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I need to upgrade my OS from Monterey to a newer version, but have been hesitant because of my massive photo library of 1.6T in images. Have it backed up on an external Time machine, but not in iCloud. Will I be okay in going directly to Sequoia? Have a 4T Macbook, with an additional 2T of space available. Any tips or warnings? Thanks in advance.
MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 12.7
Before you upgrade your system remove any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or VPN apps on your Mac. They a not needed on Macs and only cause problems down the line. Contact the developer's for instructions of removing their apps.
Then tou can check to see if you've removed all of the supporting files by downloading and running the shareware app Find Any File to search for any files with the application's or the developer's name in the file name. For XXXX software you'd do the following search(es):
1 - Name contains xxxx
Any files that are found can be dragged from the search results window to the Desktop or Trash bin in the Dock for deletion.
FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages.
If you get warnings that the file can't be deleted because it is in use or used by another app boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and delete from there.
Note: if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode. This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will assure a successful boot into Safe Mode.
iCloud is not a back up, it's a sharing service, so I wouldn't worry about that. This is a pretty large library so as well as your Time Machine back up I'd make at least one other, using a different back up app, just in case. As TM packages the library and requires TM to restore, I would back up using something like SuperDuper which makes a quite straightforward back up I would use that as an alternative. Yes you can go upgrade directly to Sequoia, you don't have to go through the other Oses along the way.
When you do upgrade the Library with be converted to Photos 10, this may take quite a while with one that size.
There is upper limit on the number of back ups you can have.
I'm guessing that Yer_Man means "There is NO upper limit on the number of back ups you can have." Or maybe he's taking about a particular app?
As Yer_Man advises, I also keep a Time Machine copy and a straight duplicate of my Libraries. But I don't use a copy app, I just drag a Library from the Pictures folder to an external drive. Apps like CarbonCopyCloner and SuperDuper can be useful for timed backups and for making bootable clones, but I haven't done that in a while. I should.
I'm guessing that Yer_Man means "There is NO upper limit on the number of back ups you can have." Or maybe he's taking about a particular app?
Of course. You're absolutely right. There is NO upper limit on the number of back ups. My personal preference for SuperDuper and apps like it is that they don't actual need to be restored to be used. You can just open the library from the back up, which is good if time is an issue. They can also do incremental back ups and scheduled ones.
Upgrading from macOS Monterey to macOS Sequoia on MacBook Pro 2021 with 1.6T in photos
