EnTech: Apple drops discoveryd in latest OS X beta following months of network issues

Apple drops discoveryd in latest OS X beta following months of network issues


After many complaints from the developer community about poor networking performance on Yosemite, the latest beta of OS X 10.10.4 has dropped discoveryd in favor of the old process used by previous versions of the Mac operating system. This should address many of the network stability issues introduced with Yosemite and its new networking stack.
The discoveryd process has been subject to much criticism in recent months as it causes users to regularly drop WiFi access and causes network shares to list many times over, due to bugs. Many developers, such as Craig Hockenberry, have complained about the buggy software and workarounds have been found to include substituting the older system (called mDNSResponder) back into Yosemite.
discoveryd would cause random crashes, duplicate names on the network and many other WiFi-relate bugs. In the latest beta, Apple appears to have applied the same fix as the enthusiasts by axing discoveryd completely.

Looking at Activity Monitor on OS X 10.10.4 seed 4, discoveryd is no longer loaded by the system â€" instead relying on mDNSResponder. The ‘new’ process is really the one Apple used to use pre-Yosemite and did not have these problems.
It is still unclear why the change in the networking stack was ever made given that the old process worked so well and the new process had so many issues. There has been some speculation that the new stack is related to AirDrop and Handoff functionality although testing showed that these features still worked when the system was reverted back to the old process.
Regardless, it will please many to see that Apple has finally addressed these complaints, even if it embarrassingly involves going back to the old system rather than fixing the new code. OS X 10.10.4 will be released to the public in the coming months.
Apple is focusing on performance and stability for iOS 9 and OS X 10.11, so it will be interesting to see whether discoveryd makes a comeback in Apple’s next-generation operating system.

Apple releases latest OS X 10.10.3 build w/ Photos apps for developers public beta testers, Yosemite Recovery Update 3.0 for devs

Dropbox says this week’s OS X 10.10.1 release fixes crashes on Yosemite

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1. nelmat says: Thank god for that â€" it’s been a complete mess. Can’t believe this has taken so long to fix, but very glad it finally has.
   
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2. rnc says: LOL!
   discoveryd has been the shame of Apple since Yosemite release!
   How can they make such a simple piece of software so buggy!?
   Good ol’ and open source mDSNResponder, welcome back!
   
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3. srgmac says: This was doomed from the start. I never understood the switch; mDNSResponder has been used for years and works pretty damned good compared to discoveryd. I’m glad they came to their senses though..so many absolutely ridiculous bugs.
   
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4. Andrew Messenger says: Thank goodness. Also kind of embarrassing and funny for Apple. But as long as what I see ends up being an improvement, I’m happy about it.
   
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5. Solaris  (@solaris1347) says: I always had a problem with it. Especially as I could never force quit it when facing issues. Now it’s good news that Apple could point the issue and resolved it. As I checked, it’s not in activity monitor currently. So I continue to check for issues and reports. Thanks for this article.
   
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6. srgmac says: Now all we need is root pipe fixed…it’s only been around 8 months now since it was first reported to Apple…sigh.
   
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7. Scott Buscemi says: “although testing showed that these features still worked when the system was reverted back to the old process”
   Really? I still can’t get AirDrop to work ever.
   
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   • coolfactor says: Then likely not a problem with you Mac, but something else in your setup. Router blocking ports?
     
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     • Richard Ian Birch says: It doesn’t use your router. It uses Bluetooth to establish the link and Wi-Fi Direct for the data transfer.
       
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8. coolfactor says: I do want to know what the motivation for implementing discoveryd was? Is it a small, more nimble daemon? Faster? Easier to maintain? There had to be a good reason for them wanting to invest time and energy into developing it.
   
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   • staraffinity says: Exactly my thoughts.
     
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9. gkbrown says: Echoing the “thank God” comments. I have had to disable “wake for network access” on all of my machines since Yosemite came out. Hopefully I can now turn it back on!
   
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   • Jubei says: Test it and give us an update.
     
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10. Seeping iN (@CPngN) says: discoveryd was implemented to help with low power modes (sleeping, but awake enough to do fancy things such as wake up when you try to access a Macbook even though the lid is closed). It was one of many pieces to help increase battery life.
    
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    • irelandjnr says: That’s not true. Wake for network access which you described was around before it.
      
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11. Jim Hassinger (@Swift818) says: And I was wondering why I could no longer keep the Mac functional more than about 12 hours. With 10.4, there’s been a slow improvement. I’ll have to try this when I get home again.
    
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12. petieg says: Anybody know if it IS the version directly from Mavericks or has mDNSResponder been updated for Yosemite?
    
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13. petieg says: I bet this will clear up all of my 3rd party AirPlay speaker issues (ie: missing from LAN) I’ve been having ! (Auris, eXtremeMac, Harmon K)
    
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14. driverbenji says: Question: Does Mail app also use Discoveryd? If so, maybe Mail will get better also.
    
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15. GadgetBen says: I had so many problems waking the Mac from sleep and waiting 2mins for it to connect to the network. Don’t know if that was down to this but looking forward to the update installing now!
    
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16. orthorim says: I can’t think of a single OS X release that didn’t also introduce new WiFi issues and problems… I don’t know what it is but Apple is at war with WiFi.
    There was that time when I replaced my $200 AirPort Extreme base station with a cheap $20 DLink box and suddenly all my networking issues disappeared… it just worked from that moment on.
    
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