VO Studio Computer – A Little Forced Upgrade – Tuesday Tech Tip

Last week, what should have been a simple software update has pretty much forced a hardware expense. My old MacBook Pro laptop which has been hardware limited from newer MacOS updates finally reached the point where key applications are no longer supported. 

I knew this was going to happen – I tend to ride my computer hardware for a significant number of miles before retirement. Now, the wheels have pretty much have come off.

The first issues cropped up when using the browser. I’d received warnings that my OS version prevented further Chrome updates. Everything worked OK for a while, but then I started getting weird authentication key errors from certain websites. The tools I rely upon for my business generally behaved, but I found that Google docs would not format properly. I’d type something and have it disappear or jump to another line or generate a random string of words and formatting. 

I sought a few workarounds, mostly relying upon simpler methods of capturing written ideas – using Evernote to write things out, then transferring it into appropriate destinations when on another computer. That is one of the benefits of being cloud-based. 

Then, Evernote blindsided me. Well, honestly, it was my fault and I should have known better. But still… it stings a bit. Evernote and I go back a long way. I feel like it owed me something more. 

Early on a recent morning, I had opened Evernote on the old laptop and got a “You should update” notification. Then I violated a very core piece of advice I regularly share and clicked “OK”. 

Sure enough, the install needed the next OS version (which I could not install due to the age of my hardware). Rather than warn me and giving me the option to opt out, it attempted the install and failed. And by failed, I mean it broke. The old version that worked was toast. The new version would not open. No one at Evernote could supply a copy of the version I’d had. 

That was pretty much the final straw. To its credit, the aught-nine MacBook Pro has been my “backup” recording rig and still flawlessly runs Twisted Wave and my old original Scarlett interface. But. that’s about it. The older OS can’t run Universal Control – making it useless with my Presonus Revelator interface. Izotope RX10 won’t run on the old OS. Behavior on Zoom has been a bit “iffy”of late. The computer capriciously decides that I don’t need to be on wifi and makes me rejoin networks… as I continued writing down the list of what wasn’t working, it became clear how many workarounds I’d been implementing. 

At a certain point, the realization hit that I was spending more time managing the fixes than I have time to give. And it’s not really Evernote’s fault. That was just a pretty major piece of my workflow. It helped me realize that it was time to put the well-worn, dinged, dented and scratched MacBook Pro out to pasture. 

Previous related post – Replacing a computer in the voiceover studio – https://justaskjimvo.studio/studio-computer-replacement/

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