macOS 10.15 Catalina Compatibility

October 8th, 2019 (BBAutoComplete, DropDMG, EagleFiler, SpamSieve, ToothFairy)

macOS 10.15 Catalina is now available. The latest versions of all of our apps are compatible with Catalina. These are:

You should update to these app versions before updating your Mac to Catalina. Otherwise, depending on how old a version you’re using, you may run into a bug in the automatic software updater and need to update manually. Any known issues are mentioned below. This post will be updated as we address the issues or if any new ones are found.

Although our apps are compatible, we do not recommend updating to Catalina at this time. We have heard many reports of bugs in the initial release of Catalina, from installer issues, to lost settings, the App Store forgetting purchases, miscellaneous glitches, and even data loss (unrelated to our apps). So, if at all possible, we recommend waiting for Apple to address these issues in macOS 10.15.5 or later before you update to Catalina.

If you must update to Catalina now, be sure that you have created a backup (or two) first. As a last resort, you may be able to revert to a snapshot created by the macOS installer before it installed Catalina, although this would lose any files that you modified or created after the update.

BBAutoComplete

  • No known issues.

DropDMG

  1. Creating a disk image with a license agreement may intermittently fail with error -54. This is fixed in DropDMG 3.5.8.

  2. The Create macOS Install Disk command may fail or crash when used with the macOS 10.15 Catalina installer. This is fixed in DropDMG 3.5.8.

  3. If you have a disk image with a license agreement and convert it with None as the selected license, the license is kept rather than deleted. This is due to a pair of bugs in Catalina (FB7362946, FB7362950). This is fixed in DropDMG 3.5.9.

  4. macOS sometimes fails to set a custom volume icon due to a bug in Catalina (FB7365644). This is fixed in DropDMG 3.5.9.

  5. The Set Passphrase… sheet in the New Blank Disk Image window cannot be dismissed by clicking OK or Cancel. This seems to be due to the new save panel architecture in Catalina. You can work around this by setting an encrypted disk image’s passphrase using a configuration or by skipping the Set Passphrase… button, in which case DropDMG will prompt you for the passphrase midway through creating the disk image. This is fixed in DropDMG 3.5.9.

EagleFiler

  • Due to a bug in Catalina (FB7435415), embedded images imported from Evernote may not display at the right size. This is fixed in EagleFiler 1.8.11.

SpamSieve

  1. SpamSieve should automatically update its Apple Mail plug-in to the Catalina version at launch. After updating the plug-in, you’ll need to enable it in Mail’s Manage Plug-in… sheet. It is possible, e.g. if something delays or prevents SpamSieve from launching, that Mail will move some new messages to the Spam mailbox without consulting SpamSieve.

    To prevent this, and to make updating as smooth as possible, we recommend:

    1. Before updating to Catalina, go to the Rules section of Mail’s Preferences window and uncheck the SpamSieve rule to temporarily turn it off.
    2. After updating to Catalina, before launching Mail, open SpamSieve and choose Install Apple Mail Plug-In from the SpamSieve menu.
    3. Launch Mail and enable the SpamSieve plug-in.
    4. Turn the SpamSieve rule back on in Mail’s Preferences.
  2. Catalina seems to be a bit more strict about the locations where Apple Mail plug-ins can be loaded from. If you don’t see the SpamSieve plug-in listed in the Manage Plug-in… sheet, please follow the If the Apple Mail Plug-In Doesn’t Appear in the List or Doesn’t Stay Enabled instructions. Mail requires that plug-ins be stored on the same volume as your home folder, so do not try to use a symlink to redirect Mail’s data files to another location.

  3. A bug in Catalina prevents SpamSieve from being able to tell whether an account in Apple Mail is disabled (FB7035263). In some circumstances, this can cause SpamSieve to move a message to the inbox of a disabled account when you use the Train as Good command. Because the account is hidden, it will look like the message has disappeared. For more information, please see #3 in this section of the manual. This is fixed in SpamSieve 2.9.38 if you reinstall the Apple Mail plug-in.

  4. A bug in Catalina may prevent the Apple Mail - Discard Spam script from fully deleting messages from the Spam mailbox, instead leaving them in the trash (FB7145734). You can manually empty the trash to finish deleting them.

  5. We’ve received 3 reports (but have not been able to reproduce here) that Apple Mail rules that move messages to iCloud mailboxes instead make the messages disappear. This ended up being a temporary iCloud server issue, unrelated to Catalina or SpamSieve.

  6. We’ve received many reports (but have not been able to reproduce here) that spam messages are marked and colored as spam in the inbox but not moved to the local Spam mailbox under On My Mac. This seems to be due to a bug in Apple Mail (FB7388651), as it also occurs for regular, non-SpamSieve rules that move messages to a local mailbox. It’s not clear why the bug affects only a small percentage of users.

    You can manually bulk-select the messages in the inbox and choose Message ‣ Apply Rules to re-apply the rules, and that does move the messages. To automatically move the messages, it may help to update to SpamSieve 2.9.39 and choose Install Apple Mail Plug-In from the SpamSieve, as the new plug-in version is able to work around the problem for some users. You can also try using an Apple Mail Script Rule.

  7. We’ve heard reports (but have not been able to reproduce here) that moving Apple Mail messages between mailboxes (whether or not SpamSieve is installed) can make the messages turn blank. You can still use SpamSieve without moving any messages. For example, you can use the Change Settings command to tell SpamSieve not to move messages trained as good back to the inbox. And you can Option-drag messages to copy them instead of moving them. SpamSieve 2.9.39 also includes an automatic backup feature to help protect you from this bug.

ToothFairy

  • No known issues.

Although many customers have been testing the apps with beta versions of Catalina for several months, it is possible that there are issues that we have not seen before. Please let us know if you encounter any problems. It’s helpful if you choose Save Diagnostic Report from the Help menu and attach the report file to your e-mail.