Updating both Mac OS X and Pro Tools - Need Advice Please

[Rockman-Songwriter123]

Originally Posted by RobbaDobba

I was in almost the same situation as you, running Mojave 10.14.6 and PT 2020.12.1 for years on my Intel MBP.

FWIW, I took Darryl's advice a little over a month ago, created a new AFPS volume on my Mac HD, and installed Ventura (in my case 13.5.2) and PT 2023.9 (the latest version at the time). I did not use Migration Assistant, and suggest you don't either. This gave me the ability to keep my stable Mojave system intact and boot into it should I need to.

I haven't really needed to. Pretty much running Ventura ever since. Two days later, Avid released PT 2023.12 and certifies it with the "latest version" of Ventura, so at some point I will likely update to 13.6.3 and PT 2023.12. When I do so, I'll do the OS first, then PT.

What differences have I noticed?

• My MBP runs about 10 degrees warmer in Ventura. I had HyperThreading and Turbo Boost both disabled in Mojave, which kept me around 30-40 degrees Celsius at all/most times. In Ventura, I cannot disable HyperThreading, because when I do Pro Tools crashes on launch. (I haven't figured out why...and frankly have given up trying.) So, I just keep Turbo Boost disabled, and my MBP runs around 40-50 degrees Celsius.

• Pro Tools 2023.9 takes almost a full minute to open...40-45 seconds alone from clicking in the dock to seeing the splash screen. In my old setup, it was maybe 20 seconds total.

• Pro Tools 2023.9 frequently crashes on quit. Don't know why, stopped trying to research it. Doesn't seem to hurt anything.

So, am I loving life in Ventura? Not really. I still feel like Mojave was much more nimble, cooler, and stable. But I likely won't go back.

Thanks for your input Robba. Good to hear from someone who was in a very similar situation to mine. Always helps.

I'm hoping I don't run into any overheating issues with my iMac Pro running Ventura. As it is right now, just having the iMac Pro powered up seems to heat up my living room on its own (no need for space heaters). So fingers crossed about that.

I have an external SSD (500 GB) that I plan on using for this new OS X and Pro Tools install. I'm hoping that should be adequate for the purpose. And yes, when I'm done with all the downloading / installing, etc I plan to "restore" that new external drive over to my internal SSD main drive. I use Carbon Clone, so I hope that does the trick.

So guys, if I do things this way, will I need to re-download all my sound libraries (VST) from scratch? Given my slow internet connection (I live in an apartment building where internet bandwidth is shared with neighbors), that could take weeks or months! I hope not. For the record, I have a dedicated external SSD where all my sounds are located right now.

[off the wall]

I'd go to Ventura and the latest Pro Tools.