Apprehensive about Monterey upgrade

[Tommy66]

I'm using Big Sur 11.6 on my 2020 M1 Mini (8 GB memory). Can I continue on using this OS or do I need to upgrade? Big Sur has it's issues but super minor compared to what I'm reading re: Monterey. I'm hoping to get 5 years out of this mini before I buy a new one. Monterey makes me nervous (I need my photoshop elements). Thoughts?

 

[Taz Mangus]

If BS is working well for you then just continue on using it. Maybe you want to upgrade to macOS 13 instead. There isn't any reason to upgrade unless there is a feature you want or you like to keep the computer running on the latest macOS. I skipped BS and went from Cataline to Monterey on the 2015 13" MacBook Pro and my 2015 27" iMac. One thing you could do is create a new Container and Volume and install Monterey on the new Volume. It would give you a chance to try it out and decide if you want to upgrade. This is how I decided on doing the upgrade. Primarily there was a program that I wanted to use and I was able to see if it would work in Monterey.

 

[Tommy66]

Thanks for the advice. I'll upgrade to BS 11.6.6 to keep my BS up to date (I don't see a 13)but I'll skip Monterey for now. I may try the new container when I learn how to do that.

 

[rpmurray]

One thing you could do is create a new Container and Volume and install Monterey on the new Volume.

You don't need to create a new Container. APFS allows you to have multiple OS volumes in the same container and boot from any of them. Think of Containers as partitions where you need to know how much space to allocate when you create it, whereas Volumes in APFS do much the same thing as partitions in HFS+ except they share the container space.

 

[fisherking]

this 'apprehension' can be applied to any version of the OS, at any time. for example, you could have the same apprehension about the next version.

every version of mac OS has it's strengths and issues. there are always bugs, and always people who experience specific problems (that are not universal bugs). there is no one perfect moment.

update if you want to, don't if you... don't want to (back everything up first!) but know that the next OS will also have it's detractors (always a small but vocal group, thru every OS version, here on macrumors).

this is an endless cycle on the forums (but, at least, always entertaining).

 

[Fishrrman]

I'm going to reveal something that I reckon 96.7% of Mac users don't know about or ever consider:

If you want to try an OS upgrade before committing yourself to it (installing it on your internal drive), TRY IT ON AN EXTERNAL DRIVE FIRST.

You can buy a cheap 2.5" SATA SSD (128gb) for about $20 or so.
Put it into a USB3 2.5" external enclosure.

Then, install the new OS onto the EXTERNAL drive.
Set it up with a new account, or migrate your existing one over.
Migrate apps, too.

Now you can boot and run the new OS, without messing with your existing OS on the internal drive. If you don't like it, or some apps no longer work right, you still have the internal, older OS "unchanged".

At some point, you may decide you ARE "ready to commit" and upgrade the internal.

Then, just repeat the above process, using the external drive for THE NEXT version of the OS that comes along...

One thing:
Although you CAN install modern versions of the OS onto platter-based drives, I wouldn't advise doing so. The Mac OS really needs the speed afforded by an SSD.

 

[Boyd01]

Don't some MacOS upgrades also require a firmware update for your computer? If so, would those be backwards-compatible? If not, then you might be in a situation where the new operating system is on the external disk but the old OS on your internal drive would no longer work with the new firmware.

I have never encountered such a problem, but it seems like somethiing that should be considered before performing an update.

 

[Fishrrman]

Boyd comments (reasonably):
"Don't some MacOS upgrades also require a firmware update for your computer? If so, would those be backwards-compatible? If not, then you might be in a situation where the new operating system is on the external disk but the old OS on your internal drive would no longer work with the new firmware."

I have never had this happen.
Not once.

 

[Boyd01]

Good to know. But are you saying you've never been forced to update firmware, or that any firmware updates were also backwards-compatible with the old operating system? Seems like the risk would be greatest when jumping a bunch of versions, such as Mojave to Monterey.

 

[Fishrrman]

Boyd wrote:
"Seems like the risk would be greatest when jumping a bunch of versions, such as Mojave to Monterey."

I've had my 2018 Mini since March 2019.

One of the reasons I bought it was to have one of the final Mac platforms that could 32 bit software years into the future.

It came with Mojave as the "factory OS" and it still runs Mojave. I have no plans to upgrade the internal drive further.

However...
Since I got it, I also have used external drives to create bootable volumes of the subsequent OS's -- Catalina, Big Sur, and now Monterey. I signed up for the developer access, and would obtain and run these OS's before the "release" versions came out.

I'll guess that ALL of them had firmware updates as a part of their installations. These days, that seems to "go with the update".

And again... even though I boot to the external boot drive {now running Monterey 12.5) now and then, none of this funny business seems to have interfered with the Mini's ability to boot/run the [Mojave] OS it shipped with.

It's been the same way on my prior Mac, as well (2012 Mini).

I won't say a firmware update could never "mess with the past".
But so far, it's not been my personal experience.

 

[plyle]

I'm having good luck with 12.5 and normally just upgrade everything a new version comes out.