Is It Safe to Upgrade to macOS 11 Big Sur?

Article Comments
41

One unanticipated annoyance of Big Sur, though I understand the justification: Apple has tightened up the security requirements for Apple Pay such that the settings in Startup Security Settings have to be Full Security and Disallow Booting from external media. If you have any other settings for those, Apple Pay will be disabled.

Given the premiums Apple charges for larger laptop SSDs, those of us whose budgets won’t allow us to stretch to 1TB internal storage but who might still like to boot natively into Windows from time to time have had the slightly-convoluted workaround of setting up the Boot Camp partition on an external drive or SSD. Now Apple is forcing us to either stop doing that or sacrifice Apple Pay on the mac. Or, I guess I could change the settings every time I want to boot into Windows, but that’s really very inconvenient.

I haven’t found any workarounds for this problem.

2 Likes
42

I am contemplating a move from Mojave to Big Sur.
Will be the first time I am running the currently active Mac OS in 10 years!
Since “iTunes” is gone now, I am wondering if I will have any problems streaming my ripped movies and tv series (all legal, I have the DVDs) to my Apple TV’s and moving video to my iPads and iPhone?
I still use an iPod (it works fine) and will I have any issues with that?

I appreciate any advice…

Rich

43

Some of us are having an issue with external monitors. Specifically, the wake process doesn’t work well. When I wake my computer, I have to change the resolution on one of my monitors (I’m on an M1 Mini with two monitors) to fully wake them. Otherwise, random functions won’t work. Sometimes one of the monitors won’t even come on until I go through this process.

This has been discussed on various sites since Big Sur came out. Every new update brings the hope that it will be fixed, but not yet. At least not for me.

1 Like
44

About the 100-day Web stats for Big Sur: Is it possible they are skewed due to Safari and Firefox not reporting 11.x version numbers in their User-Agent strings?

At the moment on Big Sur, Safari claims to be running on 10.15.6, and Firefox claims to be 10.16. Chrome is the only major browser to correctly report 11.x, but it’s going to switch to 10.15.x too. I gather there were too many sites and Javascript libraries that incorrectly sniffed the User-Agent string, and couldn’t handle the change from 10 to 11. Details at:

3 Likes
45

Got that right…I can’t tell you how many times mine has griped about things changing and why they just can’t leave it alone. Tried explaining to her progress and making more money and all that but no convincing her so far.

46

I just upgraded my parents’ 2014 iMac from High Sierra to Big Sur because they need to use TurboTax, which apparently requires at least Mojave now.

It went swimmingly, though it took a long time (they don’t have a particularly fast Internet connection). What I’d recommend is that you make your backups, then download Big Sur from the App Store app and start the install before bed. It should be done by morning, and it’s not healthy to watch it download and install with random time estimates. :slight_smile:

Then you’ll need some time to check your apps, make sure everything is really updated (we had to download new versions of Slack and their Epson XP-820 printer driver), and throw out 32-bit apps you still have kicking around.

Remember too that recent versions of macOS ask for permission for everything in sight—notifications, access to Desktop and Downloads folders, full disk access for things like Backblaze, and so on. So you’ll need to be ready to answer a lot of those questions right away—they’ll go away over time.

4 Likes
47

Just my thoughts on why people are not upgrading to Big Sur and I think you really miss the obvious reasons: no 32-bit support makes many people stay on Catalina or Mojave (myself included, but I will have to use a virtual Mac environment to run the crucial software I need, which is less than easy if I get a new M1 Mac sometime soon, but I wait until both VMware & Parallels have versions ready). Had to buy a new 13" Intel Mac for a customer as FileMaker needs to be in the very latest version to work but the server they use (a service outside their office) is not upgraded to the latest version and thus FileMaker 18 has enough problems to work good enough in Big Sur. All who can upgrade to Big Sur I suggest getting an M1 Mac though. Still problems with Mail in Big Sur Apple Mail (and most serious people still don’t want to use webmail as you, Adam ;-)), but on the other hand I have proven that you can loose mail without a trace in Mojave Mail too … so … . I wish I could trust the Apple iCloud keychain also … .

1 Like
48

Oh my, I hadn’t heard of this. Yes, that could explain the shockingly low numbers. I did include “10.16” in the collection of “11.x” entries from Google Analytics, but it doesn’t break out the lesser versions of 10.15.x.

1 Like
49

I get these quite a lot of panic’s when shutting down. Yes, I have troubleshot and have a case open at Apple. If anyone can decipher this or has other ideas. I believe it may have to do with a Synology NAS time machine backup… If I turn off time machine before shutting down my probability goes down on a panic. Recent updates have not resolved the issue. Otherwise, my machine performs flawlessly running BS.

panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff800a8bfbe6): initproc exited – exit reason namespace 2 subcode 0x4 description: none

uuid info:
0x1101ba000 uuid = <0d4ea85f-7e30-338b-9215-314a5a5539b6>
0x10ea21000 uuid = <7426871f-66d2-3ee3-9d3c-26d02cdfa336>

Thread 9 crashed

RAX: 0x00007fff2043ec2a, RBX: 0x0000700005b219b0, RCX: 0x00007fff2045698d, RDX: 0x0000000000000002
RSP: 0x0000700005b21998, RBP: 0x0000700005b219a0, RSI: 0x0000000000000390, RDI: 0x00007f8ddd60c4a0
R8: 0x00007fff88c07dd0, R9: 0x0000000000000001, R10: 0x00000000006d4005, R11: 0xfffffffffffffe30
R12: 0x00007f8ddd605340, R13: 0x0000000000000001, R14: 0x0000000000000001, R15: 0x0000700005b21aa0
RFL: 0x0000000000010207, RIP: 0x00007fff20450347, CS: 0x000000000000002b, SS: 0x0000000000000023

Thread 0: 0xffffff86d33c8120
0x00007fff2059c622
0x00007fff2043151b
0x0000000000000000

Thread 1: 0xffffff86e150f480
0x00007fff205b9a7a
0x00007fff204207c7
0x00007fff204265fe
0x00007fff204270cb
0x00007fff20430c5d
0x00007fff205c8499
0x00007fff205c7467
0x0000000000000000

Thread 2: 0xffffff86e21ca9b0
0x00007fff2059c5a2
0x00007fff204207c7
0x00007fff20423195
0x00007fff20433550
0x00007fff2042f857
0x00007fff2042ffb8
0x00007fff205c8453
0x00007fff205c7467
0x0000000000000000

Thread 3: 0xffffff86d4a33000
0x00007fff2059c5a2
0x000000010ea2e0a6
0x00007fff204207c7
0x00007fff204265fe
0x00007fff204270cb
0x00007fff20430c5d
0x00007fff205c8499
0x00007fff205c7467
0x0000000000000000

Thread 4: 0xffffff86e30ebe30
0x00007fff205b9a62
0x00007fff20423195
0x00007fff20433550
0x00007fff204264a7
0x00007fff204270cb
0x00007fff20430c5d
0x00007fff205c8499
0x00007fff205c7467
0x0000000000000000

Thread 5: 0xffffff86d3411bf0
0x00007fff20598586
0x00007fff2043e1fc
0x00007fff2042d84c
0x00007fff2042d4ac
0x000000010ea2c4f8
0x000000010ea2e024
0x000000010ea2de0e
0x00007fff204207c7
0x00007fff2042d605
0x000000010ea2d527
0x00007fff204207c7
0x00007fff20423195
0x00007fff20433550
0x00007fff204264a7
0x00007fff204270cb
0x00007fff20430c5d
0x00007fff205c8499
0x00007fff205c7467
0x0000000000000000

Thread 6: 0xffffff86d73095a0
0x00007fff2059c5a2
0x00007fff204207c7
0x00007fff20423195
0x00007fff20433550
0x00007fff2042f857
0x00007fff2042ffb8
0x00007fff205c8453
0x00007fff205c7467
0x0000000000000000

Thread 7: 0xffffff86d324fd10
0x00007fff2059d856
0x00007fff204f1ed5
0x00007fff204eeb5e
0x000000010ea55825
0x000000010ea5532a
0x00007fff2042d1d5
0x00007fff204207c7
0x00007fff204265fe
0x00007fff204270cb
0x00007fff20430c5d
0x00007fff205c8499
0x00007fff205c7467
0x0000000000000000

Thread 8: 0xffffff86d7304890
0x00007fff2059853e
0x00007fff205c7467
0x0000000000000000

Thread 9: 0xffffff86d7304000
0x00007fff20450347
0x00007fff2043d404
0x00007fff20430ae0
0x00007fff205c8499
0x00007fff205c7467
0x0000000000000000

Thread 10: 0xffffff86d7307bf0
0x0000000000000000

Mac OS version:
20D74

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 20.3.0: Thu Jan 21 00:07:06 PST 2021; root:xnu-7195.81.3~1/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: C86236B2-4976-3542-80CA-74A6B8B4BA03
System model name: iMac19,1 (Mac-AA95B1DDAB278B95)
System shutdown begun: YES
Panic diags file available: YES (0x0)

50

Also, maybe half the Macs in use today cannot be upgraded to Big Sur – just upgraded today an iMac to High Sierra for a doctor (luckily not his main computer though).

51

I doubt it’s that many people, though. Even if my user-agent data is a little dodgy due to Big Sur’s user-agent being reported badly, at least 78% of tidbits.com traffic that stems from Macs comes from people running Catalina or Big Sur. (Remember, 32-bit support was last seen in Mojave.) And I would imagine we have older and more cautious users than many sites. Does anyone else have decent stats on this?

Regardless, the 32-bit train left the station years ago, and Apple was warning about it for years before that. So yes, it could be a problem, just the way it was once a problem that Classic apps eventually stopped working in Mac OS X. But at some point, people just have to move on or accept all the functionality and security issues that come with running obsolete systems in a highly interconnected world.

Frankly, I personally think Mail is a mediocre app and has been for a long time. :-) But the fact that it comes from Apple doesn’t make it unique—there are lots of independent email apps that do a better job, and for anyone using IMAP or Gmail, switching is simple. Certainly, Outlook is a heavy-duty app that some “serious” users swear by.

52

It might be there are other factors that explain why the numbers you saw were so low too as indicated in other posts, yes. Yes, well, coming from Eudora ever Mail client comes across a bit mediocre. Just try set up a professional looking signature in the hopeless Outlook, which is not possible (and very difficult also in Mail for sure). The main reason people tend to use Mail is because it is there and they do not want to learn new apps – that is mostly for the fringe people (people who wouldn’t mind changing to Linux maybe), but sure other clients are most likely better in certain regards. Anyway few of them can properly handle Outlook.com and Gsuite and they are very big now (unfortunately) – people also don’t want to use multiple clients, but I guess that is quickly becoming a necessity, just like no one can only use one browser any longer… .

1 Like
53

Also, regarding 32-bits – I do hear from several users that they still need to stay in a system were it works. But then I also have a company who are totally dependent on running Mac OS Classic (not Internet connected now though). The third factor you did not mention is the massive waste of time and money to prop up the Apple stock (basically) that is involved in moving to Big Sur, both in terms of the upgrade itself, but in getting used to new apps, new interfaces, new bugs etc. Guess I tend to see too much problem and in the end new things and better security is nice.

1 Like
54

You probably can update to BS, but do you really need to? Is there something about what you have now that is problematic, are you sorely missing some feature BS offers? If you don’t really need to upgrade, why would you want to? Just curiosity? As you’ve read here and elsewhere, BS is anything but problem-free. You may have no problems, but you might end up with a handful, and if you do and if you’re dissatisfied, it’s quite difficult to get back to an earlier OS. Curiosity is basically a good trait, but remember, curiosity killed the cat.

1 Like
55

I am still running a 2009 Mac Pro running High Sierra. I had to flash it to a 5,1 to get it this far :slight_smile:

Holding out for a rumoured MacPro Mini, or something similar hopefully later this year.

It’s nice not getting nagged to install updates but it will get to the point when things start to break at some point.

2 Likes
56

But Satisfaction brought him back… :wink: as the saying goes.

I look at this as a security thing. I want to run the most secure Mac I can and at some point, Apple is not going to keep updating Mojave against attacks.
I also think this late 2019 iMac I bought might run a bit faster with a more optimized OS.

In any event, I think security is my main concern…also, new bells and whistle’s aren’t bad.

I have been a Mac user for more than 30 years, and frankly I never asked “should I” with an OS update.
I like new…but I don’t want any issues, so waiting for update #3 is a definite for me.

1 Like
57

Sounds like your mind is made up then.

If it were me and it were about security, I’d wait till macOS 12 since that’s when Apple will likely stop shipping sec updates for Mojave. Up until then I’d enjoy the environment I know and I know works for me.

If it were me and it were about bells and whistles, I’d have just taken the plunge as per @ace’s recent article.

If you do upgrade, make sure to have a clone ready beforehand just to have all your bases covered.

1 Like
58

I think people earn both money and time (productivity) on not upgrading too regularly and buying stuff too often. Know a boss of a multi-billion dollar company that refuses to upgrade from Mavericks as he has (fairly good reasons) to think the later systems are not stable enough for his use.

1 Like
59

I have three back ups…so erasing the drive and going back to Mojave should not be a big deal, just time consuming…
We’ll see what OS 11.3 brings…maybe I will wait until 12?

60

Haven’t been following this but has the 2013 13’ Macbook Pro (retina) getting bricked when upgrading to Big Sur problem been fixed? I am still running 10.15 for AccountEdge, we have been using it since 2002 ofr my brother’s business, and they say they will get it to BS but haven’t yet. But when they do, will it be safe to bring my 2013 up? It’s been a great machine, I’d hate to kill it, even if I am ready for an M1.