"macOS 11" redirects here. For the 10.11 release of macOS, see OS X El Capitan.
macOS Big Sur
Version of the macOS operating system
macOS Big Sur's desktop in "light appearance"
Developer
Apple Inc.
OS family
Macintosh
Unix, based on Darwin (BSD)
Source model
Closed, with open source components
General availability
November 12, 2020; 3 years ago (2020-11-12)[1]
Latest release
11.7.10 (20G1427)[2] (September 11, 2023; 7 months ago (2023-09-11)) [±]
Update method
Software Update
Platforms
x86-64, ARM64[3]
Kernel type
Hybrid (XNU)
License
Proprietary software with open-source components
Preceded by
macOS Catalina
Succeeded by
macOS Monterey
Official website
www.apple.com/macos/big-sur at the Wayback Machine (archived 2021-10-18)
Tagline
Doing it all, in new ways.
Support status
Unsupported as of September 26, 2023. Finder is still able to download driver updates to sync to newer devices. Drops support for Macs released from 2012 to early 2013.
Part of a series on
macOS
Features
History
Transition to Intel processors
Transition to Apple silicon
Architecture
Built-in apps
List of applications
List of games
Versions
Rhapsody (Developer Release)
Hera (Server 1.0)
Kodiak (Public Beta)
Cheetah (10.0)
Puma (10.1)
Jaguar (10.2)
Panther (10.3)
Tiger (10.4)
Leopard (10.5)
Snow Leopard (10.6)
Lion (10.7)
Mountain Lion (10.8)
Mavericks (10.9)
Yosemite (10.10)
El Capitan (10.11)
Sierra (10.12)
High Sierra (10.13)
Mojave (10.14)
Catalina (10.15)
Big Sur (11)
Monterey (12)
Ventura (13)
Sonoma (14)
Applications
App Store
Automator
Books
Calculator
Calendar
Chess
Contacts
Dashboard
Dictionary
DVD Player
FaceTime
Finder
Game Center
Grapher
iTunes (history)
Launchpad
Mail
Messages
Music
Notes
Notification Center
Photo Booth
Podcasts
Photos
Preview
QuickTime
Reminders
Safari (version history)
Sherlock
Stickies
TextEdit
Time Machine
Utilities
Activity Monitor
AirPort Utility
Archive Utility
Audio MIDI Setup
Bluetooth File Exchange
ColorSync
Console
Crash Reporter
DigitalColor Meter
Directory Utility
DiskImageMounter
Disk Utility
Font Book
Grab
Help Viewer
Image Capture
Installer
Keychain Access
Migration Assistant
Network Utility
ODBC Administrator
Remote Install Mac OS X
System Preferences
System Information
Terminal
Universal Access
VoiceOver
Related
Classic Mac OS
Copland
NeXTSTEP
Rhapsody
Darwin
v
t
e
macOS Big Sur (version 11) is the seventeenth major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s operating system for Macintosh computers. It was announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 22, 2020,[4] and was released to the public on November 12, 2020.[5][4][6]
Big Sur is the successor to macOS Catalina, and was succeeded by macOS Monterey, which was released on October 25, 2021. The release of Big Sur was the first time the major version number of the operating system had been incremented since the Mac OS X Public Beta in 2000.
For the first time since OS X Yosemite 6 years earlier, macOS Big Sur features a user interface redesign. It features new blurs to establish a visual hierarchy, along with making icons more square and UI elements more consistent. Other changes include a revamp of the Time Machine backup mechanism, the control center from iOS 7, among other things. It is also the first macOS version to support Macs with ARM-based processors. To mark the transition, the operating system's major version number was incremented, for the first time since 2001, from 10 to 11.[7][8] The operating system is named after the coastal region of Big Sur in the Central Coast of California, continuing the naming trend of California locations that began with OS X Mavericks.
macOS Big Sur is the final version of macOS that supports Macs with Nvidia graphics cards, specifically the 15-inch dual graphics late 2013 and mid 2014 MacBook Pro models, as its successor, macOS Monterey, drops support for those models.
^Rossignol, Joe (November 10, 2020). "Apple Releasing macOS Big Sur on November 12". MacRumors. Archived from the original on May 14, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
^Owen, Malcolm (September 11, 2023). "Apple issues updates for iOS 15.7.9, iPadOS 15.7.9, macOS Monterey 12.6.9, Big Sur 11.7.10". Apple Insider. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
^Etherington, Darrell (June 22, 2020). "Apple is releasing a Mac mini with an Apple processor for developers starting this week". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on May 14, 2021. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
^ abHeater, Brian (June 22, 2020). "Apple unveils macOS 11.0 Big Sur". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on June 22, 2020. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
^"Apple introduces macOS Big Sur with a beautiful new design" (Press release). Apple Inc. June 22, 2020. Archived from the original on June 22, 2020. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
^Carman, Ashley (November 10, 2020). "Apple announces macOS Big Sur release date". The Verge. Archived from the original on December 27, 2020. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
^Rossignol, Joe (June 22, 2020). "macOS Big Sur Listed as 'Version 11.0' in System Preferences". MacRumors. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
^Gruber, John (June 24, 2020). "The Talk Show Remote from WWDC 2020, With Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak". Daring Fireball. Archived from the original on June 25, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
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utilities have been deprecated since the release of macOSBigSur. Microsoft Windows and ReactOS provide a program named tracert that performs the same...
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