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Upgrading OS with separate Home drive

B

bongo_x

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 8, 2021
3
0
I know this is common but I'm having trouble finding any info.
I have a Boot SSD and a Home spinning drive.
I have a OS 10.12 partition on the SSD and would like to install 10.14 on another partition on the SSD.
I could copy the 10.12 install over and then upgrade on top of it, but I hoped to do a clean install and migrate.

How does the Home get involved in all this? Does it need to be part of the upgrade?
Can I share the same Home and switch between OS or is that going to cause issues?
 
bongo_x said:
Can I share the same Home and switch between OS or is that going to cause issues?
Click to expand...

It will cause issues. If 10.12 and 10.14 refer to the same Home folder, then they will be using the same ~/Library and there is stuff in there which is macOS version specific. You will also have problems with iPhoto/Photos and iTunes/Music which have version dependent library formats.
If it were me, I would let each macOS create the folder structure for the home folder on its own partition. You can use aliases to point to shared document folders on your spinning drive. If you use Apple's music and photos apps you need to use a library for each macOS. Such libraries can be on your spinning drive, but must be kept separate.
 
bongo_x said:
Still not really sure how to involve the Home drive in the upgrade.
Click to expand...
How about this:
I am assuming you already have your Home folders on the spinning disk when running macOS 10.12. Leave that alone and keep using it.
Create your new partition and do a clean install of 10.14. Let that create your Home folders in that same partition. Don't try to create it elsewhere. You then create aliases in the 10.14 Home folder pointing to the Documents and Desktop folders on the spinning drive. Also for folders containing photos, music, videos etc. if they are NOT in iTunes, iPhoto etc. This will give you some ability to share files between the macOS versions.
If you use iPhoto and iTunes copy the 10.12 libraries to a new location and let 10.14 use them. It will upgrade the libraries. From then on you will have two photo libraries and need to keep them strictly separate.
Your mail will also be separate - Apple mail which lives in ~/Library and must be one for each macOS.

Before long you will get fed up with the back and forwards and needing to duplicate activity on each macOS.
 
I'd buy or build a small external SSD and use that for the OS install.
250gb would be "all you'll need".
 
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