El Capitan Warning

JLM · « **on:** 4 Dec 2015, 11:58 pm »

Don't download El Capitan at this time!

According to industry insiders El Capitan is still in the beta stage and has serious glitches that cause Mac crashes.

I found this out the hard way. Tried connecting a Chord DAC via USB from my general use MacBook running El Capitan. Without a driver - nothing. With Yosemite or Maverick drivers it crashed, then a message appeared indicating an error and to wait, then it tried to reboot but failed and crashed again. After several cycles of this the computer shut off completely. Unplugging the USB cable solved the problem. The Chord never showed up on the sound output list. Plugging the USB cable back in resulted in the crashes to cycle again.

dB Cooper · « **Reply #1 on:** 5 Dec 2015, 12:16 am »

Huh? El Capitan has been out for months and was extensively "road tested" with a public beta. I've had no real problems although truthfully it does sometimes balk at switching outputs between internal speakers/headphones and my USB DAC.

Sorry to hear of this issue you're having but seems like you're painting with a very broad brush. Can you specify which "industry insiders" are issuing these warnings? Sounds like an issue with some sort of data corruption. If you have applecare on it, suggest calling them. If they can't solve it, a trip to your nearest genius bar. I have heard there are differences in the way El Cap manages audio. May be something related to that. Keep working it. Good luck.

Blackmore · « **Reply #2 on:** 5 Dec 2015, 12:49 am »

Same thing with my Korg DAC 100. Crashes the minute you plug it in. No response from Korg yet. El Crapitan has been a problem for my Mac Mini.

dB Cooper · « **Reply #3 on:** 5 Dec 2015, 03:28 am »

Strange. The only problem I've had with an external DAC is occasional unresponsiveness when trying to switch between audio devices. Might want to ask around on the Computer Audiophile forums too to try to sort this out. http://www.computeraudiophile.com/forum/

Just watch out for this 'dB Cooper' guy over there... He's got some screws loose.

JLM · « **Reply #4 on:** 5 Dec 2015, 09:31 am »

According to Edd Harris, Chord Marketing Manager:

"Currently we are having serious issues with El Capitan. This isn't as a result of a faulty driver on our side, but with a catastrophic bug in Apples operating system that was introduced in the final consumer release.

Many manufacturers are experiencing issues with USB Audio playback and until Apple resolves this bug on their side there is little that we can do. Essentially it is a waiting game. I have heard reports that their latest beta overcomes this issue - however this doesn't seem to be the case. We are constantly monitoring the beta versions and will publicly announce when we're out of the woods on social media."

Also found out that M2Tech writes drivers for Chord and they are stymied too.

Plus AC's own Steve Nugent (Empirical Audio) has already issued a similar warning: http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=138816.0

dB Cooper · « **Reply #5 on:** 5 Dec 2015, 02:51 pm »

Well, I hope it gets resolved PDQ and feel fortunate that my Schiit Modi hasn't had such problems. My Mac is my main music delivery platform so I would be just as frustrated. Hope you get relief soon.

KR500 · « **Reply #6 on:** 5 Dec 2015, 03:50 pm »

Yeah , I regret downloading the free EK "upgrade" on my 2015 mini . Much slower
Plus there is a real problem with iTunes that still hasn't been fixed by Apple .
You can read about the delays , spinning beachball etc on the Apple iTunes community boards w/ Apples response

I got lumps of coal in my stocking from Apple this year

Bemopti123 · « **Reply #7 on:** 5 Dec 2015, 06:36 pm »

I have a Chord Mojo and I have been playing with it in two MBPs, one a 15" from 2009 with El Capitan and another one with a 13" 2011 I7 chip with 8gb Ram. In both, I have had no issue. I play regular Itunes songs as well as listen to Youtube but in the Youtube videos sometimes when I go from small to fullscreen, I detect a disruption in the playback which returns when the screen size stabilizes, it might be just a resource issue, this is in the 13" MBP with built in Intel GPU but in the 15" with older but dedicated GPU, it does not do that.

Moreover, I have been noticing more spinning balls as of late.

It is difficult to assess what is behind what you are experiencing JLM.

Sometimes, I use a Meridian Explorer plugged in to a Aune portable amp and el Capitan still detects that USB DAC without an issue. What sort of Apple laptop do you have?

JLM · « **Reply #8 on:** 5 Dec 2015, 09:05 pm »

I've had 3 much more experienced people assure me that the this is a driver related issue.

And according to one of those more experienced folks the new Chord 2 Qute doesn't require a driver for Mac and that Chord is more into Windows than Apple OS's, so perhaps the Mojo doesn't require an Apple driver either.

Regardless the seller was nice enough to take the unit back and reimburse me, so it's already been dropped off for return shipment. Both my 2009 iMac and 2012 MacBook Air are general use machines used for music, personal, and business purposes so I didn't want risk messing up either computer/data by trying to go back to Maverick OS. And didn't want to spend $$$ to buy a USB/SPDIF converter or wait for Apple and M2Tech, who knows for how long, to come up with a solution.

My much cheaper Emotiva DC-1 requires no driver for either of my computers and has had no problems with El Capitan. But yes, more spinning pinwheels. I waited to load El Capitan just to give time to glitches to be discovered and resolved. I'm disappointed with Apple this time.

dB Cooper · « **Reply #9 on:** 6 Dec 2015, 03:18 am »

So are we talking about a driver with some proprietary aspects?

My Retina had Mavericks on it when I bought my Modi and I heard rumors of issues between the Schiit and the Mac OS. I had no difficulties (crossed my fingers the first time I plugged it in lol) but like I said, I would be real frustrated too if I couldn't get audio out of my computer.

JLM · « **Reply #10 on:** 6 Dec 2015, 11:07 am »

Quote from: dB Cooper on 6 Dec 2015, 03:18 am

So are we talking about a driver with some proprietary aspects?

My Retina had Mavericks on it when I bought my Modi and I heard rumors of issues between the Schiit and the Mac OS. I had no difficulties (crossed my fingers the first time I plugged it in lol) but like I said, I would be real frustrated too if I couldn't get audio out of my computer.

I believe Steve Nugget's warning (see link above) applied to any DAC requiring a driver from an Apple computer loaded with the El Capitan operating system.

Steven Stone · « **Reply #11 on:** 6 Dec 2015, 03:28 pm »

The El Capitan issues are both hardware and OS related. With my 2013 Desktop McPro with USB 3.0 El Cap has disabled all USB plug and play functionality for USB DACS. With my MacBook Pro Retina 2015 portable there have been no issues. With my 2009 Mac Mini no issues as well. On all machines anything that used an M2Tech USB interface is bricked, but anything using XMOS has had no issues. So the severity of your issues with El Capitan depends on your machine and your DAC's interface.

dB Cooper · « **Reply #12 on:** 8 Dec 2015, 10:43 pm »

10.11.2 is just out. Didn't see anything about USB audio but really had just a very quick look at some release notes. Maybe that will give you guys some relief.

Steven Stone · « **Reply #13 on:** 9 Dec 2015, 09:34 pm »

I installed the latest 10.11.2 OS. No change in my bug - if you unplug a USB DAC and then plug it back in the Mac does not reconnect it as a DAC although it shows up as a USB device with the proper name.

dB Cooper · « **Reply #14 on:** 10 Dec 2015, 03:55 am »

As my father used to say, "Computers are stupid because they can only count to 1."

markie · « **Reply #15 on:** 10 Dec 2015, 02:27 pm »

Upgraded from El Capitan 10.11.1 to 10.11.2 last night.
All messages in my Inbox, Sent, and Drafts folders no longer have any content. Just the headers are there. And, they cannot be deleted and produce an error message. However, new email messages coming in are fine. It is 'only' the messages that were preexistent in the Inbox, Sent, Drafts and Trash folders during the upgrade that appear to messed. Messages in custom made folders like "Family Mail" all appear OK.
Disk Utility found no problems.

So, take appropriate precautions if upgrading, just in case.

KR500 · « **Reply #16 on:** 10 Dec 2015, 02:47 pm »

Called Apple support last week about the iTunes problems since the EK OS download on my new mini hasn't improved.
They had me re-install the OS , reset the PR on start up then moved me to a more senior Tech who screen shared in to my mini
He suggested the problem wasn't with iTunes but the External Drive library size
I replied that it wasn't an issue ever until EK arrived on Oct. 22nd so that theory wasn't right
He told me an engineer would look at the issue and contact me in a few days by phone to discuss the problem EK has with iTunes operation

jriggy · « **Reply #17 on:** 10 Dec 2015, 02:50 pm »

Quote from: markie on 10 Dec 2015, 02:27 pm

Upgraded from El Capitan 10.11.1 to 10.11.2 last night.
All messages in my Inbox, Sent, and Drafts folders no longer have any content. Just the headers are there. And, they cannot be deleted and produce an error message. However, new email messages coming in are fine. It is 'only' the messages that were preexistent in the Inbox, Sent, Drafts and Trash folders during the upgrade that appear to messed. Messages in custom made folders like "Family Mail" all appear OK.
Disk Utility found no problems.

So, take appropriate precautions if upgrading, just in case.

Something similar happened here a couple days ago... I have recently purchased (3 or 4 weeks ago) the new 21.5" Retina display iMac and half or more of my existing inbox disappeared just the other day. No headers, no nothin'!
I see the unit is listing 10.11.2 as ready for update... Definitely scared to do it now!

avta · « **Reply #18 on:** 10 Dec 2015, 03:30 pm »

jriggy: have you tried rebuilding your mail folder? ( Mail>Mailbox>Rebuild ) I wouldn't be concerned about updating El Capitan. As a general rule the updates provide improved security and sometimes improved performance.

markie · « **Reply #19 on:** 10 Dec 2015, 04:14 pm »

Just got off chat and phone sesssions with 3 different people from apple support.
Long story somewhat short: I use Mail, and have two different POP accounts in Mail. Only the messages from one of the POP accounts were affected. Unfortunately it was the one I use the most, by far. Any messages from my Inbox, Drafts, Sent, even Trash folder associated with that POP account are gone. Only the headers remain. They could not be deleted. So what I had to do was delete the POP account from my computer, then add it again. So it's basically a start from a clean slate. At least I did a Time Machine backup about 2 months ago; also my old POP messages are stored online with my internet provider if I want to access them.

Moral of the Story: If you are upgrading to 10.11.2 and have 2 or more POP accounts, take the necessary precautions; delete Inbox messages or move them to custom folders; same for your Drafts and Sent Mail folder items if you want it to keep that stuff.