MacBook Air catalina - Upgrade to Big Sur or Monterey?

[mfd101]

My MacBook Air dates from late 2015 so still within the limits for upgrade. Still on Catalina at the moment.

 

To get to Monterey, do I have to first upgrade to Big Sur or can I go straight there?

 

(Keep it simple & non-technical, please.)

Thanks

Edited November 5, 2021 by mfd101

[Tmoney]

Sorry I can't answer your question, but just one word of warning (if it applies to you), if you have MS Office for Mac 2011 installed like I do it won't work with Big Sur nor Monterey.

[recom273]

Looks like you can just upgrade normally, just follow the instructions in 'software update' - it may ask you to patch somethings before you upgrade, but its not hard to follow the instructions, make sure you have enough HDD space .. Monterey is 11GB, I think.

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212551

 

It says late 20015 is compatible but you should check first.

 

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201862

 

@Tmoney You could say that about many things, as time goes on, you can't blame Tim Cook for everything .. we have had MS office for Mac 2011, I think some 2011 extended, then 2016 and now the standard is 2019. Maybe time to upgrade?

[mfd101]

32 minutes ago, recom273 said:

Looks like you can just upgrade normally, just follow the instructions in 'software update' - it may ask you to patch somethings before you upgrade, but its not hard to follow the instructions, make sure you have enough HDD space .. Monterey is 11GB, I think.

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212551

 

It says late 20015 is compatible but you should check first.

 

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201862

 

@Tmoney You could say that about many things, as time goes on, you can't blame Tim Cook for everything .. we have had MS office for Mac 2011, I think some 2011 extended, then 2016 and now the standard is 2019. Maybe time to upgrade?

Thanks. The main thing is that I don't need to worry about Big Sur.

[recom273]

49 minutes ago, mfd101 said:

Thanks. The main thing is that I don't need to worry about Big Sur.

No, I think im correct in saying that Monterey is not dependent upon Big Sur, you can even factory reset your machine and load the latest OS. 

 

You should pay more attention to having enough space on your HDD when you install, i'm not too sure how much, do some searching, like I say, the disc image is 11GB so you might need 2-3x that space to allow it to install.

 

Just follow the updates tab in the 'App Store' 

 

 

[mfd101]

18 minutes ago, recom273 said:

No, I think im correct in saying that Monterey is not dependent upon Big Sur, you can even factory reset your machine and load the latest OS. 

 

You should pay more attention to having enough space on your HDD when you install, i'm not too sure how much, do some searching, like I say, the disc image is 11GB so you might need 2-3x that space to allow it to install.

 

Just follow the updates tab in the 'App Store' 

 

 

Thanks. Plenty of room on HD. I'm about to launch ...

[Tmoney]

3 hours ago, recom273 said:

Looks like you can just upgrade normally, just follow the instructions in 'software update' - it may ask you to patch somethings before you upgrade, but its not hard to follow the instructions, make sure you have enough HDD space .. Monterey is 11GB, I think.

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212551

 

It says late 20015 is compatible but you should check first.

 

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201862

 

@Tmoney You could say that about many things, as time goes on, you can't blame Tim Cook for everything .. we have had MS office for Mac 2011, I think some 2011 extended, then 2016 and now the standard is 2019. Maybe time to upgrade?

Probably the right thing to do but cost is a consideration. For the time being I'll stick with Mojave.

[mfd101]

All done. I cleaned & deep cleaned & saved to external drive before pressing the button for Monterey.

 

Download took 45 minutes. Installation of various packets took 1 hour 15 minutes.

 

Still exploring, but looking good. I've already found one small problem of the last couple of years in Calendar now fixed  - before I couldn't make any monthly event stick - just deleted the item. Weekly or daily or annually was fine, but monthly had gone into permanent decline for some unfathomable reason. Now working properly under the Monterey regime ...