shanen's Journal: Are you dreaming of getting support from Apple?

Apple is even more EVIL than I thought. Below is an attempted submission to the Apple communities, where I was vaguely hoping to get hope on a problem my MacBook Pro is experiencing. Apple blocked me even before I could post the comment. I don't think that was a bug, but rather they are monitoring the draft as it is prepared. Rather than doing something helpful like routing me to useful prior discussions, they are using it for a new kind of spam filtering, preventing the expression of negative sentiments about Apple. (Anyone else have any similar experiences to share?)

"How to write a good question" starts by asking me to spend a lot of time gathering irrelevant information. If there is anything that is relevant in the details requested in the first two steps, explain why. I believe it suffices to say the machine is fully updated and the problem is obviously in Apple's system software. Therefore I am proceeding to the third step of describing the problem, which is easily done.

I click on App Store and then click on the Updates button. Nothing happens for several minutes. Then it announces an error has occurred with the more detailed explanation "Can't load data from the Apple Software Update server."

The machine has been in this state for some months. There is no obvious cause, and it is also clear that the error message is misleading or false. For example, the latest iTunes version 12.7 has been installed recently, though the error message appeared before that installation and still appears now. Obviously the computer is getting the data from the Apple Software Update server, but doesn't want MY interference in the process. Perhaps it's just a matter of Apple preferring to schedule things for it's inhuman corporate convenience rather than mine.

Now the fourth step of "How to write a good question" says to list the troubleshooting steps. I could already write a novella-length treatment, but I'll just list a few highlights. Tried alternative networks. Searched on the Web outside of Apple. Searched inside the Apple support website. Finally reduced to searching inside these Discussions.

Inside the discussions I found a number of threads that cited the exact error message. None of them solved the problem (even if the problem is only of the misleading appearance of a problem). Some of them were unanswered. The best described accessing the system logs. Though those directions turned out to be incorrect, I figured out an alternative way, but still couldn't find anything helpful in the logs.

Based on my past experience with Apple's so-called support and these so-called discussions, I am NOT expecting any help here. The main result of my prior experiences has been to persuade me that I never want to buy another Apple product. However, sometimes in the course of trying to describe a problem I figure out what's wrong. So far that hasn't happened... Maybe the angle of Apple taking over control of upgrades on the computer I supposedly own?

Now I have a prediction for how this discussion goes. It will NOT go well. That's mostly because my skeptical attitude is forbidden here. I'm going to publicly post this problem description elsewhere, because I think the most likely response to this part of the comment will be to delete the comment unanswered. If it does get an answer, it will be another boilerplate response from some fanboi trying to earn some kind of brownie points from Apple. That boilerplate will be pitched at total neophytes and will just waste more of my time.

Now if there is a helpful discussion, I promise to repost it in the same venue, but... I'm certainly not expecting any help from Apple or its minions now. If there is a problem (and I'm still uncertain), then I will have to solve it on my own (as I have done on many occasions already, though some annoying problems remain open). I certainly hope Apple is not expecting me to buy another Apple product. EVER. Whenever my resolve weakens, something like this wannabe problem restores it.