Upgrade mac OS X 10.10 to 10.12

[vaio_v]

I have had my 13-inch 2014 mid Macbook Pro Retina for about two years now, an excellent machine to operate. I have never encountered any problems with it and cannot name any slowdowns. The laptop operates just like it did when i first got it out of its box two years ago. However, all of my colleagues do have the latest firmware, which makes me want to update. Will going to Sierra from Yosemite slow down my MBP in ANY means?(benchmarks, performance, productivity, video editing, programming, graphics etc)

My current specs are:
2.8 GHz Intel Core i5
8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel Iris 1536 MB

 

[chscag]

Your machine should have no trouble running Sierra. Just make sure you have a good fall back plan in case Murphy's Law takes over. I recommend a cloned backup using either Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. If for some reason you need to remove Sierra and go back to Yosemite, a bootable clone makes it easy.

 

[vaio_v]

Your machine should have no trouble running Sierra. Just make sure you have a good fall back plan in case Murphy's Law takes over. I recommend a cloned backup using either Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. If for some reason you need to remove Sierra and go back to Yosemite, a bootable clone makes it easy.

Yes but if there's going to be the same performance, then I may not upgrade (due to Murphy's Law ) Will my mac get any faster?

 

[adrianlondon]

I have a late 2013 lowest spec rMBP running 10.12.3 (beta) and it seems faster than Yosemite. However, it could just be that it's not gotten any slower in the 3 years I've had the laptop which is tricking me into believing it's become faster, as all my previous Windows machines would be crawling after 3 years of updates ...​

 

[5aga]

I have the same machine with the same specs and the latest release runs fine. No performance issues. The only drawback is battery life is a tad bit less but disabling Siri helped with that.

 

[aquilc]

Your Macbook should handle macOS Sierra fine.

Just be sure to backup all your data, and take note of any settings, and purchased software licenses in case of failure during the upgrade.

I also suggest to create a USB installation disk of Sierra, in case something goes wrong before performing the upgrade.

Simply download macOS installation dmg file from Apple App Store, download Dismaker X, and insert a 8GB USB pendrive (preferably with USB3 interface). Diskmaker will format (remove all any files stored on the removable storage device - the pendrive).

If the upgrade fails, you can boot from the pendrive and install macOS Sierra from scratch.

 

[carrrrrlos]

Just curious if this is the update I read about that removes the “Time remaining” on my current rMBP Mid 2014? I read the updated notes here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207307 and could not find any mention of this feature being removed.

 

[bent christian]

10.12 is bloated with features most people probably don't need. Many seem to be having trouble. This happens with Apple, as they don't offer very good support for their own very short list of legacy hardware. Unless you want Siri, the new iPhone features, the iCloud stuff, go to 10.11. El Capitan is great, and it is as slimmed down as any new Apple OS will ever be. Personally, I don't see any reason for me to leave for years to come.

 

[i4k20c]

10.12 is bloated with features most people probably don't need. Many seem to be having trouble. This happens with Apple, as they don't offer very good support for their own very short list of legacy hardware. Unless you want Siri, the new iPhone features, the iCloud stuff, go to 10.11. El Capitan is great, and it is as slimmed down as any new Apple OS will ever be. Personally, I don't see any reason for me to leave for years to come.

can you upgrade only to el captain from the app store? how do you do that from 10.10?

 

[bent christian]

can you upgrade only to el captain from the app store? how do you do that from 10.10?

I have no idea id 10.11 is available. Worst-case scenario, you can always torrent the OS.

 

[fisherking]

10.12 is bloated with features most people probably don't need. Many seem to be having trouble. This happens with Apple, as they don't offer very good support for their own very short list of legacy hardware. Unless you want Siri, the new iPhone features, the iCloud stuff, go to 10.11. El Capitan is great, and it is as slimmed down as any new Apple OS will ever be. Personally, I don't see any reason for me to leave for years to come.

"bloated"? there's a few more features (most of which i don't use), but sierra seems lighter, faster... and more stable the el cap. still, whatever works.

 

[bent christian]

"bloated"? there's a few more features (most of which i don't use)

That's what the word means in context.

10.11 is already fast on my Late 2015. I can't imagine the OS being lighter (using more launch agents) or faster than it already is. How much RAM is your system using at idle?

 

[i4k20c]

if i don't have a spare drive to use a clone, is it okay if i just rely on my time machine or will that screw me up? alternatively, i can reformat my time machine drive to just clone my machine and then after the upgrade, reformat it back to use as a time machine drive.

 

[fischersd]

if i don't have a spare drive to use a clone, is it okay if i just rely on my time machine or will that screw me up? alternatively, i can reformat my time machine drive to just clone my machine and then after the upgrade, reformat it back to use as a time machine drive.

If you had enough free space on your time machine drive, you could also place the clone file there. (it creates a file which encompasses a clone of your drive).
Alternatively, you can do what you suggested - format the time machine drive, make your clone file on it and proceed with your upgrade. (or actually have that drive as a bootable clone).
If you use a file, make sure you have a bootable USB with your cloner application on it though.

 

[i4k20c]

If you had enough free space on your time machine drive, you could also place the clone file there. (it creates a file which encompasses a clone of your drive).
Alternatively, you can do what you suggested - format the time machine drive, make your clone file on it and proceed with your upgrade. (or actually have that drive as a bootable clone).
If you use a file, make sure you have a bootable USB with your cloner application on it though.

i think it should have enough space! it wouldn't cause any problems to have both time machine and a clone on same drive? i don't need to partition it or anything do i?

would you mind explaining what this means, "If you use a file, make sure you have a bootable USB with your cloner application on it though. " ?

i'm hoping to do the setup and prepare tonight for it. ive been wanting to upgrade for a while but haven't had the time and luckily have a few days off from work because of the holidays.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Don't know if you've actually upgraded yet, but I, too, would STRONGLY SUGGEST that before you try the upgrade, that you create a BOOTABLE CLONED BACKUP of your drive BEFORE you update.

Use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.
I recommend CCC. It's FREE to download, and it's FREE to use (fully functional) for the first 30 days.

Why do you want such a backup?
Because -- if you upgrade and find things aren't to your liking or aren't working -- there is NO EASIER WAY to "get back, get back, get back to where you once belonged" than by:
1. Booting from the cloned backup
2. Re-initializing your internal drive
3. RE-CLONING the cloned backup BACK TO the internal drive.

You will then be "where you started from".
Everything will look and run the same.

There have been many, many MANY posts in this forum from folks who updated their OS without a cloned backup, didn't like the upgrade, and wanted to "go back" -- but had NO EASY PATH by which to do so.

Follow the above instructions, and you will have that pathway.

 

[tywebb13]

I have no idea id 10.11 is available. Worst-case scenario, you can always torrent the OS.

You can get it here: https://itunes.apple.com/app/os-x-el-capitan/id1147835434?mt=12

 

[fischersd]

i think it should have enough space! it wouldn't cause any problems to have both time machine and a clone on same drive? i don't need to partition it or anything do i?

would you mind explaining what this means, "If you use a file, make sure you have a bootable USB with your cloner application on it though. " ?

i'm hoping to do the setup and prepare tonight for it. ive been wanting to upgrade for a while but haven't had the time and luckily have a few days off from work because of the holidays.

Well, at least with carbon copy cloner, you can create a disk image of your drive (a file) or you can clone your drive to another drive (the same size or larger than your data), and make it bootable, so you could easily just boot from this alternate drive (if things went sideways with your upgrade, but you don't have the time to do a restore, for example).

If you have an image file, you use the application to restore it to a partition/drive. (so, in a disaster scenario, you'd need a bootable drive that had the CCC program on it).

 

[i4k20c]

Well, at least with carbon copy cloner, you can create a disk image of your drive (a file) or you can clone your drive to another drive (the same size or larger than your data), and make it bootable, so you could easily just boot from this alternate drive (if things went sideways with your upgrade, but you don't have the time to do a restore, for example).

If you have an image file, you use the application to restore it to a partition/drive. (so, in a disaster scenario, you'd need a bootable drive that had the CCC program on it).

ah got it. so the next question is then, how do you make a bootable drive with CCC? will CCC help me do that or is that something separate i need?

P.S.. i'm working on backing up via time machine and it is taking forever to "Decrypt" my time machine drive. I'm honestly not sure why it is decrypting so we'll see. It's been running for over 12 hrs now and is at 75%. Kind of frustrating.

 

[Fishrrman]

i4 wrote:
"how do you make a bootable drive with CCC? will CCC help me do that or is that something separate i need?"

Don't make things so difficult.
Just download CCC and launch it.
You'll see what to do next.

One tip:
Set it up to clone the recovery partition, too (I believe this is already setup as the default).

Once CCC is done, TEST the backup.
a. Power down -- ALL THE WAY OFF
b. Press the power-on button
c. IMMEDIATELY hold down the option key until the startup manager appears
d. You should now see the icon for the backup drive. Click on it with the pointer and hit return.
e. Do you get a good boot? Open "About this Mac" (apple menu) and check to see from where you're booted...

 

[vaio_v]

10.12 is bloated with features most people probably don't need. Many seem to be having trouble. This happens with Apple, as they don't offer very good support for their own very short list of legacy hardware. Unless you want Siri, the new iPhone features, the iCloud stuff, go to 10.11. El Capitan is great, and it is as slimmed down as any new Apple OS will ever be. Personally, I don't see any reason for me to leave for years to come.

So should I just stay to Yosemite then? Since i dont even care for the El Capitan features...

 

[stooovie]

Yes but if there's going to be the same performance, then I may not upgrade (due to Murphy's Law ) Will my mac get any faster?

It can actually be faster. Going from El Capitan to Sierra reliably and completely fixed the incredible choppiness of some parts of UI. So yeah, go ahead.

 

[definitive]

I don't know if it will be any faster, but it will help keep your system up to date when it comes to its operating system.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

If you're happy with Yosemite, perhaps the solution is to stick with it… until you're not happy with it any longer.

Then it will become time to upgrade...