Apple's updates break my machines, every time

The (lack of) responsiveness with this M1 macOS 14.5 system is likely due to crashing apps and quite possibly insufficient memory:

Virtual Memory Information:
  Physical RAM: 8 GB

  Free RAM: 49 MB
  Used RAM: 6.54 GB
  Cached files: 1.41 GB

  Available RAM: 1.46 GB
  Swap Used: 0 B

Given all of what is loaded here—there's a whole lot of graphics tooling and related add-on apps, tools which are not generally known for sipping memory—this Mac memory is seemingly under-configured.

The built-in security is disabled too, which can mean trouble exists there.

Lots of kexts, as well.

wdsync is crashing hard. Given support for wdsync ended several years ago, likely time to remove that.

Apogee Duet is crashing hard as well, so look for updates for that, or remove it if no longer needed.

Pending replacement, I'd probably offload my data, wipe, and re-install macOS and just the immediately-necessary apps and tooling. I'd skip the file-hosting apps and the graphics tweaks and the HDD vendor add-ons where and whenever possible. If your printers support AirPrint, switch from the vendor drivers, too. Given Rosetta is involved, some of the apps installed here may not be (are not?) native Apple silicon. Pick one backup tool and use that, too. Basically, take steps to avoid or to reduce usage to better fit into this hardware configuration.

The following is not intended to diminish anyone else's recommendations, since there were several obvious problems that you addressed with their help.

As for this claim:

Honestly my system modifications are pretty minimal, ...

Installing kernel extensions from tonymacx86 and FakeSMC belies that statement. One cannot characterize that system "minimally modified" by any stretch of the imagination.

Pull quote from the latter:

"By installing FakeSMC on a real Mac you acknowledge that you know what you are doing and how to recover your system if something goes wrong."

And what's this all about? More minimal system modifications?

Startup Items:

rEFItBlesser Path: /Library/StartupItems/rEFItBlesser

ChmodBPF Path: /Library/StartupItems/ChmodBPF and call it a "minimal" system modification.

Back to your original question:

Apple's updates break my machines, every time

And now we know why.

Erase your machines and start over.

I've gone through my applications folder and removed 3rd party apps and lots of stuff I'm not using, probably a good thing to do anyway. Attached is etrecheck report.

Clean up - There are orphan files that could be removed.

This means that you removed apps that should have been uninstalled using the uninstaller provided by the developer.

Kernel extensions present - This computer has kernel extensions that may not work in the future.

System modifications - There are a large number of system modifications running in the background.

Both of those categories are high potential for instability and sluggishness.

My advice to you would be to erase all content and data and start over. Only install system modifications you absolutely need. You shouldn't need to "monitor" anything. If you need to enter a password to install software, think carefully if that is really necessary. Those will install background items which will chew up resources. Some are just update checkers or license checkers. I don't know why a developer would install a system modification to check for updates. I have several apps that check when I run the software. They don't seem to need to hack the OS to check for updates.

Typedjohn wrote:

Dear apple users and support community

I've updated my 2020 m1 mac mini to sonoma 14.5

This is part request for support, part request for an answer to the question -

why are apple software updates so frequently a net loss for me? Apple suggests "keeping your mac up to date" and yet, I'm always terrified to hit that button because so often when I do something critical breaks on my machine, or nearly breaks, a critical program is no longer supported, I suffer some kind of data loss, or what I'm experiencing now -

The menu bar suffers from so much latency as to making the machine unusable. I'm working in logic and the same type of latency occurs in drop down menus from channel strip plugins.

Please, I'm open to your suggestions on how to solve this. And I'll also mention how common this experience is for me, that one of apples "upgrades" sends me into hours of troubleshooting to fix what it broke, if it indeed can even be fixed. It's one of the main reasons I moved to windows about 10 years ago, logic is the only program keeping me tied to mac. Sad to see this still user experience is still so frequent for me. Windows never does this to me. Apple frequently does this to me. The headache is never worth the new skins and new "features" that aren't useful to me.

Thanks for reading.

I have never encountered your issue— when keeping my Mac up to date as you suggest. Currently macOS 14.5

Typically you can turn off many [new skins and new "features" that aren't useful.] — I know I do.

The thrust of staying current is more about bugs fixes & security features/fixes (obvious or not to the end user.)

I might suspect third party interference if you have an on-going issue with updates.

In general the advice is —

Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS

You can get a good look at your User/System config. and reveal conflicts or issues, you can download/run this trusted utility https://etrecheck.com

If you need help interpreting the report you can post it here in its entirety in the "Additional Text" box in the editing toolbar below, in your reply.

What other system modifications do you have installed? They’re not allowed to talk about the B word around here, but I experienced no problems that you describe and I update before almost anyone else.Problems that arise after upgrades or updates are almost exclusively caused by poorly made system modifications.

I don’t use logic so I can’t comment if that might be causing the problems you see. I also have a 2020 M1 mini and I have never had any problems with it. I also never install any sort of system modifications on my Macs.

1. Security updates disabled - Security updates are disabled. This computer is at risk of malware infection.

Apple security disabled - Apple security software is disabled. This computer is at risk of malware infection.

2. Unsigned files - There are unsigned software files installed. These files could be old, incompatible, and cause problems. They should be reviewed. System modifications - There are a large number of system modifications running in the background!

3 Kernel extensions present - This computer has kernel extensions that may not work in the future!

4 Scan your Mac for malware as soon as possible ! I used the the free (to manually use) the application Kernel extensions present - This computer has kernel extensions that may not work in the future. and get the Mac Universal version! You only have to pay if you scan to run automatically! https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download

5 So use System Preferences->Gernal->Login Items and chose which automation starts you actually want!

The root problem still appears to be the 8 GB memory configuration.

Keep offloading apps you don’t absolutely need.

Google apps would be a candidate for removal, for instance.

Or back up, factory reset, restore your files and documents, and reload just what apps you need.

Please post the Etrecheck data.

satcomer wrote:

...Scan your Mac for malware as soon as possible ! I used the the free (to manually use) the application ...

I would encourage enabling and using the built-in anti-malware, and using the built-in anti-malware scanner, and not adding add-on anti-malware. Particularly with what appears to be a resource-constrained and somewhat unstable system.