We spent last week in troubleshooting mode. Most notably, Apple’s iCloud Private Relay was causing connectivity errors for many users, so we explain how to turn it off temporarily. Also, we report on a reproducible bug that crashes Mail if you open its Previous Recipients window and then edit a contact in Contacts. Finally, to encourage more careful troubleshooting techniques, Adam Engst shares his story of a solar inverter connectivity problem that turned out to be related to an optional mode in an uninterruptible power supply. We also briefly share the news about the beta of Apple Maps on the Web and Reddit blocking indexing by search engines other than Google. Notable Mac app releases this week include Airfoil 5.12.2, Audio Hijack 4.4.3, Fission 2.8.6, and Piezo 1.9.3, Little Snitch 6.0.3, Mimestream 1.3.7, and Pixelmator Pro 3.6.5.
We may soon get better sharing of Apple Maps location links with Windows users thanks to the beta of Maps on the Web.
Apple’s iCloud Private Relay traffic anonymization service went down last week for some users, causing various connectivity problems in Safari and other apps. If you experiencing connectivity problems, try turning off iCloud Private Relay temporarily.
Mail will crash if you open its Previous Recipients window and then edit a contact in Contacts. This bug has existed since macOS 12 Monterey and continues to plague the betas of macOS 15 Sequoia.
After failing to reestablish Internet connectivity for his solar panel inverters following a spate of power outages, Adam Engst finally figured out the problem with the help of a support tech who made him break it down into its constituent parts. Read on to learn from his mistakes.
Watchlist
Four Rogue Amoeba audio apps add initial compatibility with macOS 15 Sequoia. ($35/64/35/25 new, free update, various sizes, macOS 10.14.4+)
Maintenance release with improvements and bug fixes for the network traffic management utility. ($59 new, free update, 36.4 MB, macOS 14+)
Brings improved snooze support and faster address autocomplete suggestions to the Gmail-specific email app. ($49.99 new, free update, 12.3 MB, macOS 12+)
Adds extended RAW image support to the image editor. ($49.99 new, free update, 668.1 MB, macOS 12+)
