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Lucas1948
User level: Level 1 (137 points)

Why was my macOS update on MacBook Pro so smooth this year?

This is NOT a complaint. I'm delighted with how my update to macOS 27 went and truly puzzled by how easy it was ... that is, compared to my experience with my previous upgrade.

Last year, I upgraded to macOS 26 and had a lot of trouble. First, the upgrade told me that my MacBook Pro lacked the space to install the upgrade. I spent hours looking for stuff to offload, but that didn't help. I ended up calling Apple Support. An agent took control of my machine, looked around, and finally told me to disconnect from iCloud. That did the trick—freed up enough space to allow the upgrade to proceed. I reconnected to iCloud after the update. (I use a 14-inch MacBook Pro, M2 Pro, 2023; memory: 16 GB; 500 GB SSD.)

This year, I first told System Settings > Software Update to download the update. That was a couple of nights ago. Then I came back yesterday morning and told it to install. I fully expected to get a warning about insufficient space, but no—after just an hour or so, the deed was done. No trouble at all.

So, yes, I'm very happy with this year's results. My only question is, why did things go so smoothly this time? I have the same machine and pretty much the same setup. If anything, I probably have less space available this year than last. So ... what changed?

Posted on Oct 20, 2026 12:48 PM

4 replies

Rudegar
User level: Level 10 (187,102 points)

Oct 20, 2026 1:31 PM in response to Lucas1948

I never experienced any issue with any macOS or ios or ipados or watchos or homepotos ever

think the majority do not, if that was the case then the Q&A staff at apple would likely found the issue..

KiltedTim
User level: Level 10 (238,530 points)

Oct 20, 2026 2:00 PM in response to Lucas1948

I can't recall ever really having an issue with a macOS update... At least not since my first PowerBook G4 back in the early 2000's running 10.3.


I believe there were some hiccoughs with the Mac SE I had back in the day, but that's all a blur now.


Matti Haveri
User level: Level 7 (22,314 points)

Oct 21, 2026 1:06 AM in response to Lucas1948

I have never experiences major issues when upgrading macOS.


I guess most issues are caused by rogue old 3rd party apps (3rd party virus apps, "cleaners", VPN etc).


I always install only macOS and manually restore users data files and re-install current essential known-good 3rd party apps. Rest of the family use Migration assistant and it has worked for them although they don't have much very old cruft either.


p.s. although English is not my native language I have always set macOS in English (US) because it is easier to search tips when troubleshooting or providing help to others.


...BTW in VMware Fusion forum there is a long thread people complaining that its install fails on macOS 27 while in my setup there were no issues. ...the fix was to set macOS to English, install VMware Fusion, and then switch to some other language...

Barney-15E
User level: Level 10 (125,838 points)

Oct 20, 2026 8:19 PM in response to Lucas1948

Mine have always been smooth. Nothing special about this one.

Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/256379800