Catalina performance issues on MacBook Air 2013; reversion possible?

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Catalina performance issues on MacBook Air 2013; reversion possible?

I have just updated from High Sierra (10.13.1) to Catalina (10.15.3) and am experiencing multiple issues. Simply saving web pages to PDF on Chrome and Safari takes minutes; the Finder stalls while displaying "loading" messages; my battery is being depleted even faster than before; and my fan is on overdrive. Even faithful TextEdit has lag.

This is an addition to the fact that various apps are not supported, beyond those that the Catalina installer informed me wouldn't function after the upgrade. Some cannot be updated and are important for my work.

Is it possible to uninstall Catalina and revert to a previous version of OS X? Which version would be best for my needs?

The apps which are unsupported include ...

- MS Word 2011

- MS Word 2016 (I have downloaded but not installed an update from here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/release-notes-office-2016-mac)

- MS Excel 2016

- MS Outlook 2016

- Junos Pulse 5.1

- ABBYY FineReader Express 8.3

- Adobe Digital Editions 2.0

- Audio Notetaker

- Combine PDFs

- DSS Player

- Papers2 2.8.1

Any advice much appreciated,

Thanks.

MacBook Air 13", macOS 10.13

Posted on Apr 1, 2020 12:12 PM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

208,349 points

Apr 1, 2020 1:44 PM in response to Komodein

Do you mean the TM app won't launch? Or do you mean it doesn't recognize your TM drive? If it's the latter hold down the Option key. open the TM menu and select "Browse Other Backup Disks…". Then select the same disk.

If you're able to access your old TM backups boot into Safe Mode (How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support) and reinstall the system. Then use TM to restore your files.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing some system cache cleaning, volume verifying and directory repairing.

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Answer 2

Komodein Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 5, 2020 7:20 AM in response to léonie

Thanks leonie.

The page you linked to also links here: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201372

(How to create a bootable installer for macOS)

Do you mean I can use those instructions to install Mojave on an external HD, and use that to run 32-bit apps? That is, I don't need to purchase or download a virtual machine?

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

208,349 points

Apr 5, 2020 3:08 PM in response to Komodein

I've just cloned my boot drove and then went in and removed all of the unnecessary apps and documents. This kept the iCloud ID, user login ID and other IDs intact.

Although I've not tried it I suppose you could download the Mojave installer and run it. You should be asked to select the disk to install on.

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Answer 4

Komodein Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 5, 2020 2:59 PM in response to Old Toad

I have already upgraded to Catalina, and mistakenly presumed that Apple's own warning message had informed me of all the 32-bit apps on my machine. As it turns out, there were additional apps that I need to keep using.

So I have three choices, as I understand it ...

Wipe my internal HD and reinstall High Sierra
Run High Sierra on a virtual machine installed on my internal HD (advised against on the other thread due to RAM and HD limitations)
Run High Sierra from an external HD, which you advocate

The apps I need to run include ...

ABBYY FineReader Express
Adobe Digital Editions 2.0
Audio Notetaker
DSS Player
Junos Pulse
Microsoft Word 2011
Microsoft Word 2016
Papers2
SelfControl

Few of these have 64-bit versions, and each provides a niche aspect to my workflow.

I don't want to clone my boot drive; I think it is simpler to install a bare bones High Sierra, including 32-apps, on an external HD. However, I'm still not clear whether this requires a virtual machine.

Do you have links to a walkthrough for installing and running prior macOS iterations on an external HD? That would be really helpful.

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Answer 5

Komodein Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 1, 2020 1:26 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks.

I neglected to back-up before upgrading, which in retrospect was a mistake. I also wasn't using Time Machine, just a manual drag and drop back-up to an external HD.

In line with the page you linked to, could I save the files I have changed since my last back-up, then fire up Time Machine and somehow revert to High Sierra?

Note that my previous back-ups weren't the entire drive, only all of my personal/work files (e.g. not any of the Home folder, including apps etc).

Also, to complicate matters further, Time Machine won't boot for me on Catalina.

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Answer 6

Komodein Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 5, 2020 6:14 AM in response to Old Toad

Hi Old Toad,

Thanks for your reply.

I updated to 10.15.4 and TM has now let me complete a backup. Also my MacBook Air seems to be performing much better, so I am going to give Catalina a chance.

However, I do still have reservations about the 32-bit apps which are no longer supported. A few of these are critical to my work, and seemingly irreplaceable.

I have created a new post about this here and would welcome your thoughts.

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Answer 7

Old Toad

Level 10

208,349 points

Apr 5, 2020 2:18 PM in response to Komodein

Do not upgrade your system to Catalina until you know you can find upgrades to 64 bit versions of your work critical software.

Download and run GO64 to identify which of your apps are 32 bit and will not run under Catalina.

Which apps are you concerned about?

You could clone your current boot drive to an external SSD to run your 32 bit apps if you upgrade to Catalina. I had a similar situation, not work related but critical, and ended up purchasing the 64 bit versions of a couple of apps and substituting LibreOffice and Pages, Numbers and Keynote, for my MS Office suite of apps.

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Answer 8

Old Toad

Level 10

208,349 points

Apr 1, 2020 12:15 PM in response to Komodein

If you have a Time Machine or other full backup of your boot drive made before up upgraded to Catalina you can go back: Revert your Mac to a previous macOS version - Apple

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Answer 9

Komodein Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 21, 2020 10:48 AM in response to Komodein

I wiped my HD and reinstalled Mojave. Now running fine.

Thanks everyone for your input.

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Answer 10

Komodein Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 5, 2020 6:15 AM in response to Komodein

Sorry, the other post is here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251248072

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Answer 11

léonie

Level 10

195,499 points

Apr 5, 2020 7:02 AM in response to Komodein

You could install an older system version on an external volume, to be able to run your older apps. How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery – Apple Support

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Answer 12

Komodein Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 6, 2020 3:53 AM in response to Old Toad

Thanks.

Please see my reply on the other thread.

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Catalina performance issues on MacBook Air 2013; reversion possible?

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