Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
macOS Big Sur Update Bricking Some Older MacBook Pro Models
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
If you read the last few pages, you'll see that people are doing it safely. Have a recent Time Machine backup just in case.
My wife has a Late 2013 Macbook Pro currently running High Sierra. Unfortunately, it is only 4GB, and I just found out that the memory is soldered in/not upgradable. :-( She is trying to use it for school, but it is running (no surprise) quite slow. Unfortunately, due to COVID, etc., we are unable to buy a better one at this time. My question is this: will upgrading it to Big Sur make it run any (even marginally) faster? Any other suggestions to make it run a little more reasonably? TIA! 
Definitely not. I have a 2013 macbook pro as well, but mine has 8Gb of ram and I feel like Big sur is the slowest version of macos I've used on this laptop. I feel like the last "snappy" version of macos was Mojave. Both Catalina and big sur seemed to run slower. So my recommendation would be to move to Mojave and start looking for a new laptop.My wife has a Late 2013 Macbook Pro currently running High Sierra. Unfortunately, it is only 4GB, and I just found out that the memory is soldered in/not upgradable. :-( She is trying to use it for school, but it is running (no surprise) quite slow. Unfortunately, due to COVID, etc., we are unable to buy a better one at this time. My question is this: will upgrading it to Big Sur make it run any (even marginally) faster? Any other suggestions to make it run a little more reasonably? TIA!
Mojave is the latest best. Buy a non M1 when possible. My 2013 has 16/500gb and works fine under catalina, do over would be staying with mojave and adding a 1-2tb drive. Big sur ick
Mine is a late 2013 MacBook pro with 8GB ram. I will stay on High Sierra, Mojave may slow it down some. Beside not sure i can even install Mojave now.
Sadly, Apple doesn’t care about you or your situation. I have a 2015 with 16GB and Big Sur runs fast on it, but I hate Big Sur as I consider it a false OS, meaning it doesn’t feel like OS X, but rather IOS it feels like.Thanks, guys. I really appreciate this since things are tough, and I can't be upgrading anytime soon. So, to be clear, I might get a "little" improvement by moving from High Sierra to Mojave? Any other ideas for marginal improvement after that? TIA!
Edit: seems like I made a mistake, RAM is soldered on both the 13" and 15" models, didn't find the right model, it's the late 2013 model.My wife has a Late 2013 Macbook Pro currently running High Sierra. Unfortunately, it is only 4GB, and I just found out that the memory is soldered in/not upgradable. :-( She is trying to use it for school, but it is running (no surprise) quite slow. Unfortunately, due to COVID, etc., we are unable to buy a better one at this time. My question is this: will upgrading it to Big Sur make it run any (even marginally) faster? Any other suggestions to make it run a little more reasonably? TIA!
1. It's not soldered
2. I don't know which macbook Pro you have but it can be upgraded to 8 or 16 GB minimum.
Last edited:
I also have a late 2013 MBP with 8GB. It runs really well on Big Sur. I don't know how much that'll be impacted if it only had 4GB.Mine is a late 2013 MacBook pro with 8GB ram. I will stay on High Sierra, Mojave may slow it down some. Beside not sure i can even install Mojave now.
ALL retina MacBook Pros have memory soldered to board - if you have only 8, sorry the only thing you can do is find a logic board with 16 already, sought can be expensive to buy plus pay someone to put it in. Not worth it - get yourself a 2015 and it will have 16gb already. They don’t cost much now, but I do sympathize with your pain. Covid is a b****
I had it all wrong, it's a late 2013 model.
Seems like you were right, I overlooked the "slots: None" bit,
Last edited:
I wouldn't!!! For the most part macOS Big Sur is nothing more than just a cosmetic makeover of High Sierra, and if anything introduces more bugs than the previous OS (macOS Mojave) - I'm speaking from experience. It's fair to say, it will most probably run a little slower on an older Late 2013 MBP, although it's hard to say as I upgraded my MBP Early 2015 (8GB) and it seems to run at the same speed. But, because she sounds reliant on the machine as she's using it for a somewhat critical task such as for school, it's probably not worth the risk of upgrading just in case it struggles with 4GB, or even if the upgrade doesn't work at all. Where would that then leave you? In the future, if you have a spare (or newer) machine to fall back on, and didn't mind the risk associated with upgrading to macOS Big Sur, then, and only then would I go ahead with upgrading it. It's up to you, but it's a risk and in my opinion macOS Big Sur will give you no additional benefits than purely just a cosmetic makeover.My wife has a Late 2013 Macbook Pro currently running High Sierra. Unfortunately, it is only 4GB, and I just found out that the memory is soldered in/not upgradable. :-( She is trying to use it for school, but it is running (no surprise) quite slow. Unfortunately, due to COVID, etc., we are unable to buy a better one at this time. My question is this: will upgrading it to Big Sur make it run any (even marginally) faster? Any other suggestions to make it run a little more reasonably? TIA!
Big Sur is unlikely to run faster on an underpowered machine like that.
What will give it a speed bump is replacing the AHCI SSD with a slow NVMe SSD such as the Crucial P2. Your 2013 has only a 2 lane PCI bus so the expensive, fast NVMe SSDs such as the 970 EVO are a waste of money in this machine. A 2TB P2 will cost around $225
Crucial P2
and you will need the short Sintech adapter $15
Sintech short adapter
Plus a couple of drivers including a P5.
With the 2023–2015, you want to source the keyboard cable (around $10) as these sometimes fail when the back is removed.
What will give it a speed bump is replacing the AHCI SSD with a slow NVMe SSD such as the Crucial P2. Your 2013 has only a 2 lane PCI bus so the expensive, fast NVMe SSDs such as the 970 EVO are a waste of money in this machine. A 2TB P2 will cost around $225
Crucial P2
and you will need the short Sintech adapter $15
Sintech short adapter
Plus a couple of drivers including a P5.
With the 2023–2015, you want to source the keyboard cable (around $10) as these sometimes fail when the back is removed.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
When would it EVER make sense to update to a brand new OS on a MISSION CRITICAL CPU on day one of the release?!! ....Like....I don't know.....NEVER!! What is the benefit? Better emoji's ? Better presentation of icons. Remember these aren't release updates...it's an entirely new OS. So they were thinking ...."hmmm my mission critical computer that I am depending on to keep money coming in for silly things like food and power etc is kind of close to the age of exclusion according to Apple but I think the best approach here would be to just roll the dice and hope for the best and the sooner the better!" It makes absolutely no sense. Day One is for **** like Call Of Duty...hell sleep outside, be first in line...whatever. Don't upgrade what is likely one of your most valuable assets right now in hopes that nothing goes wrong.....you should always ask "what benefit am I gaining by upgrading now that I can't live without for another 6 months?"....that should be the end of the discussion...but if you are a little slow on the uptake the next question should be "what if it totally bricks my machine - would that be less than awesome? If you look at the differences in the specs between the early 2013 MacBook Pro for instance and the next series that began to come out the difference the GPU power alone rapidly increased in power and speed. I am writing all of this right now on an early 2013 15" MacBook Pro. Sure I would love to upgrade to Big Sur and in a few months from now, hell I may even give it a whirl and see how it all pans out but I am not going to even think about it when A) I am depending on it for a good portion of my work/income/survival and B) There's absolutely no NEED for it. Catalina is humming along just fine. In short it's not broke so I don't see a real need to try and fix it ya dig?
The one thing I am starting to not like about Apple is they keep releasing new OS’s every year unlike 12 years ago when they stayed with one version and creating supplement updates(Tiger, Leopard, Snow leopard) - also add to the fact, that quality control and testing of new releases has gone non-existent. Already, I don’t like Big Sur from what I read about it bricking systems.
They have to to compete with Windows 10 - which has similar QA issues.
I'd prefer new OS updates every two years.
I'm still running Mojave.
High Sierra on really old hardware.
But the one thing with Windows 10 - it’s not becoming Windows 11, while Apple keeps pumping out a new OS version every year, MS isn’t even doing that - they are doing what Apple used to do with supplemental updates to Tiger, Leo, Snow Leopard.
I agree too.. I like updates to the OS every 2 years just like it was.
I agree too.. I like updates to the OS every 2 years just like it was.
It’s not that different from Windows. Windows does biannual major versions (currently 20H2, soon 21H1). Apple does annual major versions and minor ones on top throughout the year.
Windows “10” has significantly changed between 2015 and 2021, much like Mac OS “X” did.
You don't really have a choice on updates with W10 either.
I have not had problems with W10 on my new desktop build but that may just be my hardware or OS configuration.
New OS every year is not really a new OS... It is just a big patch on the previous release. I don't care about new icons/emoji, if i install the latest Catalina update and the latest Photoshop 2021 stops launching... (happened today on two Macs!)
Quality control at Apple has taken a nosedive... They only care about nice icons and colored Macs to attract the masses...
I am in the process of installing Linux Mint to many of my Macs - fast, secure, no problems after each update...
Quality control at Apple has taken a nosedive... They only care about nice icons and colored Macs to attract the masses...
I am in the process of installing Linux Mint to many of my Macs - fast, secure, no problems after each update...