*** The Official macOS Big Sur thread ***
- Thread starter Feek
- Start date
Man of Honour
Still hasnt resolved my issue with my USB-C PD hub and External Monitor on my M1 Air.
Hub out, monitor detected.
Plug in hub, all fine.
Once display goes to sleep, on re-awaken external monitors won't detect until I remove the hub, wait 5 seconds, then they detect, then re-plug hub and carry on.
Have had to disable screen and laptop sleeping permanently and just rely on screensaver.
PITA - I need 4 USB-C ports (Power, External Monitor, WebCam, External SSD for Time Machine) and very few hubs have 3 ports on them, seems this one is a known issue!
Have ordered an alternate USB-C hub (powered) to remove the need for the USB-C power socket.
Fingers crossed.
Hub out, monitor detected.
Plug in hub, all fine.
Once display goes to sleep, on re-awaken external monitors won't detect until I remove the hub, wait 5 seconds, then they detect, then re-plug hub and carry on.
Have had to disable screen and laptop sleeping permanently and just rely on screensaver.
PITA - I need 4 USB-C ports (Power, External Monitor, WebCam, External SSD for Time Machine) and very few hubs have 3 ports on them, seems this one is a known issue!
Have ordered an alternate USB-C hub (powered) to remove the need for the USB-C power socket.
Fingers crossed.
Man of Honour
Result, new Corsair Hub works a treat, finally can lock my laptop again and turn the 49" widescreen off!
Power bill will see a nice dent.
Power bill will see a nice dent.
Soldato
Is there a way to reset Big Sur without re-installing it?
I just did a fresh install, but had to create an account to take some images of the MacBook. I need it fresh for when I sell it, but I don't want to waste 30 mins re-formating and installing again, since I'd just done that.
Just need to have the existing account deleted and the setup wizard screen appear.
I just did a fresh install, but had to create an account to take some images of the MacBook. I need it fresh for when I sell it, but I don't want to waste 30 mins re-formating and installing again, since I'd just done that.
Just need to have the existing account deleted and the setup wizard screen appear.
Soldato
I can’t help but I’m hoping you can help me
I am trying to to a fresh install of Big Sur on my MBP (already running Big Sur). I have backed up everything I need and I have created the usb bootable drive which I was led to believe was the hard part!
However, I have probably read 10 guides on how to do the fresh install and I must have read 10 different methods!
Many guides make the assumption the user is upgrading from Catalina (which I’m not) and the rest all give instructions for the web install which I don’t need as I have already downloaded and made the bootable usb.
I know this should be a very easy process but the guides don’t even provide the same first step! Do I restart and hold Option or Command-R??
Which one do I need?
Furthermore, a couple of guides say there is a particular way to erase the existing drives, Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD Data and the other guides don’t mention this step at all - it’s all very confusing.
I apologise profusely for being such a simpleton but the conflicting information is very hard to contend with and by way of background my last attempt at wiping a MacBook was a mitigated disaster, took me 3 days although that was partly down to the web installer which seems to be a load of rubbish.
Soldato
Stick the USB drive in. Start the Mac and hold down 'alt' or 'option'
That will then boot form the external USB drive. From here you get a menu to install Big Sur, or enter Disk Utility etc...
So just go into disk Utility and format your hard drive. I actually deleted all partitions on the drive and formatted it as one. When you install Big Sur it will take care of doing any re-partioning.
Then just exit the Disk Utility and install Big Sur.
That will then boot form the external USB drive. From here you get a menu to install Big Sur, or enter Disk Utility etc...
So just go into disk Utility and format your hard drive. I actually deleted all partitions on the drive and formatted it as one. When you install Big Sur it will take care of doing any re-partioning.
Then just exit the Disk Utility and install Big Sur.
I do wonder what's going to happen to the version numbers after Big Sur. With all the OS X iterations going 10.1 through to 10.15 but Big Sur is already on 11.2.3, does that mean the next release will be macOS 12, then macOS 13 after that?
Soldato
Thanks for your help, although in my infinite wisdom I still managed to balls it up - all sorted now thankfully.
I ended up deleting all the volumes and hadn't enabled Boot from external media beforehand so I had to go through the Web install (again!) and this defaulted the MacBook back to Catalina. Left it running overnight anyway and this morning managed the clean install of Big Sur in the end.
I wonder would they try and align it with iOS and IpadOS and make all the next releases 15?
I'm setting up a Mac mini and this is the first time I've owned a MacOS machine. Can anyone tell me how to get the forward and back buttons working on my Logitech mouse so they function in the same way as they do in Windows? I've searched for answers but haven't come up with anything yet.
EDIT - I'm also finding the standard desktop fonts look less well defined at 34" UW 1440p than they do on Win10. Is there anything I can do about that? I found a scaling option but it just makes everything massive while still making the monitor appear as if it's at the wrong resolution.
EDIT - I'm also finding the standard desktop fonts look less well defined at 34" UW 1440p than they do on Win10. Is there anything I can do about that? I found a scaling option but it just makes everything massive while still making the monitor appear as if it's at the wrong resolution.
Soldato
What mouse are you using? I had to install Logitech Options to customise my MX3.
In fact you don't even need to customise it as such. The software will install a profile for Safari and that will set up the forward/back buttons.
As for the fonts on your monitor I have unfortunately never found a solution to this - any 1440p monitor I have used is the exact same.
I tried installing Logitech Options just now and it doesn't seem to work with wired mice. At least the version I installed only allows me to search for a wireless mouse. Mine's a wired G902 (iirc).
And the fonts thing is a bit of a bummer. My son is currently using my old 40" 4k monitor and I tested the Mac mini with that and it looked good in terms of fine smoothness, but I can't go back to a 40" screen and it's also too harsh on my eyes. I have to ask myself if it's worth stumping up for an IPS 4k monitor or send the Mac mini back.
EDIT - Sensible side buttons makes the forward/back functions work (though I'll miss pressing the scroll wheel to free scroll). A shame it leaves an icon on the desktop. I have no idea what an icon on the MacOS desktop signifies.
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Soldato
I was going to mention earlier but decided not to however you could experiment with disabling font smoothing within Big Sur. Objectively it probably won’t make a massive difference but subjectively some people say it looks better and others say it’s worse. You could give at a go and see what you think yourself.
Thanks for the suggestion - I tried setting font smoothing to zero and it hasn't done much. Reading this forum it's like my 1440p monitor is running in 1080p (and the display resolution is definitely correct
).It's more than likely the installer dmg mounted as a disk image. Usually the OS will ask if you want to eject it after application install. Right click on it and eject if it's a disk image.
The desktop on macOS and Windows behave largely in the same way.
Soldato
Yeah as you say it's just the fonts. All other elements such as app icons look really nice on the 1440p display.Thanks for the suggestion - I tried setting font smoothing to zero and it hasn't done much. Reading this forum it's like my 1440p monitor is running in 1080p (and the display resolution is definitely correct
What’s the easiest way to permanently swap the mapping of the @ and “ keys on MacOS so they’re in the same place as on Windows?
I’d prefer it if I didn’t have to just get used to it. I use “ a lot and accessing it involves an uncomfortable contortion of my wrist to type it and I often miss the key.
I’d prefer it if I didn’t have to just get used to it. I use “ a lot and accessing it involves an uncomfortable contortion of my wrist to type it and I often miss the key.
Soldato
Pretty sure there is a keyboard layout you can select in settings.
It’s labelled British - PC.
My keyboard is set as British already. I think the swapping of " and @ is an Apple thing, regardless of the region.
I have another MacOS question! When I do a three-finger swipe up on my MacBook trackpad to switch between apps, it doesn't always show everything I have running. Sometimes it shows none of the programs I have running. I know I can command-tab, but the touchpad is much nicer to use and it's much easier to quickly recognise a running program with the three-finger swipe.
Soldato
British - PC isn’t the same as British, like I said I believe the British - PC setting will switch the “ and @ mapping.