Every year at WWDC in June, Apple unveils the upcoming MacOS system. MacOS 14 Sonoma was released on September 26, 2023. Despite its relatively quick release, it seems far from polished. Users have been complaining since its launch about numerous bugs and malfunctions, irritating users with issues like spontaneous restarts, unresponsive external drives, and even kernel panics.
Although Apple has released MacOS 14.1 and 14.1.1 as functional and bug-fix updates, improving the system’s quality and addressing some obvious problems like functional hard drives and reduced crashes, MacOS Sonoma still has numerous issues that continue to frustrate users.
Mac users are still reporting a myriad of problems with MacOS Sonoma, not just on the Apple forum but also in a lengthy Reddit thread and other forums. These issues range from malfunctioning Finder and desktop functions such as missing Control Center, crashing Finder windows, erratic icons, to slow file transfers.
For many users, Airdrop, Handoff, and Continuity aren’t working smoothly. Some Apple Silicon owners have noticed a general sluggishness in the system post-upgrade, including slow wake-up from sleep mode.
Moreover, there seem to be apparent issues with the graphics system on Macs running Sonoma: users report visual glitches, graphical lags, and flickering cursors. External displays are not being recognized or are being improperly handled. Users with eGPUs complain about system crashes when disconnecting.
Additionally, there are problems with USB ports and fans spinning at high speeds. Given these flaws in Sonoma, the almost traditional Wi-Fi and Bluetooth issues that have occurred with almost every MacOS upgrade over the years hardly stand out anymore. Bluetooth peripherals or Wi-Fi connections to routers not functioning smoothly are not unique to Sonoma but remain a very annoying problem. Some users also report Macs running Sonoma getting confused with the system time.
Lost files, a corrupted Photos library
Apart from these functional bugs, Sonoma also has numerous smaller issues that can unnecessarily hinder daily work. For instance, a user in the Apple forum reports a “object permanence problem” with Stage Manager, where the alternative Mac interface constantly loses app focus.
Occasionally, certain hotkeys are missing or changed without reason, making work with Pages, Numbers, and other apps challenging due to reliance on muscle memory. There are also printing system issues affecting PDF files. Among the more perplexing problems are reports of lost files or even a corrupted Photos library.
There seem to be significant issues with Apple’s Mail app in Sonoma as well: from slow text rendering to lost folders and emails during upgrades, to mishandling attachments. In some cases with iCloud mail accounts, emails might not even arrive. The Spotlight search also appears to malfunction in the Mail app since the Sonoma upgrade.
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