News

macOS Big Sur to be Available Today – Here’s When You Can Likely Download It

Apple will make macOS Big Sur – its latest and greatest release of macOS – available sometime today, Thursday, November 12.

Although Apple hasn’t shared an exact time that it’ll enable downloads of its first Apple Silicon-capable version of macOS, it’s possible to make an educated guess, based on past macOS releases.

As noted by MacRumors, Apple lists a release date of November 12 on its Indian site, while its Thai site lists a November 13 release date. Those two countries are 90 minutes apart by time zones, which suggests a release window of sometime between 9:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time. Past releases also narrow it down a bit, meaning the most likely release time in that window would be 10:00 a.m. Pacific.

It’s worth noting, however, that major macOS releases over the past several years have typically come closer to 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time, so it’s certainly possible it could be a bit later than our prediction of 10:00 a.m.

Here is the best guess (thanks to MacRumors) for when to start checking for the macOS Big Sur download:

  • Honolulu, Hawaii — 8:00 a.m. HST
  • Anchorage, Alaska — 9:00 a.m. AKST
  • Cupertino, California — 10:00 a.m. PST
  • Vancouver, Canada — 10:00 a.m. PST
  • Phoenix, Arizona — 11:00 a.m. MST
  • Denver, Colorado — 11:00 a.m. MST
  • Chicago, Illinois — 12:00 noon. CST
  • New York, New York — 1:00 p.m. EST
  • Toronto, Canada — 1:00 p.m. EST
  • Halifax, Canada — 2:00 p.m. AST
  • Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — 3:00 p.m. BRT
  • London, United Kingdom — 6:00 p.m. GMT
  • Berlin, Germany — 7:00 p.m. CET
  • Paris, France — 7:00 p.m. CET
  • Cape Town, South Africa — 8:00 p.m. SAST
  • Helsinki, Finland — 8:00 p.m. EET
  • Moscow, Russia — 9:00 p.m. MSK
  • Istanbul, Turkey — 9:00 p.m. TRT
  • Dubai, United Arab Emirates — 10:00 p.m. GST
  • Delhi, India — 11:30 p.m. IST
  • Jakarta, Indonesia — 1:00 a.m. WIB next day
  • Shanghai, China — 2:00 a.m. CST next day
  • Singapore — 2:00 a.m. SGT next day
  • Perth, Australia — 2:00 a.m. AWST next day
  • Hong Kong — 2:00 a.m. HKT next day
  • Seoul, South Korea — 3:00 a.m. KST next day
  • Tokyo, Japan — 3:00 a.m. JST next day
  • Brisbane, Australia – 4:00 a.m. AEST next day
  • Adelaide, Australia — 4:30 a.m. ACDT next day
  • Sydney, Australia — 5:00 a.m. AEDT next day
  • Auckland, New Zealand — 7:00 a.m. NZDT next day

‌macOS Big Sur‌ is compatible with most 2013 and later machines, outlined below:

  • 2015 and later MacBook
  • 2013 and later MacBook Air
  • Late 2013 and later MacBook Pro
  • 2014 and later iMac
  • 2017 and later iMac Pro
  • 2014 and later Mac mini
  • 2013 and later Mac Pro

Good luck, and good downloading!

Chris Hauk

Chris is a Senior Editor at Mactrast. He lives somewhere in the deep Southern part of America, and yes, he has to pump in both sunshine and the Internet.