That’s an excellent explanation, thank you!
This is however, unacceptable. Apple should be distributing Intel binaries and ARM binaries separately. It’s excessively wasting internet data and storage space.
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Revised macOS Big Sur 11.2.1 Update Properly Checks Free Available Space to Prevent Installation Errors
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That’s an excellent explanation, thank you!
This is however, unacceptable. Apple should be distributing Intel binaries and ARM binaries separately. It’s excessively wasting internet data and storage space.
CPU instructions don’t really occupy much space. It’s the resources embedded in the app that make it huge. So supporting multiple instruction sets in a binary shouldn’t cause too much size difference.
Meh. I'm still avoiding "upgrading" from Catalina to Big Sur on account of it being a massive downgrade in UI elements.
You have no idea who signed off on anything at Apple. Nobody here knows what happened. It may have been an entire team that made the mistake. What happens now, Apple fires their entire team over this? I think not. Like I said nobody here knows what happened so telling me your personal scenario with your company really doesn't matter. There's no way you can relate unless you were at Apple and knew exactly what happened. The issue was discovered one week after the Big Sur update. This forum is acting very dramatic only because it's Apple. Had Microsoft made this blunder and didn't fix it until a month later the Windows fans would just say, "Business as Usual", accept the update and move on instead of going on forums trashing a company even though they fixed the blunder in a week's time. SMH.
Well, I guess nobody's perfect. So Apple, next time you are making fun of Microsoft Windows, do remember this. 
Really? When's the last time Apple made fun of Windows? From what I've seen there have been a number of Microsoft TV ads trashing the MacBook in order to promote the Surface. Strange you would even say this. 🙄Well, I guess nobody's perfect. So Apple, next time you are making fun of Microsoft Windows, do remember this.
and with time machine's excellent backup utility included, there is no excuse to not having a backup made.
I think that the size and scope shouldn’t matter. And making mistakes is perfectly fine!
The complain here is more about releasing it in such a state... that it’s a massive endeavor? Well, take more time then, no need to release a new OS every single year. Hot fixes are introducing more errors to be fixed in a hot fix for the hot fix. They can make all the mistakes they want and need, to make it better, just don’t release it as such. That’s like releasing a car that doesn’t break in wet pavement because it wasn’t tested in such conditions.
I’m having issues with Airpods Max again (second pair), besides the battery burner overnight, I have to soft reset them often and some times reset-pair them because it refuses to detect that I have put them over my head... seems to be tied to a firmware update. It’s perfectly fine to make a mistake but sometimes it feels like they didn’t put it in their heads to see if it actually works before releasing it.
I’m still on Catalina and sounds like I’ll stay that way because it’s just chaos after chaos what I read, can’t risk it... by the time it’s properly stabilized in June a new one will be announced and another lap begins.
It’s true that some of the folks in these forums slag Apple for every reported bug. Knowing how complex software development and QA can actually be, I’ve never jumped on that bandwagon.
But testing an OS installer on a system with insufficient storage space should be a routine part of any test cycle. That this step could have been overlooked is simply mind-boggling.
If Mr. Macintosh’s reporting is to be believed, this issue affected all Macs that ran the macOS 11.2 installer with insufficient storage space, so this was not an obscure, difficult to catch bug.
This was an astonishing QA failure, plain and simple. No, Apple should certainly not fire the entire relevant QA team, but if you think that customer data loss, let alone rendering a customer’s computer unusable, is a minor issue, then it’s clear that you have no idea how software development works.
A company the size of Apple should have automations in place that would detect the space required, and check the installer to make sure it fails if there's not enough free space. That this isn't being tested automatically by machines is worrying because it points to a larger overarching problem with QA at Apple.
Of course Apple's QA has been poor at best since forever, their MO is to deprecate entire stacks rather than maintain them properly.
Size and complexity aren't at issue here. At the end of the day, a very basic integration test should have caught the bug. This reeks of teams suffering from "Not My Problem" syndrome, and managers who aren't empowered enough to actually do anything that isn't assigned to their team.
Probably because of support for both arm64/x86_64, but even Catalina was similarly bloated.
Well what do you know, you knew something that Apple's entire engineering department never thought of. 😂
Ah so now you're throwing words in my mouth. I never stated or suggested such a stupid thing. 🙄
The new Apple, where even the bugfix installer has bugs. One might think they have a standard package for installation, which do standard checks.
Running a 2013 MacBook Air with thousands of hours of usage. Runs like new, but has only 128GB of storage space and 4GB of memory. Upgraded the OS several times over the years. Heavy usage, working great.
However, apparently I "cheaped out" when I purchased this laptop 7 years ago.
(Yes, it can run Big Sur just fine should I choose to install it.)
I threw no words in your mouth. I made an “if… then…” statement, which anyone who understands software development should understand. If you never thought such a stupid thing, then the conclusion doesn’t apply to you.
(Your actual words were, “This forum is acting very dramatic only because it's Apple.” If this forum is acting dramatic, it’s not just because it’s Apple, it’s because Apple shipped a critical bug that they should easily have caught.)
I need to have my 2TB Dropbox folder on an external drive. I also host a dozen websites on my laptop and have a dozen email accounts ... on a machine with only 128GB of storage space. It's so easy to run out of space... I've operated this laptop for years with only 4GB of free space. Need to get creative.
Haha, really don't be daft. Any it's down to the developer not Apple on how the App is built.
WOW! This is pretty basic stuff. How can they not check for available space?
This info comes too late for me. I had to erase everything because installation got stuck in endless loop and finally did not accepted my password anymore to unlock FileVault (on command line / recovery; still in GUI screen; everything was just broken).
It is a shame to release with such a malfunction.
This info comes too late for me. I had to erase everything because installation got stuck in endless loop and finally did not accepted my password anymore to unlock FileVault (on command line / recovery; still in GUI screen; everything was just broken).
It is a shame to release with such a malfunction.
this article is about macOS itself. The developer, deciding to publish Universal Binaries or not, is Apple.
This is another reason why the OS should be on its own harddrive. No longer a shadow volume but a physical hard drive!