How to upgrade to macOS Monterey

macOS Monterey: Experience shortcuts, universal controls and FaceTime shared playback

Ready to experience the exciting shortcuts, universal controls and FaceTime shared playback features in macOS Monterey? Now you can download and install macOS Monterey on your Mac to experience these fascinating new features and more. Monterey is the best operating system for super powerful Macs running on Apple chips and offers some powerful privacy enhancements that you can't miss.

New features of macOS 12 Monterey

As one Reddit user said, Monterey is the perfect epidemic version of the operating system. It adds new features to online interaction and focus on remote work. Here are the features that will be launched:

• SharePlay: Stream movies and music synchronously with friends via FaceTime. Currently, SharePlay supports TikTok, Hulu, Disney and HBO Max. More streaming platforms will be added in the future.
• Live Text: A new AI-based feature that allows you to extract text from photos.
• Shortcuts: You may have seen them in iOS. Shortcuts are logged on to your Mac with Monterey, helping to automate your workflow by combining applications and setting custom actions.
• Universal Control: naturally move the cursor between Mac, iMac and iPad. Universal control is a major upgrade to Apple's continuous interoperability.

Please note that some macOS Monterey features are not available on Intel Macs. This includes real-time text, improved maps, and some other minor features.

macOS Monterey Compatibility

Before you start macOS update, make sure your Mac is in the list of compatible devices:

• MacBook Air (early 2015 and beyond)
• MacBook Pro (early 2015 and beyond)
• MacBook (early 2016 and beyond)
• Mac mini (late 2014 and beyond)
• Mac Pro (late 2013 and beyond)
• iMac (late 2015 and beyond)
• iMac Pro (2017 and later)

macOS Monterey Release Date

Monterey was released on October 25, 2021. The developer preview, and later the public beta, were available since early June, so the bravest users have tried Monterey's advantages and even reported some issues. But don't worry, these problems are easy to solve.

How to download and install macOS Monterey on Mac

The process of installing Monterey on a Mac consists of several steps: First, you need to back up the data you care about to make sure it is not lost; second, clean your Mac to free up space for a newly installed installation. Finally, you can download Monterey and install it on your Mac. Let's dig into each step.

Backup your Mac before upgrading to macOS Monterey

It's wise to back up your Mac every once in a while. If you are upgrading macOS (especially if it's beta), backup is crucial. The problem is that the beta version may be unstable, and even if you roll out an upgrade on your current system, you shouldn't theoretically erase your data, but there may still be problems and you may lose access to the contents of the drive.

You can create backups using Time Machine, which is relatively fast and simple. However, Time Machine tends to create many redundant backup copies, which can cause confusion on your system. A better solution is to use Get Backup Pro or ChronoSync Express.

Get Backup Pro is an excellent tool for bootable cloning and scheduled backups in a very flexible way. You can select exactly the files you want to back up to avoid backing up the entire drive. Here is how it works:

1. Open the application and click " in "Backup".
2. Under Destination, select the location where you want to save the backup.
3. Select File to add the file you want to back up.
4. Press Start to start the process.

ChronoSync Express is a great tool for backing up folders. Additionally, you can use it for other tasks, such as synchronizing the contents of different folders. Get Backup Pro and ChronoSync are both part of a Setapp subscription, so you can try both for free to see which one is best for you.

Free up storage space for macOS Monterey

Every year, when Mac users are preparing to update macOS, dozens of questions about "how much space is needed for a new macOS" appear on Reddit. This is an important question because your Mac should have enough space available. Especially if you decide to install macOS Monterey onto a partition (half of the drive), you may need to free up some storage space first.

CleanMyMac X will help you clear system clutter files, old caches, and all kinds of unwanted things that are piled up on your Mac. Of course, this frees up a lot of space. But that's not the only reason why millions of users like CleanMyMac X. The app can detect malware, notify you of insufficient RAM, suggest optimizing processes, and more.

To free up storage using CleanMyMac X, run Smart Scan > Remove. That's it. You don't have to iterate through different folders and locations on your Mac to delete files, although you can view the scan results before clicking the Remove button if you prefer.

Tip: The latest suggestion is to free up 20GB of space for macOS Monterey, but in fact, it is not clear how much space a new macOS requires, so try to free up as much space as possible. For a more thorough cleaning, traverse each individual module to delete the system junk files, mail attachments, and files in the trash. You can also use the uninstaller to delete unwanted applications.

Download and install macOS Monterey

With all backups completed and plenty of storage space, you can now upgrade to macOS Monterey. We recommend you install it on a partition and try all the features next to your current system – if you don't like the new Monterey, rolling back will be easier. We will describe how to create a partition below. Once you are ready to install Monterey, follow these steps:

1. In the Apple menu, select About this machine.
2. Click "Software Update" in the "Overview" section.
3. Click "Update Now" and follow the instructions.

Installing the update may take some time, so make sure you don't have important things to do on your Mac for the next 1 to 2 hours.

Install macOS Monterey on partition

Partitioning is basically splitting your drive in half. Considering that macOS Monterey may require about 20GB, if your drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended, you should make sure that half of the drive has that much space (unless you clean it up with CleanMyMac X, that's a challenge!). Here is how to partition the drive:

1. Access Disk Utility and under "Internal" select your main drive.
2. Click Partition in the top menu.
3. With the APFS format, you simply add an extra volume to the drive.
4. With Mac OS Extended, you must partition your drive (you can select the amount of storage space required on the newly created drive section).

Now you can install macOS Monterey beta on the partition. To access a specific partition, hold down the Option key at startup.

Important tools for getting macOS Monterey updates

Get Backup Pro, ChronoSync Express, and CleanMyMac X—the applications you need to back up and clean up your Mac before installing Monterey—is easily accessible through Setapp, a productivity platform for Mac and iPhone users.

Setapp has over 220 applications, but most importantly, it suggests a collection of applications based on your tasks. For example, you can find an off-the-shelf toolkit in the Collections section that can be used for macOS updates. Free trial for 7 days.

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