macOS Big Sur Features: Everything New in Today's Release

[goosnarrggh]

The reason you want bootable copies is that if your Mac dies, has to go to service, you can just stick in this bootable copy and start off right where you left. This is not possible with TimeMachine. I think you have to connect TimeMachine backup drive into a Mac, and transfer everything over... I think!

As far as I know, that's correct. Either use Recovery mode to reformat the Mac with the contents of a backup, or else use Migration Assistant to copy as much as you can over.

 

[subjonas]

The reason you want bootable copies is that if your Mac dies, has to go to service, you can just stick in this bootable copy and start off right where you left. This is not possible with TimeMachine. I think you have to connect TimeMachine backup drive into a Mac, and transfer everything over... I think!

Yeah that’s why I made a bootable for my work Mac, so that I can continue working immediately if needed. I also have TM running on it because I want as easy access to older versions of work files as possible. My bootable backup actually rarely needs to be updated because my work Mac system almost never changes (it stays offline and I don’t update macOS to new versions). It’s only my work files in one particular folder that change and need to be backed up regularly (via TM). My home Mac is almost purely a file and media hub/server, so if anything happens to it, it’s not critical that it gets up and running immediately. It‘a just about the files for that machine, so for that, TM is ideal.

 

[MacBH928]

I have server racks with 3000+ movies all ripped in lossless format with a McIntosh system and B&W speaks and another set of servers for streaming.

If you watch a movie a day it will take you 8+ years

 

[Technologytwitt]

Apple should listen this. I am also multiple times chiming in this forum, OSX should be as stable as possible, and annual release is ****ing cumbersome, because it always break everything, I am always end up changing certain workflow and changing some my work environment because of this. Too much OS release in several number is also introducing compatibility issues, heck some software required Catalina when latest revision of Mojave should working fine.

Clearly you’re not a common end user. Apple wouldn’t be where they are if the vast majority of their users/customers were like you.

 

[bladerunner88]

In roughly 20 years using Mac’s I’ve always updated to the latest OS. Catalina was the first time I never updated my Mac Pro’s. Being a developer I needed to run Big Sur on my MacBook Pro.

I loathe it. The UI is terrible. No matter how much I adjusted the contrast and brightness of my displays it always looked washed out and more difficult to navigate. I know Apple wants more unification between the operating systems of their devices yet this is a desktop OS and iOS/iPadOS UI elements just don’t work for me. Add in further extending security measures that make access to root difficult for third-party apps such as TotalSpaces (a great utility I’ve used since Apple ditched ”Spaces” but requires root access - normally I always disable SIP and GateKeeper yet I take other precautions and average consumers should not do so unless they are aware of the risks, etc), Catalina and Big Sur are just headaches.

I may roll back my Mac Pro’s to Mojave as it seems Apple has even dropped “Time Machine” features that have been around since day one such as retrieving individually deleted emails and contacts. When I updated to Catalina I noticed I could not open Mail and Contacts and retrieve lost items. I spent weeks reading forums and working with Apple engineers and it seems this is a feature, not a bug. Apple only allows recovering lost items in their core apps by fully restoring an entire Mail or Contacts backup point which defeats a big advantage to “Time Machine” and you lose any current data.

During Big Sur development I filed bug reports on “Time Machine” and none of them were addressed. Many of us did. I’ve used .Mac/MobileMe/iCloud and Time Machine together for years yet Apple claims iCloud syncing and local Time Machine backups of iCloud services won’t be working moving forward. Meaning restoring individual emails, contacts, etc from Time Machine backups won’t work anymore.

I found a work around for Contacts.

- Open Contacts on your Mac
- Export them in a VCF file
- Disable iCloud Contacts syncing
- Import the VCF file into Contacts
- On My Mac should show in Contacts
- Turn Contacts back on in iCloud

Now you’ll have iCloud and local contacts. I had to select each contact and link it to the other as two of each will show as doubles. If I delete a contact by mistake or I lose my iCloud contacts I can restore the local one on my Mac simply by dragging it to the iCloud group. If I delete both iCloud and local contacts I can also open up Contacts then click on “Time Machine” and restore it as before.

This decision and the others above and more have made Big Sur a Big Mess.

Apple should return to 2 year OS release cycles as they did before making OS X a free annual release. OS X 10.4 - 10.6 when Bertrand Serlet was the head of engineering were by far the best OS’s Apple released. We had to wipe down our drives every two weeks when a new beta was released to ensure third party apps and plugins weren’t causing problems with debugging the core OS and it allowed developers to better update their apps. Now it’s a rushed release cycle to match iOS and iPadOS development only meant to entice more into macOS and increase mac App Store revenue while producing lackluster and much buggier releases. I’d rather pay $129 for a solid OS every 2-3 years than a free OS that is a shadow of former versions.

CJ Dorschel,


Have you found anyway to downgrade Catalina to Mojave on Current 16" MBP? Not only do I have the generic icons but now noticing new Folders are not showing correct size of contents. Every other Mac I own is still on Mojave.
Cheers.

 

[ghanwani]

but now noticing new Folders are not showing correct size of contents.

This is weird. I would suggest filing a bug.

 

[posguy99]

Have you found anyway to downgrade Catalina to Mojave on Current 16" MBP? Not only do I have the generic icons but now noticing new Folders are not showing correct size of contents. Every other Mac I own is still on Mojave.

You don't. Mojave does not support the current 16" MBP.

 

[CJ Dorschel]

CJ Dorschel,


Have you found anyway to downgrade Catalina to Mojave on Current 16" MBP? Not only do I have the generic icons but now noticing new Folders are not showing correct size of contents. Every other Mac I own is still on Mojave.
Cheers.

Honestly I have no idea. I keep versions of previous macOS systems so I can make a USB boot drive and reinstall it. I thought normally this is the case unless I’m missing something? Have you tried downloading Mojave from the Mac App Store and making a USB boot drive from that or does it not allow you to on Catalina now? You should be able to just download Mojave and once it’s in your applications folder don’t install it but make a USB boot drive from it then reboot in Recovery, then open Disk Utility and erase your Macintosh HD (make sure you have a full back up with either Time Machine or another app as well!), then select the USB boot drive to boot from and install Mojave.

that’s what I usually do when I’m reinstalling an OS. Just make sure everything is backed up first and that the USB boot drive you made is working. You can reboot your computer holding the option key down and selecting the USB boo drive and loading at first just to ensure you can reinstall from it before RaYou can reboot your computer holding the option key down and selecting the USB boot drive and loading it first just to ensure you can reinstall from it.

forgive any grammar or spelling errors as I’m using hands-free as typing on Macrumors from my iPhone is terrible.