Apple has stopped providing standalone updaters in macOS Big Sur

[UtterDisbelief]

Yea I hear ya, because I live in CA I am a bit more cavalier with stuff I can easily download and even with backing up my system. The latter costing me around $3400 in 2019 due to a drive failure. I have since put many safe guards in place to prevent loss of data again at least when it comes to what I call my life’s work!

Ouch!

 

[pastrychef]

Summary:

• Apple will no longer release Combo Updates.
• People with bandwidth limitations and multiple Macs complain. Solution: Download the full installer to update. Use it on all your systems.
• This decision was dictated by advancements to file system security (SSV), it's not Tim Cook trying to screw you.
• Don't like it? Stay on versions of macOS with less secure file system. Good luck.

 

[trs96]

Picard's reaction to this thread: Oy Vey !

 

[andrelabbe]

There is not much choices for the cache content other than 'All, shared, iCloud'

hi
this is the info you do get when you enable caching.
As you can see it does cache... But the info is not exactly an itemised list where you could pick and choose what to cache...

alabbe@odyssey ~ % sudo AssetCacheManagerUtil status
Password:
2020-12-22 10:05:38.604 AssetCacheManagerUtil[8681:553823] Content caching status: {
    Activated = 1;
    Active = 1;
    ActualCacheUsed = 41614001635;
    CacheDetails =     {
        "Mac Software" = 171326375;
        Other = 10297393;
        iCloud = 49867022800;
        "iOS Software" = 2736600541;
    };
    CacheFree = 947214752891;
    CacheLimit = 1000000000000;
    CacheStatus = OK;
    CacheUsed = 52785247109;
    MaxCachePressureLast1Hour = "0.2";
    Parents =     (
    );
    Peers =     (
                {
            address = "172.x.x.x";
            details =             {
                "ac-power" = 1;
                "cache-size" = 915000000000;
                capabilities =                 {
                    im = 1;
                    ns = 1;
                    pc = 1;
                    "query-parameters" = 1;
                    sc = 1;
                    ur = 1;
                };
                "is-portable" = 0;
                "local-network" =                 (
                                        {
                        speed = 1000;
                        wired = 1;
                    }
                );
            };
            friendly = 1;
            guid = "4E9690DD-56C5-457A-B0E2-xxxxxxxxxxxx";
            healthy = 1;
            port = 50353;
            version = 238;
        }
    );
    PersonalCacheFree = 950132977200;
    PersonalCacheLimit = 1000000000000;
    PersonalCacheUsed = 49867022800;
    Port = 61166;
    PrivateAddresses =     (
        "172.x.x.x"
    );
    PublicAddress = "x.x.x.x";
    RegistrationStatus = 1;
    RestrictedMedia = 0;
    ServerGUID = "EA02F84B-F8FC-43BB-8A92-xxxxxxxxxxxx";
    StartupStatus = OK;
    TetheratorStatus = 0;
    TotalBytesAreSince = "2020-12-20 12:52:53 +0000";
    TotalBytesDropped = 0;
    TotalBytesImported = 23700288;
    TotalBytesReturnedToChildren = 0;
    TotalBytesReturnedToClients = 41640155229;
    TotalBytesReturnedToPeers = 5124712;
    TotalBytesStoredFromOrigin = 41360093527;
    TotalBytesStoredFromParents = 0;
    TotalBytesStoredFromPeers = 47237176;
}
alabbe@odyssey ~ %

 

[tom111]

Always these whimpers.
You can use windows xp if you like, who cares.

 

[scottkendall]

Always these whimpers.
You can use windows xp if you like, who cares.

Windows XP is the bomb probably one of the best OS that Microsoft ever released so much so they released security patches at the corporate level with extended support package years after they "stop supporting it"

 

[Solidww]

Ah... I thought you just didn't want to download it over and over...

The full Catalina installer is ~8GB.
The full Big Sur installer is ~12GB. (approx 50% larger than Catalina installer)

The Catalina 10.15.7 Combo Update is ~5GB.

I don't know how large a Big Sur 11.1 Combo Update would be if it existed but assuming it's ~50% larger than the Catalina update, it would be ~7.5GB. So you're just saving about 4.5GB. If you have more than two systems to update, it would still be faster to just use the full installer because downloading 12GB once is < 7.5GB twice.

View attachment 501486

Interesting to see the Install mediums have grown that much in size. WOW!

 

[Solidww]

Windows XP is the bomb probably one of the best OS that Microsoft ever released so much so they released security patches at the corporate level with extended support package years after they "stop supporting it"

Didn't they do the same with Windows 7?

 

[scottkendall]

Didn't they do the same with Windows 7?

Maybe but not nearly to the extent of windows XP. They stopped windows 7 support much sooner than XP support. It was a huge deal for banks since many ATM machines were running on XP.

 

[Edhawk]

If I'm not mistaken, doesn't the latest Big Sur installation application contain two setups, one for the new M1 chip systems and the other for the Intel systems.

Wouldn't that explain the increase in the size of the macOS installer download, compared to Catalina and earlier?