Is anyone using the public beta on their main machine, have been thinking about installing the beta but wasn’t sure if there are a lot of bugs.
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.
Mojave on Main Machine
- Thread starter OwenMeasures
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I've been using it on my main machine for about a week now, and haven't found any major issues. My work involves primarily Safari and Excel though, so not too intense. YMMV, I'm on a 2016 MBP 15" w/ TB.
Hmm interesting. I suppose I could always resort to a backup should I run into some issues.
Owen wrote:
"I suppose I could always resort to a backup should I run into some issues."
Beware, take care.
You need "the right kind of backup" if you want to make it easy to "get back to where you once belonged..."
A TM backup won't do -- at least not very well.
What you need is a BOOTABLE CLONED BACKUP created with either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.
This makes it simple -- if the Mojave upgrade fails, you can just:
1. Boot from the backup
2. ERASE the internal drive -- nuke it
3. RE-clone the backup BACK TO your internal drive, and....
4. You'll be "right back where you started from".
Any other way may involve considerably more time and trouble.
A bit of advice, take it for what you paid for it:
Don't run any "developer/beta" OS as your "main OS".
If you want to tinker with it, install it on an EXTERNAL drive, and boot to that drive when you wish to experiment...
"I suppose I could always resort to a backup should I run into some issues."
Beware, take care.
You need "the right kind of backup" if you want to make it easy to "get back to where you once belonged..."
A TM backup won't do -- at least not very well.
What you need is a BOOTABLE CLONED BACKUP created with either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.
This makes it simple -- if the Mojave upgrade fails, you can just:
1. Boot from the backup
2. ERASE the internal drive -- nuke it
3. RE-clone the backup BACK TO your internal drive, and....
4. You'll be "right back where you started from".
Any other way may involve considerably more time and trouble.
A bit of advice, take it for what you paid for it:
Don't run any "developer/beta" OS as your "main OS".
If you want to tinker with it, install it on an EXTERNAL drive, and boot to that drive when you wish to experiment...
This is a very good idea and completely forgot about it, maybe I shall do that, at least then I can get a feel for the new features without risking any data loss.
I've been using Mojave on my only laptop since the first dev beta. I've not had any show-stoppers, although I don't do much more than surfing, emailing and MS Office stuff most of the time.
As for backups, pretty much each once I've taken (for each beta) has given me the error, err I mean nice warning, that the previous backups are no good and a fresh one has to be taken. I don't believe the warnings but am now using two disks as I've kept one from High Sierra (and am using dropbox for any documents I'm working on).
As for backups, pretty much each once I've taken (for each beta) has given me the error, err I mean nice warning, that the previous backups are no good and a fresh one has to be taken. I don't believe the warnings but am now using two disks as I've kept one from High Sierra (and am using dropbox for any documents I'm working on).
Yes. Use Carbon Copy Cloner. Simple and well worth the purchase. So easy to revert back to where you were before the upgrade.
Can I use this to make a bootable copy of the beta, not necessarily for a backup on my current OS?
Ah, sorry, mis-read your post. I don't know. It should be possible to choose where you install Mojave, but it's not something I've done.
I'm running Mojave on my main machine, but it's not my main OS. Having 4 bootable OS's at the moment, Mojave is just one.
Main OS is High Sierra, and I have 3 backups if it goes sideways somehow.
I installed Mojave on an 18 year old, SATA-I Hitachi drive (i.e. as slow as it gets). Surprisingly, the spinning rust drive being formatted to APFS, Mojave is pretty darned quick once it loads. I find it very acceptable to run from a rotational drive. I'm shocked! That said, all my other boot drives are SSD as will be the released version of 10.14.
I was pleased to find that my HD7970 performs very well so far. I was going to order an RX580 Pulse, but now I think I'll just hold off (possibly for a long time... Depending...).
Yes @Fishrrman, my backups are bootable clones from CCC + a cloned drive img x2 in archives. It's the only way to roll.
Main OS is High Sierra, and I have 3 backups if it goes sideways somehow.
I installed Mojave on an 18 year old, SATA-I Hitachi drive (i.e. as slow as it gets). Surprisingly, the spinning rust drive being formatted to APFS, Mojave is pretty darned quick once it loads. I find it very acceptable to run from a rotational drive. I'm shocked! That said, all my other boot drives are SSD as will be the released version of 10.14.
I was pleased to find that my HD7970 performs very well so far. I was going to order an RX580 Pulse, but now I think I'll just hold off (possibly for a long time... Depending...).
Yes @Fishrrman, my backups are bootable clones from CCC + a cloned drive img x2 in archives. It's the only way to roll.
I installed Mojave on my main machine, a 2012 Mac Pro (GTX780). I'm installing my apps like Eyetv. I think it is more stable.
Do you thing it will be possible (when the official version go out) to convert the current beta 4 installation to the definitive 1.0?
Do you thing it will be possible (when the official version go out) to convert the current beta 4 installation to the definitive 1.0?
It should update to that version, but personally, my testing drive will be erased, and my fresh 10.13.6 drive will be upgraded instead. I feel this is the more reliable approach.
The moment you think that in a macOS beta, is the moment you will not be able to use a backup or be able to restore anything.
Go in to it thinking this machine could potentially die at any given moment so what information am I ok with losing.
If you go that route, then you will be somewhat ok.
Now if it doesn't lose all information, that is a plus and you made it. You win. Kind of - it is just a beta.
Also you will find the forums littered thoroughly with folks not being able to restore backups or after upgrading not being able to downgrade and get extremely frustrated with the process.
It is like falling in love with a mentally unstable person. They may completely forget you out of nowhere and you are left standing trying to figure out wtf just happened.
OS betas are mentally unstable.