* The Official macOS Sonoma thread *

andy_mk3 · 26 Sep 2023 at 20:42

Let's go!

First major OS update as a Mac owner for me.

dannyjo22 · 26 Sep 2023 at 21:54

I really like some of the desktop widgets But I’ve got so used to the clean desktop of using a Mac that I ended up deleting them and staying with corners instead.

beachBOYken · 26 Sep 2023 at 23:43

Whats the consensus, wait a few versions .1 or .2, or is this looking pretty good to jump in now. I only updated to Ventura a few months back on my m1 macbook Pro.

Kainz · 27 Sep 2023 at 04:46

I updated it last night on my M2 Mac, played with it for 10mins and went to sleep. I liked what I saw.

This morning I'm up early to use it for basic browsing before I head to work and I've noticed one odd bug already. Certain one drive folders that contain old jpg's that are 80-100k in size aren't showing preview thumbnails at all. If I double click them Preview fires up with a blank image. This happens in both Finder and Pathfinder (finder replacement app).

Bluecube · 27 Sep 2023 at 07:02

The widgets are a waste of time as hey can’t be dynamically resized. I find them too small for a 5K monitor

Mesai · 27 Sep 2023 at 07:34

beachBOYken said:
Whats the consensus, wait a few versions .1 or .2, or is this looking pretty good to jump in now. I only updated to Ventura a few months back on my m1 macbook Pro.

I use mine for work so there’s zero chance I’ll upgrade right away. Probably fine for most casual users though.

dannyjo22 · 27 Sep 2023 at 08:56

Kainz said:
I updated it last night on my M2 Mac, played with it for 10mins and went to sleep. I liked what I saw.

This morning I'm up early to use it for basic browsing before I head to work and I've noticed one odd bug already. Certain one drive folders that contain old jpg's that are 80-100k in size aren't showing preview thumbnails at all. If I double click them Preview fires up with a blank image. This happens in both Finder and Pathfinder (finder replacement app).

I really should start to use onedrive properly on the mac, I found it clunky so just have it as a drag and drop back up feature rather than 'live' folders as such that constantly update.

picnic · 27 Sep 2023 at 10:26

Kainz said:
This morning I'm up early to use it for basic browsing before I head to work and I've noticed one odd bug already. Certain one drive folders that contain old jpg's that are 80-100k in size aren't showing preview thumbnails at all. If I double click them Preview fires up with a blank image. This happens in both Finder and Pathfinder (finder replacement app).

If you put those files on local storage do they then work?

visibleman · 27 Sep 2023 at 10:59

beachBOYken said:
Whats the consensus, wait a few versions .1 or .2, or is this looking pretty good to jump in now. I only updated to Ventura a few months back on my m1 macbook Pro.

Sonoma, so far, seems a bit better that previous releases but Apple's shoddy SQA has burned me in the past and there's already reports of bugs, like external drive mounting, PF firewall issues, various third-party apps not working etc.
So i'm with @Mesai in that, if the system is important then leave it a minor or two.

Edit - The only thing i would update now(ish) is Safari, purely because it includes a load of security and bug fixes. Although you'll probably have to do this via the 'softwareupdate' terminal command.

Si. · 27 Sep 2023 at 11:16

New dynamic lock screens are great, but when you unlock and it freezes the picture they look terrible!!

Cromulent · 27 Sep 2023 at 16:18

So far it seems to be working well for me doing Python programming and using a VMWare Fusion virtual machine. I'll try it with doing some Xcode programming in the next couple of days and see how that works out.

ChrisD. · 27 Sep 2023 at 18:13

No major issues to report on either Mac.

Kainz · 27 Sep 2023 at 20:32

picnic said:
If you put those files on local storage do they then work?

Sadly no. If I copy over from my OneDrive to the desktop it shows the following. Yet the files exist on my mobile/tablet and online storage.

Edit: Sorted it. It turns out those photos were 'offline' and OneDrive needed an update too from the appstore.

Shadowness · 28 Sep 2023 at 06:52

Sonoma also updated the Fuji RAF files so they can now be seen as image thumbnails. Ventura couldn't display newer Fuji RAW files, so glad that's been added

pingwing · 28 Sep 2023 at 18:13

Just done my MacBook Pro and mini, feels like the first release in a while where I need to ask what's actually new and improved? Safari seems to have caught back up with modern browser speeds (usual expectation every few years) but other than that I'm a little stumped what's actually new

Fire Wizard · 28 Sep 2023 at 18:46

I have macOS Sonoma running on my MacBook Pro 16" 2019 without any issues. I do like the dynamic lock screens. It's nice Apple have given us a nice selection of wallpapers to choose from.

For those wanting a little more flexibility when it comes to placing widgets on the desktop.

Tim Buchheim said:
If you hold down the Command (⌘) key while moving a widget it will give you somewhat more freedom. (It still snaps into place when you get within a few pixels of another widget, but it greatly reduces the range where snapping kicks in.)

Shamelessly stolen from the comments section of Ars Technica's macOS 14 Sonoma review.

macOS 14 Sonoma: The Ars Technica review

Si. · 30 Sep 2023 at 07:22

I use an App called eqMAC to help control volume on external devices (Specifically my monitor), However since installing Sonoma this is no longer working.

Does anyone else have a solution for controlling external volume on monitors?

Feek · 30 Sep 2023 at 07:38

Doesn’t the built in volume control do that? It always has for me.

MrRockliffe · 30 Sep 2023 at 08:01

Feek said:
Doesn’t the built in volume control do that? It always has for me.

If it’s an HDMI monitor, for example, the built in volume control usually doesn’t work. It displays a fixed volume.

I think this is because MacOS controls the actual device volume, rather than signal volume - if it can’t control it, it won’t allow you to change it.

Mesai · 30 Sep 2023 at 08:37

Si. said:
I use an App called eqMAC to help control volume on external devices (Specifically my monitor), However since installing Sonoma this is no longer working.

Does anyone else have a solution for controlling external volume on monitors?

I use BetterDisplay for this, which also lets you run HiDpi.

Still pretty ridiculous that you need extensions for so many basic features on macOS.

*** The Official macOS Sonoma thread ***

* The Official macOS Sonoma thread *