Safe to update to Big Sur?

[MRrainer]

Update: my mini fails to wake from sleep every 1 in 5 times and crashes, requiring a full reboot. This is as bad as when i picked up my mini in December 2018. Speechless....

Interestingly, there was a bug in Mojave that prevented my Mini going to sleep. It took a couple of months to be fixed but it did work. There was an associated BridgeOS crash.

Because I have a Mini and not a notebook, I had it disabled (the power-save sleep) for this reason.
In the evening, I just switch it off.
Haven't really tried with Bug Sur, TBH.

 

[gusping]

Interestingly, there was a bug in Mojave that prevented my Mini going to sleep. It took a couple of months to be fixed but it did work. There was an associated BridgeOS crash.

Because I have a Mini and not a notebook, I had it disabled (the power-save sleep) for this reason.
In the evening, I just switch it off.
Haven't really tried with Bug Sur, TBH.

I had the very same issue with Mojave to begin with. I never should have upgraded to Catalina, and certainly not just the other day to Big Sur. I am slowly reaching the end of my tether with Apple's software. I can't believe they **** stuff this rough. It's incredible.

 

[Ray2]

Downgrade to Mojave, it works, other than APFS implementation in DU, but the command line works fine and disk commands are well documented and fairly simply.

My 2018 mini and last gen Air have been on all three. Mojave runs the best. As one suggested, get a quick external, clone existing to it, upgrade it to Big Sur, see how it runs.

I have better things to do with my time than chase Apple's software bugs these days.

 

[MRrainer]

As I said, you can't downgrade firmware. In case you hit a bug somewhere in Bridge-OS (the T2 chip), downgrading will help you zero. And likely, the bug will be first fixed in Big Sur, then in Catalina and then in Mojave (if at all).

That was the case with the "sleep-prevention-bug", that was first fixed in Catalina, then trickled down to Mojave at some point.

The only way to be sure is to have a 2nd identical machine and try there first....

 

[utelme]

I'm wondering if it's safe to update to Big Sur by now, because a while ago there were huge problems with older Macbooks completely bricking in the process. I have a very old Macbook, mid-2014, with Catalina. Has Apple fixed this issue? Are they even going to?

If Catalina is working for you why bother upgrading since Big Slur does not offer much in the way of new features and I suspect Apple will soon come out with another OS faster than addressing bugs. I mean do you think they will stop with the name Big Slur for the OS. Personally I still use my OEM OS that came with my computer Mojave and don't plan on changing.

 

[TheGeneralist]

I guess unlucky is my middle name. I’ve had non-stop issues with Mac OS over the past 3 years.

Well, you're certainly not alone.
There are always people who have rare or no complaints even while many others have issues, but those are usually either not those who use many of the features or they are not really noticing what is happening to them. In this forum, I even read one poster state that he has a stable system when in fact he experienced kernel panics on a regular basis.

macOS is still a great OS from my perspective, but the stability has degraded a lot over the past 3 years, no chance of doubt about that. They are currently making good progress - 11.3 fixed at least 15 reproducible bugs on my M1 MBP - but there is still much room for improvement / many, many bugs still open.

 

[gusping]

Well, you're certainly not alone.
There are always people who have rare or no complaints even while many others have issues, but those are usually either not those who use many of the features or they are not really noticing what is happening to them. In this forum, I even read one poster state that he has a stable system when in fact he experienced kernel panics on a regular basis.

macOS is still a great OS from my perspective, but the stability has degraded a lot over the past 3 years, no chance of doubt about that. They are currently making good progress - 11.3 fixed at least 15 reproducible bugs on my M1 MBP - but there is still much room for improvement / many, many bugs still open.

Lmao, i guess some people just love a good kernal panic. I’m so used to them now but can’t say i enjoy them Yea, the drop off in quality over past 3 years has been really noticeable to me. i feel even iOS has got slightly more buggy during the same period, although much less so than Mac OS which has been a complete dumpster fire. When my Windows 10 pc is easier and less stressful to use than my Mac, you know somthing is wrong....(i’ve been one of the strongest Windows critics in recent times). Here‘s to hoping Mac OS 12 offers very few new features and focuses on bug fixing and optimisations.

 

[adp-20]

I'm still thinking about the update, I've ran into some websites that don't work correctly with an outdated Safari. Anyone know if the bricking issue has been fixed by now? Some sources say it has while others say it hasn't (and won't).

 

[onf]

I would upgrade If I were you, for some simple reasons:
- Upgraded firmware (Old macbook 2015 is more stable)
- Security fixes (Even if you have them on older machines you don't have them all)
- Some optimisations ( Benefits from all the other updates)

Downfalls:
- Slower disk accesses (Video, Games, Apps in general are not that snappy on Intel hardware but better then before)
- Less control on you system, with the sealed snapshot and IOS goodies (How can I delete that stupid control center not needed on a macbook and I don't care about emojis)
- Bigger and slower updates every time (Patching does not exist anymore)

Choice is yours.
Onf

 

[N69AP]

I'm still thinking about the update, I've ran into some websites that don't work correctly with an outdated Safari. Anyone know if the bricking issue has been fixed by now? Some sources say it has while others say it hasn't (and won't).

Yes, the bricking issue that was specific to the 2013-2014 13" MacBook Pros was resolved in 11.1

 

[haddy]

I'm wondering if it's safe to update to Big Sur by now, because a while ago there were huge problems with older Macbooks completely bricking in the process. I have a very old Macbook, mid-2014, with Catalina. Has Apple fixed this issue? Are they even going to?

From many many years of upgrading to the latest OS (from 4.1 to 10.15.7) I now have decided to stay on the OS my machines came with. They are Catalina/Sierra/High Sierra and Mojave. They all work very well on their respective Macs.

 

[rehkram]

Well I'm using a 10 year old unsupported m/c and both Big Sur and Monterey beta are working well on it thanks to OCLP. Staying on old software is not something I do.

Mind you, the rMBP 10,1 was always an uncharacteristically brilliant choice on my part. It's even better now with the recent upgrade to a 1TB drive allowing dual booting for beta testing.

 

[souko]

I use Big Sur happily since 11.3. I had kernel panics till 11.3. Do not have bugs on M1 MBA with 11.4 and higher.

 

[Ungibbed]

I’m running the current release (11.5.2) on my 2012 Mini. No issues with it and it feels far more responsive than it did on Catalina.

I figured “why not?” 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[adp-20]

So I finally upgraded to Big Sur yesterday and everything works fine. I actually like this version a lot.

 

[kagharaht]

Decided to downgrade back to Catalina. I have the MBA 13” 2017 last model before the change. 8gb ram, 512gb SSD. i upgraded to BS when it came out. BS does slow the Finder where it’s annoyingly noticeable. From the Finder mostly and the Apps response time to do it job and even launching. Worse iCloud doesn’t always synch real-time anymore. Sometimes Photos takes days to even update a picture i took on my phone. Same on files and folder. Several days before it updates the desktop files and folders. When it sleeps it loses WiFi connectivity occasionally, have to reboot to connect again. Maybe after a few more updates and optimizations i can try it again.

 

[coach_ditka]

So I finally upgraded to Big Sur yesterday and everything works fine. I actually like this version a lot.

I just did the upgrade too. Had some software that doesn't work on Big Sur, so I was holding out for a long time. Figured I needed to get it done before Monterey. Everything is good except count me in the speaker popping/cracking crew now