What's lost when upgrading?

[Nick16]

I've only had a Mac since December so am not exactly familiar with the upgrade procedure when a new OS is released. I'm excited for Mountain Lion and definitely want to use it as soon as it's released, but am unsure as to what the upgrade process will be like. For the most part, I'm curious about what exactly, if anything, will be lost in terms of programs/apps, etc. Will third-party programs (not from the app store) have to be re-downloaded or re-installed?

 

[xTRIGGER092x]

If all goes well, you shouldn't lose anything.

 

[Cougarcat]

Nothing is lost. Back up to be safe, of course.

 

[adztaylor]

If you opt to upgrade everything (apps, settings, data) will stay the same as how you left it in Lion. No apps or anything will need to be re downloaded.

However it should be said, back up everything before you do upgrade as there is always a risk of things going wrong when making major system changes.

 

[WhackyNinja]

I've only had a Mac since December so am not exactly familiar with the upgrade procedure when a new OS is released. I'm excited for Mountain Lion and definitely want to use it as soon as it's released, but am unsure as to what the upgrade process will be like. For the most part, I'm curious about what exactly, if anything, will be lost in terms of programs/apps, etc. Will third-party programs (not from the app store) have to be re-downloaded or re-installed?

Nope. The upgrade is pretty straight forward. You keep EVERYTHING (pics, videos, documents) and yes even apps not from the app store. Its pretty smooth and easy, but just backup data just in the unlikely event something DOES go wrong