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alexqndr

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 18, 2018
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London
The new MacBook Pro’s are shipping with Monterey.

How do you think downgrading to Big Sur will play out in these machines?

There might be compatibility issues with the notch and other hardware features?
 
I can tell you with 99% certainty that you won't be able to downgrade to Big Sur on these new devices. They are like iOS devices, the minimum OS version that you can downgrade down to is the one that was shipped with the device at launch: in this case, these laptops can "downgrade" to Monterey, nothing earlier.

You can of course test it out yourself when you receive the laptop yourself, but most likely, you won't be able to install BS on it.
 
In case anyone is still wondering, Apple just confirmed to me the impossibleness of downgrading on the new MBPs

Screenshot 2021-10-24 at 12.06.40.png
 
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Monterey is what will come on the new MacBook Pro 14" and 16".

You can't boot from any earlier OS.
Cannot be done.
 
And this is why those with bespoke business applications despair of Apple if they need new computers for a particular reason.
 
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Could you not do a restore from a Big Sur time machine backup onto your new MBP and then you‘re back on Big Sur?
 
Could you not do a restore from a Big Sur time machine backup onto your new MBP and then you‘re back on Big Sur?

No, that won't work. It will not load Big Sur even from backup. It will tell you that the OS you are backing up from needs to be updated to Monterey before the backup can take place.

But I'd also ask why would you want to do that? Monterey is pretty great especially on these new MacBook Pro's.
 
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Why in the world would you even want to do this?
Many people have been bitten in the past by security and other bugs in the first iteration of an OS, and bespoke software will often take at least a few weeks to become authorised/checked on a new platform, particularly as Apple often throw in or remove things in the final iterations compared to beta versions, so it is a legitimate question.

However, I have been very impressed with Monterey and at the moment see it as a more polished version of Big Sur with some extras rather than being a radical rethink, so unless there is some special reason, your question is very pertinent.
 
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Why in the world would you even want to do this?


Here's one of the many examples of why.
 
No, that won't work. It will not load Big Sur even from backup. It will tell you that the OS you are backing up from needs to be updated to Monterey before the backup can take place.

But I'd also ask why would you want to do that? Monterey is pretty great especially on these new MacBook Pro's.

Why in the world would you even want to do this?

For the people asking why you would want to do this: For compatibility reasons, obviously. Have you never heard that people in almost all areas of software may need to stay on specific supported versions of some software (e.g. operating systems) in order for other software they need not to break?

If you work in the audio world, for example, like myself, then a bunch of the software you rely on every day currently crashes on Monterey, and the developers of some critical audio software traditionally take ages to release maintenance updates for new macOS versions.
 
Luckily it seems that Monterey is an incremental upgrade to Big Sur, building upon rather than remodelling it. So compatibility issues should be reduced compared to other releases.

Still, software doesn't always catch up as fast as the Apple releasees. Especially now during the Apple Silicon transition, developers are scrambling to keep the pace.

If your workflow is based on software officially stable only on Big Sur, is a big risk to update.
 
For the people asking why you would want to do this: For compatibility reasons, obviously. Have you never heard that people in almost all areas of software may need to stay on specific supported versions of some software (e.g. operating systems) in order for other software they need not to break?

If you work in the audio world, for example, like myself, then a bunch of the software you rely on every day currently crashes on Monterey, and the developers of some critical audio software traditionally take ages to release maintenance updates for new macOS versions.

Then don’t buy a new Mac under any circumstances as it cannot be downgraded.
 
The new MacBook Pro’s are shipping with Monterey.

How do you think downgrading to Big Sur will play out in these machines?

There might be compatibility issues with the notch and other hardware features?
If you have software that has a requirement for Big Sur that won't work properly in Monterrey, then you could always run Big Sur in a VM, VMWare Fusion is your friend here, and it's free now, where you used to have to pay for it.
 

Here's one of the many examples of why.
I had a card reader act a little funky as I had to unplug it then plug it back in to be recognized. No big deal and I'm sure an update will resolve that issue.
 
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