Apple
OS X El Capitan Problems: 5 Things You Need to Know
The OS X El Capitan update is almost 9 months old, and we’ve seen a number of new updates to OS X 10.11. Another update is on the way even as Apple prepares macOS Sierra for users this fall. For all the good it does bring, there are some OS X El Capitan problems that users need to know about in 2016.
The good news is that the OS X 10.11.5 update and other similar updates fixed a variety of issues and problems for most users. Simply updating can solve some of the most annoying problems if you are already on OS X El Capitan.
Read: How to Fix OS X El Capitan Problems
Even though many parts of OS X 10.11 look similar to OS X Yosemite, a new system font and new features — plus a performance boost round out a collection of new features. With the system-wide changes there are also some bugs and issues.
What you need to know about OS X El Capitan problems.
This is what you need to know about OS X El Capitan problems including what we’ve learned about how to fix common OS X 10.11 problems and other important details.
OS X El Capitan Updates Fixed Many Problems
We saw a number of long download OS X El Capitan problems when the new version of OS X arrived, but that is no longer an issue. If you are upgrading from OS X Yosemite to OS X El Capitan in 2016 the only speed limitation will be that of your computer. We’ve not seen speed issues with the smaller OS X 10.11.x updates.
Originally Office 2016 for Mac did not work with OS X El Capitan, but updates from Apple and from Microsoft solved most of these problems. If you still have these issues, upgrade to the latest version of OS X El Capitan and the latest version of Office.
We’ve seen an issue where the MacBook Pro Retina would freeze while on OS X El Capitan, but the recent OS X 10.11.5 update fixed this.
We saw some audio apps and hardware not work well with OS X El Capitan, but in November updates solved some of these issues.
Major Problems Aren’t Widespread
While there are certainly some OS X El Capitan problems, they appear to be isolated so far. We have not seen any widespread complaints about show-stopping issues with WiFi, battery life or Bluetooth.
If there were major issues we would see users on social media sharing complaints very fast, which is something we saw with OS X WiFi issues in previous years. Apple included fixes for WiFi connectivity in recent OS X updates, which helped address some issues.
The great news is that reports of OS X El Capitan performance on older Macs is solid, and OS X El Capitan battery life is not a complaint we are seeing often.
How to Fix OS X El Capitan Problems
If you boot up your Mac after installing OS X El Capitan or a smaller update and you have problems, you can take some steps to fix these issues on your own.
You may end up needing professional help, but we can point you in the direction to look for free help with your issues.
We round up the most common OS X El Capitan problems and how to fix them into a handy guide that should solve most of your issues without the need to talk to an Apple Genius.
The next two stops should be Apple Discussion Forums and the MacRumors forums where you’ll find dedicated users who offer free help. Keep in mind that none of these users are paid, and they aren’t officially with Apple, so you should not demand fixes.
You may also have luck performing a clean install of OS X El Capitan.
You Can Downgrade to Yosemite
If you are experiencing problems that you cannot deal with, you can simply go back to Yosemite and what was working before you installed OS X El Capitan.
This is more complicated than clicking undo, but if you have a Time Machine backup from before the upgrade you can restore that and go back to what works.
Here is more information on how to downgrade from OS X El Capitan to Yosemite.
What’s Next for OS X — macOS?
The next OS X El Capitan update is already in public testing with a number of fixes.
OS X 10.11.6 is available as a developer beta. We don’t know what fixes are included in this update, but the odds are good that it will address bugs, stability and security.
Following that we may see more OS X 10.11.x updates to address issues and bugs that appear as the update rolls out. The next major update to the software that runs your mac is macOS Sierra. Apple changed the name from OS X to macOS in June 2016.
There is a developer beta of the new macOS Sierra software available now and a public macOS Sierra beta coming in June. The slides below show you what’s new in macOS Sierra compared to OS X El Capitan.
Siri on Mac | |||||||||||||
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With macOS Sierra you now get access to Siri for Mac. This brings the personal assistant you are used to using on your iPhone and iPad to your computer. There is no access to Siri on OS X El Capitan. Siri for Mac can do almost all the things you already use it for on your iPhone, but now it can delivery many more features that will help you be more productive. You can use Siri to send a message while you are working on something important, but that's not all. Siri for Mac can help you locate files and you can even have Siri narrow down those files as you search for them. When you find a Siri result that you need to keep handy, you can pin it to the Notification Center so you can quickly access it again. When you find an image, result or other item of interest with Siri, you can drag and drop it into a document. | |||||||||||||
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Chris Tossell
10/01/2015 at 2:35 am
I cannot add a an iCloud email alias to Apple Mail. The El Capitan upgrade lost my previous email settings. Mail quits repeatedly
M A Solecki
10/01/2015 at 6:31 pm
I have got exactly the same problem. I cannot save any changes re: changing my name and aliases in mail app as if freezes. Any help ?
ami christianson
10/04/2015 at 11:53 am
i have this problem. Now I have no e-mail will not recognize my aol account.
MR
10/26/2015 at 2:55 pm
I have the same issue…how did you fix it
R. van Twisk
10/01/2015 at 3:41 am
@Chris,
it does redirect me to iCloud and allows me to edit the aliases, a bot odd if you ask me but apparently they have been provisioned that.
John Hooker
10/01/2015 at 4:11 am
“There is a problem with some music software in OS X El Capitan, but the good news for most users is that this isn’t breaking Spotify or Apple Music, it is only impacting professional audio apps.”
The best joke, I’ve ever heard! Those, who really have to rely on a working system are left out in the cold, but it’s good that millions of nerds, who only have a mac to show off, can still listen to their music. Great!
KJ
10/01/2015 at 7:17 am
The install of El Capitan to my always trusted Macbook Air is totally tragic. Forced to stay in Yosemite after two unsuccessful update attempts and two subsequent Yosemite restoration. It wasted a perfectly good working day. Apple are beginning to lose the plot, expensive iPhones and shoddy preparations with global releases of updates. Is just as well we don’t pay for the upgrades, no one would certainly pay for this release. Already paying with time lost to my business.
Apple you are looking rotten to the core at present …
midorosan
10/14/2015 at 9:30 pm
Just because you have a few problems there is no need to make sweeping derogatory statements about Apple, what has iPhone pricing to do with your problem, stick to the issues. I updated in one simple exercise, press upgrade and that was it, no issues that I can’t deal with and I’m 77.
Yes you are right we don’t pay for upgrades and we enjoy the best OS in the world, you do have a choice you know if you don’t like apple go pick another fruit but don’t be surprised if it is not as sweet.
Reuben
11/13/2015 at 6:29 am
‘Best OS in the world’ Hah! Most certainly is not, maybe easiest to use, but almost any Linux distribution is ‘better’ in terms of what you can do with it and much better compatibility, os x doesn’t even appear to be properly compatible with machines designed by apple themselves!
AppleGuy
04/20/2016 at 9:27 am
I can’t speak for the original poster but the comment about IPhone in my view means simply that Apple is prioritizing IOS development and upgrades above OSX. I’m a so called “UNIX guy” and I’ve never NOT had problems updating OSX since Mavericks became available. Something is broken at Apple when you do an upgrade that in turn breaks the system in unpredictable ways such as their OWN NATIVE apps, like Mail or Safari not working or crashing. That is inexcusable and suggests shoddy work and lack of thorough testing. It shouldn’t be a problem for them to author a “prep tool” that could check out your system in advance looking for trouble spots and letting you know how out of band your current setup might be but then again this assumes that Apple wants to develop resources in this direction. When it’s all about IPads and IPhones then you have your answer. I can understand 3rd party apps failing after an upgrade and am willing to work through those problems – Ironically the 3rd party people have their act together and I can get fixes. Of course I have some recourse in that I can “hack” things but I shouldn’t have to since after all Apple’s one time claim to fame was a tightly integrated system. Now not so much as they say.
Carlos Ross
04/20/2016 at 10:51 am
I have had Macintosh since 1985 and have always upgraded and transferred from one machine to the next seamlessly. My upgrade to El Capitán was a weekend nightmare and required me to clear my laptop and recover from Time Machine. I also got the feeling that Apple did not do their normally superb job un upgrades. I will probably skip El Capitán altogether and wait for the next version. Then I will cross my fingers and hope Apple has returned to it’s quest for excellence.
Hans
10/17/2015 at 1:57 pm
Same here. I am a fond user of Apple OS X since I bought a MBA mid 2011. But the update to El Capitan ruined my perfect working companion. Installation went smooth, but nothing worked properly afterwards except the beach-ball. Tried a lot thx to fora, did a smooth re-install, to no avail. Cost me half a working day – I practice law – and I am back to Yosemite now thx to time machine. I agree that apple seems to get a bit too sloppy with professional users. For me a great disappointment. I used to be a free marketing tool for Apple. Not anymore right now.
WT
10/21/2015 at 9:06 pm
Hey I agree with you KJ…if Apple is going to do something they need to do it right or don’t do it. You are depending on them to do their job just like your customers of your business don’t want “Hem and Haw” with respect to the services you provide. I suspect your frustration is that you pay top dollar for a product …there is no reason for it to be sub standard. I’m sure I’d pay for an upgrade that works verses getting one that creates lost business that was free. Cause then……………it wasn’t free.
Georgiaarapier
10/01/2015 at 7:56 am
0=6my classmate’s mother makes $78 every hour on the internet . She has been laid off for nine months but last month her check was $14234 just working on the internet for a few hours.
find out here… See More
Patrick
10/01/2015 at 11:40 am
I had some problems with keychain. I had to delete everything in it and start fresh because it was corrupted somehow. Now my Google Chrome browser won’t autofill passwords anymore. Only a slight annoyance.
Adrian Anderson
11/02/2015 at 4:53 pm
Exactly the same symptoms here. I’ll call it a medium annoyance.
Sandesh Damkondwar
04/13/2016 at 5:13 am
Same here, any other solution you found. I don’t want to start from scratch again.
Bob's brother Bob
10/01/2015 at 2:13 pm
@KJ. So you update your computer to a new OS on your business computers the day it is released and it’s Apple that are beginning to lose the plot. Too funny. To be fair, I suppose you would recognise the signs.
Kieren Trinder
10/28/2015 at 2:02 am
If you can’t see anything wrong with your statement, the whole IT industry is up shit creek without a paddle.
Tom Payne
10/01/2015 at 6:07 pm
I can’t send mail using either of the machines I upgraded. I am reverting to Yosemite via Time Machine.
Eugene
10/02/2015 at 5:29 am
same here … Apple forces me to use Outlook, pretty sad ….
Carlos Ross
10/04/2015 at 8:12 am
I try to send mail with attachments and the mail pops up, disappears, pops up, disappears, etc. etc. and is stuck in this loop until I quit Mail or I disconnect from WiFi. I hope I can go back to Yosemite through my time machine.
KJ
10/01/2015 at 10:08 pm
El Capitan has been in BETA far longer than the time B2B has given to think about an intelligent response. So does that mean we should think twice about every solution released to the Apple store? .. Yes, and of course one would not be so reckless and ensures back ups are in place and tests new release on a select work stations (machine types) before actually changing all work stations in an Enterprise. duh!
John Hooker
10/01/2015 at 11:41 pm
I always wonder why so many professional software companies are not able to release updated versions of their programs at the release date of a new operating system version? I can’t remember exactly when the first developer preview of El Capitan was released by Apple, but it must be month ago. Blaming Apple to change some basic routines in the OS to optimise performance, seems a little weird. Shouldn’t we blame the other developers instead, who are not able to find solutions for their programs to run on the new OS?
Dan Deilgat
10/02/2015 at 3:40 am
my macbook is hung on the installation, I have countless files and models that I can’t access and El Capitan doesn’t instal…..
I don’t ever remember having issues with installing updates on PC…
I’m sorry Bill Gates, it seems that your not the only greedy bastard.
LKB
10/02/2015 at 8:20 am
Every time I send an email message it copies myself even though I don’t have that box checked in Mail preferences. Also, it sends from an account I have not chosen and I can’t choose the account in the Preferences from which I want my email sent!!!
karinslegers
10/08/2015 at 2:52 am
I have the same issue, very annoying. I had similar problems in Yosemite, but now the solution I found then (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2786688?start=45&tstart=0) doesn’t work anymore.
karinslegers
10/08/2015 at 3:00 am
But there’s hope, this seems to work just fine: https://codeisgreen.net/blog-single.php?id=13&title=el-capitan-and-exchange-aliases-solution
David Bailey
10/02/2015 at 8:22 am
After upgrading I can receive mail but cannot send mail.
LKB
10/02/2015 at 9:16 am
What’s up with not being able to sort Notes alphabetically anymore? Who is deciding these stupid things?
fLyhead
10/02/2015 at 10:42 am
i have downloaded and installed El Capitan correctly.
But after booting up at the log-on screen it will hang there.
as soon i want to click to the user, the circle will appear and won’t stop.
Before installation I’ve checked my HDD with the diskUtility – OK
I’ve updated from Yosemite to EL Capitan using my MacBookPro 10/2012 (13″) 8GB RAM, iCore7, 500GB SSD (available space are 250GB)
How to get the new Software to work.
Lipsyte
10/12/2015 at 8:30 pm
I had the exact same issue. Fixed it with a boot in safe mode :) once you successfully logged, restart and it should work.
fLyhead
10/12/2015 at 10:10 pm
Hi,
Thanks for the advise, maybe it would have saved me lots of disappointing hours.
I’ve spend 8h at the Genius bar and also they could help me to get EL Capitan running on my macbook pro. Even they’ve formatted my HDD new and installed it from blank.
However, I got it to work to… as the installation always failed using the backup or updating from Yosemite. So i tried it on a blank HDD. And I could log-in. Then I’ve used the migration assistant, and there was the problem, some error with Keychain version conflict appeared.
So i did the new El Capitan setup again on my newly formatted HDD, and then I’ve imported manually all my files and Pictures by hand. Other I could import from iCloud and as mail I use anyway IMAP.
It just took a lot of time…
But now I run all on El Capitan and it works in that way fine.
I’m just disappointed about the support from the Apple support hotline and the genius bar….
Thanks again to your advice and idea!
Stupid question, but maybe I missed something….How to start the system in SAFE mode?
I just know booting with “command+r”
To do the disutility and re-installation….
Michael
10/02/2015 at 12:44 pm
I downloaded it and then got the wonderful bouncing ball for about 10 mins. So I powered down, and when I powered it back up, I got a nice circle with a line through it on my screen.
Rupert Girdlestone
10/02/2015 at 3:28 pm
I cannot believe how crap el capitan is! I have now got a “Photos” program that cannot see ANY photos. They have ALL gone. I have lost nearly 2000 pictures!!!! How did that get past QA?
George Hewson
10/05/2015 at 5:58 am
I’ve just upgraded to el capitan and cannot access my photos on “photos” but my screen saver can! I have about 10,000 photos and I now feel as if my oxygen has been cut off.
Joe
10/06/2015 at 1:52 am
same here. anyone found a solution yet?
Shem
10/09/2015 at 5:17 pm
Go to the applications folder and open iPhoto. It shoudn’t delete that library, it just makes Photos the new preferred method.
David
11/01/2015 at 8:45 am
I can’t open iPhoto cause El Capitan won’t run it. I have 70,000 photos and can’t find any of them. I need to access them ASAP. Please help.
Paul Evans
10/03/2015 at 3:03 am
I am happier with Mail this time around, for the first time since May I can use it. The biggest glitch is with the program I use the most, Photos. I can no longer share photos to sites like Flickr or Facebook. Extensions box appears after clicking on share selected photos, with two sections All “all third party extensions” and Share Menu “not enabled” after this the only thing that I can bring up is icloud sharing which they can shove. Once again the idiot 15 year old software programmer got it wrong.
Sam-Erik Ruttmann
10/03/2015 at 4:08 am
After upgrading I can receive mail but cannot send mail. Is there a hack to fix this, or DO I REALLY NEED TO GO BACK TO YOSEMITE??
Inka Clark
11/06/2015 at 4:39 am
I have exactly the same problem with my iCloud mail. I can receive but not send. I have compared the settings to my Home MacBook (which I haven’t upgraded and won’t!) and it’s all the same. All my other mail works fine. I also can’t airdrop from my mac to my phone anymore, it only works the other way round now. Very annoying. Hope it gets sorted soon. If you get your mail sorted please let me know.
Dan P
10/03/2015 at 12:29 pm
The promo for this says you can get weather buy using searchlight. That does not work. It also says by swiping your hand across the screen you can find your curser as it momentarily gets large. That does not work either. The auto spell correct is horrible and I can hardly type this sentence as it puts in words I don’t want, repeatedly. What a mess.
spinola87
10/04/2015 at 1:16 am
I downloaded El Capitan last night, but when I try install it I get a crash error report. I looked for solutions online and they suggested to use a USB drive which I tried and it still didn’t work. Now I can’t access my user account, desktop, documents at all. It seems to be stuck in a loop every time I reboot or try again. I’m using a Macbook Pro 15″ Retina with 16GB RAM. How can I solve this?
Riz
10/14/2015 at 6:47 pm
I have the same problem!!! have you figured out a way to solve this yet?
Upali Wickramasinghe
10/04/2015 at 4:23 am
After installing Yosemite Capitan, my ‘save as’ window in Excel becomes too long and I can’t see the ‘save’ or ‘cancel’ buttons.
Dan Geiger
10/04/2015 at 8:22 am
I cannot print an e-mail response in EL Capitan, even when I highlight the response, it just prints my originally sent e-mail. Unbelievably poor.
Vidar
10/04/2015 at 6:06 pm
I never ever upgrade os over an older os. Always clean install, always! And I never have any problems at all. Do a clean install, start off fresh
Stef
10/04/2015 at 10:27 pm
My instilation ran to about 80% and has stopped. would not go further. Switched off and on with the power button, no change, what now?
moulines
10/05/2015 at 2:14 pm
c’est pas kool, mail ok on recoit mais pas d’envoie : solution A passer par le webmail du fournisseur d’accés pour les envois : c’est ok. solution B dans Accounts.plist changer false par true ( comme yosemite ) ? UserAllowsInsecureAuthentication
faire le changement :
UserAllowsInsecureAuthentication
biobebo
10/05/2015 at 3:10 pm
mac book air mid 2011, hang on second boot (apple logo grey screen) after El Capitan upgrade from Yosemite …
flyhead
10/05/2015 at 3:39 pm
I’ve had the same problem. Then I went to the apple store to get support on that issue.
They tried to clear the HDD and install new and always they have failed too. As each time I tried to use my backup files from the time machine.
Finally i got it working by installing the EL Capitan on a EMPTY HDD, and copy all files i needed from my backup by my own without using the Migration software from Apple.
Downloaded most external software new and installed them.
now it works all fine.
Anyway, If you are using the iCloud before.
All your data, mail, pictures and so on will be automatically transferred, as soon you authorize the new OS with your iCloud account.
good luck!
johnammoty
10/06/2015 at 10:39 am
After the complete, mavericks, disaster I’ll never upgrade until the problems are sorted. So I think I’ll wait 1 year for the El Gringo Patch.
Fritz
10/08/2015 at 12:05 am
On the surfe it appears that ac seems to work with El Capitan on the first glance but then Safari gets the hick up, and using Mail hasn’t really improved since Yosemite. The biggest failure I experience so far is that the Identkey from my bank stopped working with El Capitan.
I have the impression that Apple is now big and and overambitious, a management problem similar as it was in the early days of SCSI interfaces.
Lots of the hick ups have certainly to do with the speed/quality of the internet. But it is disappointing that even Apple application do not work properly, particularly when the alert “You are not connected to the internet” randomly appears on Safari however not on Chrome.
Serious, not the whole world counts on a perfect Internet like in most part of the US and it would improve the products dramatically if the concepts do adopt to a not so perfect world. (Manila Metro, Philippines, even with 100 Mbps / 100 USD the service Mail/Safari still deficient )
When working with Mail it is extremely annoying that some mails never are sent and some are sent only after restarting. Also the user interface from mail ha this random non responding.
I will stop using or will not use Musik and Photo. This invades to much the privacy for my taste.
Apple should listen to suggestions – a very conservative but still in these days valid – it is derived from the Pareto Principle – basics first (20%) – satisfaction follows (80%)
Thanks for reading my frustrations!
Carlos Ross
10/08/2015 at 9:22 am
After a frustrating weekend and discovering that thousands of my e-mails in Mail had DISAPPEARED, I was able to restore overnight my over 400 Gb to my new Macbook from my Time Machine Backup, recovering the lost e-mails. Thank you Apple for having a reliable Time Machine. Shame on you Apple for delivering such a shoddy update. From my point of view, El Capitan should be relabeled El Bandido for stealing my e-mails and many hours of aggravation in restoring my Macbook. After 30 years of confidently updating Mac software, I will be VERY careful in updating any Apple software from now on.
Joey G
10/08/2015 at 8:44 am
After install, my system won’t even boot up! Plz help!
Lesley
10/08/2015 at 2:36 pm
Without Mac for 24 hours and needed help from Apple only to have to resort to Time Machine all because El Bandido. After reading all of your comments I won’t be trying to re-install anytime in the near future.
Beka
10/09/2015 at 2:32 pm
I have macbook air 2015. There was a famous problem with wifi while using Yosemite, now with the El Capitan this problem came back again. After installation of El Capitan Wifi worked just perfect for a few days, but today it crashed again. Any ideas how to fix it?
NIGEL Sawtell
10/09/2015 at 11:22 pm
I have a MBP, It connects to the Internet, downloads mail etc, also in safari and Firefox it will search on Google, but try to access a page…. Nothing happens ?
Olwen Evans
10/10/2015 at 7:40 am
my I mac wouldn’t boot up after installing El Capitan on Thursday 8th October. Re installed it OK on Friday using OS X Recovery only to find it wouldn’t boot up again on Saturday. Great engineer at apple sorted me out, had to take over the computer and removed an extension called eltima sync mate. He said he had suffered the same problem on his computer and is convinced this is the problem. It rebooted successfully after he had removed the extension.
Shiva
10/10/2015 at 3:20 pm
Since upgrading to El Capitan and installing Office 2016, my Mac has been acting slow, the Calendar app freezes, Facebook has become very dysfunctional, and my Internet is slow.
susan
10/11/2015 at 1:38 pm
since downloading El Capitano, I have lost all my flagged emails. I have a desk top. laptop, ipad , and iphone…they no longer sync emails.
roy gentry
10/11/2015 at 4:39 pm
EVERY MOVE I MAKE I HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE SPINNING BALL…SAFARI OR ELCAPITAN UPGRADE? IT IS A PAIN IN THE BUTT….HAVE TO TURN OFF AUTO FILL BECAUSE IT CHANGES PASSWORD ENTRIES. PHOTO UPGRADE CONTINUES TO BE DELAYED WILL NOT LOAD….FORMERLY FACEBOOK HANDLED ALBUM POSTING…NOW SAFARI TOOK IT OVER AND YOU CAN ONLY POST 25 PICTURES…HAVE BEEN WAITING MONTHS FOR PHOTOS TO UPGRADE.
eve4m
10/12/2015 at 5:20 am
I can no longer share a web page or photo by clicking on the share or send box (box with an arrow from it) when I try it says no service it’s so frustrating. How long before apple issue a bug fix?
David
10/12/2015 at 4:48 pm
Seems like since Jobs passed away the updates and upgrade cycle is increasing but the quality of these is decreasing. My 1st (and current) Macbbok was bundled with Mountain Lion and ran pretty much solid without any significant disasters. I had to recently upgrade to Mavericks because Adobe software, and others, were no longer providing updates for the ML OS.
I have refrained from upgrading to Yosemite until the same thing happens, my philosophy being if it’s not broke then don’t fix it. Been so disappointed with OS upgrade on both Mac and iOS over the years and now many 3rd party developers are scrapping support for older OS’s it becomes like walking on hot coals.
C’mon Apple reduce the updates and when they do come out test them thoroughly before release, your old reliable self is waning away and the advantages you had to drag me from windows are now becoming almost obsolete.
Barry
10/13/2015 at 5:28 am
I too got a problem
New hard drive and fresh install of el captain but now I have no Bluetooth can not detect
Any Bluetooth on board my 2008 aluminium uni body Mac book
But seems a nice system
Domo
10/13/2015 at 12:55 pm
I backed up my drive. Made a bootable EC install thumb drive. Connected my old hard drive from when I switched to an SSD. Formatted the old hard drive and installed EC on a clean drive. Imported my user from the SSD drive (which was Maverick). Moved some of the software over that I thought I’d need (paintbrush and simple stuff without exotic install packages). Then ran EC for a few days. Had to adjust mail preferences (I use Gmail through Mail) to get that working right. Downloaded a few of the other programs I needed.
No real problems where found – slow accessing my NAS and even the external USB drive on my Airport Extreme (Time Machine). But that’s been that way since Apple changed from Lion (?) when SMB got to be confused within Apple (or maybe it’s the seemingly infinite gathering of meta data from all the network folders that clogs it’s pipes).
Other than that, I’ve had a few mysterious random network drive disconnects.
So, finally redid the clean install and user import onto my SSD.
Runs just fine – but I’m glad I was cautious, did a good backup (into two places I might add), tested it out on a formatted spare drive and then ran it for a few days.
EC is much better than Yosemite, and uglier than Mavericks due to “flat” 2-d graphics that everyone is falling in love with. <<— might as well go back to 8-bit colors for all the artistic flair every mfg. has now-a-days.
Good luck all, sorry to hear of the troubles your've had, money your lost and aggravation that's shortening your lives.
I was a lucky one and very cautious.
Paul Evans
10/13/2015 at 11:59 pm
Why did Apple remove secure delete of trash ?
varrich
10/14/2015 at 7:11 am
os x capitan ??? Why is there over 80 cookies on my mac now that I upgraded to capitan? Every time I start safari I get bombed with cookies never happened before update. Changed setting to allow no cookies and still does it can only be from apple. How do I get this capitan off my computer?
Sisi
10/15/2015 at 2:15 pm
9 hour upload and installation, all following day of app updates, and now cannot open my mail. “Mail upgrade seems to be stuck! Wth!
Catherine Haustein
10/16/2015 at 7:13 pm
Can’t access old iphotos and you know what Apple, my mom died and now the photos are gone too.
Flyhead
10/16/2015 at 11:01 pm
I’m sorry to read that about your mom.
However the pictures aren’t lost.
If you go into the folder of pictures with you will find a file with probably a few GB.
Close your iPhoto and rename that bigger file to the same as the iPhoto file. After that open iPhoto and all your pictures will be there again.
Xiang
10/16/2015 at 11:47 pm
Downloaded OS X El Capitan before download OS X Yosemite because it took too long time to complete the download for yosemite. Hence, i give up to download until they launch the new OS X El Capitan. After i have downloaded El Capitan, I was trying to pair with my iPhone 6plus by using bluetooth but it was failed due to not support.
Kira Miftari
10/18/2015 at 7:16 pm
Guys, my SHARE button (the one on the right top corner) is not working, it says: “no service”… do I need to set it up somehow? i never has problems before this El Capitan upgrade…help:-)
Tim Smyth
10/19/2015 at 4:17 am
Have had to go back to Yosemite as printer driver (Fuji Xerox) has not been upgraded and Fuij Xerox currently say this will not be available for 2 months! Abundant caution required before upgrading!
Martine
10/19/2015 at 11:42 pm
Why doesn’t my screensaver work anymore?
parkerrsmith
12/23/2015 at 8:38 am
Mine doesn’t work either!
Edward
10/21/2015 at 3:37 am
My printer won’t work, my external USB drive won’t mount. What a joke is El Capitan.
Rico
10/22/2015 at 12:56 am
Just to give a positive news, I upgraded and everything works fine (better than Yosemite actually) on a late 2013 rMBP 15′.
Just Bluetooth is not working properly atm but its a behaviour in OS X thats been like this for a long time …
georgenxGeorgenx
10/27/2015 at 4:33 pm
I keep hanging on a restart…Have to restart in Recovery mode , re insatll El Capitan and everything is hunky dory. But when you restart again…. back to square one……..
S ARUNACHALAM
10/27/2015 at 11:42 pm
I upgraded to OS X EI CAPITAN in my new MACBOOK and it seems to have screwed up my security settings in icloud, my system login password etc. I am 100% sure that I entered my correct password and now it is not letting me in icloud inspite of a reset.
Carl Erik Eriksson
10/28/2015 at 5:18 am
Upgraded to El Capitan. Now I can not use mail. When I start it it tells me to enter an account – I use iCloud. When I log in I get the message that my computer is already logged in – then nothing happens in mail.
Brigitte
10/29/2015 at 1:42 am
Installed El Capitan and now my bluetooth is not available anymore. Tried the button on top of the screen, tried the system preferences, but I can’t get it activated. Also the solutions offered in HELP are not helpful at all, they don’t even mention the problem.
Ellie
10/29/2015 at 6:25 pm
Since upgrading to El Capitan, both my Epson WF-3540 and my HP Officeject 4500 keep printing blank pages. WHY is that and how do I fix. Downloaded updated drives as instructed by Apple but it still prints blank pages.
George Austin
11/02/2015 at 3:47 pm
Never, ever, no matter what they threaten you with, should you download this piece of shit
Paul
11/06/2015 at 9:14 am
I can not highlight text to copy or delete on my MBP el capitan system, when I try to I just get the dictionary of the closest word. any advice, also I can not drag and drop? sort to the same problem, When I click on the track pad the file or video opens.
Holly
11/06/2015 at 6:34 pm
After reading all of this I’m staying with Yosemite.
Mike Hunt
11/10/2015 at 7:07 pm
My main computer is a 2011 MacBook Pro. I upgraded to El Capitan when it became available. I was consistent with upgrades because they are supposed to improve things for you. Here’s my experience.
1. The Beachball is the best working piece of software in it.
2. Suddenly when I went to add an appointment to Calendars today, I found all the calendars I had created long ago were suddenly gone. No idea where they went. They were there a couple days ago as I added an event on one of them.
3. App Store said there was an update. It was for the developer tools that I do keep up to date as well. App Store would not upgrade it. It looks like it’ll work then do NOTHING. Repeating attempts get me nowhere.
4 Disk Utility can’t repair something on the disk. I got restarted and with nothing open the computer is still VERY SLOW with the beachball.
5. Now I’m doing a fresh install. Restarted with Command R again and skipped Disk Utility as it didn’t work the first time. This is a fresh install and I just hope it saves my photos in a folder somewhere. I have most of them backed up as far as I know and most in the last year on an SD card so I should be ok. I’m mainly concerned with the older stuff though.
I’m very disappointed with El Capitan and Apple in general. It seems they are getting shoddier with every upgrade. I’ll really reconsider replacing the Macbook with another Apple in the future. I just may go Linux/FreeBSD. At least when you don’t pay anything for the software marginal operation is expected. They almost do a better job than Apple these days. Currently typing this on FreeBSD 10.2 with XFCE Desktop and Chromium Browser.
Apple you are really starting to PO people with this crap software.
Oshi Nushions
11/11/2015 at 8:49 pm
Well, it’s great to know the beachball is the best working piece of software in it. I’m just installing El Capitan because of the easily excitable beachball in Yosemite. :-(
Cris
11/18/2015 at 1:48 am
HI i have update to el capitan in Spanish and now when i type any word that contains “if” in a mail with the mail app automaticaly it replaces for a small “e”. Ex: Notie cations
Thanks
Richard Woods
11/23/2015 at 3:41 am
My only issue with OSX 10.11.1 is that Preview, very suddenly, completely stopped working. I tried to re-launch it several times without luck. I then did a complete restart – still no luck – then I tried launching Preview with the SHIFT key held down, and, bingo! Preview has launched and I have been able to use it now for at least 15 minutes without any problems.
Time will tell I guess but if this HOLD DOWN SHIFT AT LAUNCH of Preview trick helps anyone else… you are welcome :-)
I can’t do without Preview. It is so much faster than Adobe Reader when scrolling through long documents.
Jerry
01/13/2016 at 2:23 pm
Thank you so much for the tip of holding the shift key while opening the Preview App.
It worked. I just updated to 10.11.2 a couple of days ago. Didn’t try preview till a couple of days later and kept getting error. Been driving me buggy till your tip. Thanks again.
Last couple of days been having to use photoshop.
Edwin
11/26/2015 at 2:51 pm
No problems at all, use it for a week now. The only ‘problem’ was to find a working copy of Parallels 11…
Adrienne
12/08/2015 at 6:29 pm
My computer no longer recognizes my Airport Time Capsule and I do not know what to do. Why should I have to pay for someone to help me with this if it is Apple’s screw up.. They should give me free support
Deb
12/28/2015 at 9:11 am
While I am happy that I am not the only one who has lost all of their photos…has anybody found them? All of of family photos were nicely organized in the picture folders…now gone. Poof.
Garylking
01/01/2016 at 8:20 am
1=20 my buddy’s sister makes $89 /hour on the laptop . She has been unemployed for nine months but last month her payment was $13669 just working on the laptop for a few hours.
you can check here… See More
Rob Moitoza
01/06/2016 at 7:52 pm
I recently upgraded to El Capitan and what it mainly did was make my computer take way longer to start, and way longer to load things. Computers come with an operating system that works best for that computer. Knowing what I do now I’d never upgrade unless I absolutely had to. The disadvantages far outweigh any advantages I have been able to see.
tyford
02/05/2016 at 1:54 pm
This is also my experience with a macbook pro. What a huge disappointment!
Slow as molasses and some of the emails I receive are blank.
How about some help there Apple?
Shabodien
01/15/2016 at 11:51 pm
Why oh why did I download El Capitan? Outlook freezes evefrytime… Very, very frustrating…
Mike Hunt
01/16/2016 at 7:40 am
I just upgraded my HDD in the MacBook Pro to a Solid State Drive. Much nicer. No noise. No fan. No heat. And it responds and the beach ball doesn’t show up. I guess an HDD can start to have read/write problems after about 5 years and the demand put on it by El Capitan caused lots of spinners. I recommend upgrading as the El Capitan speed problems have not appeared. If you are having problems it could be because of the new OS and the old hardware.
Xavier
02/02/2016 at 1:05 pm
Mike
I have a Mac Book Pro as well. Where did you find an SSD drive and what is the capacity? Is it difficult to install?
Thanks for your help
Mike Hunt
02/02/2016 at 8:14 pm
I found it at Canada Computers and installed it easily. The instructions to do this are online. even an Apple link to tell you how easy it is.
wizbang_fl
01/23/2016 at 7:56 pm
Stay away from 10.11.3 upate for El Capitan for now. Particularly if you have pre-2013 hardware as there seem to be bugs with the EFI Firmware on older machines.
wybe
02/02/2016 at 1:39 pm
Hi, I have a 2009 macbook pro, but installed a SDD drive, i am still using snowleopard. heard about all the problems with el capitan, but can’t find yosemite to download. Would you still advice against installing el capitan?
wybe
02/02/2016 at 1:40 pm
n
BMartin
02/08/2016 at 7:09 am
Shortly after installing El Capitan, my Wifi stopped working completely.
Claretha Rice
02/20/2016 at 6:04 am
Computer freezes during download. I am trying to cancel El Capitan system
. Will go back to Yosemite
Steve
02/22/2016 at 3:26 am
It’s a complete joke. I’ve uninstalled and switched to Windows 10. It works extremely well. Final nail in the coffin, Apple. All your products are designed to fail on older machines. I’ve woken up to that. No more crapapple for me.
scott
03/04/2016 at 9:59 am
anybody having issues with “download files” NOT opening with El Capitan? Specifically; my Sketchup files saved to desktop won’t open. says something about iPhoto not compatible and not available in US! What’s up with this?
wybe
03/05/2016 at 6:04 am
Hi all, after reading up on all the problems one hardly dares upgrading my macbook pro from late 2009 from snow leopard to El capitan….however i took the advice to heart, made 2 separate backups, upgraded all the apps and installed El Capitan. Initially there were a few problems (had to do with firewall and some malware) but the super good apple customer service employee helped me extremely well. I am soooo happy now with my very fast laptop! Hurray!
Ann Millard
03/07/2016 at 2:18 pm
I hate El Capitan. I had my desktop upgraded and now I can’t figure out how to access all of my old photos or add new photos. (no iPhoto???!!!) I depend on my laptop for this function (one of the main reasons I have a laptop). I don’t want to upgrade, so will continue to use Safari and Firefox. Hopefully, I won’t have to give up my computer until 2017, when I will no longer be teaching distance delivery classes. When I’m 70, I won’t need my computer since I don’t do Facebook or Twitter (which I think is for TWITS!) I don’t have cell phone service where I live in Eagle, Alaska and have access through HughesNet (350MB per day limit for about $100 per month. Not everyone is able to get on to the digital world. I’ll be happy when I’m done with it.
Joan M
03/27/2016 at 3:02 pm
just upgraded to El Capitan 10.11.4 and Time machine is running very slow. Clock in menu bar not turning.
Tara
04/20/2016 at 11:55 am
Where are my photos?? I am desperate! There is no more iPhoto, and none of the photos are in Photos. Any word on how this can be fixed if at all?
John
05/09/2016 at 10:18 pm
I have to say that I have had more problems with my newest MAC, both hardware and OS X, than I had with prior Mac Book Pro’s. In a period of six months I had to have three motherboards replaced, including a bad ethernet adapter. I have lost two hard drives and one display. The good news is that it was all free of charge. When I tried to go to Yosemite it was a nightmare.I had to restore from time machine three times before I got a workable install. Thus, I have little desire to move to El Capitan. Ive been writing software of one kind or another for thirty years and I have been using a flavor of UNIX/Linux since 1998. I have to say that OS X appears to become more problematic as time has passed. Don’t get me wrong I love my MAC, but if I’m going to pay a premium price, then I deserve a premium product.
What is most notable to me is that when Tim Cook took over during Steve Jobs illness and after his death is when I noticed that the problems were more serious and more frequent. I know that Apple lost a significant amount of creativity with the death of Steve Jobs, but it also seems that the drive to sell a computer that is as free as possible of defects, both in the hardware and software, also left with Steve Jobs. It strikes me that Tim Cook may be cutting corners both in delivery of a superior hardware product and a thoroughly tested O/S platform and software applications, which would improve the bottom line over the short term. However, if the hardware and software continue to deteriorate, some of Apple’s most ardent supporters may not be able to justify the premium price for a product that functions no better than a PC. Then Mr Cook will have to justify those short term profits, relative to the loss of long term customers due to product reliability concerns and as a result reduced product sales.
David A Lawton
06/27/2016 at 8:09 pm
EL capitan is a bloody joke.
I have NVER had a computer play up like it has since loading EC
Spent three days at Apple Broadway then I am told OH it is a problem caused by Google…what an insult I don’t use Google.
Spent hours on the phone still this thing has a mind of its own…really pissed off.
david
Australia