My wife's iMac is running 10.14.6 Mojave and hates upgrades because several OS's ago, some changes to MAIL wiped out her folder structure. She has her own domain name and her email is run through Google's servers because 14 years ago, when any email address was flooded with spam continually, Google had the best filters.

She has a 2017 iMac at her standing/sitting desk.


Are there going to be any changes to MAIL she is going to notice, going from Mojave to Catalina?

And is it even worth the potential trouble?

I am in the latest iteration of Catalina on my machine, and like it, and I generally prefer to run the latest OS.
My inclination would be to back up her machine to an additional redundant clone, (I always have 3 time machine + carbon copy cloner + an additional TM backup of her machine, so this would be a 4th.) And then upgrade her iMac to Catalina.


thanks,

roshi

Please don't tell us she is still using POP access from 14 years ago for email? She needs to switch to IMAP or an Exchange based system. Then the client won't matter at all.

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C(-)ris
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Throwback Thursday Signature:

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roshi
Are there going to be any changes to MAIL she is going to notice, going from Mojave to Catalina?

One big complaint about Catalina's Mail.app is that they removed the column options. They're adding them back as a "new feature" in Big Sur.

[www.macworld.com]

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Apple changed long-standing display options in macOS Mail with the release of 10.15 Catalina. This no-longer-new version dropped the ability in Mail’s column view (via View > Use Column Layout) to manage columns widths, click to sort by characteristics (like sender, subject, and size), and to retain your preferred ascending or descending first order when you switch among sorting options.

yeah, dont do Catalina for apple mail.

If you can maybe go to HS, sure.

Is her iMac running OK? 21" or 27" model? whats the reason for the upgrade? Is it running slow? Make sure shes on a SSD...

Ive done the upgrades from Mojave, to Sierra to HS to Catalina and no problems with my email -- also have my own domain and POP. Near 100 GB worth. I cant be messing around with losing any of it... so didnt upgrade until I felt OK.

Catalinas email is fine, but the missing colunms is a problem if she isnt oragnaized with rules, smart folders, etc. Just trying to manual sort the inbox or search for past emails isnt as easy.

Wiat for Big Sur if you must.

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

Why not create a bootable external drive and migrate her data over to it? She can try it out from the bootable and if she has issues she can go back to what she's used to.

However, at some point she will need to accept change as newer machines won't run older OS's.

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jdc
If you can maybe go to HS, sure.

Ive done the upgrades from Mojave, to Sierra to HS to Catalina and no problems with my email

I think you're losing track of the release order when thinking of them by name instead of number. You seem to think Mojave (10.14) came before Sierra (10.12) and HS (10.13), maybe you're thinking of Mavericks (10.9). Anyway since she's on Mojave, the only options are Catalina or the soon to be released Big Sur.

At this point, Catalina is known to have mail annoyances, and Big Sur is too new to know if it's going to be stable and trouble free in the initial release. So the best option is to probably stick to Mojave for now.

Why not just skip Catalina?

Mojave will continue to be supported with security updates thru fall, 2021. There's plenty of time remaining to stick with it without harm.

Evaluate Big Sur in March when it has had a few point-updates. Maybe skip that, too, and wait for whichever OS follows it.

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GGD
I think you're losing track of the release order when thinking of them by name instead of number.

You are right, I was reading "Mavericks" instead of Mojave.

I may have skipped Moj and went from HS to Catalina.

I agree with Sarc -- just stay at Mojave for now, it will be fine for a good long while.

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

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Sarcany
Why not just skip Catalina?

Mojave will continue to be supported with security updates thru fall, 2021. There's plenty of time remaining to stick with it without harm.

Evaluate Big Sur in March when it has had a few point-updates. Maybe skip that, too, and wait for whichever OS follows it.

This is my plan at the moment

Happy with Mojave? Skip Catalina. Simple.

Mojave is newer than HS.

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jdc
yeah, dont do Catalina for apple mail.

If you can maybe go to HS, sure.

Is her iMac running OK? 21" or 27" model? whats the reason for the upgrade? Is it running slow? Make sure shes on a SSD...

Ive done the upgrades from Mojave, to Sierra to HS to Catalina and no problems with my email -- also have my own domain and POP. Near 100 GB worth. I cant be messing around with losing any of it... so didnt upgrade until I felt OK.

Catalinas email is fine, but the missing colunms is a problem if she isnt oragnaized with rules, smart folders, etc. Just trying to manual sort the inbox or search for past emails isnt as easy.

Wiat for Big Sur if you must.

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Ed (modelamac)

I think I will just put an OUT OF ORDER
sticker on my head and call it a day.

thanks for the suggestions, I like the idea of skipping Catalina and waiting for a stable iteration of Big Sur.

Her setup is very stable and there would be no reason to upgrade except theoretical security from latest OS.

her setup - 2017 iMac with 1 TB SSD, 10.14.6 Mojave. Her email is IMAP.