Apple acknowledges Snow Leopard data loss issue

For the past month, some Mac OS X users have been reporting their personal data missing after logging into their guest accounts, and Apple now says it's working on finding a fix.

"We are aware of the issue, which occurs only in extremely rare cases, and we are working on a fix," an Apple representative said in a prepared statement Monday.

(Credit: Apple)

It's the first time Apple has said it is looking into the issue. In early September, a handful of Mac users reported the issue on Apple's discussion boards. The problem, when it occurs, goes like this, according to CNET's MacFixit: when logging into the guest account on their Mac first and then logging into their regular account, some users are finding all their data to be missing and their accounts completely reset.

It doesn't appear to be a widespread problem--there are fewer than 100 posts on several current discussion threads on the issue--but it's certainly topical. Microsoft is currently dealing with a massive data loss at its Danger subsidiary, the company it acquired that makes the Sidekick mobile phone.

Apple's data loss issue is also yet another problem related to its most recent operating-system release. Snow Leopard has been plagued with bugs since its release, including problems with the Finder hanging or crashing, incompatibility with certain apps, and the AirPort connection dropping.

Although Apple doesn't yet have an answer for why this is occurring, you can check here for some suggested fixes, if you're experiencing the problem.

[mailbox001]

Snow Leopard = Vista (before SP)

[Gold_Storm_Mac]

been running sl for month now and have not experienced any problems. it is much faster and more stable than before in fact.

[SiliconValleyJoe]

Actually, I have used both and are now using both and both have been fine.

Snow Leopard did give me the Airport connection drop problem but not enough to disrupt connections to the network. Vista, except for all the little annoyance as reported, has been reliable and stable. I am not too taken with its UI but our work requires VISTA so it lives.

[tektaktyks]

just wait till u lose all your data

[mailbox001]

I use Carbonite

[Gold_Storm_Mac]

the data is not actually lost. you can still recover it using terminal.

[Agrainofsalt]

Or Time Machine

[MPB]

At lest Apple is quickly fixing the problem unlike Microsoft which took almost a year to bring out SP1

[Mr. Dee]

MBP, actually Microsoft released Performance Updates for Windows Vista way before SP1 was released. Why is it so hard for you to accept when your OS X is a flaw.

[MPB]

ha Mr. Dee

oh i've dealt with you before. I'm not even going to answer.

[BazNZ]

My understanding is the the Vista Service Pack is a Roll-up of earlier invidual fixes - probably more useful for slip-streaming etc...

Is the Snow Leopard Guest account similar to the one in Windows? What is it for? I can't imagine many Windows users would use the one in Windows for instance.

[walker2151]

As with all software and OS?s you can expect there to be bugs. I?ve been using Snow Leopard without any problem since its release. Sometimes you just run into those weird rare cases and it sucks, happens with all technology related things. I buy a PS3 and it fails in a month, I buy a 360 when it came out and even though it supposedly had a 50% failure rate, it?s worked fine. You win some and lose some.

[kewell82]

I think you got the PS3 and the xbox mixed up.

[walker2151]

LOL nope I actually had to return my PS3, but you get the point I?m making.

[rationalreview]

Kewell, that was his point man.

Also, I have the same comment for win7. It is very reliable so far and by far the best OS I've ever used. There will be those rare cases that get a bad wrap for OSX and Win7.

[MPB]

Hey I have had to seem experience with the PS3 and 360. Weird hug?

[ikramerica--2008]

It should be made more clear that the data is not lost, at least not in the way you try to claim it similar to the sidekick data loss, where the data is GONE.

In Snow Leopard, It is seen as gone, but it is still there. The data is not deleted from the HD, and because it's local (not on a cloud), you can get it back. The system simply forgets that your user folder is linked to your user's data, a pain, but not the end of the world.

The fixes have been straight forward from what I've read. You need to use terminal commands (hardly easy for some), but you basically tell the system that your user folder has moved to a new blank folder, then tell it it's moved again back to your original folder.

[Seaspray0]

Fixable, yes... but I no longer want to hear the phrase "it just works" since the OS didn't.

[walker2151]

Mine just worked fine?my vista and windows 7 RC did not, XP did though, and even Vista the second time around for about 8 months, I gave up on windows 7 RC because some things I wanted to use didn?t work for it or were really buggy. People have different experiences, some are rare, some are bad, some are good.

[ikramerica--2008]

It just works compared to the alternative. I switched my Dad and his wife over to Macs because windows was breaking on them. I still get calls from them for support, but other than a wifi issue where an apartment building has 20 some odd wireless networks and things get lost, the only support i have to give is that they keep forgetting how to do the same tasks (like print an envelope from endecia or add an address to the address book), because they are both senile. They JUST WORK.

I've never lost data in OS X, despite about 10 different macs running it over time, from 10.1 through 10.6. And these people haven't lost data either. It's just gone missing for a minute, but it's all there.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Telling a Mac user to use a terminal is likely to be met with blank stares. The entire point of OS X was to insulate end users from the operating system's back end. I would not be comfortable in trying to walk people through using a terminal window. That's just not the sort of thing I want some grandmother doing.

Macs just work- unless they don't. That's true of anything.

[MoFoQ]

that's not true at all.

It actually deletes the home folder and creates a new blank one.

An offline undelete program (Data Rescue II) was not able to recover any of the lost files and folders from the home folder that was nuked by Snow Leopard.
(note that this bug is not the same as the issues in previous versions of MacOSX where the home folder is accidentally "renamed" to something else which can be recovered via several Terminal commands)
And no...the system did not "simply forget"....it deleted everything in the folder and then started afresh.

[DrtyDogg]

You must know a lot more than any of the experts who are claiming that it does indeed delete data, according to appleinsider you need a time-capsule to recover your data.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/10/12/snow_leopard_guest_account_bug_deletes_user_data.html

No problem though I'll just keep my guest account disabled.

[Vegaman_Dan]

@ikramerica--2008:

What's the big deal? So a few people lose their data when the OS flakes and deletes data permamently. It's not like your data is important or anything, right? And you did make regular backups with Time Machine so ... it doesn't really matter if this gets fixed or not. It's a non-issue, right?

[Hanoveur]

The irony is that Mac's "Just Work" yet you need a Genius to fix them when they don't.

[man_w_balls]

RE: VegetableDoof
"Telling a Mac user to use a terminal is likely to be met with blank stares. The entire point of OS X was to insulate end users from the operating system's back end. I would not be comfortable in trying to walk people through using a terminal window. That's just not the sort of thing I want some grandmother doing."

Terminal use is as easy as typing something that you read on screen, in the case where instructions have been prepared for a known fix. Then you press "Enter" - not exactly impossible to comprehend. Let's try an experiment - can you call up Notepad and type exactly "lorem ipsum quad infinitum" , then press the Return key? If you fail to accomplish this simple task, then yes, the Terminal is too hard for you. Otherwise it is not.
BTW, how do you pretend to know what the "entire point of OSX" was? The reason they put in so many system utilities, such as the Unix terminal, is that you can do anything you want to. Having more tools is never a detriment....

[Stormspace]

@Vegeman Dan
"The entire point of OS X was to insulate end users from the operating system's back end."

I think you meant MacOS, and you would be correct. Apples marketing was all about no command line back in the days of Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Looks like they needed it anyway and changed their tune. :)

[csilv99]

"plagued with bugs"? By that definition, *all* software is plagued with bugs. Look, software has bugs, fact of everyday life. Anytime a major release of an operating system occurs, whether it is Apple or anyone else, there are going to be defects that haven't been caught. While this is a serious issue, the millions of users that are running Snow Leopard incident free will suggest that this has been a pretty successful release. And of course, you can expect Apple to quickly fix this one as well.

[Magicland]

Snow Leopard isn't a major release of an operating system, it's a service pack, and as such, shouldn't go breaking things that weren't broken before.

[kewell82]

Once again Apple has a huge issue and they won't admit it or it only happens in "Extreme cases". Just admit that you screwed up for once.

[MPB]

I don't think they have screwed up. Snow leopard is an awesome improvement on Leopard. And there working on a fix.

[ikramerica--2008]

please give us a link to the hugeness of this issue? the 100 or so people who are reporting the issue, out of millions who installed snow leopard? and those people can get their data back...

[Vegaman_Dan]

The have admitted to 'screwing up' before. Look at MobileMe's rocky start.

It's unusual to have them ever acknowledge anything like this and when they do, it's usually much larger than they let on publically.

[Vegaman_Dan]

@ikramerica--2008:

" the 100 or so people who are reporting the issue, out of millions who installed snow leopard? "

That's a hard thing to do with Apple. They have a known habit of deleting threads in the forums that are negative about the products or catch them in embarassing situations. Usually they keep a few threads around about any one topic that might be negative, but it's not unusual for them to simply delete any and all threads about the problem.

Might be better to go look at a non-Apple controlled site instead.

[chowza]

What "huge Issue"?? AFAICS, this is "bug" only occurs under extremely unusually circumstances, i.e. "when logging into the guest account on their Mac first and then logging into their regular account, some users are finding all their data to be missing and their accounts completely reset". As a user of Macs for some 15+ years and OSX since Day 1, I cannot recall a single instance where I needed to login as a "guest", and then log in again to my regular account. Accordingly, there have, apparently, been all of 100 or so complaints about this and, in total, there probably aren't many more than that. For typical users, this problem does not exist. So, again, what "huge issue" are you referring to?

[bmccorm2]

Now Apple doesn't even have to brag about the lack of viruses on their OS (notice i said lack of viruses and not a more secure OS)......you don't even need a virus to delete valuable, user data!

[shycelticwitch]

@ Dan... LOL the proper word is "publicly" and I disagree, it's never really any worse than they say it is, or they would not keep gaining in market share one niche at a time. Mobile Me was a rocky start yes, but the overall improvement to the .Mac cloud is phenomenal, and now that they have fixed the usual "new kid on the block jitters", the whole experience rocks.

[shycelticwitch]

@ Dan... makes me very sad to see you roll out FUD. Can you show us PROOF that Apple corporate deletes threads that complain about them?

[dhavleak]

@ shycelticwitch

http://www.appledefects.com/?p=245
(Apple deleting threads about macbook screen flicker issue)

http://www.appledefects.com/?p=215
(Apple censoring comments on macbook nvidia bugs)

http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=72841
(thread about apple deleting embarrassing tech support threads)

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1624783&tstart=0
(discussion on apple boards about apple's policy of deleting threads that make them look bad)

I don't want to start trolling, so this will be my last comment on this article. Just want to point out something to you in particular -- you post troll-like comments on every Microsoft related article. Hopefully Dans' comments (and the links above backing them up) help you realize that there are two sides to every story.

[Vegaman_Dan]

@Shycelticwitch:

I'm afraid I cannot quote Apple stating that they have deleted threads, but then that would be like asking a thieif if they are guilty, yes?

Besides, @dhavleak has given more than enough examples for me right there alone. It's not an unknown situation.

[nonicks]

yay..

Apple SL is marred with bugs...
Apple SL is marred with bugs...

What will Apple Fanboys do now :D

eat it guys...

[Perry_Clease]

We will continue to use our much superior OS.

[michael_j_x]

they will probably start with "all softwares have bugs" and then proceed to say
"its very easy to fix, hardly an annoyance" and finish with "its a new awsome feature of the OS, that the users did not use properly".
Double standards anyone?

[cbscowards]

What, are you in kindergarten? Grow up!

[michael_j_x]

they will probably start with "all software programs have bugs" and then proceed with "this is easy to fix, hardly an annoyance" and finish with "this is an awsome feature of the OS, the users simply did not use it properly".
Double standards anyone?

[michael_j_x]

sorry for the double post, connection issues anyone?

[MPB]

I think we'll let you have this one. It's not often that a PC user actually gets to say that. (enjoy yourself this is a rare occasion)

I'll just keep using Snow Leopard, (and i guess i'll try to find these bugs you claim it has)

[sharmajunior]

Superior my foot....

Have installed and reinstalled the damn thing [SL] 15 times and it still won't detect my Airport wifi and bluetooth. It was working fine with Leopard but the upgrade messed it up.

Just dropped off my MBP at the Apple store 3 hrs ago and have to wait 2 weeks for the parts to come in and for them to test whats going on!...this is its 2nd breakage in a week.

Just picked it up on Friday after it got its 3rd Logic board and first Ambient light sensor replaced. Now the whole upper body and its sensors and its Airport card has to be replaced. TALK ABOUT QUALITY HARDWARE.

I did not pay a premium for this.. To be without a computer for 4 whole months. Its like a premature baby that needs consistent care and surgery. I have barely gotten to use the damn thing. The most I used it for is was 4 hrs and thats it, after that it went into a frenzy of broken this and broken that...when will this thing end??? They refuse to give me a new laptop. [atleast for now].

[Jeremy Chappell]

This is "a bug". All software has bugs (well trivial software might not... but for all practical purposes all software has bugs). This one is pretty bad, not because you can't recover the situation (you can) but because it's easy to trigger, and if you don't know how to recover the situation it's pretty serious. I'm pretty amazed this made it into the shipping version, but there it is.

If you've got a Mac there is an easy way to stop this:

Disable the guest login. Now if you NEED that functionality, create an account with suitable low privilege (perhaps named "Visitor") and use that. I've heard that disabling guest account then re-enabling it works - but I've not seen this, so I'd get advice from Apple before you rely on that. I guess it's worth stating, unless you actually need guest access don't switch it on (regardless of this bug) the system is harder to compromise if you can't get past the login (Windows, Mac, whatever...)

[Renegade Knight]

@Perry_Clease

I must have missed that memo. Last time I checked OS X was on a par with Windows. Nothing I've seen on either side leads me to believe that either is better than the other overall. In certain areas, yes. Overall. No.

[shycelticwitch]

@Sharmajunior.... perhaps you're not capable of using a Mac? Perhaps a Windows PC might be more suitable.

[aaydogan]

I'm an apple "fanboy," but come one Apple, have you ever heard of something called a QA test plan? If so have you forgotten how to implement it? This kind of crap seems to be happening over and over. Remember the disaster that Leopard was to install on some machines? I realize that it's not possible to think of every scenario for testing, but something as rudimentary as logging in as a guest? Your fans expect better and you detractors are looking for any excuse to denigrate good products. It's not enough just to look cool.

[MPB]

given them a break a fix is coming :)

[cloudmatt]

@aaydogan
You sir are a good mac. You stand for your brand and wish it prosperity and wealth yet are willing to accept fault and place blame. I like mac but personally I'm a PC guy(not a fanboi predication I'm literally sitting and an XP and an OSX system right now). I don't think pc guys hate mac for everything they have going but rather for this whitewash infallible unimpeachable mac. I know PC either Win or Lin is not perfect and it's nice to know that some mac users feel the same.

as for the flaw. sounds like it sux I'm sure mac will fix in a jiff hope it didn't rain on too many parades.

[tektaktyks]

that is really funny

[ywkhgqo]

but i thought it just works?

[cdnjay]

"Snow Leopard has been plagued with bugs since its release..."

Really? I've been running the system since it was released and I've seen nary a problem. Especially in comparison to other releases such as Windows XP, Vista, Ubuntu 8.10, and the original Mac OS X Leopard. There might have been a couple problems but to say it's been "plagued" is taking a bit too much literary license.

CNET always seems to feel the need to prove that Apple isn't perfect whether or not there's basis for the argument in what they're discussing at the time. Thanks CNET, most of your readers already know that there is no such thing as a perfect computer. You can take your journalistic integrity back now.

[baconstang]

"Snow Leopard was plagued with bugs since its release..." As opposed to Vista that has been plagued with bugs since before its release? Win 7 looks to be much better than Vista, but it hasn't been 'released' yet.

[Oso_Grande]

Running SL on 3 macs....works fine but it has had a few glitches w/ iChat and Address Book.

Upgrading to SL from Leopard is a noticeable speed increase, as opposed to Vista which was a speed decrease.

[rationalreview]

While reading I was thinking, wait for it, wait for it, waaaiiiit fooorrrrr itttt, bam, macboy slamming vista to justify is medicore OS. Like clockwork.

[cs2cdfan]

Vista is done, say Windows 7 coward.

Windows 7 is going to wipe out Mac like the Jedi.

[Renegade Knight]

@cs2cdfan

7 isn't going to wipe out anything. 7 isn't really better than SL so the debate over which is better isn't enough to amount to a hill of meh.

[biggstuu]

Llagued with bugs?!?!? Score one for Erica Ogg in the sensationalism column. Funny how she contradicts herself by saying "It doesn't appear to be a widespread problem--there are less than 100 posts on several current discussion threads on the issue--but it's certainly topical."

It's not a widespread issue, but people are talking about it. Snow Leopard is so plagued with bugs CNET reviews rated it Excellent saying, "Hidden among smaller tweaks are some technical improvements that result in a smoother, easier-to-use Leopard with plenty for Mac fans to be excited about. The user interface and everyday tasks feel faster in general" So again Erica plagued? Really? Captain Crunch journalism school having their alumni reunion yet?

[djseeram]

All huge software undertakings, by Apple or anyone else, are bound to have a few bugs. That's why back ups are essential.

Why mention Microsoft in the article, Erica? Sure sounds like an attempt to down play the MAC issue.

[adhetola]

OK, SL has a bug, and Apple has just admitted it; fair enough. I can't seem to understand how or where the last sentence in paragraph-4 relates to the article. Why make such random comment in an article and provide no logical explanation/reason as to why such comment is/was included? Perhaps I'm missing something ? :@

[shel243]

Perhaps she meant the topical nature of the lost data issue in SL in terms of the lost data in the sidekick situation....doesn't seem like such a random comment to me.

[Thor92519]

go ahead and call me a fanboy if you want. I have been using a mac laptop for the past four years and have loved it. I upgraded to Snow Leopard and I have not had any problems. Do I say that any software is perfect? No. For those people who are saying that apple does not admit to mistakes you have not been reading the faqs very well. Apple admits to having problems all the time and releases updates to fix them.

As for saying that Snow Leopard is "Plagued" with problems I think that you have the wrong definition of plegue. A plegue is a widespread problem that affects most people in a given area with fatal consequences. As for saying that Snow Leopard, there were older versions of software that did not work and people needed to update them with newer versions or free updates. Wow how novel that you update the OS and you need newer versions of software to run on them. There were programs that were not compatible right when Apple released Snow Leopard but that was because they released it a month early and some of the software companies were finishing their work.

Airport problem was fixed with the 10.6.1 free update that came out within a few weeks of the initial release of Snow Leopard.

Now a couple of months after release 100 or so cases of people are having a problem with loosing files after logging on as a guest. Annoying yes. Is there a way to recover the files? Yes. Does apple admit to the problem and are they looking for a way to fix it for what I imagine is less than one percent of there customer base? Yes.

Now a plague of problems? I see three problems with only two being an actual apple problem. One of those is fixed and the other is limited to a very small portion of the people who are running Snow Leopard.

A question for those people who are bashing Apple products. Have you ever used an Apple product or are you bashing with prejudice and rumor? If you have used an Apple product have you used one in the last couple of years with long exposure to the operating system? If you ahve answered no to either of these than do not post your drivel about Apple products.

And yes I do use both a Mac and a PC. PC for games and Mac for basically everything else.

[Vegaman_Dan]

I think you may have given very good reasons for being patient with Apple on this product. The issue here is that the very same people who say this about Apple products are also the first to jump at the first chance to slam Microsoft for any and all problems with their products.

It's a double standard.

[Renegade Knight]

My bashing is based on hating key ergonomic design elements. Right now my daughters mac drops internet connectivity (or pauses for long perieds of time) this screws up her online component to her classes. It's a PITA. My Macbook crashes and has other issues. It's not a case of "it just works" like all the reviews claim. It's Just another Freaking Computer wiht it's own set of problems.

[shycelticwitch]

@ Renegade... then get rid of them and qwitcherbichin. Obviously you don't know how to operate a "user friendly" system. MS will be glad to have you.

[dhavleak]

Why, oh why do you have to be so nasty?? You want Renegade to "qwitchisbichin" but it's still ok for you to take silly pot shots like "MS will be glad to have you."???

[Vegaman_Dan]

@shycelticwitch:

I suppose you don't have any mirrors in your house or else you might recognize the irony of what you just commented.

[Renegade Knight]

@shycelticwitch

In your allmost all Mac office you keep some PC's around because your Mac's fall short of the job you have to do. That's a statment of fact not a question. I've read your posts. Seems like we all have the problem that the perfect computer hasn't been invented and we have to work around it. The smart ones are willing to admit this and some of us hope that Apple (and others) listen.

[deniceels]

If one can't operate a supposedly 'user-friendly" Os to use a suposedly 'un-user-friendly", doesn't it make it the other way round in user-friendliness?

[michael_j_x]

well, good thing they can back up on ther Apple Time Capsules:
http://gizmodo.com/5379865/are-apple-time-capsules-short-lived

[michael_j_x]

and then again, there is always sidekick that will save all your data on the cloud

[ikramerica--2008]

uh, Time Capsules have HDs. HDs fail. That's the point of a live back up solution, so that if your main system OR your backup fails, you still have a copy of your data. If you want a true archive, you do what you've always done, which is backup important data to CD or DVD, and put it on the shelf.

Do we need a time capsule for the time capsule, so that if your TC fails, you can restore that? NO. You get it repaired/replaced, then restore from your WORKING computer.

Get a life.

[Vegaman_Dan]

@ikramerica--2008:

You sure are fast to jump on any Microsoft stories to go on about how inferior all their products are, how PC's are horrible, the hardware fails, nothing is reliable, and that Apple is glorious holiness of all things aluminum and white plastic.

And now here you are apologizing and making excuses for a failure of an Apple product. Do you see the irony in play here?

Guess what- all products have issues. You deal with them and move on. I back up my data because it's just prudent. That means I back up my data from PC's, Mac's, and from the Linux boxen. That's because I take precautions and don't believe that any one product is the be all / end all solution to the exclusion of all others.

[Vegaman_Dan]

No OS is perfect. Losing data through this odd set of conditions is very strange, but stuff happens.

It's more surprising that Apple finally acknowledged the issue even exists. Their usual method for addressing problems is to deny everything, say it's all perfectly normal, then release an update for iTunes that has nothing to do with the problem but coincidentally fixes the issue reported.

[Gold_Storm_Mac]

apple admits when they're wrong alot. they are very honest and even admit that their os isn't perfect (like others) like how they admit that application in is x may crash occasionally.

[B-Ri]

Gold_Storm_Mac
Apple, like most companies, rarely admits when they are wrong. It usually is only when there is great risk of public outrage. I like their products just not always wild about the way they behave with this sort of thing.

[Vegaman_Dan]

@Gold_Storm_Mac:

Apple took weeks to admt they had problems with Mobile Me. It took them weeks to acknowledge they screwed up the iPhone release with trying to get activations done. It is very rare for them to come out and announce there is a problem without someone first pushing at them or making the issue very public.

Look to their history of deleting forum threads that are negative about Apple products or expose problems that they don't want to have public.

It's just the way most of the industry is these days, but Apple is tops when it comes to being secretive- even if it means hiding things they don't want to have known.

It's no big deal.

[shycelticwitch]

Dan... MS is just as bad when it comes to admitting issues. So don't play that card anymore, it's old and worn and it doesn't work.

[dhavleak]

My apologies for going back on my word earlier (about not posting again on this article) -- but your trolling is just getting to me.

Why do you feel the need to throw mud at MS to justify your choices? You're obvisouly a big fan of Apple's products, and you're obviously very happy with them. But why do you feel the need to convince everyone else that the your way is the only way? In Dan's defense, he's pointing out a behaviour pattern for Apple that's extremely well known and documented. I provided links in my first reply to back that up. You asked Dan for proof, but here you are making the same claims about MS without any proof.

Obviously you don't like it when people say bad things about Apple. But yet you feel free to take pot shots at other people's choices all the time?

[Vegaman_Dan]

@Shycelticwitch:

MSFT hasn't taken the extra steps of trying to hide the facts, delete forum threads that may be embarasing to the company's image, or gone out of their way to pretend nothing is wrong. Patching issues in the OS through unrelated iTunes updates is a classic Apple example.

I'm sorry if the truth is uncomfortable for your opinion of Apple, but it is what it is.

[tappy727]

Happily running 10.5, aka before snow leopard. And even more so with this problem. Woo-hoo.

[gggg sssss]

Sidekick / Danger ran on Snow Leaopard?

[Jeremy Chappell]

Yeah 'cos Microsoft only use Macs in their data centres... Come on.

Here the bug is Mac "forgets" that the users Home folder should be considered their Home folder and blithely creates a new one. The user sees the newly created Home folder and thinks "ARGH, Where did I my stuff go?" Now I'm not about to downplay this, as bugs go this is a doozy. It is recoverable if you know what you're looking at and what to do. But for a lot of users that won't be the case, and they'll be visiting an Apple store, or Googling the answer or just panic. Now few Mac users will actually encounter this (the broken feature isn't used by the vast majority of users - not that makes it any better). Apple are "working on a fix" which seems like the wrong tense (they could easily switch the feature off via an update, remember the previous setting then switch it back on when it was working again - properly explained to the user, of course). This bug should have been spotted and fixed before Snow Leopard shipped, but it wasn't - it happens.

Now Microsoft/Danger is another matter entirely. Here this wasn't a flaw in the Danger/Sidekick system (not a bug) it was bad management, upgrading a live system with no backup in place is a bad idea. Anyone who knows anything about computers knows this. I can only imagine why they did this. (Are Microsoft really that cash strapped?) However this has caused the loss of customer data, this is not an "OS bug" as such, it's rather less forgivable than that. This was utter stupidity on Microsoft's part. Microsoft took over Danger two years ago, we can't blame this on "outside technology".

The two cases are as different as they can be. One is a bug at OS level, the other is incompetence at the most basic level.

Upgraded to snow leopard and now my printer doesnt work what a waste of time and money POS.

About to go and buy and netbook with Windows 7

[B-Ri]

I had printer problems too when I upgraded to SL. It was weird too. I tried installing the software for the printer multiple times and it finally seemed to take. I'm not even sure what I did to get it working. Clearly they did make some improvements but they also made some decisions that caused issues. I have never used the guest account so it is not that big of an issue. I have noticed that occasionally odd things will happen, like just tonight I started safari and it was running fine but the icon in the doc was missing. Just the icon, there was an empty space for it and when hovering over that area it said Safari, just no icon. Thought that was odd and so restarted and now its fine again. Never would have expected the standard windows fix to work on my mac... :)

[SpiritWater]

Yep, 10.6 broke our HP printer, but 10.6.1 fixed most HP printer issues. HP now has its own auto-update app for printer drivers as of the 10.6.1 update. If your printer isn't an HP then I don't know what to tell you. Apple and HP seem to be unofficial best buddies so far as printer support goes. Canon and Lexmark seem to be on the fringe.

[Perry_Clease]

I am going to stick my neck and call you out, you do not even have a Mac much less Snow Leopard. Your post is a troll.

[billibala]

I use a HP LaserJet 1022 printer with the HP driver update from System Update... Still can't get printer work... I can only print the first page and then the print job got stuck...

damn... hate Apple

[Renegade Knight]

So wait a week and get the updated driver.

[alston2]

recently installed SL, zero problems, incredibly quick.

[SpiritWater]

People keep saying it is quick but I haven't noticed that. I do notice more crashes in Safari than before but it is still early. Prior to 10.6.1 I got the spinning-beach-ball-of-death in both Mail and Safari. That's not to be confused with Windows' blue-screen-of-death which crashes the whole system. The spinning beach ball doesn't crash the system since you can force-quit Safari. 10.6.2 should make the whole OSX more stable and make those spinning beach-balls none existant, since I never had one in 10.5.

[Jeremy Chappell]

I think the speed is mostly "to come". The Finder is vastly improved (finally). Safari? Depends on what it's doing, most of the time I can't really tell the difference - the bottleneck is elsewhere. I have Win7 on a far newer system, most of that is fast - but what the hell is it with IE?! Google Chrome works well on Win7 - very fast. It's hard to do a "fair" comparison between the two, speed wise the Mac could be faster (but it's very old) and the PC is satisfyingly quick (but it's young). I don't hate Win7, but actually I don't have much software to run on it - so the Mac is better for me (because I do have lots of Mac apps). So the question has to be, if I were buying a computer tomorrow would I buy a Mac or a PC?

Well I'd get a Mac, but there are a few qualifiers. If I was looking for games, well I should get a PC. I can run PC games on a Mac but the experience won't be as good for the cash (I've got to buy a Mac, then buy Windows for it, and Macs aren't really setup for games, if "money is no object" then that's a Mac Pro, and it can't link the cards together - sure I get a Server class CPU, but that's not what I need for games). If I don't want games, but I want to run this or that PC program pretty much all the time, then a Mac is a waste of time - once running Windows it's a PC, a business app could run under something like VMware Fusion, but unless I'm also running some Mac app most of the time what's the point? However it most other cases a Mac (for me) edges out the PC. Then there are times when not getting a Mac is stupid. When a Mac app is the best choice (Logic Pro, Final Cut Pro ... and a few others) or when you're doing Web Development (you can run multiple versions of Windows, Linux as well as Mac OS X - suddenly you can test on one box). Then there's iPhone development...