Hate 10.12.1 Need urgent help

[Tom H.]

I downloaded 10.12.1 a few days ago and have had nothing but problems. Biggest is connectivity to the internet. I can go to gmail, read my mail and want to go from there to Facebook and it will not connect. I have to shut down my computer, modem and rouder and re-stat all devices.

Then I go to facebook and want to switch to my banking institution, it will not conntect to my bank, so I shut down the compu ter,

 

[honestone]

Need some more info:

1. What exact Mac model do you have?

2. How did you "get to" OS 10.12.1? Were you initially using OS 10.12? Also, how did you "upgrade" from your prior OS, what OS was that?

3. Have you ever done any disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs?

4. Are you making backups to an external device?

5. Before you upgraded to Sierra, did you insure that all your third party software was compatible with Sierra?

 

[Tom H.]

Need some more info:

1. What exact Mac model do you have?

2. How did you "get to" OS 10.12.1? Were you initially using OS 10.12? Also, how did you "upgrade" from your prior OS, what OS was that?

3. Have you ever done any disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs?

4. Are you making backups to an external device?

5. Before you upgraded to Sierra, did you insure that all your third party software was compatible with Sierra?

1.

 

[Tom H.]

1. iMac 21.5 mid 2011 I have several different Macs; I believe this one was Lion, but I don't know how to verify that
2. I downloaded it from the internet
3 . No
4. On occasion
5. Have no clue of how to do that.

 

[Tom H.]

Sorry. I didn't get this in one the previous message.........Am now believing my problem is a modem problem. Cable tech coming out Wednesday.
Will let you know

 

[honestone]

1. iMac 21.5 mid 2011 I have several different Macs; I believe this one was Lion, but I don't know how to verify that
2. I downloaded it from the internet
3 . No
4. On occasion
5. Have no clue of how to do that.

#1: Click on the Black Apple Icon at the top left corner of your screen, and select "About This Mac". The next screen that appears will have the OS and machine information on it.

#2: So, I suspect you just upgraded "in place". If you have had your machine for a while (even if it was purchased used), it most likely has gone through a few other Operating Systems. At times, it's best to do a complete new, "virgin" installation of the OS.

#3: Why not? There are some things you can do on your own, like delete stuff on a daily basis that you no longer need, permanently remove deleted Emails, etc.

#4: When you say "On occasion", how often is that? And what software are you using?

#5: Launch the app, then go to the App's title near the top left hand corner of the screen, click on it, and one of the selections you will see is "About "app's name"". For example, I am using Google Chrome as I type this. When I do what I said, it says "About Google Chrome". Selecting it will show me the version number. You can use it to see if that version is compatible with the OS you are using.

 

[honestone]

Sorry. I didn't get this in one the previous message.........Am now believing my problem is a modem problem. Cable tech coming out Wednesday.
Will let you know

Even if that is the issue, you should follow what I said in my post right above this. It will keep your Mac running smoothly, although there are some more things you need to do.

 

[honestone]

1. iMac 21.5 mid 2011 I have several different Macs; I believe this one was Lion, but I don't know how to verify that

If you upgraded directly from Lion to Sierra (OS 10.12.1 full installer?), that could cause some issues, especially with versions of any third party software you are using. In fact, that is definitely risky to attempt such a HUGE upgrade (you basically skipped 4 in between Mac OS versions).

 

[honestone]

Regarding my post about about third party apps and compatibility, you can use this site to find out about this:

http://roaringapps.com/apps

The best way to use it is to 1) click on Options, 2) "remove/de-select" El Capitan, Yosemite, and Mountain Lion, 3) "remove/de-select" iOS10 and iOS9, and 4) "remove/de-select" Windows 10 and Windows 8.1. You'll just be left with Sierra, and you can then search any app you want for compatibility.

 

[Tom H.]

1.
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac12,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.5 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Boot ROM Version: IM121.0047.B23
SMC Version (system): 1.71f22
Serial Number (system): C02H4RF5DHJF
Hardware UUID: CE780A73-2F65-5905-8435-59B10C268F0E

Maybe that is what you want to know. I bought it new.

2.
I guess I upgraded in place, whatever that means. As I said above, I believe it was Lion, but I have no way of finding out unless you can tell me how. About this Mac says OS Sierra 10.12.1

3
Why not? Because I don't know how.

4.
I back up only a couple of times a year.

5. Thank you for the information. I am copying and pasting to a word doc so I can file it where I can find it.

6. The original question has not been addressed. Can I uninstall Sierra? And if so, will this machine revert back to the previous OS?

Or am I just going to keep screwing things up?

 

[Tom H.]

If you upgraded directly from Lion to Sierra (OS 10.12.1 full installer?), that could cause some issues, especially with versions of any third party software you are using. In fact, that is definitely risky to attempt such a HUGE upgrade (you basically skipped 4 in between Mac OS versions).

I know I am ignorant on a scale of 1-10, I rate about a 2. I still want to know IF there is a way to find out exactly what my previous OS is for this machine. I don't pay a lot of attention to that kind of stuff because I'm not a geek and my Macs generally perform flawlessly. From my stand point, it is generally not necessary, but I'm beginning to believe it may be..
So my question is: I still want to know IF there is a way to find out exactly what my previous OS is for this machine.

 

[Tom H.]

Regarding my post about about third party apps and compatibility, you can use this site to find out about this:

http://roaringapps.com/apps

The best way to use it is to 1) click on Options, 2) "remove/de-select" El Capitan, Yosemite, and Mountain Lion, 3) "remove/de-select" iOS10 and iOS9, and 4) "remove/de-select" Windows 10 and Windows 8.1. You'll just be left with Sierra, and you can then search any app you want for compatibility.

Copied and pasted. Thank you for all your help.

 

[honestone]

First, based on the identifier iMac12.1, this is your machine:

http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...inch-aluminum-mid-2011-thunderbolt-specs.html

Secondly according to that link, that machine came pre-installed with OS 10.6.6, which was Snow Leopard (the last version of that OS was 10.6.8). Also, here is some more OS info (from that link):

"*This system fully supports the last version of OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion", OS X 10.9 "Mavericks", and OS X 10.11 "Yosemite" except for Power Nap functionality. It also supports the last version of OS X 10.11 "El Capitan" -- including Mac-to-Mac AirDrop and AirPlay Mirroring capability -- but no other advanced features are supported including Metal graphics acceleration. It is capable of running macOS Sierra (10.12) as well, although it does not support the Universal Clipboard, Auto Unlock, or Apple Pay features.

Please note that OS X "Lion" 10.7 and subsequent versions of OS X are not capable of running Mac OS X apps originally written for the PowerPC processor as these operating systems do not support the "Rosetta" environment. To run PowerPC applications on this Mac, it will be necessary to use Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard"

Note all the caveats about any OS above 10.11 (Yosemite; I don't know what Power Nap is). And especially note the statements about apps originally written for the PowerPC Processor. If you never upgraded the OS since you purchased the machine, it looks like you were upgrading from OS 10.6.6 to OS 10.12.1. I am not aware of any actual way of determining what OS you upgraded from, unless it is on an "older" Time Machine Backup. I do not use Time Machine for my backups, preferring SuperDuper!. Maybe someone else can help you better with that.

By the way, when did you purchase the machine, and from which vendor? Directly from Apple?

For disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs, I provided some basics for you. There are a couple of other things you can do which do not require spending any additional funds, but the first thing you need to decide on is which OS you want to get back to. There are some steps you need to take first, though, before beginning such a project. It would be good to know when was the last time you made a backup. And again, you need to tell us what software you used for that.