# Do you keep your Mac OS up to date (2021/M1 Version)?



## gsilbers (Jul 25, 2021)

I have my old Mac Pro rig still with High Sierra and staying there. but I got a newer Mac mini and decided to stay up to date
so I don't fall behind. But, seriously forgot how many updates there are. Constant barrage of updates.

The conundrum is that newer updates seem to be a lot more stable than in ye old days. So keeping automatic updates maybe makes sense now?

Also, in part Is those damn pesky notification updates and now Mac OS doesn't let you forget. it just keeps popping up again and again.
so annoying.

Besides the obvious hate towards Macs and its incessant updates and backing up before each one, does it make sense to keep it updated, have you changed your tune on newer Macs due to more stability and less issues after each update or what plan do you normally have until an update?


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## Soundbed (Jul 25, 2021)

For me… It’s always a juggle between the oldest critical software one owns/uses that is not supported on the newer OS and the latest software one wants to use which requires the latest OS.

(I still miss Kore 2 and the sound mangling I used to do with one of the expansions.)


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## gsilbers (Jul 25, 2021)

Soundbed said:


> For me… It’s always a juggle between the oldest critical software one owns/uses that is not supported on the newer OS and the latest software one wants to use which requires the latest OS.
> 
> (I still miss Kore 2 and the sound mangling I used to do with one of the expansions.)




oh me too! kore2 was nice. 

For me its like parents with kids that you see them grow so fast. one day , like all of the sudden my Mac Pro couldn't be upgraded unless some graphic card was change, which meant no more logic X.X version which I wanted but if I update I won't be able to use my virus ti plugin or even my old camel audio plugins which I prefer to the newer gui ones. And next thing was m1 and now intel is obsolete. And im still chilling with my Mac Pro wondering if updating those 39 times was even necessary as nothing in the last decade even made it worth wile except having autosampler in logic. that's about it. 

And I didn't upgrade every often because there used to be nightmare stories about new updates. specially going to Catalina and loosing so much in addition to the countless big cats that used to break stuff on the OS X seriously enough that a whole culture of not upgrading in the audio world had risen and cemented on Catalina removal of 32bit audio. 

but I haven't heard anything bad about Catalina onward about this sort of issues where a new update will break something and yield your computer useless and have to revert back via time machine and those type of common stories of the last decade. maybe apple got their updates process better internally and we shouldn't worry about updating every month or so?


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## Dewdman42 (Jul 25, 2021)

I do not like to be on the bleeding edge of MacOS updates. Apple has shown over the years way too many times that updating their OS leads to problems with something else. they have a poor track record of backwards compatibility. Don't get me wrong, I love using MacOs much more than MS Windows...really do, but on this point, I don't like staying on the very latest..I will usually experiment with it on a spare partition for a while, but ultimately by the time I upgrade MacOS...its usually at least to one version behind the latest one. For example I tried out Big Sur...and it broke several things, including compatibility with my desktop midi controller (iRig Pro). 

That said, whatever version of MacOS I am on, I definitely do all the updates, but not automatically, I wait for the alerts and do it manually. But its important to get those updates due to security updates...and mostly they are bug fixes... 

But I think the question of whether to go to Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur or soon Monterey is a much more optional question...and in my mind it should always be....only when you have to. When do you have to? When something you want to run requires it. For example, latest LogicPro updates...if you want those updates..you gotta be on at least Catalina. If you're even using LogicPro you may not need those updates, or you might, or you might want bug fixes that came (knock on wood)...ok...if you are committed to LogicPro, then staying on later versions of MacOs becomes a bit more motivated.

Most other software does not require the latest version of MacOS even remotely close.

Then there are certain features introduced in MacOS which you might want to use, but I stress that they either must be mission critical features...or else you should your homework to make sure you won't be breaking more stuff with poor backwards compatibility, then you will gain in new features. If you don't care about breaking old stuff and can shrug it off if so, then hey why not...upgrade the OS.

Sometimes the newer versions do generally improve. I do feel Catalina runs smoother then Mojave did. I am very much a Catalina fan now. But I lost 32bit app support, but really I didn't lose anything critical...so its fine. BigSur on the other hand when I tried it, I felt like Apple went backwards on some of the general look and feel of the UI...and it broke my midi controller...felt more sluggish, tested worse with GeekBench.... So I decided I can easily stick with Catalina...there is absolutely nothing on BigSur that I need. I'm even leaving LogicPro to go to DP...so I won't be caring about the next LogicPro update either.....much...

Also as it turns out....its not possible to run past version 11.2.3 of Big Sur on my 5,1 Frankentosh....so...that's that...unless the OpenCore community figures it out, I'll be on Catalina for quite a while and I don't think I'll be missing much.

But for your later Macs that are fully supported, I still contend the same thing..it is absolutely not a given that you should always update to the latest version of MacOS...you always have to do some homework and make sure you won't lose functionality of anything you care about. But updates within in each version, I highly recommend you do them all as fast as they come out.


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## cmillar (Jul 25, 2021)

The best quote I always remember came from Craig Anderton back in the '90's when it comes to music studios:

"It's best to stay on the 'trailing-edge' of technology"


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## chris massa (Aug 14, 2021)

The Apple OSX dance is why I moved away from Logic. At least on Cubase and Pro Tools I can get or build a machine when my Mac Pro 5,1 dies. I am on Mojave. I have been looking at new Trashcan from OWC Just to stay with OSX. But next year M2 chip may be out. But it is like walking through a minefield, will it run video, enough RAM to run a Template?


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## ptram (Aug 14, 2021)

Too many things are broken with new updates. I'm usually forced to stay back of many iterations.

Paolo


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## Saxer (Aug 14, 2021)

I am one or two years behind the current OS (except when buying a new machine with the newest OS).
But I do the security updates. Before every update I run a Carbon Copy Cloner backup of my system drive but luckily I never needed it up to now.

I'd never use automatic updates. First of all you never know when these updates happen... sometimes you have to wait and restart and wait... not really good if you need the time to work on this machine. And sometimes the automatic update happend and you didn't even realize it (at night or whenever). If then something goes wrong you look for errors in the wrong places (i.e. cable check of the interface or iLok settings or something else). Or you don't have a current update to switch back.


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## Marsen (Aug 14, 2021)

Saxer said:


> I am one or two years behind the current OS (except when buying a new machine with the newest OS).
> But I do the security updates. Before every update I run a Carbon Copy Cloner backup of my system drive but luckily I never needed it up to now.
> 
> I'd never use automatic updates. First of all you never know when these updates happen... sometimes you have to wait and restart and wait... not really good if you need the time to work on this machine. And sometimes the automatic update happend and you didn't even realize it (at night or whenever). If then something goes wrong you look for errors in the wrong places (i.e. cable check of the interface or iLok settings or something else). Or you don't have a current update to switch back.



+1
I handle it the same way as Saxer points out.


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## rnb_2 (Aug 14, 2021)

Since there's no way stay behind on a brand new machine, I'm completely up-to-date on both of my M1 Macs. I will probably wait a bit before updating to Monterey in the fall, though.


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## jbuhler (Aug 14, 2021)

Saxer said:


> I am one or two years behind the current OS (except when buying a new machine with the newest OS).
> But I do the security updates. Before every update I run a Carbon Copy Cloner backup of my system drive but luckily I never needed it up to now.
> 
> I'd never use automatic updates. First of all you never know when these updates happen... sometimes you have to wait and restart and wait... not really good if you need the time to work on this machine. And sometimes the automatic update happend and you didn't even realize it (at night or whenever). If then something goes wrong you look for errors in the wrong places (i.e. cable check of the interface or iLok settings or something else). Or you don't have a current update to switch back.


The problem is that the security updates are getting more involved and will also break drivers and such in a way that used to only happen when you moved to the named system updates. They also often take a long time to install whereas once upon a time security updates were quick. So I’ve taken to treating even the security updates more like the big system updates, and only immediately update if IT says it’s absolutely necessary.


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## jcrosby (Aug 15, 2021)

rnb_2 said:


> Since there's no way stay behind on a brand new machine, I'm completely up-to-date on both of my M1 Macs. I will probably wait a bit before updating to Monterey in the fall, though.


Are you saying you can't disable automatic updates as of macos 11 ?!
(I dread this scenario per @jbuhler 's scenario above. It's bitten me more than once over the past few years, and with quite a nasty sting that, pardon my french; left me utterly fucked for a few weeks at one point...)

Or do you mean that you machine's current _because_ it shipped with the same version of macos that's still the current available?


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## rnb_2 (Aug 15, 2021)

jcrosby said:


> Are you saying you can't disable automatic updates as of macos 11 ?!
> (I dread this scenario per @jbuhler 's scenario above. It's bitten me more than once over the past few years, and with quite a nasty sting that, pardon my french; left me utterly fucked for a few weeks at one point...)
> 
> Or do you mean that you machine's current _because_ it shipped with the same version of macos that's still the current available?


Sorry for the confusion - you can turn off automatic updates. I just meant that, because the M1s ship with Big Sur, there's no way (yet) to stay behind the current version. I am current on all updates to Big Sur, but I'm not making a living from music, so it's not risky for me.


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## Minko (Aug 15, 2021)

I've got a complete image of a working OS with everything installed before I do an update. 
When I do a big one (from sierra to high sierra e.g.) I start over completely.
I tend to only do a big os update when it is really needed. So I'm on Catalina on all my systems at the moment.


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## Dewdman42 (Aug 15, 2021)

its not hard to obtain older version of MacOS on whatever computer you want to try to install it, but doesn't M1 actually need BigSur or newer?


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## ennbr (Aug 15, 2021)

Dewdman42 said:


> its not hard to obtain older version of MacOS on whatever computer you want to try to install it, but doesn't M1 actually need BigSur or newer?


Yes previous Mac OS versions were compiled for the x86 processors and don't support the M1 processor.


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## jcrosby (Aug 15, 2021)

rnb_2 said:


> Sorry for the confusion - you can turn off automatic updates. I just meant that, because the M1s ship with Big Sur, there's no way (yet) to stay behind the current version. I am current on all updates to Big Sur, but I'm not making a living from music, so it's not risky for me.


Few! Ever since they've killed the ability to disable update notifications I've been kind of worried Apple might eventually kill the ability to disable them manually. Thanks, and good news!


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## Alex Fraser (Aug 16, 2021)

Running the Monterey public beta. Everything still works. 

Generally, I keep up to date as I use a lot of Apple iCloud services/apps etc. In fact, at this point my Mac is merely some sort of app running "hub" for data that exists elsewhere, be it on the cloud or external hard drives.


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## Kery Michael (Aug 16, 2021)

I recently got a new iMac (not an M1), i copied my old iMac to the new one. I think the old Mac might have been on Catalina, and everything worked fine. The new one was Big Sur, and for several weeks logic was randomly crashing on me. And audio would cut in and out. Was very frustrating.

Finally figured out that Monark and Massive X were not supported on Big Sur, at least not at that time. I heavily use those two synths so that was disappointing. Had to wait for NI to update. But now everything works great, and I now finally have more than 16 GB of RAM. 😀

Moral of the story, or at least what I’ve learned, NEVER upgrade until you have to, or at least wait a year or two.


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