Update: Learn how to use Gmail with Mac Mail again.
Users who have updated to the latest version of Mojave have reported they can no longer log into Gmail using Mac Mail. There is no fix or workaround for the Mac Mail error, but you can still log into Gmail using Safari or other applications. We will update this article when a fix has been identified.
How to avoid this in the future
If you have already updated and are living through this issue, we understand your frustration. These kinds of problems steal our focus away from our clients and the important work that needs to be done and, instead, send us on a quest to ensure this never happens again. But before you conclude that you should never update anything ever again, let us offer an alternative.
Businesses need to stay up-to-date to protect themselves from vulnerabilities and to keep their competitive advantage. Not dealing with small problems leads to big problems later. Not updating is a solution that does real damage to your business. So, how do you avoid this from happening in the future? Create an Upgrade Schedule.
What is an Upgrade Schedule?
An upgrade schedule is a list of all of the applications your business uses and who uses it. The goal of the schedule is to keep an eye out for changes and vulnerabilities in the context of your business. You don’t care about every feature or update, and many updates can wait.
Once a month, you check the upgrade schedule to determine if there are any patches, updates, or upgrades relevant to your business. Security patches usually are, while feature updates usually aren’t but can be. It’s up to you to decide whether having a new feature now will truly accelerate your business. If it isn’t urgent, then you delay the update or upgrade for 30 days. This gives the world plenty of time to work out most if not all of the bugs, saving you from suffering. If it is urgent, you move to the testing phase.
Testing Phase
Once you’ve decided it’s time to upgrade, you’ll want to do some testing. The testing phase takes the most time and resources. At Honeycrisp, we perform the testing phase on behalf of our clients. It’s a service greatly appreciated once they know everything to goes into it.
The first step to testing is to use the upgrade schedule to identify who uses the application. Ideally, you’ll use a spare computer with the same setup of the user. Updating the spare means that the user won’t be negatively impacted. Should the update generate errors, simply swap out the spare for the dedicated computer.
If you don’t have a spare computer, you’ll want to make sure you have recent backups so you can restore the computer to a working state, should it fail. Once the user has completed a standard set of tasks, you can be confident the update won’t negatively impact your business and can be applied.
Applying the update
The last phase is applying the update. How a firm applies an update can vary wildly, depending on the applications used and the size of your firm. At Honeycrisp, we use robust applications to apply updates to our clients’ computers on a rolling schedule. This further hedges against any unforeseen update errors. For smaller firms, you’ll likely send out an email to your team that it’s OK to apply the update.
Note: You still want to be sure to have recent backups, just in case.
You’re ready to update your Upgrade Schedule
Your business needs to stay competitive and safe. Failing to apply updates only does you harm. You can use an upgrade schedule to better understand what impact an update will have on your business. Proper testing may take a lot of time and effort, but it’s necessary to prevent frustrating and costly disruptions. No matter how much testing, make sure you have proper backups in place before applying an update. If all of this seems like a headache you’d rather not have – don’t worry – we feel the same about law. Write to us here or give us a call: (305) 600-3309.
