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macOS High Sierra on Macbook Air 13 2015?

Mr. 123

Mr. 123

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 20, 2016
386
261
Hello,
I have a MacBook Air "13" from 2015 (128GBSSD 8GB Ram 1.6 i5 processor).

Right now it's running the latest version of macOS Sierra and it runs smoothly. Should I upgrade to High Sierra? Would the performance be the same, or maybe even better in some areas, or would it be a risk to upgrade? I've heard different reports from different people... some say that it becomes really slow so I am not sure wether to update or not...

Any help would be be appreciated!
 
There's no real risk to it. If you update and decide you prefer Sierra, you can just go back to Sierra. It's not like iOS where the older software can't be installed.

I've been happy enough with High Sierra myself.
 
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I have a MacBook Pro 15-inch 2010 (2.4Ghz i5, GeForce GT330m, 4 GB RAM, 240GB SSD (not original disk)) with High Sierra. My Mac had no noticable change in performance, but Macs react diffrent to the OS updates. It's hard to say how your Mac will do without trying the update.
 
casperes1996 said:
There's no real risk to it. If you update and decide you prefer Sierra, you can just go back to Sierra. It's not like iOS where the older software can't be installed.

I've been happy enough with High Sierra myself.
Click to expand...
The MBA is my secondary computer and I haven't set up a time machine backup for it yet, should I do that before I update, if I decide to update...?
 
Mr. 123 said:
The MBA is my secondary computer and I haven't set up a time machine backup for it yet, should I do that before I update, if I decide to update...?
Click to expand...

It is ALWAYS best practice to have a backup before an update or any significant change that could impact your system.
You can set up TM or you can opt for a bootable clone (Carbon Copy Cloner is my preferred choice)
I would actually recommend both long term, but if it just a test, I would clone it, update and try it and use the clone to go back if necessary

I think you will find the update to High Sierra to be relatively unnoticeable in performance or features
 
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Mr. 123 said:
The MBA is my secondary computer and I haven't set up a time machine backup for it yet, should I do that before I update, if I decide to update...?
Click to expand...


I agree with MacDawg. To be honest, unless you have vital data, I wouldn't consider it that crucial in this case, but better safe than sorry, right?
 
"Right now it's running the latest version of macOS Sierra and it runs smoothly. Should I upgrade to High Sierra? Would the performance be the same, or maybe even better in some areas, or would it be a risk to upgrade?"

I'm gonna give you my "standard, boilerplate" advice.

When one has an OS install that is "running smoothly", there's always an amount of risk that if you "change things", it might not be "as smooth" any more.
That's the chance you take with an upgrade.
And frankly, High Sierra has been a "bag of hurt" for more than a few users.

However, there's a way to "protect yourself" if things go wrong -- a way that will make it VERY easy to "get back, get back, get back to where you once belonged".

Do this:
1. Get an external drive.
2. Use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to clone the contents of your CURRENT installation, creating a BOOTABLE cloned backup.
3. Once you've done this, do the upgrade.
4. IF things go wrong, you can now do this:
4a. BOOT FROM the cloned backup
4b. ERASE your internal drive (NUKE IT "back to zero")
4c. RE-clone the contents of your cloned backup BACK TO the internal drive.
Do this, and you'll be "right back where you started from", just like "the day you left".

If you DON'T do the above, you can still "get back", but it's NOT going to be "easy".
It will be a struggle.

TIP for the High Sierra install.
1. Download the installer app but DON'T run it from your internal drive
2. Get a USB flashdrive, 8gb or 16gb
3. Download "Boot Buddy" (it's free) from:
https://sqwarq.com/boot-buddy/
4. Use BB to create a USB flashdrive installer
5. Boot from the installer
6. NOW run the OS installer app.
Things seem to go better this way.
 
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I am making a Time Machine Backup of my MBA right now, but I think I'll just stay on Sierra. It seems to be a lot of work to upgrade (as it can go wrong etc). I'll probably update when 10.14 comes out:)
 
Mr. 123 said:
I am making a Time Machine Backup of my MBA right now, but I think I'll just stay on Sierra. It seems to be a lot of work to upgrade (as it can go wrong etc). I'll probably update when 10.14 comes out:)
Click to expand...
I would wait. Read about some of the problems that some people have had after they installed High Sierra.
 
madrich said:
I would wait. Read about some of the problems that some people have had after they installed High Sierra.
Click to expand...
I will wait. The features in HS seem nice but are nothing I can’t love without so I’ll just stay on Sierra for the time being.
 
OP wrote:
"I am making a Time Machine Backup of my MBA right now, but I think I'll just stay on Sierra."

A TM backup can't do for you what a BOOTABLE CLONED backup can do.
It will prove woefully insufficient.
Ignore my advice above... and you'll "find out the hard way".
 
Last edited:
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Mr. 123 said:
I am making a Time Machine Backup of my MBA right now, but I think I'll just stay on Sierra. It seems to be a lot of work to upgrade (as it can go wrong etc). I'll probably update when 10.14 comes out:)
Click to expand...
What would be better 10.13.3 or 10.14.0
Will still have threat of bugs if initial concern.
 
What I meant was that I'll update to the final version of High Sierra at the same time that macOS 10.14 comes out! The issues with HS seem to many to risk an upgrade on a computer that runs smoothly.
 
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It does surprise me that the biggest tech company in the world has these issues with updates... A few years ago I always updated when the update was available and didn't really have any issues. First time I had an issue was with Sierra, when that came out. It slowed down my MBP and created a constant fan issue so I reverted back to El Capitan which works fine except for those fans lol
 
One month later, is macOS High Sierra stable enough to install now?

I've kept my Air on Sierra due to the unstable performance reports on High Sierra.
 
Mr. 123 said:
One month later, is macOS High Sierra stable enough to install now?

I've kept my Air on Sierra due to the unstable performance reports on High Sierra.
Click to expand...

I have a 2015 MacBook Air 2.2GHz i7 8GB 512GB NVMe M.2 and am running High Sierra OS 10.13.5 beta and have not experienced any issues OS-wize. I would do the install using a thumb drive, this is how I did mine and have not had any issues. I have found High Sierra to be very stable on my 2015 MBA.
 
Macdctr said:
I have a 2015 MacBook Air 2.2GHz i7 8GB 512GB NVMe M.2 and am running High Sierra OS 10.13.5 beta and have not experienced any issues OS-wize. I would do the install using a thumb drive, this is how I did mine and have not had any issues. I have found High Sierra to be very stable on my 2015 MBA.
Click to expand...
I have never updated from a thumb drive but will try.
 
Mr. 123 said:
I have never updated from a thumb drive but will try.
Click to expand...

I used a 16GB thumb drive and installed Mac OS 10.13 Installer (downloaded onto my MacBook Pro). I used the application software (Install Disk Creator) to make the 16GB thumb drive into a Mac OS X installer thumb drive on my MacBook Pro then used that thumb drive to install High Sierra onto my MacBook Air.

Here's the link: https://macdaddy.io/install-disk-creator/
 
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