> Efficient Big Sur updates
When Apple releases a Big Sur update, it takes two days to install it on each of our four Macs. Is there a better way?
Anyone with two or more Macs sharing an Apple ID should set one as a Content Caching server. Choose a Mac which is left running all or much of the time, with a good internet connection and sufficient free space, which can be on an external disk.
Identify where updates are going to be stored, open the Sharing pane and check mark Content Caching. Decide whether you want it to cache only shared content including updates, or to add iCloud content. Click on Options to set the Cache Location using Edit, adjusting its max size. When you next start other Macs and devices, they’ll connect to this service and your server will only download one copy of updates and content.
When you update macOS or anything of size, complete that on one Mac, preferably the server. Once that’s restarted, subsequent updates should use its cached update instead of downloading several gigabytes each time. M1 Macs are different: they have to download 900MB of each macOS update before using the cache for the rest. Intel Macs benefit from the whole of the cached update, though, greatly reducing the time it takes to update.