Sign In:     

Forum: VirtualDJ Technical Support

Topic: Update Safe To Do For Virtual DJ
? Is It Safe To Update To Sonoma 14.0 Now.
 
Posted Thu 28 Sep 23 @ 5:43 pm
Same question - I have a new Mac coming tomorrow and it ships with Sonoma.
 
I've had a long day with Apple. I couldn't install Sonoma as there is something in my computer that is causing a problem as it did with Ventura last year, same problem 'Failed to personalise the software update'. For the last year, I couldn't update all the security updates directly. I had to force shut down and start the computer into startup options, then reinstall Ventura from there taking 3-5 hours each time. It has been an absolute pain.

I contacted Apple Support after hours of attempts with various 'fixes' found on the internet and spent 40 minutes trying to find a solution. Eventually, they booked me into the Apple Store. I explained the situation to them and they said an engineer should look at it. Left it with them then got a call 30 minutes later with an update, they didn't have the installation required and it would be another hour. They said that the installation included various firmware updates and should be fine as they had to completely wipe the internal SSD. I told them that I had backed everything up with the Time Machine before travelling there. I went home with it as a brand new machine and started the process of reinstalling from the Time Machine, which took 5 hours.🙄

On testing the last 5 hours I had major crashes and freezes that were impossible to get out of. I had to crash out of it and restart in Safe Mode til I found the culprits;

Live Wallpaper HD by Voros Innovation (the Free version)
Living Weather & Wallpapers HD also by Voros Innovation (the paid version)
and surprisingly Audacity recording software. Report sent to them.

Since removing these from my computer all is well so far. I've only briefly tried the latest Early Access of VirtualDJ and all seems to be well, I'll try some more tomorrow (it's 4 a.m. here).

I was happy to dive into Sonoma as I have another 5-year-old Touchbar Mac for gig work if necessary. I can't install Sonoma on that one, too old at 5 years old.🤷‍♂️ The main thing to check is 'Do you need drivers?'. I use Denon and Numark Controllers that are Class Compliant and don't need drivers so I don't have that problem.

It's a bit risky if it's your main gigging machine, it's your choice, test, test, test.

This has all been written on Sonoma.😊

My Systems Specs;
Main - M1 MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2022), Apple Silicon M1 Pro, 16gb, 500 gb SSD, macOS Sonoma 14.0, VirtualDJ Early Access v2023-m b7689.

Backup - MacBook Pro 15-inch 2018 (Touch Bar), 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7, 16gb 2133 MHz LPDDR3 Memory, Radeon Pro 560 4096 MB, Intel HD Graphics 630 n1536 MB, macOS Ventura 13.6, 500gb SSD. NTFS for Windows installed. VirtualDJ Early Access v2023-i b7689.
+ Bootcamped with Windows 10 Pro Vers. 22H2 x64bit. VirtualDJ Early Access v2023-i b7689.

External WD Passport Ultra 2tb HD formatted ExFat containing Music & Video databases.

Controllers - Denon MC7000, Denon MC6000 Mk2.
***New addition*** Numark Mixstream Pro Go, engine dj 3.2.0

Goodnight......zzzzzzzzz

P.S. I had to re-install Opera One as it had corrupted in the overall process, I don't care for Safari.
 
Thank you for the detailed report.
 
Wow, what a nightmare..! 😱

Incredible that some 3rd party wall paper software can f*ck things up that badly.

Thanks for the report, and glad you are sorted now!
 
Yeh, I still have those Live Weather apps on my 5 year old Intel Touchbar Mac and have used them for years. They basically give you a video desktop wallpaper as well as the weather. Seems like the Apple M series silicon Macs are not happy with them. Just checked and they are still available in the Appstore. One reviewer reported a year ago on the M1 Mac it kept freezing and slow to update.
 
Ive had no problems so far on my mac m1. 10/10 VDJ
 
I have been having a bit of a nightmare with my trusted WD Passport HDs, they were getting corrupted everytime I connected them to Sonoma. I then bought a 2tb Crucial X9 SSD external drive which came pre-formatted for ExFat so interchangeable between macOS & Windows. I still had problems of corruption and being unable to 'mount' the SSD. Eventually I had to 'bite the bullet' and reformatted the SSD to Apple's APFS filing system. The SSD is more responsive and much faster with Apples native formatting and it mounts instantly.

So, it appears that Sonoma works much better with external drives formatted to Apple's native APFS.😊