
#HOW TO UPDATE MAC OS SIERRA SOFTWARE#
What’s far more important is re-assessing the compatibility of all your main apps and other software with latest releases of macOS. Although this was reported to Apple more than six months before the release of High Sierra, it was never fixed in Sierra, only in High Sierra. For example, Sierra has a fatal bug in its scheduling system (DAS/CTS) which means that Macs stop making automatic Time Machine backups after a few days of continuous running.

The only general exception to that is when a bug is also a security vulnerability, and gets fixed in a Security Update. It’s also worth remembering that Apple very rarely fixes bugs in older releases of macOS. That means that all the bugs in those parts of macOS have gone for good. An extreme example is Catalina, which no longer contains all the frameworks and other software to support 32-bit apps. In some cases, they may simply be fixes, but in others they occur when Apple completely rewrites or replaces part of macOS. If that were true, wouldn’t it be better sticking with an older release with fewer bugs? There’s an obvious fallacy here in that this ignores the bugs which are fixed in a new release. Some like to point out that each new major, and many minor, version of macOS contains bugs, so the total number of bugs increases with each new release. For many, that may not include Catalina, because of its substantial architectural changes including the loss of 32-bit software support. Although it’s an unwritten rule that Apple only provides security updates for its current and last two major releases of macOS, you can be fairly certain that all remaining vulnerabilities in Sierra will now be left unpatched.Īs a general principle, you should run the most recent release of macOS that you can, without compromising what you do with your Mac. If you’re still running Sierra 10.12.6, your last Security Update was in late September last year, nearly six months ago. In the next few weeks, Apple is likely to ship Catalina 10.15.4, which takes it a step closer to its end-point of 10.15.6 in the summer, and whatever 10.16 might bring later in the year. With its “Junk Files” feature, it not only cleans temporary files including logs, mail caches, iTunes and iOS temporary files, and empties trash for the current user, but also detects remaining files after deleting apps.Now is a good time to re-evaluate which version of macOS your Macs are running. It’s really great to have such a system optimizing tool. I must tell you there is a savior for your Mac! Its name is Cleaner One Pro. There are also probably many apps you have never used and don’t need them anymore. Let’s say someday your Mac has a lot of junk files and duplicate photos. I believe you also want to keep your Mac clean. If you have done a complete installation of macOS, you must be enjoying the completely new macOS now.
#HOW TO UPDATE MAC OS SIERRA UPGRADE#
Click “Install” and wait until the upgrade is done Agree to the software terms and conditions. When the installation window appears, click “Continue” again. When it returns to the former page, insert your USB and click “Continue”.

Select “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” from the list of volume formats and start formatting.į. Open “Disk Utility”, choose your startup disk, and then click “Erase”.Į. Press and hold “Command+R” when you hear a startup ring (or when the screen on your newer Mac device turns black), and hold down the keys until your computer restarts.ĭ.

When enabled, Apple’s Time Machine will periodically transfer all files and store data on an inserted external hard drive or on a Time Capsule connected to the network.Ĭ. As long as the disk is available to your Mac, you can use it for Time Machine backups. It also supports Apple’s Time Capsule and backup disks connected over a network as long as the disks support AFPS. Back up everything on your Mac directly to your hard drive, in case the Mac cannot upgrade properly. Time Machine can connect to your Mac and any external hard drive via USB, FireWire or Thunderbolt port. If you have never backed up, let me tell you how important it is. This feature was released in OS X 10.5 Leopard. No matter which way you choose, always remember to back up your data before performing an upgrade.Īpple has its own official backup tool: Time Machine.

There are two ways to upgrade macOS: directly in Mac App Store, or upgrade using an USB device. If you are running OS X Lion (10.7.5) or later, you can upgrade directly to macOS High Sierra. Some features, such as High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) encoding and decoding require newer processors and devices, some of which unfortunately cannot run on older devices.
