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macOS 11 - Big Sur

fjon

So they've finally finished with Mac v10/X. It's been around since I started using Macs (I started on Panther) and has had a good run. Sadly looks like the last OS update my 2013 MBP will be eligible for.

Anyone trying the dev beta? Interested to hear the reports.
I can't risk anything happening to my laptop so will wait until a few beta versions have been released.

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[Deleted User]

Successfully completed update of my 2018 mac mini. Will report back in following days how things are going

Simon201

Doodah7 wrote: »

I have an old mid-2012 MBP and I’m tempted to try the hack above. I assume that once installed, the machine will still get Big Sur updates as normal?

Updated my (non retina) 2012 MacBook Pro as it’s not my main Mac. All working great so far! Love most things Apple but obviously the marketing department stepped in here and put their foot down! I used this site below to do it but for some reason I chose the current public beta so at some point I’d like to have it back to a normal release. I don’t think getting updates is as simple as with a supported Mac tho.

https://github.com/BenSova/Patched-Sur

faceman

Doodah7 wrote: »

Updated my late-2014 mini earlier without any issues. Took about an hour all-in.

I have an old mid-2012 MBP and I’m tempted to try the hack above. I assume that once installed, the machine will still get Big Sur updates as normal?

Wondering this too. I’ve a late 2013 iMac. If I can still get updates I’ll do the upgrade

5uspect

Installed without issue on my 16” last night. The new look will take a bit of time to adjust to but it does feel more responsive. Many of the headline features are already available in the latest Safari in 10.15 if you’re feeling the FOMO.

The persistent issue I’ve had with Spotlight spinning up all CPU cores when doing any basic maths seems to still be there but less severe somehow.

The bug where Mail pops open a window all by itself and grabs focus whenever it tries to reconnect to Google hasn’t reared its head so far.

I’ll probably put it on my office 2015 5K iMac soon. Catalina broke my thunderbolt ports, I wonder what damage Big Sur will do?

DubDJ

I agree about the icons also, they feel a little jarring. Also, there are some widgets missing I thought would be there such as a battery widget. And a new Home app widget would be welcome too, or at least control centre shortcuts.

Gregor Samsa

It's definitely much snappier in general, but I'm really surprised at the difference in speed of page loads in Safari. There's alway claims of various updates claiming that they speed up a browser, but I never really see it, and have learned to take such claims with a grain of salt. This update really does improve page load times.

One case in point is Boards pages. Usually, I'm used to the page loading, then a few seconds later, the ad at the top of the page appearing. This pushes all the content down, so it means that if you try to quickly click on a link as soon as the page loads, it'll move down by the time you get your cursor to where it was. So you end up missing the link and maybe clicking on something you didn't mean to. This isn't happening any more - the whole page, including the ad, loads pretty much instantaneously.

The only thing I don't like so far is the slightly 3D icons. I think they should have them the exact same as the iOS ones. Flat and modern. Shadows and bevels feel like a throwback.

Widgets need a bit of work too. Obviously 3rd party ones aren't really available yet, but the Apple ones are lacking. Where's the battery one that's so useful on iOS? I've my MBP itself, AirPods, Magic Mouse and Keyboard to keep an eye on battery levels for - surely the standard battery widget would be ideal for this?

CalamariFritti

Installed it yesterday and so far I'm absolutely loving it.

Interface looks cleaner and a lot more up-to-date and modern. Seems there is a proper 'dark mode' now. Also loving the status bar additions.
What really stands out for me is that everything feels much snappier and faster. Safari seems to be flying compared to previous.

Anyone else think this too or is there some sort of side effect at play for me?

DubDJ

Fully upgraded and setup right now. Really liking it so far, the visual differences make the OS very modern. One or two small UI glitches I've noticed so far. The Mac login screen shows my profile image very blurred. Also, an external drive had the eject button beside it misaligned. Other than that I think I've figured everything out so far. Definitely a lot of changes and thing not where they used to be but liking it a lot overall.

Doodah7

Updated my late-2014 mini earlier without any issues. Took about an hour all-in.

I have an old mid-2012 MBP and I’m tempted to try the hack above. I assume that once installed, the machine will still get Big Sur updates as normal?

Paddy@CIRL

Updated my 2018 MacBook Pro & Late 2015 iMac today without any issues so far. Feels a lot snappier, the subtle re-design is nice but feel like the notification centre, widgets etc. are a bit of a gimmick.

The Black Oil

Installed it at lunch. It says 'verifying Microsoft Powerpoint' since the start. PP works fine. I'll try to restart and see if that gets rid of it.

Gregor Samsa

OU812 wrote: »

is there any way to get this installed on a system that's not supported natively.

It's claimed there is:

https://www.uubyte.com/install-macos-big-sur-on-unsupported-mac.html

do at your own risk.

DubDJ

By far this has been the most awkward OS install for me. Ran into so many issues aside from the ones related to the outage last night.

I have a modern MacBook with the T2 security chip. What I wanted to do is completely format the SSD, and install a fresh copy of macOS 11 Big Sur.

After a lot of trial and error I found this to be the easiest and most efficient way.

1. Create an installer USB drive, easy enough to do Apple have instructions you can Google.
2. Boot into recovery with CMD+R and once it’s loaded up click the utilities menu bar on the top and choose ‘startup disk security’ or close to that name.
3. It will ask for your password, once you enter it you can select the option at the bottom to allow installs from usb stick.
4. Restart the Mac and hold down the option key, keep it held down and select the macOS installer usb as the startup disk.
5. The Mac will boot into the usb installer and from there you can reformat the SSD and then install the OS directly from the USB.

I ran into countless issues with every possible configuration going. I didn’t want to install an older version of macOS 10.X and then upgrade to 11 as I wanted a fully clean install. Because it had a T2 chip and I wanted to reformat and go straight to 11 it caused all those problems. Just thought I’d post here for anyone else thinking of going the same way, and for myself when I run into the same issues next time

drogon.

Anybody else have issue where SideCar ain't working after BigSur Upgrade ?

Had issues with Apple Watch unlocking at first, but had to disable and re-enable the feature few times before it started working again

OU812

is there any way to get this installed on a system that's not supported natively.

Type 17

Downloaded and installed this morning on a Mid-2015 MBP with 16GB RAM - working faster than Catalina, all 3rd party apps fine so far - MS Office 2019, Roomsketcher, Menumeters, 1Password.

The Black Oil

10GB in, 16 minutes to go.

DubDJ

FourFourFM wrote: »

Was that even with the internet recovery version? I know the local version (CMD+R) will only offer the OS that you’re on currently.

I will test it on my own in a few days but it has worked in the past for people I’ve asked to do it.

Reading through the support docs it seems that if you format the SSD first then it might only offer the version that came with the Mac, which is what I usually do. So that explains it.

Gregor Samsa

Retried there a couple of minutes ago.

It's 8.8gb down with 4 minutes to go.

Edit: it finished downloading in the time it took to take the screenshot and post this.

DubDJ

FourFourFM wrote: »

Was that even with the internet recovery version? I know the local version (CMD+R) will only offer the OS that you’re on currently.

I will test it on my own in a few days but it has worked in the past for people I’ve asked to do it.

I gave up in the end so I will test out the internet recovery option tomorrow and see can I reinstall with Big Sur.

FourFourRED

DubDJ wrote: »

It was previous updates that I’d tried it with that didn’t work. It just reinstalled the latest release minor point release of Mac, but not 10.15 for example.

Was that even with the internet recovery version? I know the local version (CMD+R) will only offer the OS that you’re on currently.

I will test it on my own in a few days but it has worked in the past for people I’ve asked to do it.

OU812

Thought my MacBook was just within range, but it's the last version that's not supported. iMac is older still so it looks like I'm stuck on Catalina

DubDJ

FourFourFM wrote: »

That’s the way it should work in general:

“ Option-⌘-R
Upgrade to the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac.”

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204904

Maybe not tonight though with the mess the servers have been in.

It was previous updates that I’d tried it with that didn’t work. It just reinstalled the latest release minor point release of Mac, but not 10.15 for example.

I see on Twitter there are widespread server issues and nobody can start the download. 9to5 reported the issues as resolved but still broken for me and a lot of the replies too.

FourFourRED

DubDJ wrote: »

I don’t think it works that way though, the CMD+Option+R command installs the latest version of the OS that I had installed. I’ve tried it a couple of times and it never seemed to download the newest release.

Still haven’t managed the update, right now it won’t even let me start the install anymore.

That’s the way it should work in general:

“ Option-⌘-R
Upgrade to the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac.”

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204904

Maybe not tonight though with the mess the servers have been in.

DubDJ

FourFourFM wrote: »

If you start up holding CMD + Option + R (internet recovery) it will give you the option to install the newest version available, which in this case is Big Sur. You can then erase the drive in this recovery partition and install a clean install rather than installing it twice.

I don’t think it works that way though, the CMD+Option+R command installs the latest version of the OS that I had installed. I’ve tried it a couple of times and it never seemed to download the newest release.

Still haven’t managed the update, right now it won’t even let me start the install anymore.

FourFourRED

DubDJ wrote: »

I do this all the time, really easy to get started from scratch. I usually do a time machine backup and then copy all the files over to a separate hard drive as a double backup just in case.

Simple restart and hold Cmd+R to boot to the recovery partition and then you can reinstall. One thing to note, I think you need to actually update to Big Sur first before doing this, as I think the recovery partition method only lets you reinstall the most recent version on your Mac. So you can install the Mac’s original OS, or the most recent Mac version (that you had installed). Once you’re done manually copy all the files back over.

As 11 is such a big jump I’ve decided to do a clean install myself. Going to update first, then reformat and reinstall macOS 11. That is if the download ever works.

Another option is to create a bootable usb with macOS 11 on it, I prefer the recovery partition method though.

If you start up holding CMD + Option + R (internet recovery) it will give you the option to install the newest version available, which in this case is Big Sur. You can then erase the drive in this recovery partition and install a clean install rather than installing it twice.

fjon

DubDJ wrote: »

I do this all the time, really easy to get started from scratch. I usually do a time machine backup and then copy all the files over to a separate hard drive as a double backup just in case.

Simple restart and hold Cmd+R to boot to the recovery partition and then you can reinstall. One thing to note, I think you need to actually update to Big Sur first before doing this, as I think the recovery partition method only lets you reinstall the most recent version on your Mac. So you can install the Mac’s original OS, or the most recent Mac version (that you had installed). Once you’re done manually copy all the files back over.

As 11 is such a big jump I’ve decided to do a clean install myself. Going to update first, then reformat and reinstall macOS 11. That is if the download ever works.

Another option is to create a bootable usb with macOS 11 on it, I prefer the recovery partition method though.

Cool, yes I was going to create a bootable USB drive with Big Sur on it like in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mxLeNx9HLM

It's more the copying back of the files that I'm worried about, especially for stuff like Logic where stuff is spread across different places.
Anyway, will give it a few days so I can actually download the thing without these issues you guys are having.

DubDJ

fjon wrote: »

I have decided when I eventually upgrade I will do a clean install. My Mac is 7 years old and has loads of crap on it I'm sure.
Anyone done this? Bit daunted about putting all the files back on it. Do you just put them all on to an external drive and move them over bit by bit? Obviously doing a Time Machine restore defeats the purpose.

I do this all the time, really easy to get started from scratch. I usually do a time machine backup and then copy all the files over to a separate hard drive as a double backup just in case.

Simple restart and hold Cmd+R to boot to the recovery partition and then you can reinstall. One thing to note, I think you need to actually update to Big Sur first before doing this, as I think the recovery partition method only lets you reinstall the most recent version on your Mac. So you can install the Mac’s original OS, or the most recent Mac version (that you had installed). Once you’re done manually copy all the files back over.

As 11 is such a big jump I’ve decided to do a clean install myself. Going to update first, then reformat and reinstall macOS 11. That is if the download ever works.

Another option is to create a bootable usb with macOS 11 on it, I prefer the recovery partition method though.

Gregor Samsa

Yeah, getting constant failures now. I’ll try again in the morning when the Americans are asleep.

The Black Oil

Spoke too soon, failed again...
It just doesn't want to know.