Mojave straight to Monterey, or to Cataliana & Big Sur first?

[MacWanker]

Macbook in question is an older Macbook air (A1466 early 2017 1.8GHz) and I'm still running Mojave. Yes, yes, I know I am a semi-luddite and it is practically prehistoric.

Question is as title...is it advisable/safe to go straight from Mojave to Monterey (which I believe is the last officially supported OS for this macbook), or should I move to Cataliana, then Big Sur, and then finally Monterey?

Any drawbacks/issues with Monterey or is one of the others better in some way, or more stable? Been a long time since I've done this!
I'm also aware of retroactive, so I can keep the iTunes familiarity for my music files etc.

Thanks in advance

 

[smirking]

I don't know if there's a right answer for this. Every major OS version upgrade is at least somewhat risky and whether you make the jump in 3 sequential upgrades or one big one, just make sure you have a clone of your hard drive in case something bad happens.

 

[Bigwaff]

is it advisable/safe to go straight from Mojave to Monterey (which I believe is the last officially supported OS for this macbook), or should I move to Cataliana, then Big Sur, and then finally Monterey?

Since firmware updates are included in OS upgrades/updates, it important to upgrade to latest supported macOS. You should be fine to upgrade directly to latest supported macOS. Please backup data first.

 

[smirking]

Well, I was going to avoid answering directly since I'd only be speculating, but it doesn't appear like anyone else* is in any better position either. I would just do it in one step. If MacOS is going to allow you to do the upgrade in one big jump, it should be safe to do.

The main issues I've had with upgrading was with incompatibility with specific programs at certain version changes. Going step by step isn't going to help you there. There was one version around the time you'd be dealing with that caused me the most pain. It killed off one of my favorite legacy programs that I had been using for many years and made another too unstable to keep using.

*-LOL, Bigwaff is not nobody. We were typing at the same time.

 

[Fishrrman]

I recommend -

a. Create a cloned backup using either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.
You MUST do this first if you are to preserve your data!
(I recommend SD because it's free to download and do this job, and very easy to understand -- no manual needed)

b. Download the Monterey installer.

d. Create a bootable USB flash drive (16gb flashdrive, I'd use either "Install Disk Creator" or "Diskmaker X" to build it). If you have access to a newer Mac that can run "Mist", that app can download and create the installer in one, integrated process.

e. Boot from the USB flashdrive installer.

f. Open disk utility and choose "show all devices" from the "view" menu.

g. ERASE the internal drive to APFS.

h. Quit disk utility and open the OS installer.

i. Install Monterey.

j. When the install is done and setup assistant opens, connect your cloned backup and import your accounts and data that way.

 

[MacWanker]

The main issues I've had with upgrading was with incompatibility with specific programs at certain version changes. Going step by step isn't going to help you there. There was one version around the time you'd be dealing with that caused me the most pain. It killed off one of my favorite legacy programs that I had been using for many years and made another too unstable to keep using.

Thanks for your additional reply.
Honestly, this is why I didn't upgrade from Mojave at the time Catalina was introduced, because certain programs (and say, plugins for logic) were not Catalina or 64 bit compatible... and also my fully paid for microsoft office required purchasing a whole new version simply to be compatible. That office one really pissed me off, and made me think back to my windows days of forced upgrades and having to purchase a whole new version, but of course microsoft..

Once I missed the Catalina update, it just kinda got forgotten.


I also have filevault turned on, which I guess I should turn off befire updating, given the changes post-mojave.