How to prepare your Mac for macOS Sierra
- sep
- 19
macOS Sierra is available to the public tomorrow. Get your Mac prepared for the update so it will go as smooth as possible.
Maybe you've been testing macOS Sierra in beta for months. Maybe you wanted to be surprised with all the new features on launch day. Unless something goes wrong, macOS Sierra will be available tomorrow as a free upgrade.
The macOS Sierra includes support for Siri, Apple Pay on the web, Auto Unlock for Apple Watch, picture-in-picture, Desktop in iCloud, and more!
Step 1: Make sure your Mac is compatible with macOS Sierra
macOS Sierra is compatible with the following laptop and desktop computers:
- iMac (Late 2009 & later)
- MacBook Air (2010 or newer)
- MacBook (Late 2009 or newer)
- Mac mini (2010 or newer)
- MacBook Pro (2010 or newer)
- Mac Pro (2010 or newer)
There are a few features that won't work with some older devices. You'll have to decide whether you want to update to macOS Sierra based on what your Mac is compaitble with.
You can update directly to macOS Sierra if you are running OS X Lion (10.7.5) or newer. Just download it from the Mac App Store.
Step 2: Check your app updates
Outdated apps on Mac are just as much of a problem as outdated apps on iPhone, sometimes more if you use your Mac for work. Check with app developers via their website or social networking sites like Twitter to make sure they will support macOS Sierra. Some changes to the Mac operating system might make your favorite apps bug out a little (or a lot). If a developer isn't supporting macOS Sierra or hasn't released an update, you can stick with OS X El Capitan until it's safe. You can also partition your Mac and install Sierra along side your current OS.
Step 3: Clean up your Mac
macOS Sierra takes up just under 5GB of space. That means you'll want about 10GB of free space to download and install the update with maximum efficiency. If your Mac is bloated with duplicate photos, extraneous files, or unneeded apps, you might want to clean it up to make space for the download.
Even if you have plenty of space on your Mac, it's never a bad idea to keep it organized and tidy by cleaning up your desktop, clearing out your downloads folder, and emptying your trash.
Step 4: Back it up!
If the unfortunate events of early iOS 10 updating taught us anything, its that we should always back up our data before downloading any major updates. If you don't set up some backup system, you only have yourself to blame if you lose all of your data.
If you are running a beta version of macOS Sierra
Those installing macOS Sierra for the first time will have the easiest time downloading the update. All you have to do is click the Download button for it in the Mac App Store and follow the instructions to install it.
If you've been running the public or developer beta, you should be able to just run the Sierra installer, but you may have to backup, erase, and reinstall the software (another reason why you need to backup!)
If you partitioned your hard drive to test macOS Sierra
You may have decided to partition your Mac in order to test drive macOS Sierra so as not to mess with your daily driver. If so, you may have built up a number of files that you'd like to save. Make sure you back up the data on your secondary partition to make sure you don't lose anything important.
It isn't a bad idea to keep a partition, especially if you are a fan of beta testing. But, you might need to free up space on your Mac. If so, you should remove the partition.
Questions?
Ask now and we'll try to help you before it's too late.