Comment by aspenmayer

Comment by aspenmayer 2 days ago

There are multiple boot-time recovery options, but you might not have a required firmware update to use them. Per everymac, all 2014 MBA’s should be able to run up to Big Sur?

What is offered to install when you do this?

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/use-macos-recovery-...

> Option-Command-R: Start up from macOS Recovery over the internet. Use this key combination to reinstall macOS and upgrade to the latest version of macOS that’s compatible with your Mac.

https://everymac.com/systems/by_capability/maximum-macos-sup...

> MacBook Air "Core i5" 1.4 11" (Early 2014)11 (Big Sur)

> MacBook Air "Core i7" 1.7 11" (Early 2014)11 (Big Sur)

> MacBook Air "Core i5" 1.4 13" (Early 2014)11 (Big Sur)

> MacBook Air "Core i7" 1.7 13" (Early 2014)11 (Big Sur)

When updating to the new macOS, firmware updates that govern the pre-boot and recovery environment are changed/updated, and you can downgrade macOS again afterwards. You can usually install the firmware updates without updating macOS, but finding them is usually the harder part. You could probably swap hard drives to a scratch SSD if you wanted to update your firmware via updating macOS entirely without affecting your live install, or install macOS on a USB drive, which should not affect your internal SSD install, but like all upgrades, have a backup or pull the internal SSD.

brewmarche a day ago

I don’t know, I’ve performed numerous updates from the pre-installed Mavericks (Yosemite, El Capitan, High Sierra, Big Sur are the ones I remember, might be more), but the default recovery still goes into Mavericks for me

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aspenmayer a day ago

You might need to update the firmware for your Mac in order for the Internet Recovery to support updating to Big Sur. The firmware updates are installed at upgrade time usually, but you may be able to install them separately.
> About EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Mac computers
https://support.apple.com/en-us/101198
I would see if you can access this:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-big-sur/id1526878132
Download it, then you can make a bootable flash drive if you want, or just install it from under macOS.
> How to download and install macOS
https://support.apple.com/en-us/102662
> Create a bootable installer for macOS
https://support.apple.com/en-us/101578

Reply View | 5 replies
- brewmarche a day ago
  
  Big Sur Recovery mode works for me with Option+Cmd+R, so if needed I can install that. What I meant is that the other goes into Mavericks Recovery mode. And I’m happy about that actually :-)
  Edit: if you were referring to Option+Cmd+R anyway, I guess I misread
  Edit2: by other one I meant Shift+Option+Cmd+R, just Cmd+R actually goes into Big Sur, you are right!
  
  Reply View | 4 replies
  
  aspenmayer a day ago
  
  Yeah, there are a few keyboard combinations that do different things.
  https://support.apple.com/en-us/102655
  > On an Intel-based Mac:
  > If you used Command-R to start up from the local Recovery system, you get the current version of the most recently installed macOS.
  > If you used Option-Command-R to start up from Internet Recovery, you might get the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac.
  > If you used Shift-Option-Command-R to start up from Internet Recovery, you might get the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available.
  
  Reply View | 3 replies