Preparing Your Mac To Upgrade To macOS Monterey

A new macOS is a matter of pride and joy. And, with macOS Monterey, Apple has brought forth many improvements, one such improvement being better integration with the iPad, universal control, better control of notifications. And, there’s more that you will read throughout this blog.

All hyped up to make that major upgrade to macOS Monterey? You should be, but, before you upgrade, a little prepping up a will for sure will make the transition smoother and flawless.

Does Your Mac Support macOS Monterey?

Just having a MacBook or iMac won’t cut it. The latest macOS Monterey runs on a range of compatible devices and there are high chances that as a Mac user you probably have the compatible devices listed below –

• iMac – Late 2015 and later
• iMac Pro – 2017 and later
• MacBook Air – Early 2015 and later
• MacBook Pro – Early 2015 and later
• Mac Pro – Late 2013 and later
• Mac mini – Late 2014 and later
• MacBook – Early 2016 and later

Check – If Your Mac is M1 Chip or Intel-Based

macOS Monterey will host some spectacular features. Unfortunately, some of these features will not be available on Intel-based Macs. So, you might want to check if your Mac is powered by an Intel or M1 chip.

What Features Might Go Missing If You Run macOS Monterey On Intel-based Mac?
Portrait Mode – The video effect puts focus on you and blurs the background Live Text  – With the help of which you can extract text from photos Unrestrained Keyboard Dictation – This was restricted to 60 seconds per instance Text-to-speech in More Languages – Such as Danish, Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian More Interactive Map –  A more interactive 3D globe of Earth

This is how you can check if your Mac is Intel or M1 based –

1. On your Mac, click on the Apple icon at the top-left corner of the screen (on the menu bar)

2. Select About This Mac

3. On the Window that appears next, you will be able to see all the necessary specs – the hardware and software information pertaining to your Mac

4. Focus on the Chip section and check if it is Apple M1 or Intel-based

Time To Spring Clean Your Mac

Now that you have checked if your Mac is compatible with macOS Monterey. Whether it is an M1-chip or Intel-based, it is time now to do some spring cleaning before you head-on with that big upgrade to macOS Monterey.

Thinking why spring cleaning? Why’s that even necessary? Why can’t I just upgrade my Mac to macOS Monterey?

An intensive cleaning will ensure that you have freed up a considerable amount of storage space. Just to put things into perspective, the macOS Monterey installer itself takes approximately 12 GBs of storage space. To add on, you will also need 2 GBs worth of storage space for the upgrade. It also goes without saying that if you have sufficient space, the update will take place much faster.

Also Read: How To Check Storage on Mac

So, what things do you need to clean? By cleaning, we mean the following things  –

• Get rid of all the junk on your Mac
• Uninstall apps that you don’t need and ensure that when you delete them, there are no leftovers.
• Free up storage space on Mac
• Eliminate any Malware that might have crept in

Quick Tip:

Needn’t bump your head against settings or be boggled by which files to wipe off, instead you can leave the task to a specialist. MacPaw’s CleanMyMac X is one such utility. It is a one-stop solution that can fix a variety of cleaning tasks (especially, the ones we have mentioned above). And, the best part is that CleanMyMac X supports Apple Silicon Macs with an M1 processor. In a way, this becomes one utility you should certainly consider having on your M1 power Mac before upgrading it to macOS Monterey.

Download CleanMyMac X

• Get rid of junk files

From the left-hand side, click on System Junk under Cleanup and wipe off junk from your computers such as caches, broken app data, and a lot more stuff. As you can see, during the process, CleanMyMac X also frees up tons of space on your Mac.

• Large and Old Files

Talking of free up storage space, you also might be wanting to get rid of unwanted large and old files. CleanMyMac X has a dedicated module that can help you get rid of such files as well.

• Dedicated Uninstaller

Get rid of apps along with all the associated files. Click on the Uninstaller under Applications

• Malware Removal

CleanMyMac X constantly upgrades itself with the latest malware definition and hence, helps remove malware. You can click on Malware Removal under Protection

Backup Your Existing Data

After you have cleaned your Mac, the next thing that you should certainly do is backup your Mac. A backed-up data would help you, should anything go wrong during the upgrade process. In such an event you can boot from the external drive and then recopy or fetch all the files on your Mac. Do check out our blogs on –

• How you can backup Mac using Time Machine
• How to restore mac from time machine backup

Have A Steady Wi-Fi and Keep Your Mac Plugged In

Putting it simply, neither do you want your upgrade to be disturbed by sketchy Wi-Fi or slow internet speed, nor a dying battery. Wondering why?

That’s because there have been instances where Mac users experienced an issue where their installer failed to check how much space was present to install the update. Consequently, the installation could not be completed and their Mac was rendered unusable.

What you would want to do is –

• Speed up the internet on your Mac
• Move closer to your router, if need be
• Keep your Mac plugged in all the time while the upgrade is going on

Wrapping Up

Upgrading Mac to a new operating system is a journey in itself and with the above-mentioned checkpoints, we are sure that now you and your Mac both are ready for macOS Monterey. If you liked what you read, give it a thumbs up and let us know how excited you are for the new upgrade in the comments section below.