Upgrading from Big Sur to Ventura: clean install or upgrade?

[cfm56d7b]

As much as I prefer the stability of Big Sur 11.7.2, upgrading to Ventura will be a necessity in the near future.

I am considering to upgrade to Ventura 13.2 or 13.3, depending on the feedback about each version.

Applications of interest:

- Dropbox: many changes as described in https://help.dropbox.com/installs/macos-support-for-expected-changes

Beginning to collect community experience about performing a clean install of Ventura or upgrading in place from Big Sur.

All suggestions welcome!

 

[rm5]

I haven't had any stability issues with Ventura so far, so all is working great!! All of my plugins and virtual instruments work flawlessly, just as they did in Monterey, and DaVinci Resolve works just fine. The only thing that I'm having problems with is Discord. Sometimes, it will just hang at the splash screen, but then I'll force quit and then it works, but that's the only problem there.

I don't use Dropbox, so I can't give you any insight there, unfortunately, but let's see if any other forum members can share their experience with Dropbox.

I'd just do an upgrade if I were you... it's easier, but ultimately, that's your call.

Also, anything specific you want to know about Ventura? I'm more than happy to answer your questions!!

 

[FreakinEurekan]

When I’ve had concerns about apps, I’ve done an install on a new Volume and migrated my data across. If I encounter any issues I can’t work around, I nuke the new volume & all my old data is fine. Once I’m happy that there are no further issues, I nuke the old volume and the new one remains.

I only do this on one system, of course. Once I’ve identified any issues & have them worked out, other Macs just get the upgrade.

I’m not using much in the way of problematic 3rd party software any more (e.g. I gave Dropbox the boot) so for Ventura, I just upgraded the first machine - checked for any issues - then upgraded the rest.

 

[MBAir2010]

My MacBook Air 2020 M1 did not experience any quirks or snafus while upgrading Ventura from Monterey.

this sounds confusing but:
I was reading before the Ventura release that this OS gathers info from Monterey, BigSur and uses that as a purging process rather than deleting data and over writing that. This was from apple and they even mentioned this during a summer event last year. pertaining to Ventura.

I wish I could find a quote or something to support this, but that would take time I dont have today.
-hope this helped!

 

[Smoothie]

I did an upgrade from Big Sur to Ventura (I skipped Monterey) without any issues. Third party apps I have, like Lightroom, Photoshop, Capture One and DaVinci Resolve all work as they did before. I was happy with Big Sur, but the ability to use Advanced Data Protection for iCloud was the reason I upgraded. Of course, back up your data before the upgrade.

 

[iStorm]

Coming from Windows where I've gotten into the habit of doing clean installs, I've always intended doing the same with macOS updates too, but never have ended up doing that. Many people will say it's not necessary with macOS anyway, but it can be a good feeling knowing you have a clean drive/OS. You have to ask yourself if it's worth the additional effort though (reinstalling software, activating licenses, redoing configurations, etc).

Generally, based on my experience, my advice is to do the upgrade because it's quicker and easier. If it works and you have no issues, great...you're done! If not, you can always do a clean install to see if that will resolve any issues.

FWIW, my 2017 MBP is running Ventura, which was upgraded from Monterey, which was upgraded from Big Sur, which was upgraded from Catalina, which was upgraded from Mojave, which was upgraded from High Sierra...and never had any issues due to the upgrades.

 

[cfm56d7b]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I am trying to avoid a clean install for obvious reasons. So upgrade in place it is.

Before any upgrade , my plan always includes starting with 2 full volume bootable backups using Super Duper.

My configuration included two external 4K monitors connected directly to 2020 13” MBPro Intel based 2.3 GHz laptop via left and right USB-C ports. Watching all Ventura threads about external monitor issues.

I use VMware Fusuon to run one Windows VM. Just upgraded both VMware to the latest version and Windows 10 to 11. No issues.