Originally published at: https://tidbits.com/2018/09/17/when-and-how-to-upgrade-to-ios-12-watchos-5-tvos-12-and-macos-10-14-mojave/
Three of Apple’s four major operating system upgrades—iOS 12, watchOS 5, and tvOS 12—are coming today, and the fourth, macOS 10.14 Mojave, is due on September 24th. Read on for our advice on when and how to install.
Thanks for the nice summary, Adam. I’m definitely interested in iOS 12 since I’d greatly benefit from a performance improvement on my old 6. But like you, I’ll be more cautious about Mojave. My main Mac is just too important for work to take any chances. I’ll see if I can find the time to try it on an older MBP using it to run a clone of my main Mac.
Just one question about the article itself. When you wrote
was that supposed to be or instead of and? I don’t backup through iCloud so I don’t really understand how it works, I just always assumed that if you backup through iCloud you don’t also do so through iTunes to your Mac. But your ‘and’ indicates to me that that might be wrong and that indeed you’re suggesting people do their regular iCloud backup and then also backup to disk through iTunes.
Isn’t there also a HomePod upgrade?
There seems to be. After I upgraded my iPhone to 12, I looked in the Home app and my paired HomePods show “update available”. It’s odd, though, when I maneuver to what appears to be the update page, it seems to be offering iOS 12 for download, which is already installed on my iPhone. I’m going to try the “Update All” selection and see what happens. Maybe HomePod actually runs iOS. Anyway, I’m hoping it gets rid of some of the weird glitches that sometimes happen (one Pod suddenly drops out only to come back a minute later, and occasionally they play different offset streams of the same song).
After I updated my iPhone 7+ an app (Measure) that I may have downloaded once appeared on one of my screens.
On my Mac got a notice that my appleid was required. When I typed my password I got a notice that there was a problem. Had no problem logging to to my Apple account (https://appleid.apple.com)
The article that’s referenced earlier in that paragraph explains why. We’ve been seeing more and more problems with iTunes backups recently and Apple doesn’t seem to be giving iTunes much attention, so we recommend using both iCloud and iTunes.
Mine just appeared in the Home app—it wasn’t there 10 minutes ago. And I’ve now updated the article to include it.
It’s a new Apple App in IOS 12. See https://www.macworld.com/article/3304290/iphone-ipad/how-to-use-the-augmented-reality-measure-app-in-ios-12.html. By the way, the lel that used to be in the Compass app is now here.
And for those of us who are not eager upgraders, a reminder:
If you are still running Sierra or earlier, and you think you might need High Sierra at some point (say, when you realize that your Mac won’t run Mojave, and you’re concerned about getting shut out of security updates), now is the time to make sure that you have downloaded the High Sierra installer. If you wait until Mojave is released, it will be very difficult or impossible to get an Apple-blessed High Sierra installer if the company follows recent practices.
You might already have it, automagically, downloaded to your Mac. It will be in the Applications folder, named “Install macOS High Sierra”. If not, a very useful support page from Apple explains how to make a USB media bootable installer:
How to create a bootable installer for macOS
This is the same information that used to be in various life-hack blogs all over the Web. I feel more comfortable following the information from Apple Support’s official pages.
So in that case the two are not exclusive?
Not at all. You’ve always been able to back up to both.
Most recently, when Tonya had to send her iPhone 6s in for a new battery, she tried to restore from iTunes onto an iPhone 6, and it failed. Restoring from iCloud worked fine, but she was a little freaked out about the initial failure.
Good to know. Thanks! 
The Homepod update can be installed from the Home app on an iPad running iOS 11. As I have stereo Homepods I had to tap and hold on the StereoHomepods icon then choose Speakers to display the individual Homepods. They both indicated that an update was available. When I tapped and held on one it gave me the option to update all Homepods. Just installing now so I will report later if I encounter problems.
I am also installing iOS 12 on my iPhone so will test a few things - using Homepod as a phone and managing apps & backing up with iTunes 12.6.5
…
arghh! The watchOS 5 update says it will take 2 hours to download to the watch. During that time my watch and iPhone cannot be separated and the watch cannot be removed from the charger. So it seems I will be stuck at home for hours. I guess the Aplle servers are overloaded. The Homepod update was very quick.
Actually, that has not been the case for some time now. Installers for El Capitan and Sierra are still available if you know where to look in the Apple Support KBs.
-Al-
Thanks! I’ll update the article.
Yep, you really want to do that one overnight.
With regard to the watch update; overnight doesn’t work for people who use it in sleep analysis. As I write this, I’m currently in the middle of the upgrade.I started about 40 minutes ago. The download phase is finished and the Preparing stage shows the progress bar a bit over 1/2 completed.
Not sure if this site will help anyone out but he has been writing software mostly for his own use for Mojave as well as others and has some interesting takes on the new security features in Mojave. It might be the reason why some software that you have now won’t run. Just don’t look at the latest article but all of them https://eclecticlight.co/2018/09/17/managing-mojaves-privacy-protection-privacy-controls/
Yes, we referenced Howard Oakley’s excellent articles in
The upgrade finally completed. It took about 1.5 hours (iPhone X -> Series 2 Watch).
Thanks for the explanation!
Francisco
Miine took 2 hours (watchOS update). All seems OK with the update, although I haven’t played with the new features yet.
With the Homepods I did need to restart iTunes on the Mac for it to resume playing to the Hmepods after they updated. Otherwise they seems to work fine. Phone calling is working.
For those looking at backing up their Mac before installing Mojave (next week or later) note that Time Machine supports multiple devices so it is recommended that you have at least one portable (“off-site”) Time Machine backup at all times but especially before an OS upgrade. The Tidbits website has other handy advice for backups but this is a recommended minimum. This will also backup your iPhone/iPad backups made with iTunes and stored on the Mac ( notwithstanding that some people are experiencing problems with iTunes backups of iOS devices).