Upgrade from El Capitan to Big Sur ...... Just to check!

[SamJames170]

Sorry if I am being naive here but I use my mac everyday for my business and have found minor glitches over the years with various IOS which have made me sweat and therefore be slightly nervous about upgrading each time. I am now due/overdue to upgrade my imac but I usually buy a new machine and get that working well then I have my old machine continuously working so no stress. Because of the virus my work has dropped down by lots (Graphic Design) and its not ideal to spend £2 grand now but I am overdue an upgrade. So I guess I have to upgrade what I have. I have Retina 5K 27inch late 2015 imac running El Capitan. Is it as simple as going to the app store and installing to Big Sur from El Capitan in one go or do I have to upgrade any IOS in stages. SoI will back up before I start but is it simple to roll back to my current set up if anything goes wrong and any software wont run?

Thanks for any help !

Sam

 

[Fishrrman]

If you depend upon the Mac every day "for work", then my advice is "don't mess it up with a new OS install that may not work right".

So... how to experiment with later versions of the OS...?
Well, it's EASY:

GET AN EXTERNAL USB3 SSD.
It doesn't have to be large -- even 256gb is good enough. (I use a 128gb SSD)

Now, install your "new OS" onto the EXTERNAL drive, and boot and run from it for purposes of experimentation.

If things are fine and apps run well, now you can upgrade the internal drive.
But if they DON'T -- your internal drive is still "as it was", untouched, and you can just boot from that instead, as you always have.

There are regular posts from others here at MacRumors, folks who took a "great leap" into an upgrade without any thought of whether or not they really needed it, and no consideration or planning as to how to "get back" if things didn't work out.

Do you want to add your name to that list?

 

[SamJames170]

"Do you want to add your name to that list?"

No which is why I hate upgrading, my clients are sending me files now and again and I have to ask them to back save to earlier versions of the software we use as I cant get the latest software version via my older OS. Not overly professional!

So you boot OS from the flash drive and computer works but what about all the software I have installed, that has to be set up again as well on the new OS/flash version?

 

[Amethyst1]

So you boot OS from the flash drive and computer works but what about all the software I have installed, that has to be set up again as well on the new OS/flash version?

Yes.