Mac OSX upgrade to 'El Capitan' - easy?

[sd_shooter]

I have a Mac with Mavericks and it has served me well. However now El Capitan is out.

I've never done an upgrade before.
- Is it easy?
- Will I lose my custom settings? I have a program that maps keys within MS Excel and I would like to retain that.
- How about any SW that I have installed?

Of course I would make up a backup, but if the 'upgrade' means I'll need to reinstall everything then it may not be worth it

[Cartridge]

OS X upgrades are ridiculously easy. You won't lose any data or settings. As always though, install all of the available App Store updates before you upgrade the OS and have a good backup.

That said, I have not upgraded to 10.11 yet.

[faris1984]

Only windows for me.

[sd_shooter]

OS X upgrades are ridiculously easy. You won't lose any data or settings. As always though, install all of the available App Store updates before you upgrade the OS and have a good backup.

That said, I have not upgraded to 10.11 yet.

Thanks! Perhaps I'll try it this weekend, I guess that download can take a while.

Only windows for me.

Sorry to hear that. I've enjoyed a lot more free time at home since I switched to Mac

Meanwhile my professionally maintained Windows computer had two BSOD attacks just last week, more than my Mac has had over the last two years.

[Rivers]

As an Apple Certified Technical Consultant (ACTC), a few tips:

First, absolutely have a current Time Machine backup. As an option, a clone of your pre-updated drive. If anything goes sideways (unlikely), these will save your bacon. If possible, be connected to a UPS (uninterruptible power supply, aka a battery backup power supply).

Second, do all of the software updates. If an update requires a restart, my recommendation is that you do the "verify, then repair" permissions (both steps) for each update that requires a restart. Think of this as grooming a flower bed before planting. It makes a difference in the long run with far fewer issues.

Watch the videos on Apple's website about what's changed in 10.11. Of special note is that Disk Utility is VERY different. No more of the above verify-repair permissions, just First Aid. And it can now fix the boot drive! How they managed that, I don't know, but this saves not needing to restart from another drive to fix your startup drive.

See what applications won't run on your Mac. Chances are, running 10.9, you won't find much but you will find some. iPhoto and Aperture are history, replaced by Photos. Mail databases get big fixes too. Having those up to date in Yosemite 10.10 first makes for less work with 10.11.

[therealnickb]

We updated a new iMac recently from Yosemite to El Cap. No problem with the update BUT, we couldn't import the Photos library from an older iMac that was still running Yosemite.

[sd_shooter]

Done!

- Downloaded the image during my son's soccer game
- Started the install after we got back, took about 20 minutes

And... shockingly enough, everything "just works"!

I didn't do First Aid or Repair Permissions - I don't know what that really means. For the time being everything seems ok
Should I still do that?

[Rivers]

I would, if for no other reason than being sure everything is fine. Plus being familiar with a tool BEFORE you absolutely need to use it is wise.

Open up the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder, then Disk Utility. Select your boot drive (typically Macintosh HD), then select First Aid in the choices at the top of that window. And let it do its thing.

[sd_shooter]

Ok did that. I didn't throw any errors and everything still seems normal.

Very easy upgrade indeed.

[Cartridge]

I didn't do First Aid or Repair Permissions - I don't know what that really means. For the time being everything seems ok
Should I still do that?

Totally unnecessary unless you are troubleshooting a problem. Besides, OS X Installer runs as root.

[Rivers]

Totally unnecessary unless you are troubleshooting a problem. Besides, OS X Installer runs as root.

This is absolutely correct and wonderful advice that's coincidentally the mantra of my clients. They pay me $125 per hour to fix their Macs BTW. (Passing the Apple Desktop and Server tests is how one earns the ACTC designation. I did that.) My ridiculous advice, at worst will waste 5-10 minutes. If however something is wrong, fixing it before compounding it with an OS installation can be huge.

Running Disk Utility's First Aid functions will do no more harm than checking the pressure of your car's tires too often. "Too often" just wastes time but does no harm. Not often enough is a very different story though.

[Cartridge]

This is absolutely correct and wonderful advice that's coincidentally the mantra of my clients. They pay me $125 per hour to fix their Macs BTW. (Passing the Apple Desktop and Server tests is how one earns the ACTC designation. I did that.) My ridiculous advice, at worst will waste 5-10 minutes. If however something is wrong, fixing it before compounding it with an OS installation can be huge.

Running Disk Utility's First Aid functions will do no more harm than checking the pressure of your car's tires too often. "Too often" just wastes time but does no harm. Not often enough is a very different story though.

I didn't suggest that repairing permissions can harm your computer. It's just a waste of time unless you're bored and it makes you feel better. I too have an ACTC cert (10.7). I recall the exam and training materials only lightly brushing the topic of POSIX permissions, so I don't fault you for being in the dark on this matter. Repair permissions tool is widely misunderstood.

When software is installed by the App Store or Installer.app, a list of installed files and permissions in their current state may be written to /Library/Reciepts . The permissions on system and application files will change over time when different users open an application and the setuid flag is set or when Installer.app installs a new pakage that accesses an existing resource. This is normal. And Installer.app runs as root. In rare situations, an application will be denied access to a resource file it needs. This is the only scenario where repairing permissions is necessary. Otherwise, failing to repair permissions on a regular basis does not cause problems to compound over time.

[Rivers]

I didn't suggest that repairing permissions can harm your computer. It's just a waste of time unless you're bored and it makes you feel better. I too have an ACTC cert (10.7). I recall the exam and training materials only lightly brushing the topic of POSIX permissions, so I don't fault you for being in the dark on this matter. Repair permissions tool is widely misunderstood.

When software is installed by the App Store or Installer.app, a list of installed files and permissions in their current state may be written to /Library/Reciepts . The permissions on system and application files will change over time when different users open an application and the setuid flag is set or when Installer.app installs a new pakage that accesses an existing resource. This is normal. And Installer.app runs as root. In rare situations, an application will be denied access to a resource file it needs. This is the only scenario where repairing permissions is necessary. Otherwise, failing to repair permissions on a regular basis does not cause problems to compound over time.

My ACTC is for 10.8. The reasoning behind my advice is after seeing too many clients who NEVER used Disk First Aid for years, it's easy to overlook the obvious. It's kind of like a blind man weeding a garden before planting new. Ok, maybe there are no weeds but you checked to see that. Then again, what if the dirt is overrun with weeds. You'd obviously want to clean it up before planting the new seeds, right? That's why I take a couple extra minutes to ensure that both the files and even the hard drive verify successfully.

[Cartridge]

Looks like a presentaton of the facts is not working and you seem to like analogies, here is an analogy that actually fits the subject: proactively pulling the fuses out of the fuse block on your car and checking them is not going to prevent a problem in the future or make your car run better. File permissions are binary: either the owner or group or everyone do have read or write or execute priveledges, or they don't. It's not variable as tire pressure would be. Checking the current state of permissions does not predict which files will change permissions in the future. Nor does checking and repairing help future software install more reliably. As I mentioned before, Installer.app runs as root.

[NYT]

the upgrade is fine but check your local software and verify that it is compatible. a lot of folks are having problems with some software and capitan.

Sorry to hear that. I've enjoyed a lot more free time at home since I switched to Mac

Meanwhile my professionally maintained Windows computer had two BSOD attacks just last week, more than my Mac has had over the last two years.

youre asking for advice on updating osx... its obvious your expertise in computing is very low. you taking jab at pc is pretty ridiculous given your knowledge.