Today’s Question: Would it be safe to upgrade my MacOS to Monterey now? Every time upgrade is done I seem to lose something else.
Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, based on my experience I would say it is perfectly safe to upgrade to MacOS 12 Monterey.
More Detail: Apple does not have the best reputation for ensuring backward compatibility with their operating system updates, so I certainly understand that photographers would be reluctant to upgrade too soon. Fortunately, while I did run into some issues with the previous release of MacOS 11 Big Sur, I have not discovered any issues with the upgrade to MacOS 12 Monterey.
I tend to be a little reluctant to update to a new major release of an operating system or software application. Most of the time if I upgrade early, it is in an effort to get a sense of what issues may arise so I can report those to my readers.
Fortunately, MacOS 12 Monterey has been a seamless upgrade based on my experience. I haven’t found any issues with software applications not being supported, and I’ve not seen any indications that hardware support was dropped for any key devices.
There are a handful of benefits to MacOS 12 Monterey, though most of the new or updated features are not significant in the context of a photography workflow. I have found the operating system to be very stable, and I’ve not found that any of the changes have gotten in the way of anything. So, if you’re thinking about upgrading, I do think it is perfectly safe to do so now.
And yes, Windows users can rest assured that Microsoft tends to do a much better job of maintaining backward compatibility with older hardware and software applications.