feedback on my Mojave->Ventura upgrade plan

[memphismac]

I'm still running Mojave on my 2017 Retina 4k iMac, but I figure it's time go ahead and upgrade.
The primary reason I've resisted so far is the Music app (I have 350+GB of ripped/downloaded music. I make extensive use of smart playlists play counts, date added, last played, etc. And the downgrade of search features in Music vs. iTunes is just ridiculous. But anyway...

Here's my plan - I'd love any thoughts, questions, confirmations, etc.

1. Instead of upgrading, I'll reformat the whole machine and download Ventura
2. After updating the iMac to Ventura, I'll run Migration Assistant to move my files from my Time Machine backup (which is kept on an external drive)

Questions:
1. My iTunes library is on a different external drive. Do I need to do anything special with that? Or just tell the Music app to open the library located there?
2. I have over 50k personal photos. Are there any tricks/traps with upgrading the photo library?

 

[Fishrrman]

My suggestion:

BEFORE you begin any "reformat" or upgrade...

Use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create a BOOTABLE cloned backup of your internal drive with Mojave.

Both CCC and SD are FREE to download and use for 30 days.
Doing this will cost you nothing.

REASON WHY:
A cloned backup is AN EXACT COPY of your original source drive.
It will mount in the finder and behave like any other external drive.
No "sparsebundles" to deal with (like with time machine).

If for some reason you're dissatisfied with Ventura, or if it just doesn't work for you, having a cloned backup MAKES IT EASY to "get back, get back, get back to where you once belonged".

You can get back without a cloned backup, but the job then becomes much more difficult.

The cloned backup also makes migration smoother.
You could:
a. create the backup
b. boot to INTERNET recovery (command-OPTION-R)
c. erase the ENTIRE internal drive (be sure to choose "show all disks" in disk utility)
d. install the new OS
e. Then run setup and migrate from the cloned backup.

 

[memphismac]

My suggestion:

BEFORE you begin any "reformat" or upgrade...

Use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create a BOOTABLE cloned backup of your internal drive with Mojave.
...

Thanks! One question: Can I create a cloned backup of the internal drive on an external drive that is already partitioned and contains a set of Time Machine backups? Or does it have to be a completely separate drive?
My 1TB internal drive could easily fit in 2.1TB that are available on the partitioned drive, but I'm not familiar with how to use bootable drives.
(note: for additional redundancy, I have a different set of Time Machine backups on a different external drive that I typically keep offsite)

 

[Weaselboy]

Here's my plan - I'd love any thoughts, questions, confirmations, etc.

1. Instead of upgrading, I'll reformat the whole machine and download Ventura
2. After updating the iMac to Ventura, I'll run Migration Assistant to move my files from my Time Machine backup (which is kept on an external drive)

The whole idea of a wipe and reinstall is normally to get rid of any old cruft on the machine. By doing a clean install of Ventura, then importing everything right back in with Migration Assistant, you are completely defeating the purpose of the clean install.

Rather than do all this work for no benefit, I would just upgrade install Ventura over top of Monterey. Same end result.

 

[memphismac]

The whole idea of a wipe and reinstall is normally to get rid of any old cruft on the machine. By doing a clean install of Ventura, then importing everything right back in with Migration Assistant, you are completely defeating the purpose of the clean install.

Rather than do all this work for no benefit, I would just upgrade install Ventura over top of Monterey. Same end result.

I definitely want a clean install. And I'm certainly not married to Migration Assistant as a solution for moving files back.
All I really want is a new OS and my old files.

Using CarbonCopyCloner to move the old files back onto the iMac seems like the way to go (instead of messing with Time Machine backups).

In fact - am I overthinking this? Can I just copy the contents of my user folder to an external drive, wipe+install Ventura and then move those files back?

 

[Weaselboy]

Can I just copy the contents of my user folder to an external drive, wipe+install Ventura and then move those files back?

Yes... if your goal is a true clean install, the only way to do that is manually.

So for example, when you get the clean install done, go to your backup and drag the contents of the Documents folder over to the Documents folder on the new install. Just do that for any data folder you have like Music, Pictures, and so on.

You will need to reinstall all your apps manually also.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"Using CarbonCopyCloner to move the old files back onto the iMac seems like the way to go (instead of messing with Time Machine backups)"

No.
You're misunderstanding here as to what CCC does.

You use a cloning app such as CCC or SD to create the backup.

As far as "moving files back" after you have erased the internal drive and installed a clean OS goes... now you use "setup assistant" (runs first on the brand-new install) to "migrate" from the cloned backup.

When you run setup assistant, it will ask if you wish to migrate data from another drive. YES.

So... you connect the cloned backup (if it's not already connected), and then "point the way" so that setup assistant can "see" it.

SA will "digest" the contents of the drive (be patient), and then present you with a list of things that can be migrated, such as
- apps
- accounts
- settings
- data
You can accept it all, or use "the checklist" to be more selective.

Then turn SA loose, and it will "do its thing".

The advantage of having the cloned backup is that (at least for a while), it will exist as "an archive of what was before". If something gets munged up on the new OS, you can always "go back to the clone" and re-copy it over again.

 

[JerSeattle77]

I used to keep a private music library but gave up on that. Just got the apps and listen to music on there. The apple music app is "ok" but needs like of TLC. It's rough and not user friendly from a playlist and listening perspective. I finally gave in and listen to it in the disjointed and ugly way it forces me to. Unfortuantely I don't think apple is motivated to make it better at the moment (rewrites are expensive and risky from a user perspective) AND I don't think they are motivated to help maintain our personal libraries over time. If you can find a 3rd party app that can get you the functionality regardless of the mac app, I think that is the direction to go.

Unfortunately I've learned over the years that any data you keep (and even data in the cloud) can be lost. One year I upgraded my phone and lost over a years worth of photos. I called Apple and they couldn't help. It was their syncing and how weird it was with photos. So any photos on that phone were synced to Photos in the cloud but when I reformatted it I lost all those photos. It is fixed now but that was a terrible bug.

Regardless, I think in these more niche situations, it might be good to look for a niche music player that will be able to be consistent regardless of OS. IMO

BTW, I do maintain back-ups and such of data but with photos I didn't for that year and I regret it.