Before leaving for our travel adventure, I purchased a MacBook to try Loop while we were gone (15 months travel). For the past month (!) I have been frustrated in no small amount by my MacBook.
I am a Windows power user, but only an occasional Mac user, although I know enough to get my work done. I was expecting to have no technical trouble with my Mac (Macbook Pro 2017 no Power Bar), and to be able to spend my time working on Loop.
Instead, I have spent so far more than 60 hours in the past month simply trying to get my MacBook to upgrade to the latest iOS. An auto-upgrade failed when I turned it on for the first time, and created a situation where simply getting it to boot is a hard task. My wifi is poor, and succeeding in getting 2GB files downloaded (the size of an upgrade) takes more than a week, because downloads fail so often. Every upgrade I have tried so far has failed… So I have not been able to successfully upgrade this machine: a humiliating record for a software engineer.
In other words, I really regret this purchase—although I am still gung-ho about trying Loop. I have not been able to spend a minute on progressing with Loop. Instead, I am still struggling to simply get this computer to work properly after over a month.
The thought that a MacBook is reliable enough for your grandmother is a fiction. It requires as much expert knowledge as a Windows machine.
Venting. I needed this
[EDIT] Ultimately, the purpose of this thread is to document what it takes for a Windows user to adapt to the Apple ecosystem for the purpose of Looping. Is Loop worth it, or should the platform choice for a Windows user be OpenAPS because the cost of switching is too high? I don’t know yet.
That sucks! Wish I could help. I’m a Mac user but I don’t think Mac is necessarily better as an operating system. But after having three supposedly reliable Windows computers that failed repeatedly and one that caught on fire, I felt like I could trust the hardware on a Mac more. If there are problems, at least they’ll be the same problems if you have the same version of the computer. I found that with Windows computers you could buy a supposedly reliable model and 3 months later it would be manufactured in a totally different factory and therefore have problems that users who bought theirs earlier would not. Which meant that reviews and word of mouth were sort of useless.
@Michel, I feel your pain. I find that the other issue we have had with the Macbook Pro we own, is that the ability to upgrade it is purposely difficult which encourages the purchase of newer products. Yet we have a Macbook Pro from 2008 that has the most amazing screen but is basically a brick because it takes over an hour to boot and 5-6 seconds to perform each mouse click, yet I still boot it up once in a while to view that lovely screen…
Really wish we could do a motherboard replacement and get a modern processor to go along with that screen rather than just recycle the thing.
Is there a possibility you could overnight it (or two/three days) to have it upgraded, then shipped back to you by the same method, overnight (or two/three days)?
It is harder around here: I purchased it in the US, but we are now in Spain, in a small town. No Apple store within 120 miles, and international shipping is horribly expensive:-)
Bummer. I’ll keep sending good thoughts your way that you’re able to get it updated soon; that has to be very frustrating! I’m not a mac user either, but my children have/use macs and love them. I really want to loop, once it becomes available with omnipods, but I’ll have to have my children’s help with the mac component! LOL
Does Loop require the latest Mac OS (seems unlikely, but that’s a guess)? If not, why not give up on the upgrade and use the version that came installed until you have better WiFi.
I think the issue is you need to be an Apple “developer” to set it up and keep it updated, if I remember correctly? So you need a functioning Mac to do the setup.
I do have to keep it updated. But, even if I didn’t, right now my computer bricks on every restart, after that failed auto-update shortly after I turned it on. Whenever I get it unbricked, to get any work done I need to keep it from restarting until my next upgrade trial, after which it bricks again…
Well. I finally succeeded in completing a full latest version upgrade. Now If I could just solve my black screen of death problem…
Question: does anyone have a problem with their MacBook taking forever to reconnect with a wifi router after sleep? My MacBook takes several minutes to reconnect after coming back from sleep every time (much slower than any other computer here). Quite frustrating as I keep it on battery most of the time, so it goes to sleep quickly. I have to disconnect/reconnect wifi 20 times a day.
Sorry to hear of your troubles. I’m also a windows user who got a macbook pro for loop and it’s my first experience with the mac. But it’s working without issues for me (except for side-effects of my ignorance, like finding out how to right-click, and figuring out the directory structure and how to cause a running program to completely quit.) My happier experience might just be that I have good wifi and didn’t suffer lingering damage from a failed upgrade. I wish you had enough network connectivity available to do a complete wipe and fresh install. Any friends with real hardwire internet (and you’d need the ethernet / USB3 adapter.)
I purchased a usb-c hub station with an Ethernet port for that purpose, but it did not work with the MacBook. So I ordered the Apple Ethernet dongle in the US, a friend will being it over in a few weeks. Hopefully before Xmas I’ll be wired!
My upgrade problems are now over. I have successfully withstood an automatic upgrade from my last full manual upgrade and all happened well.
I don’t seem to have fully recovered from the “black screen of death,” a Mac phenomenon where sometime in the boot process you end up with a fully black screen, no response to any input, and seemingly no way to proceed. It still appears to happen to me, although much less often than before. It used to be every boot-up. Now it is once in a while. I have gone through every recommended operation that I could find, whenever I consider the source trustworthy, but I still seem to encounter it occasionally. Frustrating. On the other hand, I have always been able to recover from it.
My Apple “Thunderbolt to Ethernet Adaptor” dongle just arrived from the US through a visiting friend’s backpack. Imagine my frustration when I realized that this dongle is actually a regular Thunderbolt (version 1) port, not a Thunderbolt 3. So I still don’t have a way to go wired, and it will likely be at least a month before I can get more hardware.
My wifi connectivity is still the pits. All our other (windows) computers and phones have no problem reconnecting quickly to our continuously flaky wifi. But my MacBook appears to require 10-20 Wifi switch-ons and switch-offs per day, otherwise I have to wait for several minutes (or more) until it automatically reconnects. I am sure this has to do with my antiquated wifi router here. Nonetheless, it is immensely frustrating.
So far, I have spent about 150 hours diagnosing and fixing computer problems, when I was hoping to be programming Loop in that time. With my flaky wifi it is quite hard to work for a few solid hours per day. So I am putting aside my Loop project for another month or so, until I can get properly wired.
I am now thinking that it may have been a mistake to go with Loop rather than OpenAPS. A the time it seemed to be the right thing to do, but I severely underestimated the possible cost of switching to an Apple platform.
Clearly, much of this has to do with the logistically problems of doing this all on the road, and in towns and cities with poor infrastructure. Nonetheless, I am starting to regret this choice. Mostly, I am unhappy about the time uselessly spent: I am not old but I have passed the age where time seems to be a free staple. I see all these hours I could have spent doing useful work, or enjoying my family, and I can’t help feeling how wasteful this has been so far.
Hopefully I will feel better about this in a couple of months
Note: as often happens, it took me several minutes to post this back on the forum, as my computer had, again, lost its wifi connection and was not able to auto-reconnect in a timely manner. I had to switch my wifi on/off twice, and swear a few choice words. Rats!
I know I am boring everyone here But I scored a big victory today: I finally got a working USB-C to Ethernet Adapter (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014FBQ738/) and I am not on WiFi any more!!!
The relief is tremendous. No more connectivity interruptions 30 times a day. As the masochist used to say, it feels so good when it stops !
Unfortunately, because of work schedule et al, I don’t have any time to work on Loop until January at earliest. These nonstop problems cost us a big opportunity.
And here I was thinking that you had thrown in the towel and were just full time vacationing in fabulous Europe. Imagine my surprise when we find out you are cheating on your retirement and working…/s
It’s been very lackadaisical But now I there is some pressure as I need to finish a book (that has not been moving forward very fast…) before March 1. So the rush is on!
But I scored a big victory today: I finally got a working USB-C to Ethernet Adapter (
But now I there is some pressure as I need to finish a book (that has not been moving forward very fast…) before March 1. So the rush is on!