Mojave straight to Big Sur - experiences anyone?

[HDFan]

My upgrade to Big Sur introduced a boatload of problems. Given the large number of applications which I use my experience is probably atypical.

1. Constant kernel panics, every few days. One wiped out all of my user data requiring me to do a restore.

2. System extension handling is much harder. Trying to debug extension issues is much more difficult. Have been working with one vendor on issues for months but still not resolved.

3. System Security Preferences are very unstable. In just one category, full disk access, I have some 44 applications. Sometimes on reboot they all disappear. I have to reboot in order for them to repopulate. And this is just one preference category

Problems are slowly getting resolved. It broke the network Thunderbolt bridge adapter, which was fixed in 11.4. It will take time for all of the changes that they made in Big Sur to be fully debugged.

 

[harriska2]

If you boot from external you should be fine… you’ll have to download the Big Sur installer and use your external as the target install disk…
And, format it to APFS with 2 volumes

I'm wondering if I should create 2 APFS containers instead of volumes.

 

[Hombre53]

I left Mojave about a month ago, moving to Big Sur (PatchedSur) on late 2013 iMac 27". Couldn't be happier, smooth as silk so far...

 

[jz0309]

I left Mojave about a month ago, moving to Big Sur (PatchedSur) on late 2013 iMac 27". Couldn't be happier, smooth as silk so far...

Other than the TV app no issues either.
Still trying to figure out how to manage my mixed library of ripped DVDs and iTunes purchases for my AppleTV as the main viewing device. Seems like Apple didn’t think this thru as I’ve been searching for 2 days and cannot find an answer

 

[dlopan]

I went from Mojave to crapilina to big slur. Big slur isn't so bad other than all of my 3rd party drivers are dead in the water with no replacements. I expected that so no big complaints. I keep an older air running just for that.
Mojave is better. Leopard and snow leopard are so much better than all the crud apple has now

 

[Mactech20]

2017 iMac 27, 24GB, 1TB internal SSD, 1 TB external SSD, 4TB + 8 TB external HDD, latest Mojave security update
I've been pondering on this for a while now but after I saw the keynote with Monterey I've basically decided that I will want Monterey eventually and should start making the upgrade to Big Sur in the meantime.
I held on to Mojave primarily because I did not like Catalina nor what Apple had done with iTunes, plus a few 32bit apps that now I do not care about anymore.
Usage-wise, ~ 75k of photos in Lightroom with the actual photos on the external SSD (~740GB) and the index on the internal SSD.
iTunes library (~650 movies, ~10k songs) on external 4TB HDD (~ 2.3TB used)
Time Machine backup to 8TB external HDD

I'm sure some have gone straight from Mojave to Big Sur - how was that experience? Any learnings to share?

Also, thinking about getting a new 2 TB external SSD (Samsung T5 or T7) and would then get CCC to clone the internal and the external SSDs onto that

With all that external storage you should consider taking advantage of the internal proprietary pcie slot as well as the SATA connection.

I manage Macs at a university with over 700 systems. I haven't had any issues with Big Sur and I started putting users on it the day it came out. Catalina on the other hand I was swamped with complaints for months. Ive upgraded plenty to Big Sur from Mojave and the only real difference I see is the change of UI which is completely preference and no 32 bit. If neither of those bother you go for it.

 

[jz0309]

With all that external storage you should consider taking advantage of the internal proprietary pcie slot as well as the SATA connection.

I manage Macs at a university with over 700 systems. I haven't had any issues with Big Sur and I started putting users on it the day it came out. Catalina on the other hand I was swamped with complaints for months. Ive upgraded plenty to Big Sur from Mojave and the only real difference I see is the change of UI which is completely preference and no 32 bit. If neither of those bother you go for it.

I actually did, and went smooth…
It’s an iMac, so nothing internal to use

 

[HDFan]

Still trying to figure out how to manage my mixed library of ripped DVDs and iTunes purchases for my AppleTV as the main viewing device.

If the ripped titles are in a format that iTunes does not support then you will have to use a different player for them, such as Plex or Infuse.

 

[jz0309]

If the ripped titles are in a format that iTunes does not support then you will have to use a different player for them, such as Plex or Infuse.

Thanks, the was not the problem as I had used them in iTunes for years, I found the answer to my problem (ripped titles under home videos and iTunes titles under movies) in a different thread #17

 

[nothingtoseehere]

Took my 2015 MBP from Mojave to Big Sur. Zero regrets.

At the end of the year, when Mojave is no longer supported, I will update directly to Monterey. MBP 2015 as well.

I will keep a bootable backup from my Mojave installation. Just in case…

 

[Yebubbleman]

2017 iMac 27, 24GB, 1TB internal SSD, 1 TB external SSD, 4TB + 8 TB external HDD, latest Mojave security update
I've been pondering on this for a while now but after I saw the keynote with Monterey I've basically decided that I will want Monterey eventually and should start making the upgrade to Big Sur in the meantime.
I held on to Mojave primarily because I did not like Catalina nor what Apple had done with iTunes, plus a few 32bit apps that now I do not care about anymore.
Usage-wise, ~ 75k of photos in Lightroom with the actual photos on the external SSD (~740GB) and the index on the internal SSD.
iTunes library (~650 movies, ~10k songs) on external 4TB HDD (~ 2.3TB used)
Time Machine backup to 8TB external HDD

I'm sure some have gone straight from Mojave to Big Sur - how was that experience? Any learnings to share?

Also, thinking about getting a new 2 TB external SSD (Samsung T5 or T7) and would then get CCC to clone the internal and the external SSDs onto that

I'm a little bit extreme, so take the advice that I'm about to give you with AT LEAST one grain of salt, if not a whole packet. I am not the hugest fan of in-place upgrades of major new releases. There are usually SOME issues that crop up and performance is almost always not as smooth as simply doing a clean installation and migrating data over. Though, I'm further extreme in that I don't use the migration assistant; I just copy my data over from a Time Machine backup or from the old Mac in target disk mode (whichever happens to be more convenient and/or current at the time) and manually file it all away where it's supposed to go so that my system running the new OS is as cleanly installed as can be. It's a pain to do every year there's a new OS release. But you're jumping from Mojave straight to Big Sur, having skipped over Crapalina. Plus, Apple's track record with quality control on annual macOS releases has usually been such that you're likely not doing this every year anyway.

 

[smirking]

I went from Mojave to Big Sur and had some significant problems. I had been holding off on upgrading for the longest time because I was working on some large Web development projects and didn't want to take a chance of screwing up my development environment. A couple of months ago I was forced to upgrade because Apple's app store stopped accepting packages signed by the older version of XCode I was using and I couldn't run the newer versions on Mojave.

I'm having issues with OS X Mail being slow. It's as if I'm using a dial-up modem again when I try to navigate my index and manage my inbox. I also had a few programs that stopped working. The most consequential were Quickbooks and SuperDuper. Not having SuperDuper made a 2 week adventure of trying out an M1 MBP painful as I had to use TimeMachine to do a full backup of my system and transfer it to my temporary M1 Mac.

Aside from being able to sign an app in XCode, it was a lot of headache for little benefit, but it's done now and there aren't any horrible issues. Mail is was the worst problem, but I just found a solution and now it's fine. If you're having problems there too, the solution is to uncheck "Highlight messages with color when not grouped" in the Viewing tab of Mail Preferences.

 

[pshufd]

At the end of the year, when Mojave is no longer supported, I will update directly to Monterey. MBP 2015 as well.

I will keep a bootable backup from my Mojave installation. Just in case…

I plan to upgrade my laptops to Monterey either with the public beta or the RTM. I will keep a Mojave Virtual Machine on my Windows Desktop though.

 

[jz0309]

I'm a little bit extreme, so take the advice that I'm about to give you with AT LEAST one grain of salt, if not a whole packet. I am not the hugest fan of in-place upgrades of major new releases. There are usually SOME issues that crop up and performance is almost always not as smooth as simply doing a clean installation and migrating data over. Though, I'm further extreme in that I don't use the migration assistant; I just copy my data over from a Time Machine backup or from the old Mac in target disk mode (whichever happens to be more convenient and/or current at the time) and manually file it all away where it's supposed to go so that my system running the new OS is as cleanly installed as can be. It's a pain to do every year there's a new OS release. But you're jumping from Mojave straight to Big Sur, having skipped over Crapalina. Plus, Apple's track record with quality control on annual macOS releases has usually been such that you're likely not doing this every year anyway.

Thanks, actually upgrade went fine with no issues ...

 

[tpfang56]

I recently upgraded to Big Sur on an external SSD (internal HD is a terrible fusion drive), and it works perfectly well. My only problem is that the text is a little blurry and is giving me eye strain :/. Disabling transparency helps a little, but I’m still tempted to downgrade back to Mojave from a time machine backup.

 

[Mactech20]

I actually did, and went smooth…
It’s an iMac, so nothing internal to use

You actually can upgrade internal storage. I recently serviced a 2015 5k iMac and put a 1TB Pcie SSD in it along with a 6TB Hard drive for a 7TB fusion drive.

 

[hbtd]

2017 iMac 27, 24GB, 1TB internal SSD, 1 TB external SSD, 4TB + 8 TB external HDD, latest Mojave security update
I've been pondering on this for a while now but after I saw the keynote with Monterey I've basically decided that I will want Monterey eventually and should start making the upgrade to Big Sur in the meantime.
I held on to Mojave primarily because I did not like Catalina nor what Apple had done with iTunes, plus a few 32bit apps that now I do not care about anymore.
Usage-wise, ~ 75k of photos in Lightroom with the actual photos on the external SSD (~740GB) and the index on the internal SSD.
iTunes library (~650 movies, ~10k songs) on external 4TB HDD (~ 2.3TB used)
Time Machine backup to 8TB external HDD

I'm sure some have gone straight from Mojave to Big Sur - how was that experience? Any learnings to share?

Also, thinking about getting a new 2 TB external SSD (Samsung T5 or T7) and would then get CCC to clone the internal and the external SSDs onto that

Just upgraded from Mojave to Big Sur 11.4. No problems at all. Very casual user of a base 2019 MacBook Pro 128Gb. Seems to be generally faster and more stable than Mojave.

 

[Freida]

How did you scan your computer for 32bit apps, please?
Edit: found it

Upgraded all my devices in the last couple months, went awesome:

MacBook Air 2013
MacBook Pro 2017
Mac mini 2014 (x2)
Mac Pro 2013

I scanned all for 32-bit apps first and chucked em all. Performance has been fast and rock solid; the Air runs a little hot. I previously considered myself a heavy iTunes syncer and besides iOS devices being hidden from the sidebar at first, no other issues.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

How did you scan your computer for 32bit apps, please?

Go64

 

[diggy33]

I'm just finishing up a project at work getting our remaining Mojave devices (around 80 of them) upgraded to Big Sur. Only issue that we've run into was one user had some issues with Sql Developer, but I think she worked with our Service Desk to get that resolved.

 

[Freida]

So my experience with the update was actually bad. Luckily I had the CCC snapshot that saved the day.

Big Sur didn't want to finish updating. It got stuck on the last bit. When reinstalling 2x it didn't solve it. Booting in safe mode worked but didn't see other users so I actually had to create a new user but I wasn't able to install anything as it kept telling me the password I've just set is incorrect (even though I've just logged into the computer with it).
I've resetted the password etc. and still was saying password incorrect. Bizarre!
I gave up, reverted back to Mojave, installed beta profile and installed Monterey beta. That worked flawlessly and now its running without issue. The only remaining thing that still there is the fact that my disk is divided into two volumes (i think its from the broken Big Sur installation that I just overlooked.

So now have 950gb one volume and about 50gb another. Don't know how to merge them now so its frustrating as I need the space My disk is only 1TB so anything counts

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Still on Mojave myself and considering updating. Every person I've asked told me it all went fine but I have some work to do before updating and I'm still waiting. What kind of troubles Big Sur gave to you?

I bought a couple top spec 2019 imacs that came with Mojave, and mine has been sitting in a box since 2020. I needed a notebook for mobility, so I got a new 16” MBP running Big Sur & figured I’d sell off the imac to pay for it, but I can’t quite let it go, and keep setting it back up for this or that & reboxing it, because like my ooold 2009 17” MBP, the iMac is the most capable, useful, powerful, and reliable computer I’ve ever used. Mojave can run 64 and 32bit apps, so it can work with all the hardware, new and old, that comes into this office & on our shop floor; intel means it also run windows, Mojave even runs the last good permanent license of parallels to virtualize it for quick sessions; the enclosure has both TB3 and USB-A ports, so no looking for adapters. Mojave is noticeably quicker than catalina or big sur, doesn't overly rely on web services, and is stable as a concrete slab. Since all the biggest cad & engineering programs aren’t going to be rewritten for ARM, it probably bookends my 35 year run on Apple hardware, so for me, machines that came with Mojave on them are the pinnacle of the Apple computer line. I’ll use mine with Mojave until Apple stops supporting it, then a few more years go by of changes breaking all the web-based stuff, & much like Snow Leopard a decade later, it’ll broken all over the place and useless. Then I’ll just stick to booting into the windows side & get another decade of use out of it in time to retire, and never look at another screen again. So, Mojave or bust.

 

[iAssimilated]

I upgraded my wife's 2015 MacBook Pro and my 2014 Mac mini from Mojave to Big Sur this last weekend. So far everything seems to be fine and haven't noticed any performance issues (if anything, they feel faster).

 

[iJamesBS]

Update: got a great deal on Prime day for a 2TB Sandisk Extreme SSD, actually paid $215, specs like Samsung T7.

So used this new SSD and used CCC to clone my internal 1TB SSD as well as the external 1TB SSD, worked fantastic (the 470GB internal cloned in ~ 25 min and the external 740GB in ~ 35 min), impressed with the speed of that SSD.

Then I created a new volume on my internal SSD "Mojave" and installed Mojave, plus copied a few 32bit games that I might use occasionally.

I then started the update process to Big Sur yesterday morning ~ 6:30am when starting my normal workout and the upgrade was completed ~ 1hr 15 min or so later (didn't pay exact attention). Everything worked just fine and no hiccups.

Neither Music nor TV recognized everything in my iTunes Library, but that was kinda messy a bit so I will go through a cleanup process at some point.

The most disappointing "feature" of the TV app is that it looks that all my ripped DVDs are not showing under "Movies" but have to be imported and then show under "home videos", I've tried to access on my ATV and it does show, just that Mojave/iTunes showed ALL movies under "Movies" - but oh well, everything is there and that is the important piece.

Now I'm ready for Monterey, I will install the public beta on my MBP when it comes out and then decide which version to install on my iMac after official release (12.0, 12.1, 12.2 ??)

Ah! This is almost exactly what I'm in the middle of now. Finally going to Big Sur. Haven't hit first reboot yet. I saw that note about moving 32 bit apps. So just to be safe I moved Aperture over to my Mojave Volume. This is the one thing I can't do without with a decade of Aperture projects!

So I can boot into a lean/mean Mojave and run Aperture, and HOPEFULLY after going directly to BigSur, I'll be able to use the upgraded Reminders! Reminders upgraded doesn't work with Mojave! SHEESH, so THIS is one of the reasons I'm upgrading...

I'll wait on Monterey a bit. Please give us the update if you haven't already on how that goes!

Thanks for the update it was very valuable.

I'm on a Mac Pro Trashcan Late 2013. Monterey will be my last upgrade if I can squeeze it out. Then it may be time for an M1X.

But Aperture is still SO MUCH FASTER AND MORE POWERFUL THAN PHOTOS. Such an amazing tool!!! WHY APPLE, DID YOU ABANDON IT??? PHOTOS still can't combine or divide libraries?!?! How is that possible? Oh because you want a paid subscription to iCloud. (How Tim, can we keep our stuff in iCloud "forever" if we stop paying? Eh?) Free Five Terabytes of iCloud I've been asking for years!

Ok about to click Restart...

 

[iAssimilated]

Ah! This is almost exactly what I'm in the middle of now. Finally going to Big Sur. Haven't hit first reboot yet. I saw that note about moving 32 bit apps. So just to be safe I moved Aperture over to my Mojave Volume. This is the one thing I can't do without with a decade of Aperture projects!

So I can boot into a lean/mean Mojave and run Aperture, and HOPEFULLY after going directly to BigSur, I'll be able to use the upgraded Reminders! Reminders upgraded doesn't work with Mojave! SHEESH, so THIS is one of the reasons I'm upgrading...

I'll wait on Monterey a bit. Please give us the update if you haven't already on how that goes!

Thanks for the update it was very valuable.

I'm on a Mac Pro Trashcan Late 2013. Monterey will be my last upgrade if I can squeeze it out. Then it may be time for an M1X.

But Aperture is still SO MUCH FASTER AND MORE POWERFUL THAN PHOTOS. Such an amazing tool!!! WHY APPLE, DID YOU ABANDON IT??? PHOTOS still can't combine or divide libraries?!?! How is that possible? Oh because you want a paid subscription to iCloud. (How Tim, can we keep our stuff in iCloud "forever" if we stop paying? Eh?) Free Five Terabytes of iCloud I've been asking for years!

Ok about to click Restart...

If Aperture is must, you might be interested in Retroactive:

GitHub - cormiertyshawn895/Retroactive: Retroactive has been discontinued. You should transition from Retroactive to supported apps such as Music, iTunes for Windows, iMazing, Photos, Darktable, Lightroom Classic, and DaVinci Resolve.

Retroactive has been discontinued. You should transition from Retroactive to supported apps such as Music, iTunes for Windows, iMazing, Photos, Darktable, Lightroom Classic, and DaVinci Resolve. - ...

github.com

I used it for iTunes and it works great, since I am leery of the Music app (at least the stories behind it messing up your iTunes library when converting).