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  #1  
Old 08-10-2022, 06:24 PM
HalfPastMidnight HalfPastMidnight is offline
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Default Advice On Mac OS update from 10.15.7 --- or not

In 2021 I purchased two Macs: one for video, one for music, but due to workflow there is a little overlap. I currently run PT 2021.3 --- I had a bit of a major hassle several months ago which was finally resolved by giving Avid more money but in the process, I had a tech support person tell me that even though it says on paper that I should be able to update, to just stick with 2021 as long as I'm on macOS Catalina. I'm on 10.15.7 -- it's stable!

That said, my BlackMagic video equipment has a bunch of software updates and the minimum OS requires me to go to at least BigSur if I am to update. For a variety of reasons, I don't really want to....because I'm paranoid of complications due to basically a lack of time. Right now I am in-between projects so it's sort of now or not at all for another long time.

When I check the Avid page, it says about Big Sur: "Our testing has shown that certain configurations may result in a higher incidence of playback errors. This is particularly prevalent with older MacBook Pros" but it doesn't say what older even is. I'm on:

MacBook Pro, 2019
2.4 GHz 8-core i9
32GB 2667 MHz DDR4

I checked the release notes for 2022.7 and Avid still says the same thing pertaining to Big Sur/Monterey.

Short version -- what do smarter people than myself suggest? Stick with the status quo and be happy or take a chance getting miserable over an OS update?
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  #2  
Old 08-10-2022, 07:32 PM
Ben Jenssen's Avatar
Ben Jenssen Ben Jenssen is offline
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Default Re: Advice On Mac OS update from 10.15.7 --- or not

Short answer - I'm not pretending to adress everything here - Get your backups and disk images sorted, if you haven't already. If you have a disk image of your current bootdisk, then you can safely try out new configurations because it's so easy to restore it to how it was in less than an hour. Not difficult at all.
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  #3  
Old 08-10-2022, 08:39 PM
Sugarnutz Sugarnutz is offline
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Default Re: Advice On Mac OS update from 10.15.7 --- or not

I just updated my mid-2015 rMBP kinda/sorta. I was doing two partitions, Mojave for PT Ultimate 2019.12 and Monterey for email, bills & such. I had just bought a perpetual Pro Tools Studio so I ended up going with macOS Catalina 10.15.7 because it's compatible with PT Studio 2022.7 and most of my VI libraries. Just because there are updates doesn't mean we need them, if your Blackmagic software does what you need then why update? If there are new features you need then by all means go for the update. My PT Ultimate is still alive and well on a Win 10 i9/64Gb/18Tb PC so I haven't lost anything going to PT Studio 2022.7 on the MacBook as it's for MIDI/songwriting/remote recording and that works fine as it stands. Anyhow good luck with your endeavor, I'm still installing VI libraries. I had to but an external 1TB NVMe drive to get all this crap on here.
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  #4  
Old 08-10-2022, 10:19 PM
HalfPastMidnight HalfPastMidnight is offline
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Default Re: Advice On Mac OS update from 10.15.7 --- or not

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben Jenssen View Post
Short answer - I'm not pretending to adress everything here - Get your backups and disk images sorted, if you haven't already. If you have a disk image of your current bootdisk, then you can safely try out new configurations because it's so easy to restore it to how it was in less than an hour. Not difficult at all.
Thanks. I have current backups and use Carbon Copy Cloner (but still on CCC5). That said (and I mention/ask this in case you have an answer or comment about it)....

I'll have to double-check to see if it is bootable, as I read that starting in Big Sur (which obviously I'm still not to yet), CCC has no guarantee of an external bootable device (https://bombich.com/kb/ccc6/cloning-...ftware-restore) In any event, I definitely have a current clone of the entire drive and system folders/hierarchy.....I suppose I'll have to find out if it's bootable and/or contains the OS.

Is a Disk Image the same thing as a bootable backup???
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  #5  
Old 08-10-2022, 10:27 PM
HalfPastMidnight HalfPastMidnight is offline
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Default Re: Advice On Mac OS update from 10.15.7 --- or not

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Originally Posted by Sugarnutz View Post
I just updated my mid-2015 rMBP kinda/sorta. I was doing two partitions, Mojave for PT Ultimate 2019.12 and Monterey for email, bills & such. I had just bought a perpetual Pro Tools Studio so I ended up going with macOS Catalina 10.15.7 because it's compatible with PT Studio 2022.7 and most of my VI libraries. Just because there are updates doesn't mean we need them, if your Blackmagic software does what you need then why update? If there are new features you need then by all means go for the update. My PT Ultimate is still alive and well on a Win 10 i9/64Gb/18Tb PC so I haven't lost anything going to PT Studio 2022.7 on the MacBook as it's for MIDI/songwriting/remote recording and that works fine as it stands. Anyhow good luck with your endeavor, I'm still installing VI libraries. I had to but an external 1TB NVMe drive to get all this crap on here.
Thanks. As to your question, realistically, I probably don't need the updates. I regularly develop a little too much anxiety than I'm going to fall way too far behind and thus must rush to catch up and make sure I'm current *enough.* In reality, what has at least spooked me away from embarking on an OS update for the time being is that I found this thread. If you're on 10.15.7 too and things are running smoothly, then that is yet another indication to me that Catalina seems to be working well for people (myself included). The number of posts in the thread I found about all kinds of problems arising from an OS "update" have sort of scared me off...at least for the time being! -- https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?...ghlight=BigSur

To complicate matters I'm paying for perpetual support every year but currently spooked into staying behind so I don't know, time will tell. But no need to rush into this either way
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  #6  
Old 08-11-2022, 06:40 AM
dominicperry dominicperry is offline
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Default Re: Advice On Mac OS update from 10.15.7 --- or not

I'm not completely clear about what you have - you say you have two machines, but only list one. Are they both 2019 MBP's? Do they both have Catalina?

What you run should partly depend on what you want to do, where you store personal and valuable data and whether you need to transfer work between one and the other.

I have a Mac Pro 7.1 running Catalina and an MBP M1 Max running Monterey.
I like being able to boot the 7.1 from an external cloned disk which you can only do with Catalina. But due to the age of the OS, I don't store any personal or financial data on that machine. I keep my M1 up to date with the latest version of Monterey because I use it for banking and it has lots of personal data on it. I do music on both, use the same version of PT and Reaper on both, and only Logic gives me problems with different versions on each, which is hard to fix. Carbon and RME work on both.

I only upgrade one at a time (true for both OS and PT) - leaving it at least a month before touching the other one.

Not sure if that helps, just a reflection of my approach.

Dominic
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  #7  
Old 08-11-2022, 01:15 PM
HalfPastMidnight HalfPastMidnight is offline
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Default Re: Advice On Mac OS update from 10.15.7 --- or not

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Originally Posted by dominicperry View Post
I'm not completely clear about what you have - you say you have two machines, but only list one. Are they both 2019 MBP's? Do they both have Catalina?
Thanks for the reply and feedback. To clarify, I have two machines but only run Pro Tools on one, which is the computer I listed the specs for. They are both 2019 MBPs. They are both Intel models. They both have Catalina 10.15.7.

The difference is that one has a more powerful GPU and is reserved for video editing, Davinci Resolve, etc. The other MBP is my quote/unquote "studio computer." The overlap is that in order to livestream from that "Studio Computer," (Skype lessons, livestreams, etc), I use another piece of BlackMagic hardware. But there's no actual video processing/Resolve work going on with the basement "studio" computer. Turns out that I can't update the software controller for the video switcher I use downstairs without updating the Mac OS X. Which is how I got to this question and rumination.

It has come to my attention that it is possible to create a separate volume within the disk container and update the OS on that, as a way to audition an update without wiping the previous one out. Having said that, does anyone here have advice on doing that or not, as it pertains to a fresh install. I've done in-situ updates before but never a fresh install. Obviously I'd like to avoid a catastrophe at all costs. Which leads to questioning how Big Sur or Monterey are doing for other PT users. This is the conundrum. Things are stable right now. I'd rather PT be stable and tell BlackMagic Design to buzz off than to update any OS for a non PT item and then, as Walter Sobchak says, end up in a world of pain with buggy UI/graphics or playback issues. As Walter resolves to finish his coffee, in that case and if that's the issue, then I resolve to stay on Catalina and refrain from cursing in a family restaurant (I do one day need to digitize those Autobahn masters though).

Frankly, the Avid page itself sort of spooked me unto itself:

"Pro Tools Big Sur/Monterey Notes:
Our testing has shown that certain configurations may result in a higher incidence of playback errors. This is particularly prevalent with older MacBook Pros."
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  #8  
Old 08-12-2022, 01:41 PM
dominicperry dominicperry is offline
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Default Re: Advice On Mac OS update from 10.15.7 --- or not

I don't think 2019 counts as 'older' in this context. It's the very latest Intel Macbook Pro.

I'm not sure what else you need to know. You have two virtually identical machines which will both run Catalina, Big Sur and Monterey. An ideal situation to play with one, and still have a backup machine if something goes wrong.
No one can tell you what will happen, but there are working and qualified versions of all three OS versions with multiple versions of PT.

I personally don't think much of Big Sur and would jump straight from Catalina to Monterey if you're going to change. But there are plenty of people on this board using Big Sur successfully.

Make sure you have a backup. Make sure you have a backup of the backup.
You can use CCC to make a bootable external clone of your entire boot disk, and resort to running off that if you make a mess of your internal disk.

Dominic
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  #9  
Old 08-13-2022, 01:26 PM
HalfPastMidnight HalfPastMidnight is offline
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Default Re: Advice On Mac OS update from 10.15.7 --- or not

Quote:
Originally Posted by dominicperry View Post
Make sure you have a backup. Make sure you have a backup of the backup.
You can use CCC to make a bootable external clone of your entire boot disk, and resort to running off that if you make a mess of your internal disk.Dominic
Thanks Dominic. I have a plan now that has not yet been implemented. I'll probably try jumping to Monterey. Because I keep both computers separate/fully independent of one another I'm not going to start messing around with using the other as a PT computer but after half a week of research, study and prep, I'm going to haul the drive enclosure with the NVMe SSD over TB3 connection down to the basement, install the new OS onto it, and take it for a trial run. Or else create a separate volume in the disk container on the computer itself to install the other OS to (one or the other but probably using the external drive).

Once things are confirmed I'll do a clean OS install to the Mac. This should accomplish what I want and reduce/eliminate the (irrational) stress that I've always suffered through prior to any OS change. Thanks for the advice.

Sean
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  #10  
Old 08-14-2022, 09:57 PM
Sugarnutz Sugarnutz is offline
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Default Re: Advice On Mac OS update from 10.15.7 --- or not

Due to basically starting over anyhow I went ahead and installed Monterey, updated to 12.5, clean install and importing my 100Gb iTunes library to Music in order to make sure I got all my audio drivers working within the OS. That's an Antelope Audio Zen+ for the time being which is a TB2 device. Downloading all the PT 2022.7 stuff now and it's a bunch. If I run into any issues I'll report back. I'm on mid-2015 Retina MacBook Pro with i7/512Gb flash/16Gb ram, last compatible MacPro qualified for Monterey. I actually had been running Monterey on a small partition for email, surfing & such with no issues.
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