded to Ventura, and will take my time going to Sonoma. I never jump on a new OS upgrade right away. As others have said, new OS versions often take a few updates to get the kinks out. It sounds like your computer has a quirky relationship with Apple Mail. I've had that on my MacBook Pro before too.

If you have yet not tried removing the accounts and adding them back, that is easy and worth a try. Otherwise, I'd encourage you to keep on pestering Apple Support till you get a resolution. And if you haven't done so yet, I'd post on the Apple forum boards specific to the email problem.

I only recently upgraded to Ventura, and will take my time going to Sonoma. I never jump on a new OS upgrade right away. As others have said, new OS versions often take a few updates to get the kinks out. It sounds like your computer has a quirky relationship with Apple Mail. I've had that on my MacBook Pro before too.

If you have yet not tried removing the accounts and adding them back, that is easy and worth a try. Otherwise, I'd encourage you to keep on pestering Apple Support till you get a resolution. And if you haven't done so yet, I'd post on the Apple forum boards specific to the email problem.