Apple randomly closes bug reports unless you "verify" the bug remains unfixed (lapcatsoftware.com)

Article summary

The author of the article expresses frustration with Apple's bug reporting process, specifically the practice of closing bug reports unless the user verifies that the issue still exists in the latest beta version. The author had filed a bug report three years ago and received no response until recently, when Apple asked them to verify the issue with macOS 26.4 beta 4. The author argues that this process is a waste of time and that Apple is not taking bug reports seriously. The author also mentions another bug report that was marked as 'Investigation complete - Unable to diagnose with current information' despite providing detailed steps to reproduce the issue.

Main themes

• Bug reporting process
• Software quality
• User experience
• Company priorities
• Developer frustration
• Customer satisfaction

What commenters say

• Closing old bug reports without proper verification can be seen as a poor practice that ignores the value of accumulated knowledge and user feedback.
• Some argue that closing old bug reports is necessary to focus on newer and more solvable issues, but others see it as a way to artificially reduce the number of open bugs.
• The practice of closing bug reports without proper investigation can create a negative user expectation that their feedback is not valued, leading to a decrease in bug reporting.
• Others argue that if a bug is not bothering someone enough to follow up, then it's not worth the company's time to fix, and that the company's priority should be on features that generate revenue.
• Some commenters suggest that a better approach would be to mark old bug reports as 'waiting for answer' and ask the user to verify if the issue still exists before closing it.
• The use of automated bots to close bug reports without human oversight can lead to frustration and a sense of neglect among users.
• There is a disagreement on whether the goal of bug tracking should be to keep the list of open bugs clean or to actually fix the issues and improve the software quality.
• Some argue that the practice of closing old bug reports is a result of a cultural difference in how companies prioritize and manage their bug tracking systems.