

Erase the USB drive: A macOS-formatted volume/disk with at least 12GB of storage.Download the Big Sur installer: Needed for our bootable installer.Create a backup of your Mac: So nothing gets lost and you can downgrade to Catalina.

How to do a clean install of macOS 11 Big SurĪs I mentioned earlier, performing a clean install of macOS 11 is a multi-step process that’s more complex than simply erasing your startup drive, installing Big Sur and calling it a day. A clean install will make your Mac run faster and fix common issues such as unexpected freezes, slowdowns and so forth. Oftentimes old files and the cruft accumulated from previous installations get carried over when you upgrade your current macOS version. Big Sur merges your Notification Center and Today widgets into one view

However, you’ll gain a lot in terms of user convenience. Pro users are recommended to start anew by performing a clean install. Should you decide to go down that route, you will need to back up and restore your personal files in order to avoid losing important documents. This requires creating a bootable installer that you’ll boot into when starting up your Mac and wiping your startup drive clean. Clean install: Installs a copy of Big Sur on a freshly formatted volume, without keeping any of your locally-saved files.This is the most convenient method for many people because it uses the familiar Software Update mechanism and retains all your saved settings, apps and files on a new system.

