10.9.3 Update Makes /Users/ Hidden

Wow, just sloppy bs on Apple's part. They need to can this outsourcing nonsense and bring it all back in house where people actually give a s#it about quality work. Of course I know that's just a dream and will never happen, but at the very least I hope someone at Apple takes a trip out to these firms and makes it clear that they need to up their quality control or they're out of the picture. Their track record with OS updates the last couple of years has been pretty bad.

Its also pretty crazy that turning Find My Mac back on will re-hide the folder. :S
I would love to know what wacky code is installed that's doing that!

I just heard that a build of iTunes 11.2 was just released?

@rtrouton - As always, you have all the answers. Great post!

@rtrouton One important note for IT admins is that if they are repurposing a Mac, they'll need to make sure the nvram key 'fmm-mobileme-token-FMM' is deleted before provisioning. If FMM was not deactivated on the machine before reformat/restore, this key will persist and the issue will continue to affect the Mac, regardless of whether FMM is activated on the new system or not.

A little info on what @chilcote describes http://ilostmynotes.blogspot.com/2013/11/disable-find-my-mac-by-modifiying-nvram.html

Looks like they've released iTunes 11.2.1 to address it: http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/itunes-11.2.1-fixes-hidden-users-folder-bug-restores-folder-visibility

Hi Andrew. Yep, there's 11.2 1 in my AutoDMG Apply Updates section. Hopefully no more builds before the weekend is out. :)

@mm2270

Wow, just sloppy bs on Apple's part. They need to can this outsourcing nonsense and bring it all back in house where people actually give a s#it about quality work. Of course I know that's just a dream and will never happen, but at the very least I hope someone at Apple takes a trip out to these firms and makes it clear that they need to up their quality control or they're out of the picture. Their track record with OS updates the last couple of years has been pretty bad.

Sorry, but QA is still on Apple's head. It doesn't matter who writes the code - the testing was inadequate. And nothing short of abandoningthe yearly release cycle is going to make it any better. The instant 10.9 was out the bulk of their software resources went to the next big thing instead of focusing on the issues. Gotta have something new next year, after all.

This is why we're still running 10.8 on any machine that didn't ship with 10.9, and will always be one release cycle behind. 10.9 is 10.8 SP1. And you never run an OS in production until the second service pack.

Apple has changed things in the way they test pre-GM builds. How's that for skirting rules? Let's just say that the last few iterations of OS X have not been fully tested before release. I don't get the reasons for the change - this one would certainly have been caught if it was seeded and/or released to the dev community for testing. In the end, hardly a show-stopper, but an embarrassing and needless mistake.

That's the beauty (cough) of outsourcing, where the offshore team are shielded/protected while onshore team is accountable for the gross incompetence/failure.

Remember Scott Forestall and the Apple Maps Fiasco? It's a safe bet his parachute included an NDA to the tune of "Don't reveal how the offshore team forked things up, here is a stack of cash to go away silently."

Welcome to the lucrative world of outsourcing. Not all of it is bad. But I've seen an incredible amount of "Just go with it; just look the other way". Most folks never expected Apple to go into that rabbit hole. Welcome to profit at all costs.

At the end of the day, great talent walks and cheap labor from third world body shops replaces it. Worst case scenario, but quite likely in this case.

@donmontalvo I just don't see the need for a new OS every year. I'm not asking for one and most users are happy with a stable OS over "new" features that will buggy at best for quite some time. Apple is quickly losing the "It just works" reputation with users. How do they expect people to get accustomed to working when they keep changing the fundamental OS and interupting productivity. Users shouldn't be expected to relearn key portions of how they work every time Apple ships a new OS.

I should provide a bit of context. Not all outsourced resources are incompetent/incapable. If you ever get the chance to work with Karthikeyan Marappan or Vishnu Kulkarni, trust these are top tier resources.

But for each top tier resource, there are dozens who lie and bloat their resumes with Googled keywords and copied/pasted blurbs, all in an effort to land a position they are are not qualified for. The irony, expect offshore managers to lie and fight for them. Hit me up offline for the comical/gory details. ;)

Outsourcing isn't all bad but there are tons of charlatans, shysters, and con artists deep rooted in the business. Adobe and Microsoft are just the most visible examples of "failure for profit".

It's a bad sign when a company goes down that road. Sad.

The problem with this kind of thinking is that, it takes a lot of hard work and often years to build up a reputation of being a reliable and quality outfit, the way Apple has done over the last decade plus. It only takes a few really bad mistakes to lose all that in the public eye. This is even more true for Apple, who is under almost constant scrutiny from the peanut gallery crowd who believe in their hearts that their success has been nothing but a fluke. They aren't Microsoft where they can regularly release crap and everyone just accepts thats the way it is. They can only not care about this for so long.

I would think that hard earned reputation would be worth spending some more bucks on quality control to maintain what they've built. In the end, chasing pure profits will kill any company. Apple has never been just about profit only, so hopefully this isn't what's happening here, or I don't see their success lasting very long.

All bets are off when shareholders run the show:

http://goo.gl/qaWFu3

@donmontalvo we deal with a few of the companies mentioned in those articles. Our in-house developers have nothing, but complaints about them. Most of the code is sloppy and poorly written. I guess it all makes sense now given the last few years of buggy releases from Apple. I was always wondering why such obvious mistakes were getting released.

It also explains some of the replies to bug reports we get asking for more information or repeatedly not getting the gist of what we've submitted. The whole process is incredibly frustrating, and bugs remain after numerous major releases and dot updates over the years. They can't seem to find enough good ways to spend their billions, but they risk it all by this practice of cheap coders. Apple aren't alone either. I don't recall any articles on management being outsourced...

@jhbush1973 Companies that jump into the outsourcing rabbit hole do it for profit. 1 competent American developer can be replaced by 8 cheap/incompetent offshore (aka "back office") resources. It's a bean counter's dream. ;)

How would things pan out if The Four Seasons Restaurant decides to phase in McDonalds "chefs" to replace their top tier chefs? It starts with denial...

"Our food is cooked by the world's greatest chefs" - The Four Seasons Restaurant manager

...or...

"We sell quality food at significant savings" - McDonalds Franchise Owner

Then eventually the bean counters walk with their bonuses, and there is a shift of strategy...

"Our customers are leaving, time to hire qualified/competent chefs, maybe we can re-hire the ones we fired?" - The Four Seasons Restaurant manager

...or...

"McDonalds holds firm in their commitment of selling cheap food to a lot of people - we are not responsible for obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc." - McDonalds Franchise Owner

There is a hidden cost to these stupid decisions, but by the time it's realized, the bean counters have already walked with their sack of bonus money. ;)

Don

"More than 2.5 billion people have to eat (India/China)...why not exploit all that cheap labor?" - Apple Stock Holders

@boettchs depending on who you ask, many management positions have already moved offshore. ;)