Updating from Catalina to Big Sur?

[megadude]

Currently running Logic (latest version) on Catalina. I've waited a while and am wondering if there are still Big Sur issues for 3rd party plugins that people know about. Thank you!!!

[jancivil]

I updated day before yesterday from 15.7, there was no change for my projects. Kontakt 5 even works. I waited for Reaktor to show officially, which it was late to, it works.
The change made me have to reconnect to BFD Drums dot com to reauthorize those things. Probably loading is a little quicker and seems more efficient as to CPU in this kind of massive project right now.

[megadude]

Thanks for letting me know. I figured at this point most developers will have functioning updates if something doesn't work in Big Sur/ Any guesses when the next OS will be released? I just realized I also don't know if I can update to Big Sur after a newer OS is out, or if I'll be forced to go straight to the most recent one....I kind of want to wait another two months before updated just so i don't wreck a big project I am nearing the end too.

[sprnva]

Apple have an event on Monday and it's likely when they will release Monterey. There's an 11.6.1 update in beta for Big Sur which will probably be the last version update (only security updates after this).

You can install Big Sur at any stage via it's App Store page. But by default if your Mac is compatible with Monterey that will be what is suggested to you by the App Store and Software Update.

[megadude]

Ah cool, so I won't be *forced* to go the full Montery, which is what I was worried about. Thank you!!

[Tj Shredder]

In the past it was good advice to download the installer, but don‘t install it. As Apple restricted the access to older OS versions. They seem to have changed that nasty behavior, you can get older versions now directly… But I would never rely on Apple, expect them to annoy you any time with a change in their politics. Apple isn‘t a democratic nation…

[dayjob]

i skipped catalina entirely and went from mojave to big sur. works great for me. some older plug ins left behind though.
ohmforce plugs guis are scrambled on big sur.

some 2cAudio plug ins have issues as well. there's a thread about it. or it's mentioned in the thread about kaleidoscope.

[pdxindy]

I'm leaving my current Mac on Catalina. I'll be buying a new Apple Silicon MBP (announced tomorrow) and that will come with Monterey (I assume).

[megadude]

After talking with a friend who has a similar arsenal of plugins, I took the plunge to Big Sur, and so far, it's working well--I think actually Logic functions better on Big Sur. It seems like it is rendering quicker, for example. Only one plugin failed validation: Wave Factory's free snarebuzz, so not a big deal by any means. Everything else seems to work fine, though I haven't gone through every plugin. Tomorrow I'll finish updating any plugins that need it, but I am relieved and pleased with how well the upgrade went. Thanks for your advice everyone!

[dupont]

If it is not sur to update to big sur, what about monterey !!!
Apple goes faster than 3rd party developers !

[macmuse]

i skipped catalina entirely and went from mojave to big sur. works great for me. some older plug ins left behind though.

I'm still on Mojave, but wanted to load a hard drive with Big Sur in case it's no longer available like in the past. You're saying that you no longer have to first do Catalina then move that to Big Sur? I seem to have remembered that was the way it used to be?? or maybe not.

[dayjob]

i skipped catalina entirely and went from mojave to big sur. works great for me. some older plug ins left behind though.

I'm still on Mojave, but wanted to load a hard drive with Big Sur in case it's no longer available like in the past. You're saying that you no longer have to first do Catalina then move that to Big Sur? I seem to have remembered that was the way it used to be?? or maybe not.

exactly. i skipped catalina entirely and went directly to big sur. just go into the software update app and see what pops up. system preferences -> software update

and it'll tell you what you can do for your computer. most likely it's only big sur 11.6

or you can pick your way through apple's support pages and find direct links to specific downloads of different MacOS versions.. but some they remove.

after some googling i found a site that has the links archived for pretty much every MacOS version.. i forget where that is now though.. it's like a script someone wrote. but if you just want to go to Big Sur use the software update in system preferences and you'll see what's what for your computer.

[aMUSEd]

Apple have an event on Monday and it's likely when they will release Monterey. There's an 11.6.1 update in beta for Big Sur which will probably be the last version update (only security updates after this).

You can install Big Sur at any stage via it's App Store page. But by default if your Mac is compatible with Monterey that will be what is suggested to you by the App Store and Software Update.

I just updated to Big Sur partly for that reason, although it's not hard to download previous versions via something like MDS. Had a painful install because I went from Mohave, and ended up having to do a clean install but the huge performance improvement has left me with few regrets, and it's an opportunity to carefully think about what I reinstall and maybe let go of some clutter.

[sprnva]

I usually do a clean install and migrate my data over from Time Machine. I'm also on Big Sur now (from High Sierra) and will be staying here until I can find a compatible AMD card for a reasonable price (Monterey has dropped Kepler support for Nvidia cards) or until I go Apple Silicon. I've also used the opportunity to thin out more plugins, prioritising any that are Apple Silicon-native.

As for Monterey I believe it's now coming next Monday (25th).

[Tronam]

After gradually verifying and pruning out the remaining fragments of 32-bit cruft using Go64, I migrated from Mojave to Big Sur and it's been surprisingly problem free. No major performance or stability issues over the past 6 months, at least on my 2019 iMac.