Big Sur 11.1 now available for download

[lclev]

I finally upgraded to Big Sur on my 2020 13" MBP. I had decided to wait until 11.1 came out and if there were no big issues being posted, I would give it a try. I was also waiting on the Big Sur update for my Quickbooks 2020 app. I did not want to upgrade QB as they now push for an online subscription or I could pay $399!! Nope and I do not want to change apps if I can avoid it.

This is the first time I have been so cautions when upgrading. I made a CCC backup of my Catalina install then made sure I could boot from it. I had already gone into recovery mode and turned off those security settings that prevented booting from an external drive. I installed Big Sur on an external SSD then made sure it booted and everything worked - wifi, keyboard, etc. When that went well I installed it on the main internal drive as an install over Catalina.

What was so cool was I was expecting problems... and I had none! Plus - my MBP is running faster and is much snappier. I am amazed - truly! All my apps are working including Parallels with Windows 10. AND -the issue I was having with my trackpad and keyboard not working initially after waking from sleep if I had not turned off my WiFi, is gone. It wakes faster and apps load faster.

As I said I was skeptical as I worried as to how well an OS would work that is written to run on two very different processors - and actually total hardware system. So far on my system, it runs awesome.

Lisa

 

[chscag]

Glad to hear that Lisa. I too waited until 11.1 before installing it. So far it runs well and I've already gotten used to the different things like the icons, notifications, etc.

Be aware though, that the first time you use CCC to clone Big Sur, you'll need to read through what Mike Bombich says in the new instructions about a bootable clone.

 

[lclev]

Glad to hear that Lisa. I too waited until 11.1 before installing it. So far it runs well and I've already gotten used to the different things like the icons, notifications, etc.

Be aware though, that the first time you use CCC to clone Big Sur, you'll need to read through what Mike Bombich says in the new instructions about a bootable clone.

I am having fun with the new icons and yes it will take a bit of getting use too.

I actually had to run CCC twice to get a good clone. I did read the information on CCC. I checked in system prefs. I can not select my CCC disk to boot from but holding the option key works. Hopefully Apple will get that fixed or Mike will figure it out. My Time Machine backup seems to be working fine.

Lisa

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Waited to upgrade my 2019 iMac until 11.1 also here. I had planned to do a clean install but decided on an upgrade install. Went well, no complaints. My only real beef with Big Sur in general is the menubar. The way the shading changes based on the background now due to the translucency means sometimes my menubar icons are highly visible and recognizable, and other times they aren't (my wallpaper changes every 10 minutes). Catalina's menubar was fine the way it was.

 

[chscag]

My only real beef with Big Sur in general is the menubar. The way the shading changes based on the background now due to the translucency means sometimes my menubar icons are highly visible and recognizable, and other times they aren't (my wallpaper changes every 10 minutes). Catalina's menubar was fine the way it was.

Yeah, I didn't like that either. Instead I now use a single color for my wallpaper background which keeps the menu bar icons visible at all times. My menu bar is fairly full: I have iStat Menus running with several other must have things along with the normal Apple stuff.

 

[IWT]

Well, your successful upgrades has convinced me to do likewise. In my case I am upgrading from macOS Mojave.

May I assume that after identifying all my 32bit apps using Go64, the best policy is to bin them all?

The only reason I held off till now was that I felt uncomfortable about macOS Catalina. Only once before in the last 12 years or so, have I missed an upgrade and that was Yosemite. I am really looking forward to macOS 11 Big Sur.

Ian

 

[chscag]

You can either remove any remaining 32 bit apps or just let them stay where they are. The upgrade to Big Sur will render them inert.

Probably best to remove them and save some space. The Big Sur download is around 12 GB.

 

[IWT]

Thank you Charlie. That was my intention. You have kindly confirmed it.

In fact, deleting the apps and their original libraries or data will restore a considerable amount of space - eg Aperture; I have already created a new library within Photos and transferred the Aperture Library there. I can now delete the Aperture app and its original Library of 65GB!! And this goes for one or two other big-data apps.

All Libraries are also stored on EHDs; TM and CCC.

Much obliged to you.

Ian

 

[Brian1230]

I just bought an early 2015 11 inch MacBook Air, to replace the P.I.T.A. windows laptop I have, and was using after my 2008 MacBook running El Capitan broke. it has Big Sur 11.1 and so far I love it more than I did El Capitan, fortunately Big Sur seems to have the same basic functions as the older version that I remember, but a lot more cool features, and I cannot get over how much faster the Air is compared to my 2018 Dell latitude. It is a pleasure to be using a computer all day again.