If the M2 based Mac you are getting is a 13-inch MacBook Pro or a MacBook Air, you can downgrade to macOS Monterey 12.4 or newer. I'm just not entirely sure why you'd want to. Definitely no older than 12.4.
If the M2 based Mac you are getting is a Mac mini, 14-inch MacBook Pro, or 16-inch MacBook Pro, then yeah, you're pretty much stuck with Ventura.
Based on earlier comments, it seems dumb to not go with Ventura. (If I really needed an old OS, I could buy a used laptop and run it on that, however, that sort of siloes you from the modern work. So I guess it makes sense to just keep rolling with new updates from Apple and pray they don't do anything too radical.)
Kind of. Basically, the OS evolves, your software evolves, and with the Intel to Apple Silicon transition also being a factor here, it's just too much to make that sort of thing clean.
That is my thinking as well.
Right. The way to solve this is to be aware of what data you have and where it lives. If you want to preserve program preferences, it helps to know what those preferences even are, as that is how you will most efficiently recreate them. It's also entirely possible that preferences you are used to get changed in newer versions of the apps you use. Starting over in this case, while scary, is often for the best!
In the past I would take screenshpts of all of my application settings. Have gotten lazy over the last few years, and also don't know where those docs are at.
Even if I weren't upgrading, I really shoud do an inventory for every application and setting on my Mac, because if something happened like a hard-drive failed or my OS became corrupt, I would be screwed.
And I am not good enough to memorize all of my settings.
Also, I learned the hard way that there are a lot of settings that CCC cannot capture, and so if you don't have notes available, then you will lose your settings when you have to re-install - in my case Big Sur.
Furthermore, unless I win the lotto, I won't be able to get a new Mac for at least a few months, so I have time to think all of this through - and come back to MacRumors and ask questions when I am unsure.
If you are worried about this, I'd set up your new Mac and use it alongside your old one so that you, over the first month or so of use, learn what you are missing and/or what you might be okay with living without.
Another excellent idea - and one that I did when I purchased this MBP.
Yeah, if I run my old laptop and a new one in parallel, then I should pretty quickly be able to see where the missing data or applications or settings are at.
(This assumes that the display and logic board on this old crusty MBP don't die before I can buy a new one!)
Depends on what you are trying to preserve. If you are trying to preserve mail from an IMAP or Exchange account, this is silly since that stuff is all stored server side and gets synced down anyway. Signatures are probably easy to locate and back-up (though, you can also do the lazy method of just copying and pasting them into Thunderbird on your new Mac). POP3 mailboxes might be a different story. Though, I'm sure where those are stored is easy to find as well (though, if you use a POP3 e-mail account, might I suggest you move to something more modern?).
It's not fair POP3 isn't modern - it's just a different approach.
I (believe) I am running POP3 in Thunderbird, because some of my e-mails are hosted on a 3rd part webhost, and if they ever went out of business and there was a hack, or I forgot to renew my service, I run the risk of losing all of my emails.
So (I think) I have things et up to download read messages into my hard-drive so I can back them up and have more control.
Not everyone wants to put their lives on "the Cloud". *LOL*
Which settings? For which applications? I'd inventory which apps the settings of which you care about. It might not be that hard of a task to merely recreate those settings manually, especially if you know what those settings are. Again, it's also possible that settings/preferences for your applications will have changed on newer versions of those applications and that you're much better off just doing these over from scratch.
I agree.
This is where running the two side-by-side for a little while will help you figure out what you're missing. If you go long enough without needing to reference the older computer, you're probably fine! Worst case scenario, if you want a safety blanket, either (a) don't throw out the old computer and/or (b) create a Time Machine backup of the old computer onto a drive (you may never need it, but you'll probably feel safer knowing its there if ever you change your mind!).
I agree.
It's definitely not a good solution for those that actually want control over the files themselves.
Maybe a good topic for another thread some day., but suffice it to say that I don't like how all of these photos apps take away your control over your photo/video files.
Either way, iTunes, Photos, etc doesn't apply to me.
System Information (known as "System Profiler" in older macOS versions) will have you covered here. You can find it in your Utilities folder within your Applications Folder. Navigate to "Applications" under "Software".
Okay, thanks for telling me about that.
Interesting utility, but it doesn't specify 32-bit vs. 64-bit. I just see a column for Intel vs Universal.
And when I go to System Preferences for some of my apps, I don't see a listing anywhere if they are 32-bit or 64-bit, so is there a practical way to gather that information as I do an inventory of all of my current applications?
Incidentally, if you are redownloading your software, there's a seriously good chance that the developer will state which OS the app you are trying to install will work on.
True.
If macOS Catalina, macOS Big Sur, macOS Monterey, or macOS Ventura are supported, then the app is, at the very least, a 64-bit Intel app, if not Universal, if not Apple Silicon only. Either way, it will run on an M2 Mac. Do be careful. Some apps, rather than having a Universal version, will have both Intel and Apple Silicon versions to download (VLC is a notable example of this). Needless to say, in those cases, the Apple Silicon version is preferable.
So you are saying that anything currently running on my MBP with Big Sur will be 64-bit?
Thanks for all of the advice!
