[Merlady]

I have a mid 2017 iMac running Catalina. I read about the issue on the Big Sur launch day but haven't heard much since and hoping that means good news. Question:

*Should I upgrade now or wait awhile longer?
*If I upgrade how are my apps affected, if at all.
*Since I don't have the M1 chip, does that mean I won't have access to Universal Apps?

Thank you!

[Just_Me_D]

I have a 2017 MacBook Pro and I’ve been running Big Sur on it without any problems since the first beta was introduced so I don’t think your system will have any problems handling it.

As for third party apps, it’s always possible to have to wait for developers to upgrade them, but the apps I use on a regular basis work without any issues.

[Merlady]

Thank you. What about apps downloaded from the Mac App Store? Once they update to be compatible with the M1 chip and Big Sur will they still work okay with an older Mac without the M1?

[Lee_Bo]

Thank you. What about apps downloaded from the Mac App Store? Once they update to be compatible with the M1 chip and Big Sur will they still work okay with an older Mac without the M1?

Very possibly.

I updated my 2016 MBP to BS (appropriately named) over the weekend. So far everything seems to be running fine but I do think my battery is draining a bit faster than it used to.

[doogald]

*Since I don't have the M1 chip, does that mean I won't have access to Universal Apps?

Universal apps have both an Intel and an Apple Silicon run-time. You will be absolutely fine on an Intel Mac with or without universal apps - all current apps are Intel-only, and universal apps will stilll run on Intel.

As for "when you should you upgrade", I am a long-time believe that you should wait at least a few weeks to a month after release on a machine y ou depend on working to see if there are any major bugs in the release. Last year with Catalina lots of people had problems with Mail, for example (it was with mail stored locally on your Mac as opposed to accessing mail on a server.) But things like moving messages from one location to another would not actually move the content of the message, and the original would be deleted, so the message would be lost forever. And Apple wouldn't certify that you could restore mail from a Mojave Time Machine backup to Catalina. I just installed Catalina a few weeks ago myself, on only one of my Macs, and so far, everything is fine for me.

So far I haven't seen any major issues like that with Big Sur being reported.

[Merlady]

Thanks so much for you help!

[Just_Me_D]

Thanks so much for you help!

On behalf of those who responded, you’re very welcome...

[scruffypig]

I post this in case this applies to anyone reading. If you are running Traktor DJ from Native Instruments, Native Instruments and Apple are advising holding off migrating to Big Sur as the update can cause damage to hardware you are using with Traktor DJ software. Both are working on a fix.

[anon(10700196)]

Curious, can one not upgrade to Big Sur, try it, and if not to ones liking (or certain apps do not work), revert to Catalina?

[DeAnna Zak]

SO...I saw an update for the computer. I didn't realize there was all this stuff with the update. Had I know I would have not updated. Now I want to gouge my eyeballs out. I have been on chat with apple support. They cannot help me and even suggested it was a hardware issue and that I should take my computer into the store. at this point I am furious!!!

Here are the issues:

It says I still have a software update but I get the error - Unable to check for updates make sure you are connected to the internet. Um? Ok, I am pretty sure I am connected. If I wasn't I wouldn't be able to chat in this forum.

I remote into my work computer from home and the app I used no longer worked. It took me 2 days to finally get it to work.

But wait there is more!!

I have creative cloud and several apps. The apps appear to be fine but the creative cloud app that allows me to stay connected to the service I pay monthly for cannot recognize that I have any apps installed and cannot connect to Adobe Creative Cloud.

I had a meeting and they use go-to-meeting. Yep, that bad boy doesn't work on the new update. we tried for 30 minutes.

And My Favorite!! Get this. The mail app works as far as I can see the messages I receive from all of my accounts but when I click on the message all I can see is the top portion that says who it's from who it's to and the subject line. Nothing else. I chatted with apple support for about an hour trying to fix it. still broke.

I am being told I cannot uninstall I have to start up macOS from recovery. I'm not sure what that entails. I do not have a time machine point to go back to, because well I just didn't set it up.

Anyone got any suggestions? I am ready to chuck this bad boy right out the window.

[doogald]

Curious, can one not upgrade to Big Sur, try it, and if not to ones liking (or certain apps do not work), revert to Catalina?

That is not as easy as your sentence makes it sound. You cannot use the Catalina installer from the App Store to install over Big Sur, so you need to have something set up to install Catalina first (a bootable USB that is set to install Catalina), and you need to wipe the disk from the Big Sur install and do a migration from a backup you had from Catalina or earlier.

In other words, it takes some planning and testing to make sure that you can go back.

[anon(10700196)]

Ah, I get it. Thanks for the breakdown...

That is not as easy as your sentence makes it sound. You cannot use the Catalina installer from the App Store to install over Big Sur, so you need to have something set up to install Catalina first (a bootable USB that is set to install Catalina), and you need to wipe the disk from the Big Sur install and do a migration from a backup you had from Catalina or earlier.

In other words, it takes some planning and testing to make sure that you can go back.