I used to weep at both the frequency and time it took to install Windows updates. Now thanks to Apple I'm beginning too long for those halcyon days. The frequency of MacOS updates and more pointedly the time it takes to install them is getting beyond ridiculous. I have had to update Big Sur twice in the last week and on each occasion the install time makes you almost lose the will to live. Apple updates never used to be like this. For info I am using a 2019 27" iMac.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Updates to Mac
- Thread starter Lankyman
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
you realize that not everyone has that experience? (i'm also on a 2019 imac). and 'the install time makes you almost lose the will to live'?
maybe... take a walk? make coffee? talk to another human being? meditate? relax??
some people here have had installs that took a day; is that what's happening? otherwise (and this is just a suggestion):
if you're having a problem with your mac, start a thread, ask for help. there's a great community here than can (often) be very helpful.
I've been railing against this for a while now. I started using Macs when the OS was Leopard, and what I liked was that updates (drivers, security patches, etc.) were discreet downloads and applied while you were you could still use the computer — with a very rare reboot now and then. Now, an "update" takes 45 minutes to an hour and you are completely locked out of the computer, the "update" is multi-gig in size, and all "updates" involve multiple reboots. The saddest part of this is: not only does it apply to "point updates" but now it applies to "point updates to point updates".
Take comfort that there will always be those Macolytes who justify Apple - be it app failures, poor industrial design, or dodgy download and installation of patches - sorry... 'updates'.
Even when 11.0.1's download and install was released and was crashing and burning big time worldwide, and turning notebooks that Apple then pulled from the compatibility list into bricks, you would find those who said, 'That's the cost of popularity - it'll be fixed soon. What's your problem?'
And updates these days almost always have a followup update (or two) in the subsequent days. It's like, why do they even bother with public Betas? They build an OS that only runs on a limited number of devices that they build. How did you miss that?
Gone on the days where Apple's tagline was 'It Just Works' (and mostly, it did) and make fun of Microsoft's once monthly 'Patch Tuesdays'. Now the fan base justifies the updates released whenever as showing how quick Apple is at fixing problems - issues that should have been caught beforehand.
And the more rabid Macolytes will almost certainly flame users who suggest that Apple is far from ideal. Twas always thus.
Even when 11.0.1's download and install was released and was crashing and burning big time worldwide, and turning notebooks that Apple then pulled from the compatibility list into bricks, you would find those who said, 'That's the cost of popularity - it'll be fixed soon. What's your problem?'
And updates these days almost always have a followup update (or two) in the subsequent days. It's like, why do they even bother with public Betas? They build an OS that only runs on a limited number of devices that they build. How did you miss that?
Gone on the days where Apple's tagline was 'It Just Works' (and mostly, it did) and make fun of Microsoft's once monthly 'Patch Tuesdays'. Now the fan base justifies the updates released whenever as showing how quick Apple is at fixing problems - issues that should have been caught beforehand.
And the more rabid Macolytes will almost certainly flame users who suggest that Apple is far from ideal. Twas always thus.
so many tragedies; you have to wait. you have to reboot. the bug fixes & enhancements in the update don't make up for the time you lost. whatever crazy code is in those updates.... can't they not do that?
and how can anyone survive an hour away from their computer...? 🤔
Approximately 22 mins on each occasion - shut down to reboot. Thank goodness I have a Windows 10 machine I could boot up whilst waiting. Even patch Tuesday's updates don't take this length of time.
I think fisherking just proved your point admirably.......
22 minutes. so, you can't be off your mac for that period of time? hmmm
i have things i don't like about the OS (for example, the dock; have had it locked away since 10.3.9...). and i stand by everything i post. just mentioning!
Not when I'm wanting to do something which was important. Thank goodness Windows came to my rescue - again. The point I and others make which seems lost on you is that Apple updates never used to be so intrusive. Perhaps you are too young to remember?
here's a surprising idea: don't update when you need to do something important. and what difference does it make about how it 'used to be'? if an update makes OS-level changes and requires a reboot, then... it requires a reboot. simple.
Last edited:
You know, if Microsoft was to introduce its next OS and it ended up being Win11.0.1, the howls of derision from the Macoyltes would be deafening.
Apple made much of Big Sur - MacOS 11, stepping away from the venerable X after 19 years - promoting its new features and in anticipation of its new computers' processors. As ever, it went through endless developer Betas, then public ones - days away now - just about ready...and then, a last minute tweak and they release the Gold of a brand-new era of OS as 11.0.1. A patched OS. And then they couldn't even manage to get the download right.
I's probably just as well that Jobs isn't around anymore, and that staff are largely working from home and not in the donut, because to so thoroughly botch a new OS version release would have almost had Stevo on the warpath there, and everyone's ass in a sling.
But, as ever, Macoyltes have been able to justify it all on Apple's behalf. We were, after all, just 'holding it wrong'.
BTW Lankyman, whenever I see there is an 'update' for MacOS, I just accept the rest of my day is shot. Between the download, the verification, the installation, the boot(s), the signing into iCloud, and then myself running a few checks on software and manual boots to get things back in order, its just the safer bet.
😉
entertaining, at least.
when i see a new update, i finish some work, then run the update (on both my macs), and read, or make coffee, or take a walk... something. 20-30 minutes later, am back to work (much faster on the imac than the macbook).
sorry you have such a hard time of it. again, easy enough to run an update when you don't need to be on your mac.
22 minutes to install a needed update is not a long time in the grand scheme of things. You could update overnight. Not a big deal.
I think you were looking for something obscure to complain about on MR.
I think you were looking for something obscure to complain about on MR.
Umm, how about you wait to do the updates until you are finished using the computer for things you need to use it for, instead of complaining it interrupts you being able to do what you needed to do?
At least Apple gives you the option to do it at a time agreeable to the majority of people, unlike windows that tells you to save your work and then 2 seconds later starts doing updates when you told it to wait.
I for one will never go back to crapsoft, or andead and will always remain loyal to a company who takes customer's privacy and security seriously, and makes products that not only just work, but have awesome features like backlit keyboards, automatically adjusting display brightness, lightweight, and beautiful to look at.