When to Skip Apple Updates

Whether you’ve seen it in action or received more than a few intrusive notifications from Apple, you’ve probably been prompted on multiple occasions to install the company’s new macOS High Sierra . Features like improved photo management and Apple’s file system are certainly enticing, but like many of the company’s updates, the operating system isn’t quite optimized to run on the Mac you purchased at the end of Obama’s first presidential term. If you’re wondering if you should be upgrading your Mac, here are a few factors to consider, as well as a way to make using your upgraded Mac a little more attractive.

It’s better to play it safe when upgrading than to regret it later. This means that you should investigate any potential compatibility issues or prevailing bugs that may affect your experience. In Apple’s case, the company has been fixing quite a few bugs in its updates lately. The latest High Sierra update, 10.13.1, effectively disabled a security patch released by Apple earlier this week, once again exposing users to a potentially devastating security vulnerability. He has since released another patch to fix the first and finally fix the root login issue, but if you’re worried about invisible flaws, perhaps postponing a major update until it’s done is a good idea.

Aside from current glitches, here are more general guidelines to keep in mind when pulling the trigger in recent releases of Apple or iOS:

Who should (or shouldn’t) update

Who should upgrade? The short answer is that if your Mac has been released in the past five years, you should consider upgrading to High Sierra, although your mileage may differ in terms of performance. OS upgrades, which tend to include more features than the previous version, are often costly for older, underpowered computers. Your 2010 Macbook with a Core 2 Duo processor can’t handle the same workload as last year’s MacBook. Later Macs, such as those with at least 8GB of RAM or SSDs, are better equipped to handle the changes, but even they may need some hardware upgrades ahead of time.

It’s the same with Apple smartphones . You know this feeling if you’ve ever updated your 2- or 3-year-old iPhone to a newer version of iOS. Things seem to go a little slower thanks to the extra gadgets that were designed to take advantage of the company’s new hardware (not your aging iPhone 6).

If you’re using a MacBook or iOS device as old as a first grader, you should probably avoid updating your operating system. Apple considers devices more than five years old to be vintage and is not eligible for support from the company (excluding California and Turkey). Devices manufactured more than seven years ago are considered obsolete.

Want to know if your machine is suitable for macOS High Sierra? You can check out this short list of compatible Macs:

What to update before updating

Just because your Mac is eligible for an upgrade doesn’t mean it’s properly equipped to handle it. You can see the specifications for your Mac by clicking the Apple logo in the menu bar and choosing About This Mac. There you will see an overview of your system, including release date, RAM, hard drive type, and serial number.

If you’re dealing with a Mac that’s running out of memory or still using a hard drive, you should make a few hardware changes before making the jump. Updating internal components will allow your machine to run smoother and better adapt to the increased demands of the new operating system.

Hard Drive : If you have a traditional spinning hard drive, you should ditch it. Due to its rotating nature, it is the slowest component in your car, and is responsible for the time you spend tapping your fingers on the table while your Mac boots up or slowly loading vacation photos. Instead, open your device and replace it with an SSD (or simply take it to your local electronics repair shop or Best Buy computer team, where you’ll pay around $ 40 for the service).

With no moving parts, SSDs are several times faster than hard drives and will dramatically improve your Mac’s performance. Your machine boots up in seconds, not minutes, your media boots up instantly, and your Mac uses less power.

Memory : When your Mac runs out of RAM, your computer starts to slow down, saving data to the slow hard drive. Even if you replace that spinning drive with a solid state drive, this data management process still means you wait for your tiny amount of RAM to handle your workload.

Installing an application like MenuBar Stats 2 will let you see how much RAM and processing power you are using at any given moment. The increased memory allows you to switch between applications or browse the web much faster, thanks to the increased amount of available storage. The installation is similar to installing a complex solid state drive, but you can always take it to an electronics repair shop and ask them to do it for you at the same price as replacing a hard drive. You can manage more photos at once, edit large video files faster, and use more applications at the same time.

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