Mojave host with Big Sur guest?

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kpluck

Junior Member
I am currently using macOS Mojave. I skipped Catalina but plan to upgrade to Big Sur at some point. In the past, my host OS has always been more recent, or the same version, as the guest OSs that I ran in a VM. Is running Big Sur in a VM supported when the host is running the older Mojave OS?

I don't know why this wouldn't work but thought I would ask to be sure before upgrading to the latest version of Parallels.
 
I had the same problem and today I installed Parallels and created a virtual machine with Big Sur. The virtual machine runs, but I have a question: how can I use all my applications and documents currently in Mojave also with the virtualized Big Sur? Is there any way to share the content of the Mojave HD?
 
I use to have a Mac Pro in the office and a MacBook Pro that I would use at home and on the road that I need to keep in sync. DropBox worked very well for me. Apps I installed manually. I suppose such an arrangement would work with a VM but you would be taking double the space having copies in both the guest and host installs.

For documents, you could share the folders where you keep your files with the VM. Then you would just need to install the apps in the VM. This should work fine as long as the version of the applications were the same in the host and guest. Things like contacts, calendars and email tend to be cloud based these days so signing in to those accounts should handle that.
 
Thank you for your suggestion. The problem is that I don't know how to share the HD of the "phisical mac" with the virtual machine. As you can see in the attached screenshot, I selected the options to share all disks, but I can't see disks when I reopen the VM. Any suggestion?
 

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GiuseppeT1 said:
Thank you for your suggestion. The problem is that I don't know how to share the HD of the "phisical mac" with the virtual machine. As you can see in the attached screenshot, I selected the options to share all disks, but I can't see disks when I reopen the VM. Any suggestion?
Click to expand...
From the screenshot shared, shows that the Parallels Tools are not installed without it sharing won't work. On the top right corner, you can see a triangle caution symbol select it you will get an option "Install Parallels Tools" when you select it Parallels Tools ISO will be mounted in the macOS VM. Install Parallels Tools from the ISO then the sharing will work.
 
Let us know if your VM will still boot after installing Parallels tools....that seems to be an issue in other forums.
 
Thanks for your suggestion, Ajith.
First of all let me say that both the VMs (Mojave and Big Sur, I'm trying to evaluate two options) boot correctly. I tried several times during my tests and never had problems.
Then, after installing Parallels Tools I see my documents and have access to them. Unfortunately some applications I need to run in the VM don't work when I launch them from the shared disk (i.e. FileMake Pro Advanced 16, Excel365, Word365, Powerpoint365), while other work perfectly (Audacity, Easyrename) and other work but with some limitations (Firefox opens, but I can't see my bookmark). What is the trick, if any? Should I reinstall them in the VM? This way will request a lot of disk space and, moreover, will require to set all the parameters in order to have the same appearance and functionality. Quite an annoying activity. Is there any way to run the application installed on the hard disk of the phisycal Mac even in the VM?
Finally, is there any way to change the sense of trackpad scrolling in the VM? Currently it is the opposite compared what I'm use to have in my physical Mac ("natural" in preferencies) and it is again very annoying.
 
Is it just me, or was the original question not answered? I to would like to run a Big Sur guest VM on a Mojave host.
 
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