SOLVED OS upgrade from Catalina

[Chris49]

Hi,
I have a mid-2014 MacBook pro running Catalina 10.15.7. There are no issues that I'm aware of.

A while ago, when it first came out, I used to get prompts to upgrade to Monterey. I ignored these at the time and I no longer get them. My automatic software upgrade check says my system is up to date with Catalina but shows an upgrade option to Big Sur.

Would I be best advised to, and can I, upgrade to Monterey? Or Big Sur?

Thanks.

 

[TonyAguila]

Hi,
I have a mid-2014 MacBook pro running Catalina 10.15.7. There are no issues that I'm aware of.

A while ago, when it first came out, I used to get prompts to upgrade to Monterey. I ignored these at the time and I no longer get them. My automatic software upgrade check says my system is up to date with Catalina but shows an upgrade option to Big Sur.

Would I be best advised to, and can I, upgrade to Monterey? Or Big Sur?

Thanks.

Both the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros are capable of running macOS up to Big Sur. They are not rated to run Monterey, so I don’t see how you were able to get upgrade prompts for Monterey. Were they coming from System Preferences?

I recommend upgrading to Big Sur anyway, with the usual precaution of doing up-to-date Time Machine backups. Another issue is how your drive is formatted. Your MBP originally came with OS X 10.9.4 Mavericks so it was before APFS was introduced. Did you ever reformat your drive to APFS. Also, when it came out with Catalina, APFS had a lot of problems, so either way, I would reformat the drive to APFS using Disk Utility in Recovery. Big Sur will not perform optimally is HFS+ or with the earliest version of APFS.

Anyway, if you do decide to upgrade to Big Sur, I suggest doing it from Recovery, even if you decide not to reformat the drive.

 

[Chris49]

Thanks Tony,
I can't quite remember the original macOS, but I don't think it was Mavericks. Yes, the prompts to upgrade to Monterey were coming from System Preferences. Anyway, I see from Disk Utility that my current file system is APFS (encrypted). I have never reformatted my drive and am unaware of different versions of APFS.

I feel I may risk leaving my comfort zone here. In what way is upgrading macOS from Recovery better/safer than triggering it from System Preferences, as I have always done in the past? And is there a fool-proof documented apple process for this?

Thanks.

 

[TonyAguila]

Thanks Tony,
I can't quite remember the original macOS, but I don't think it was Mavericks. Yes, the prompts to upgrade to Monterey were coming from System Preferences. Anyway, I see from Disk Utility that my current file system is APFS (encrypted). I have never reformatted my drive and am unaware of different versions of APFS.

I feel I may risk leaving my comfort zone here. In what way is upgrading macOS from Recovery better/safer than triggering it from System Preferences, as I have always done in the past? And is there a fool-proof documented apple process for this?

Thanks.

The advantage with upgrading in Recovery is that the system files are basically inactive, so none of the files will fail to be replaced/updated if they are not running. If you are uncomfortable with running in Recovery, the next best thing is to reboot into Safe Mode before doing the upgrade. That way, at least extensions and most other processes will not be running during the operation. Do not be concerned that things seem to be running slowly in Safe Boot. It’s only natural. In both cases, your internet connection should remain active. Good luck!

 

[Chris49]

Thanks for this.

Actually, I had another question about upgrades, which may turn out to be related, but I'll put it in a new post.