Before you Upgrade to MOJAVE

Before you Update to Mojave

This post is to strongly encourage anyone updating to Mojave to do several things first.
Back Up at least 2X and clone your current drive.
Do A Clean Install Please don’t rely on just a App Store Update using Migration Assistant.

Mojave introduces a major rewrite in lots of the underlying code for Macs and these changes may create problems especially if you are bringing over lots of old crud from old OS’s.
Mojave changes the OS APFS file system, changes permissions, extended attributes, privacy settings, and drops full support for 32bit apps, and many other changes. Lots of 32bit code still running around, sometimes hidden deep inside of apps or installers.
Doing a clean install will eliminate most potential problems.

To do a clean install…

Back Up and Clone

Next create create a bootable Mojave installer on a USB drive (16GB or bigger and without any data on it).
Download Mojave, but then quit the Installer before installing on your internal drive. (Granted this is an optional extra step but can be very useful if you need to install on more than 1 computer or if something goes wrong)

Connect the USB drive with the version of macOS Mojave to your Mac.

Restart your Mac while pressing and holding the Option key. 

The Startup Manager will launch. Select Disk Utility and erase your internal Boot hard drive. (This is why you need to have the installer on a bootable USB drive so you can erase the old system) You can do this via the internet, but is slower and more prone to problems, especially if Apple servers are being slammed with downloads.

Return to the main menu and choose Install.

Follow the instructions to launch the Installer for macOS Mojave from your USB drive.

Now install fresh clean apps from the App Store or developer site. This ensures the latest / compatible versions.

Drag/Copy over any needed files/folders from old drive. This resets permissions as well as keeping your back-ups intact. Good time to leave old files in storage.

Reboot. Really Reboot, maybe more than once.

There are lots of internet resources out there, but finding good ones is the name of the game, so I want to share one resource that I find great.

eclecticlight.co

This is run by Howard Oakley and is a very active site. Howard gives some great advice, has extensive knowledge of Macs and programming and he even has many free applications in the Downloads folder.
He has organized this site for Macs and his other passion, Art, specifically paintings.
Lots of great advice for solving problems, and as a programmer, he shares his insights and experiences in all things Mac.
Well worth the time to explore.

Well thanks for reading.
Good Luck!
Hope this Helps, Greg

Mojave supports 32bit code, so 32bit apps will continue to run, but it is the last OS X version that does. From next year there will be no 32bit support.

4 Macs, all just ran update, not clean install, no issues with anything. Not finding any FCPX related apps or plugins not compatible. It's a very stable update from our experience. That's just us.