Are updates within Sonoma fairly dependable on an M1 MBP? Anyone have theirs fail?

Yer_Man wrote:

Make a back up. make two. Update. 99% of people have no problem. If you have a problem then revert to one of your back ups.

There are over 100 million Macs in daily use. If 1% of them were having problems like you describe it would be worldwide news devastating to Apple's bottom line.

Only people who have problems come here, so all you're inviting is posts saying "don't do it", because all the people who have no problems aren't here.

👍

100 million people don't come to this site only to say "everything's perfect".

I was running a M1 machine which started with macOS 11 Big Sur

It was updated through every since update and every single upGrade up to macOS 15.1 before it was Traded In for a M4 Machine

The other machines, still in my stable are M2, M3 and yes M4 machines

The only real issue experienced here.

Is which machine to use at any given time

As for Apple and their plans for the future

As we have experienced of the Years

Apple does what is Best from Apple

They have always worked that way and do not see any changes moving forwards

TopoTone wrote:

I've been at v14.0 for a long time now, but am interested in getting the various security updates, as well as app updates, like Safari, which cannot be updated any other way than doing the OS. Looks like the most current version is 14.7.1

I guess I'm fishing for a consensus on whether the Sonoma incremental updates are stable and won't brick my MBP.

It's natural to be cautious. However note that an early version like 14.0 will have many more defects than a mature version like 14.7.1, as most of those defects are eliminated as the versions progress.

If you have complex audio tool installations, it would be prudent to check with the software developers to ensure they are compatible and that you have their latest versions.

Mac OS updates are much more stable now that they work with a separate, sealed volume for the OS. Your files are kept separate. Some updates have a few seconds during which the firmware is updated, and if there is a power glitch or momentary interruption right at that point, you could end up with an unresponsive Mac, as happened to you in the past. But that can also happen in normal use as well.

TopoTone wrote:

The other thing here is that, I *do* make backups. However, when my initial update failure happened, my MBP was completely unable to boot at all. Not into Recovery, or any other manner, so no backup could be used to rebuild anything. The apple store techs had a back door way to force it to accept an upgrade/reinstallation of the OS.

That was probably a DFU firmware Restore. A DFU firmware Revive is less invasive as it only resets the security enclave chip & system firmware while the "Restore" also resets the internal SSD & pushes a new clean copy of macOS onto the internal SSD. Unfortunately the DFU firmware Revive/Restore requires access to another Mac, usually one that is able to run the latest version of macOS which at the moment is macOS 15.x Sequoia.

How to revive or restore Mac firmware - Apple Support

Additionally, once Sonoma was installed, there was no way to use any of my backups to revert to Monterey. I went round in circles searching for methods to do that, and the best I could find was it could be possible to completely clean install Monterey, but not from my backup.

You would need to create a bootable macOS Monterey USB installer, then erase the disk (or rather delete the "Volume Group", followed by selecting the "Install macOS" option & restoring from a backup.

Use Disk Utility to erase a Mac with Apple silicon - Apple Support

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

Ultimately, I'll have to bite the bullet, cross my fingers and go ahead. Thanks

You may as well, it was inevitable at some point anyway. People who purchase those specialized software items either need to put pressure on those developers to provide quick support to address any macOS update/upgrade issues. If they are unwilling to do so, then it would be best to vote with your wallet & move on or use another platform where the setup may not be as precarious (if any such system exists for those types of items).

Apple is certainly making things much more difficult every day. I hope you realize that the Mac computers are slowly becoming glorified iPads without a touchscreen. Apple just keeps moving forward with their own agenda & expects everyone to follow off the cliff. Apple doesn't care their frequent major changes affects the third party developers & users in such a negative way.

however, I've seen quite a few folks roaming around the discussions that are mainly offering their expertise and helping where they can.

Exactly what I was trying to do..

Make a back up. make two. Update. 99% of people have no problem. If you have a problem then revert to one of your back ups.

Only people who have problems come here, so all you're inviting is posts saying "don't do it", because all the people who have no problems aren't here.