I love Apple. Don't get me wrong. But over the past couple weeks, I've become increasingly disenchanted with Lion, aka OS X 10.7. The dropped wireless connections were the worst part of it, but the spinning beach balls and the never-ending stream of "The application has quit unexpectedly" messages were really getting to be a pain in the ass. I never had the spinning beach balls under Snow Leopard like I've had under Lion.
A couple days ago I resolved to return to Snow Leopard (aka OS X 10.6.), where I knew that everything would work. Once again I performed due diligence, not only having a complete Time Machine backup on hand, but I'd also manually transferred my profile onto a different external drive…just in case.
I wiped the drive, reinstalled Snow Leopard, and applied all the patches. Everything transferred from my backups except my emails.
Seriously, Apple?
I tried importing through Mail. I'd get back all my folders, but they'd all be empty. I tried transferring them manually. Same issue. Did Apple change their mail format? I don't know, but after a couple hours of this nonsense I said fuck it, and wiped the drive a second time, in preparation for doing a fresh install (not an upgrade) of Lion, hoping this would also solve the other, myriad problems I'd been having.
I knew full well I'd probably lose the ability to use my Verizon air card, but at this point it was either that or my emails. I chose to lose the air card.
The install was fairly painless, and everything (including iTunes) transferred back from my manual backup without incident. I had tried to use the Migration Assistant, but apparently you can't overwrite an existing profile with one of the same name. Seriously, Apple?
Whatever. I got everything back.
On a lark, I plugged in the Verizon modem. It worked. Fuck me in high heels and call me Sally, the proprietary software wasn't even needed. Good thing, too, because they still haven't gotten an update out for Lion.
If I'd known this when Lion came out I would've done a clean install from the very beginning.
Since Ben is having the same wireless issues, I'm now trying to talk him into doing the same thing…
Thanks for the heads up. Here in NZ, the average Mac user hasn't even considered moving to Lion, as it's only available as a download that is so huge, it easily gobbles up the Lion's Share (excuse the pun) of one's monthly data cap allowance, or you can pay a ridiculous NZ$99 for a copy on a stinking $10 thumb drive. I think I'll just skip all the bullshit and buy the next iteration of the iMac and get Lion for free. What a joke.
Yes, Mail changed, a lot. Make a clean backup before installing the 7.2 update (whenever it comes out, the seeds are dropping weekly on Friday) because it does bring a lot of change. A LOT.
Hey, I told you more than a couple times that this was the solution! It worked for me on both my Macs! 🙂