Fresh OS Install or Upgrade

[jgrove]

Hi, I was just wondering if people tend to do a fresh install of an OS rather than upgrade? I have no issues with my MBP 2018 having upgraded, but I am also conscious that performance might be better if I do a fresh install?

Does anyone have an options on this? I have backup up my drive and was planning an internet recovery to hopefully put a fresh copy of Catalina on my MBP.

Thanks in advance,

Regards

 

[Super Spartan]

Catalina is buggy as it is, I wouldn't EVER think of upgrading. Clean install FTW. Nothing feels better than a fresh new start.

 

[bob_stan]

YMMV but I upgraded my 2013 MacPro from Mojave to Catalina and had 0 issues.

 

[TopherMan12]

I upgraded my 2018 Mac Mini to Catalina and performance was not good and Bluetooth problems were rampant. I eventually returned the Mac Mini in favor of a 2019 MacBook Pro with Mojave. I'm holding off on upgrading to Catalina at this point, but when I do it will certainly be a clean install. I've always found better results that way.

 

[TheSkywalker77]

I fresh installed Catalina and haven't had that many issues. In the past though I have upgraded my OS version and was just fine as well. It's up to you.

 

[dpny]

Upgraded to Catalina and only had one minor issue which resolved itself pretty quickly.

 

[fisherking]

i used to do clean installs; a lot of work, but thought it mattered. now i just upgrade, and can't see any difference in the 2 methods (unless you want to clean a lot of stuff out first).

upgrade; simple. and, if, for some reason, you're having issues, and it seems worth it, you can then do a clean install...

 

[0906742]

I upgraded my MBP 2019 from Mojave to Catalina and cannot say that I've experienced much any problems with that. Upgrade seemed to solve few problems I had with Mojave (sporadic screen glitches and annoying delay/pause on trackpad when I had keyboard backlight automatically turned off after 5 seconds of inactivity). Only minor issue I had was with AirPods connected the first time after update, for some reason it saw only one of the pods and I had to do some tricks (put them back in the case if I recall correctly) to make it work again but no biggie.

It just seems too much hassle in my opinion if after every major OS update I would reinstall from clean. I mean often just periodical OS update, even the same version still, are pretty much full OS overwrite anyway.
I've been doing the same with my Windows gear for some time. I used to do fresh install before but just thought it is simply too time consuming and as I saw no problems after update I decided I will do fresh install only when I do major hardware updates on my machine or if I ever see some problem with updated machine that seem to be related to OS upgrade. Especially my Windows desktop has so much stuff and my own settings modified that it would take few days to put all back together and even then probably something missing would show up later...

I don't think OS manufacturers would offer upgrade as the first option to everyone unless they had made sure it works (almost) every time for anyone.

Just as a fair warning, it is always good to check your programs before the update that they are supported by the new OS version. Also possible peripheral devices, drivers and such is advisable to check first and make sure. If failing to do that, it is a recipe for disaster.

 

[IowaLynn]

It use to be that testers used combo updates and the delta update were... trouble, problematic. Only later after asking seed testers to use delta beta updates did that improve.

You want stable ideal performance go for lean mean and clean.

Putting the system on read only volume and relegating 3rd party to the “-Data” cluster is new. Dropping 32-bit finally. Most AV type products don’t work. Avast, Netbarrier others.

Security changed. HDMI and USBC video, more stringent specs.
Some hubs docks and cables that should have been flagged before are now?

We should have learned in last 20 years that Apple pushes unfinished dot zero releases and then patch patch patch.

 

[fisherking]

It use to be that testers used combo updates and the delta update were... trouble, problematic. Only later after asking seed testers to use delta beta updates did that improve.

You want stable ideal performance go for lean mean and clean.

Putting the system on read only volume and relegating 3rd party to the “-Data” cluster is new. Dropping 32-bit finally. Most AV type products don’t work. Avast, Netbarrier others.

Security changed. HDMI and USBC video, more stringent specs.
Some hubs docks and cables that should have been flagged before are now?

We should have learned in last 20 years that Apple pushes unfinished dot zero releases and then patch patch patch.

if you say so