The OS X El Capitan update is almost 9 months old and we have seen a number of new updates in OS X 10.11. Another update is on the way, even as Apple prepares macOS Sierra for users this fall. Despite all the good it brings, there are some OS X El Capitan issues in 2016 that users should be aware of.
The good news is that the OS X 10.11.5 update and other similar updates have fixed various issues and issues for most users. If you’re already on OS X El Capitan, the update can fix some of the most annoying issues.
While many parts of OS X 10.11 are similar to OS X Yosemite, a new system font and new features – plus a performance boost – round out the collection of new features. Along with the system-wide changes, there are also some bugs and issues.
Here’s what you need to know about OS X El Capitan issues.
Here’s what you need to know about OS X El Capitan issues, including what we’ve learned about how to fix common OS X 10.11 issues and other important details.
OS X El Capitan Updates Fix Many Issues
We’ve seen a number of long-running download OS X El Capitan issues when the new version of OS X arrived, but that’s no longer an issue. If you’re upgrading from OS X Yosemite to OS X El Capitan in 2016, the only speed limitation will be your computer’s. We haven’t seen speed issues with smaller OS X 10.11.x updates.
Originally Office 2016 for Mac didn’t work with OS X El Capitan, but updates from Apple and Microsoft fixed most of these issues. If you’re still experiencing these issues, upgrade to the latest version of OS X El Capitan and the latest version of Office.
We’ve seen an issue where the MacBook Pro Retina freezes while on OS X El Capitan, but the latest OS X 10.11.
We found that some audio apps and hardware didn’t work well with OS X El Capitan, but back in November updates this solved some of the problems.
Major Problems Not Common
While there are certainly some OS X El Capitan issues, they seem to have been isolated so far. We didn’t see any widespread complaints about show-stopping issues with WiFi, battery life, or Bluetooth.
If there were major issues, we would see users posting their complaints very quickly on social media; this is something we’ve seen with OS X WiFi issues in previous years. Apple included fixes for WiFi connectivity in recent OS X updates that helped resolve some issues.
The great news is that reports of OS X El Capitan performance on older Macs are solid, and OS X El Capitan battery life isn’t a common complaint we see.
How to Fix OS X El Capitan Issues
If you start your Mac after installing OS X El Capitan or a smaller update and you have problems, you can take some steps to fix them yourself.
You may eventually need professional help, but we can direct you to seek free help for your problems.
We’ve gathered the most common OS X El Capitan problems and how to fix them in a handy guide that will fix most of your problems without the need to speak to an Apple Genius.
The next two stops should be Apple Discussion Forums and MacRumors forums here you will find private users who offer free help. None of these users are paid and are not officially at Apple, so you shouldn’t be asking for a fix.
You may also have the chance to perform a clean install of OS X El Capitan.
You can downgrade to Yosemite
If you’re having problems you can’t handle, you can revert to Yosemite and what worked before you installed OS X El Capitan.
This is more complicated than clicking undo, but if you have a Time Machine backup from before the upgrade, you can restore it and revert to what worked.
More information on how to downgrade from OS X El Capitan to Yosemite can be found here.
OS X – What’s Next for macOS?
The next OS X El Capitan update is already in public testing with a host of fixes.
OS X 10.11.6 is available as a developer beta. We don’t know what fixes are included in this update, but it’s likely to address bugs, stability and security.
Following that, we may see more OS X 10.11.x updates to fix issues and bugs as the update is released. The next big update to the software that runs your Mac is macOS Sierra. Apple changed its name from OS X to macOS in June 2016.
There is a developer beta of the new macOS Sierra software available now, and a public beta of macOS Sierra in June. The following slides show what’s new in macOS Sierra compared to OS X El Capitan.
Support our work ❤️
If you enjoyed this article, consider leaving a tip to help us keep publishing great content.
