[wyclif]

Curious why you wipe the hard drive instead of upgrading. Of course, I'm fairly certain it's because you've tried that and had issues just like many users do. I'm just wondering what they are and how people justify "wipe and reinstall" (instead of updating the OS) whenever a new version of macOS is released.

[passivepinetree]

That's absolutely why. Every time I try to just use the "Install macOS $VERSION" app, my new installation seems slow and buggy, and I swear some of my files disappear.

But if I backup everything and then wipe the drive, things work perfect. I also get the additional benefit of only adding back the programs/files/settings I actually use, so I use it as a "spring cleaning" to clear out all the cruft that accumulates during the previous year.

[wyclif]

I get it, but how much work is it for you to add back apps and other software and how do you manage that so it takes less time? Do you clone all your settings and dotfiles in a repository?

[passivepinetree]

It's actually not that bad; I'd say maybe a couple of hours at most.

I actually enjoy the opportunity to slim down the apps/files/etc. that I need. It's like a spring cleaning for my files.

My settings/dotfiles are something I've been backing up on my external harddrive, but it would be a good project to put them into a repository somewhere and make a setup script to get everything installed just how I like it.