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Unless I break something; never. But I do sometimes like to mess around with system components and I have at one time corrupted some kernel components that forced me to fetch the originals from a different Mac. It I had only had one Mac that would’ve been a reinstall moment
Interesting . You still remember which one?
Speaking diffrent Mac. Is possible to revive firmware for my Macbook with Mac Mini?
I read some document saying about DFU stuff : it required two Macbook connect by cable
 
Does this count as re-install?

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Interesting . You still remember which one?
Speaking diffrent Mac. Is possible to revive firmware for my Macbook with Mac Mini?
I read some document saying about DFU stuff : it required two Macbook connect by cable
Gpu related stuff. Wound up without accelerated graphics.

Yes you can restore with a thunderbolt cable through Apple configuration
 
I'm just curious—how often do MacBook users typically reinstall their OS?
Back when I was using Windows, I used to reinstall the system every 3–4 months.
Now that I've switched to a MacBook for work, I'm wondering if it's still necessary.?
Not necessary... just update your Mac when there is an update... (There is usually one in less than 2 months... Macs can get also around 10 years of update (this includes security updates... not features which can be 7 years))
 
There is no need to reinstall it again unless there is a major crash or breakdown of the Mac. Sometimes, when there is a major update, some people reinstall, but not in many cases.
 
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There is no need to reinstall it again unless there is a major crash or breakdown of the Mac. Sometimes, when there is a major update, some people reinstall, but not in many cases.
Tip = I suggest to reinstall macOS only if you have problems like you are saying or when you sell your Mac.
 
I used Recovery OS on the MacBook to reinstall macOS. I think I did that in 2022 October, right around when macOS Ventura came out
 
With my 2017 MBP I had and have so many problems I reinstalled macOS at least once a year and reset the SMC and NVRAM quarterly.
 
Windows requires frequent wipe and reinstall at least yearly and sometimes more frequently when issues happen
I have two Windows systems that have not had an OS reinstall in three years. At my old job the four Windows servers, going on nine years old, never had the OS reinstalled.
 
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I used to reinstall the OS once a year, just to clear out all the junk.
However, several years ago, the system volume got completely separated from the data volume, and to my understanding, every single system volume is absolutely identical now. If there are any changes made to the system volume, the computer simply will not boot.
That’s why there is now an “erase all data” option in the system settings, it literally destroys the encryption key for your data volume.
So, unless there’s a hardware failure, erasing and reinstalling the operating system is basically a complete waste of time. You are much more well off just going to system settings, using the “erase all data” option and going on with your day, given that there is absolutely no functional difference.
So the last time I truly did a system reinstall was, Big Sur? I think?
 
Since OS X I've had to do a total of two re-installs. A relative's machine and my own, both due to Fusion drives that got corrupted. Not bad for 24 years.
 
Only when I buy a new Mac.
It doesn’t always comes with the newest OS, so procedure are usually to upgrade the OS it comes with. Then I transfer the content from earlier Mac with Time Machine or CCC.
 
I’ve only done it once on my old Mac and old Surface Pro, but that was only because I changed focus of priorities. Both were getting bogged down with years of coding, which I stopped doing for a while, so it made sense to wipe out the clutter and start from fresh. No other reason.
 
I will break from the common trend here and say it really depends.

I moved from the windows environment when windows 8 was in full swing and Apple just came out with the iMac 5k. (2014). There were some that would answer the same way has most here in the Mac just work and you don't need to keep re-installing. I had a totally different experience from them in that iMac would require a full wipe and reinstall of the OS every 3-4 months if you wanted it to work. if you left it for over that time then you'd start to get corruption and loose your work.

That said, it was just that iMac. That computer was cursed from day1 and in hind sight I should have sent it back to apple within the week when it wouldn't connect or work on iMessage or FaceTime. The re-install of the OS was actually directed by Apple Sr. Support as their only solution to when things went wrong with that iMac.

That iMac worked great for about 8 years just needed to be wiped and re-installed every 4 times a year. (I had it down to a science and had a Carbon Copy Clone of the base MacOS with my apps pre-installed and I could easily just re-flash the drive with that image and I just put all my user data onto an external drive.

In 2023 I bought a new Mac mini M2pro and that has worked flawlessly with any of the issues the iMac had. no os reinstall. No funky things other than I did roll back to MacOS 13 as I just found it worked better with LogicPro and has less OS related issues that are a software thing and nothing to do with the actual hardware function. in 2024 I bought a MacBook that is running MacOS 13 and has required no re-install or any issues at all.

If the hardware has no issues then you likely don't need a new OS install. It's up to you if you want to install the new MacOS every year. I use mine for music production so I am quite happy to stick with the working stable OS and haven't had any trouble with the mini and macbook
 
For major updates I do a clean install (re-install). I make a bootable USB with the latest software. Long press the power button, open terminal, type "reset password", then "Erase Mac" - finally I erase the Macintosh HD disk, and then I install the fresh update. When we updated from Sonoma to Sequoia was the last time I did it. I will do it again when the next major update comes.
 
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