Can I run Big Sur on one computer and Catalina on another?

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Level 3

592 points

Can I run Big Sur on one computer and Catalina on another?

I'm disappointed Apple has made my iMac 27 obsolete and therefore unable to upgrade to Big Sur. I have a MacBook Air that has 1/4 of the RAM and a less powerful processor than my iMac, yet I can upgrade that to Big Sur and not my iMac 27. I'm not very happy about this, but nothing I can do about it.

So my question: Is it safe to upgrade my MacBook Air to Big Sur and continue to run Catalina on my iMac if I use them both interchangeable daily and run most of the same programs? Will I run into any synch problems with iCloud? Will Apple Music, Apps and other services work fine even if I'm using them via different OSes?

MacBook

Posted on Nov 16, 2020 3:36 PM

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Answer 1

dialabrain

Level 10

135,911 points

Nov 16, 2020 3:39 PM in response to TomNYC

Hello again Tom. I do it all the time but it's difficult to say it will work with all apps since there are too many to count. iCloud is not a problem for me.

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Answer 2

dialabrain

Level 10

135,911 points

Nov 16, 2020 3:52 PM in response to TomNYC

Just to add, not all apps are compatible with Big Sur yet.

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Answer 3

Boerne

Level 1

41 points

Nov 16, 2020 4:13 PM in response to TomNYC

(Wonder where you're other thread went? Reminds me of the first Mac commercial. We're being watched.)

Everything changes with each update, but I have been running the latest MacOS on my iMac and MBP, while running High Sierra on my old MBA -- and I have not run into any issues. I use Photos extensively and have had no issues between them. In fact, I often import on the MBA because it has an integrated card reader.

I did note that Photos will now rotate video. I'll be anxious to see if videos rotated in the Photos app show up rotated in the Photos app on High Sierra, but I'm sure they will.

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Answer 4

John Galt

Level 10

155,384 points

Nov 16, 2020 4:10 PM in response to TomNYC

I haven't run into any problems with that. iCloud syncing including all its services work seamlessly across platforms.

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Can I run Big Sur on one computer and Catalina on another?

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