By definition, these new backups won’t be compatible with your existing backups, stored on HFS+ volumes which can’t be moved to APFS as they rely on directory hard links.

This part of Big Sur is still evolving quite rapidly, but it’s clear that the structure of those backups is very different from those made to HFS+. One big step forward is that Big Sur now supports making Time Machine backups to APFS volumes. Modifications to the System volume are thoroughly discouraged. When the macOS installer has done its job writing all files to the System volume, a complete hierarchy of cryptographic hashes is constructed to seal that volume, its snapshot is made, and the new system is delivered by mounting that snapshot from the read-only SIP-protected volume.Īlthough it is possible to configure and run Big Sur without the trappings of the SSV, doing so is likely to be experimental, and not something to try in production.

If your software relies on any 32-bit components, or needs modifications to be made to the directories at root level, then look first at running a Mojave (or earlier) Virtual Machine, which could save you a lot of trouble.īig Sur goes far beyond Catalina in putting the System volume out of bounds, with its new Sealed System Volume (SSV), which I’ve previewed here. If you’re migrating software from before Catalina, those still apply, in some cases even more stringently, as I’ll explain. As a prelude, this article highlights some potential issues which you could experience with third-party products running under Big Sur, and on Apple Silicon Macs.īig Sur has all the fundamental requirements of Catalina, in terms of 64-bit only software, loss of old 32-bit QuickTime support, and its separate System and Data volumes. With the arrival of macOS 11.0 Big Sur and Apple’s first Silicon Macs drawing ever closer, next week I’m going to ask whether you should consider upgrading to them, and how you should prepare for that.

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