Anyone running Pro Tools on an M1 with Monterey?

[DEliker]

Anyone have any experience testing Pro Tools on new Mac M1 machines running Monterey?

New systems shipping with Monterey equipped can't be downgraded to Big Sur.

Considering a backup for my 2018 MacBook Pro.

[Ben Jenssen]

Originally Posted by DEliker

Anyone have any experience testing Pro Tools on new Mac M1 machines running Monterey?
New systems shipping with Monterey equipped can't be downgraded to Big Sur.
Considering a backup for my 2018 MacBook Pro.

You mean M1 Pro and M1 Max, right?
Because regular M1 macs can be downgraded to Big Sur, even if they shipped with Monterey.

[DEliker]

Hi Ben,

An M1.
To be more clear, I'd actually bought this unit (see screenshot) and was just setting up the other day when I realized it came with Monterey installed instead of Big Sur as listed. Sweetwater has since corrected the listing to 'Mac OS' after I notified them.

Several calls to Apple techs told me I can't downgrade this machine to Big Sur. They'd checked the serial number so I'd figured they were right.

I was debating holding onto it but wondering if it's worth it. Reading yesterday about the rumored Apple March release that might see the Mac mini adding 2 additional USB-C ports and scalable to 64GB of unified RAM, I'm thinking I should just return it and wait it out a month or two. Why stick with a 2020 machine with less ports and 16GB RAM max?

Who knows, maybe AVID will clear Monterey by then. No telling how close they are.

I'm pressing because my 2018 MacBook Pro may need service and it's under warranty until June. Was trying to avoid a work disruption.

[Ben Jenssen]

There is no question in my mind; a Mini or imac with an M1 processor, a so-called 2020 model, originally shipped with Big Sur, and can therefore be downgraded to Big Sur, even if it comes w/Monterey. I did it with a mac mini last week, it came new with Monterey.
Lots of details here:
PT 2020.12 on M1 w/Big sur

Max and Pro can not run Big Sur.

You're not the first person to have service persons say that you can't downgrade. Says a lot about the quality of sales/support personnel nowadays.
(Often they are to young to know how we used to switch between boot disks and OS versions in earlier days.)
Example here:
Is an M1 iMac enough for ProTools?
Check out the last couple of posts.

How you want to proceed, I don't know, and I can't advice, but personally I think that we're still very early in the apple silicon transition, and that PT is far away from native ARM code. That's why I've found that a regular M1 mac dispite it's "limitations" is going to be fine for me for at least a year. It is actually the most powerful mac I ever owned. Also I think the next generation is going to be much more expensive.

I have actually seen reports of people successfully running PT2021 on Monterey, and now that they seem to be ironing out the big early bugs in Monterey, it might be worth a try. PT works great on Big Sur for me.

[strawb]

all of us 2022 MacBook Pro/Max people just sittin on our hands waitin for avid PT monterey support. stupifying that you can buy a brand new macbook pro & PT ultimate subrscription & not have full PT compatibility. get on it avid.

[sauna-l]

Indeed ! Pro Tools is the one and only app I can't use on my new MBP. Not the easiest to adapt to new technology I guess, but still ...
Something tells me that Avid may have fired part of its historical code knowledge along with some technical/programming staff some years ago, and we're paying for that.
In fact we're still stuck with PT for many (good) reasons, but this inability to adapt, along with their absolute lack of (real time) support, which is definitely unacceptable, makes more and more professionnals look elsewhere. They'd better have strengthen their technical teams and skills than organize some fancy Las Vegas conventions (for what?)