When is a good time to move to Monterey?

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi all,

Updated my Big Sur on the M1 MBA over the weekend, with the latest security update.

I now see that Monterey is available and out of Beta.

When is a good time to move over?
Big Sur seems pretty stable now, and it would be a pain to change to a brand new OS again, in less than a year, with bugs to deal with all over again.


E.g. I just read the below post, it sounds a pretty grim item that should not be happening in a clean OS transition - Something that I would not want to have to manually sort out with backups etc. as a newbie!

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/contact-list.2317823/


Hope you can advise

Martin

 

[Dave Braine]

Looks like that was with the beta(pre release version). I'm waiting until the first update at least.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I updated from Big Sur on my M1 MBA and then did a clean install, and haven't had any problems thus far.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Looks like that was with the beta(pre release version). I'm waiting until the first update at least.

Hi Dave,

Oh right, cool, not such a dire live issue then.

I'm personally not in a rush for the latest new features, I just want the Mac to be rock solid with the basics. losing contacts? that's awful.

Happy to jump onto new band wagon once any glaring bugs are sorted


Martin

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi All,


Isn't Apple giving itself a headache with lots of different operating systems to support?
I'm no apple expert but even I have heard of:
snow leapord
catalina
big sur
and now this 'Monterey'
etc.
etc.


How long can I keep using 'Big Sur' before it becomes compatibility obsolete against standard Microsoft office apps and other mainstream apps and web sites etc?


Hope you can advise
Martin

 

[pmiles]

Big Sur is going to be around for while. You have at least 2 years minimum before you have to think about it.

And all those older OSes still run on the hardware they were designed for. Just because Apple no longer supports it, doesn't mean it no longer runs.

Keep in mind that Monterey and the OSes that follow are designed with the latest hardware in mind. So even a new M1 Mac is dated the moment it ships. Soon the OSes will be written mostly with generation 2 chipsets in mind... and so on and so forth.

But here it is, 2021 and I am typing this on a 2010 machine running Mojave. I can never run Monterey on it... but then why would I need to. An OS is just an OS. Everything my machine needs to run was baked into stone several iterations before Mojave was an itch in anyone's pants. My machine actually runs poorer under Mojave than an earlier incarnation of the OS.

Your machine will be the same... in time.

 

[Black Magic]

Hi Dave,

Oh right, cool, not such a dire live issue then.

I'm personally not in a rush for the latest new features, I just want the Mac to be rock solid with the basics. losing contacts? that's awful.

Happy to jump onto new band wagon once any glaring bugs are sorted


Martin

Big Sur on M1 had many issues like Wifi and Bluetooth issues. Monterey had more time to bake and is a more polished version that I would upgrade too without hesitation. If you have a bunch of apps, google them and see if they are compatible with Monterey if you are really concerned, otherwise you are doing yourself a disservice.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Big Sur is going to be around for while. You have at least 2 years minimum before you have to think about it.

And all those older OSes still run on the hardware they were designed for. Just because Apple no longer supports it, doesn't mean it no longer runs.

Keep in mind that Monterey and the OSes that follow are designed with the latest hardware in mind. So even a new M1 Mac is dated the moment it ships. Soon the OSes will be written mostly with generation 2 chipsets in mind... and so on and so forth.

But here it is, 2021 and I am typing this on a 2010 machine running Mojave. I can never run Monterey on it... but then why would I need to. An OS is just an OS. Everything my machine needs to run was baked into stone several iterations before Mojave was an itch in anyone's pants. My machine actually runs poorer under Mojave than an earlier incarnation of the OS.

Your machine will be the same... in time.

Hiya p,


'Mojave' - Thats the other one I had on the tip of my tongue!

Good insights

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Big Sur on M1 had many issues like Wifi and Bluetooth issues. Monterey had more time to bake and is a more polished version that I would upgrade too without hesitation. If you have a bunch of apps, google them and see if they are compatible with Monterey if you are really concerned, otherwise you are doing yourself a disservice.

Hiya B,


'....Monterey had more time to bake and is a more polished version....'

oh right, so it is not simply a new yearly change of O/S?

Am I missing something here, on Mac OS rollouts?!




I'm simply thinking - Big Sur has had a year's worth of 'in the field' trouble shooting - Versus a new operating system.



Hope you can advise

Martin

 

[Black Magic]

Hiya B,


'....Monterey had more time to bake and is a more polished version....'

oh right, so it is not simply a new yearly change of O/S?

Am I missing something here, on Mac OS rollouts?!




I'm simply thinking - Big Sur has had a year's worth of 'in the field' trouble shooting - Versus a new operating system.



Hope you can advise

Martin

Monterey is not a new OS from scratch. It's a more enhanced and polished Big Sur.

 

[Phil77354]

Do you have other (recent) Apple products and want to be able to take advantage of the new features of Monterey?

If not then there is no rush.

Myself, I would have upgraded immediately if my iMac would run Monterey. I always upgrade as soon as new OS is released. I've never had any issues.

 

[rezwits]

If you have an iPhone and/or iPad and they are on iOS 15.x, I tend to keep my machines in SYNC, especially if using iCloud Documents.

One other thing if you want to delve into the DND modes and have the iOS(es) at 15 then for sure, you'll be happy.

The new 11 to 12 (to 13) updates seem to be more like iOS updates in the fact that they migrating smoother and a natural transition.

Instead say the older days like Snow Leopard to Lion to Mountain Lion, where your QuickTime was breaking and they Audio File formats got screwed up. That's while you'll find most guys saying "No No don't do it"

But Apple has ditched the old QuickTime and the File Formats are locked in.

So if you're on Big Sur? Heck go for it!! But one recommendation, like always, either have a backup of your data or a 2nd computer

$#!+ happens...

 

[TechRunner]

I typically wait 4-6 months before upgrading to give them a chance to sort out issues once an OS is in general use. The only exception to this is when I buy a new computer/phone/tablet, as I'll update it immediately upon removing it from the box.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Some interesting reading

Live Text (OCR) - pulling off text from photos - that would be the best new feature for me!


https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/10/25/macos-monterey-review-a-compelling-refinement-of-big-sur


Hope this helps others

Martin ?

 

[Marty_Macfly]

For the against:

An article saying ‘wait’


https://www.macworld.com/article/546040/macos-monterey-update-now-or-wait.html

 

[Black Magic]

For the against:

An article saying ‘wait’


https://www.macworld.com/article/546040/macos-monterey-update-now-or-wait.html

I'm not seeing issues but it doesn't hurt to wait. It's really your call. Honestly every version has issues that need to be ironed out so you could be waiting until you die to upgrade or jumping in and enjoying the features. Yes, the live text is HOT!

 

[zarathu]

Long time Mac users have learned that unless the system comes with your mac you should never upgrade until it gets to at least .3(not .03) or .4.

IMO, Monster-ray is a light shining on 2nd gen M1 macs, and is written in machine code for the RISC. chip architecture. This means that there is an emulating of the Intel chip inside the OS. This also means that there will be issues making that emulation work across the board until the .3 or .4 or even .5 version.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Long time Mac users have learned that unless the system comes with your mac you should never upgrade until it gets to at least .3(not .03) or .4.

IMO, Monster-ray is a light shining on 2nd gen M1 macs, and is written in machine code for the RISC. chip architecture. This means that there is an emulating of the Intel chip inside the OS. This also means that there will be issues making that emulation work across the board until the .3 or .4 or even .5 version. View attachment 1901050

Hiya Z,

it took me a while to work out - what’s with the picture - monster ray! Haha! ?

Thinking about it, the most everyday thing MBA for me is running music online to external speakers. Had some awful popping noises after big sur updates, 2 time in last year.

I think I’ll hold off updating to monterey for a while, as long as there are no more music mess ups with big sur updates.

MBA is working great for what I do at the moment - I’ll leave it the hell alone!


Martin

 

[PlayUltimate]

running Monterey on a 2017 iMac. No issues that I know of.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

There have been people saying "wait" for as long as there have been new operating systems (and new software versions). I remember dire warnings about going from MS-DOS 3.x to MS-DOS 4. It's one of several strategies that began a very long time ago.

Some people want to have the latest and greatest as soon as it's available. Others are happy to wait for other people to find the bugs. In many cases it comes down to how risk-averse a person may be, compared to how enthusiastic they are about that new thing. There's nothing wrong with being a bit cautious, you just have to balance that against whether you'll be doing without some new, useful features.

 

[CrushRoller]

I now see that Monterey is available and out of Beta.

When is a good time to move over?

Just before a new MacOS comes out next year. This week i updated all my Catalina Macs to Big Sur and so avoided all problems reported with the previous releases of Big Sur...

 

[Hombre53]

The best time to upgrade to Monterey is when the successor to Monterey comes out next fall. By then, the majority of "bugs" in Monterey will be solved and the OS more stable. I just "upgraded" to Big Sur last month, same proposition. Those who wait and allow the previous version of macOS ( BigSur) to mature are rewarded with less issues, bugs, etc.

 

[Cayenne1]

I upgraded to Monterey from High Sierra several days ago on my 2017 iMac. Seems to be working fine.

I had to upgrade to something as some app upgrades I wanted are unavailable for HS. I did a "scrub clean upgrade and restore". That is I installed Monterey from a USB memory stick to a reformatted HD. Then "manually" reset/re-installed all settings, accounts, 3rd Party apps, licenses, etc. from an external HD. No migration assistant.

I've always done upgrades this way to make sure erroneous stuff stays behind. However, it takes a lot of prep time. Downloading all current app installers (dmgs). A CCC backup of current state. Research and document all apps for migration requirements (sign-out, release licenses, etc.) Screen copy and label all System Preference and application settings (Shift-Command-4 Space bar). Text document of all accounts and passwords (printed out). Text document of reinstall checklist printed out. USB wired mouse and keyboard. And so forth.

Now running Monterey, my main concern is that Carbon Copy Cloner can not create bootable image backups of Monterey. Its more of a fancy Time Machine.

Other then that, all the following appear to be running fine: Final Cut Pro, DXO PhotoLab 5, PLEX Media Server to Apple TV, Affinity Photo, Office 365, Capture One, VueScan, iTunes (Music), Topaz Video Enhance AI, Parallels WinXP and Win10 running CS6 and Visio, etc. Much better is Logitech MX mouse and keyboard which was not working well under HS.

Bottom line if you have a current CCC bootable image, you can try Monterey. If its an issue, restore your CCC image back. But I'm dubious of anything but a complete scrub upgrade as mentioned.

 

[bluespark]

If you live in a colder climate, then maybe during the winter?

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Mac0S timeline:

....and 2021 is Monterey!