When Should You Upgrade to Apple’s OS 26 Releases?

I’m definitely in the last group for now. I’ve turned off automatic download & installation on my MacBook Air, my 2022 iPhone SE and my mother’s 2021 iMac to avoid any surprises, and will sit & wait for the fallout from the UI redesign. I’ll continue to manually install security updates for iOS 18 and macOS 15 Sequoia respectively, so that should keep both I and my mum safe.

While I’ve not been a fan of some of Apple’s UI changes over the past few years, I’ve reluctantly accepted them. But Liquid Glass looks to be particularly disruptive, especially for my mother who is comfortable with her iMac the way it is currently.

Apple seems to have released iOS/iPadOS 18.7 & MacOS 15.7 (i.e., an update for Sequoia) at or just before releasing iOS/iPadOS & MacOS 26 (Tahoe). [Though there is no corresponding update for tvOS.] … While posting security updates for iOS/iPadOS 26, but not (yet, as I write this) for MacOS 25.

Regardless of how long you plan to wait for OS 26 releases, if you’re on iOS/iPadOS 18.anything and/or MacOS 15.anything, you may want to go to iOS/iPadOS 18.7 and MacOS 15.7 already. Just for the security updates.

Updated everything except my Mac. Glad Apple put out Sequoia 15.7 today. I’ll wait til .2 or .3 for my 2020 M1 MBP

I’ll probably keep “Enhanced Contrast” or whatever it’s called turned on for my Mac

It is interesting to see that Apple simultaneously released macOS 15.7 and iOS/iPadOS 18.7 at the same time as OS26, including for machines that are compatible with OS26.

The final revision of Sonoma came out a day before Sequoia, so it is not exactly unprecedented, but it does seem pretty unusual to me.

They did the same for iOS 17.7 last year - it was released on iOS 18 day, and was the default install for all devices that could run iOS 18 - you needed to scroll down to select iOS 18 manually, just like today with iOS 26.

Interestingly, macOS 26 is the presented as the default install today on my M1 MacBook Air, while macOS 15.7 is listed as the secondary option.

In contrast, iOS 18.7 is the default installation choice on my iPhone 13 mini, with iOS 26 as the secondary option.

I’m still on 17 on my iPhone and iPad, so I guess I’m firmly in the last category Will probably go to 26 after a few bug fix releases though. I am on Sequoia 15.6.1 on my iMac, so will wait a week or so for a 15.7.1 then install whatever’s the latest 15.7.x at the time (it won’t run 26).

Does anyone know if Sequoia 15.7 installs the new MacOS Journal app, or if it requires a move to Tahoe?

I was on 16.x on my 2021 iPad, so I updated that to 18.7

I do not see an 18.7 update for the 13 Mini

Too bad they made such radical changes right after I bought a new machine, now I’m afraid to update it past Sequoia

Journal requires Tahoe. As do the new Apps, Games, and Magnifier apps.

I’m a reluctant early adopter because I need to test my apps. I found Liquid Glass in Tahoe to be unusable because it’s so distracting. Everything looks smudgy. With reduced transparency Liquid Glass is mostly gone except for the squircled dock icons.

I only did a couple of bug reports this time but got no reaction on any of them.

For those planning to delay the upgrade beyond a few weeks, I think you should be aware of the possible security implications. Today’s macOS 15.7 security release has 34 fixes, whereas Tahoe 26.0 has 75 fixes. Apple always puts a much more comprehensive suite of security fixes in the latest major version, compared to the prior versions.

This morning (Japan Time) I opened (under macOS 15.6.1, M4 Mac mini) System Settings > Software Update, and noticed that TWO updates are offered there: “macOS Tahoe 26.0” AND “macOS Sequoia 15.7”. Naturally I selected the “macOS Sequoia 15.7” item, and clicked the “Update” button. – 35 minutes later, I was surprised to see a “Welcome to macOS Tahoe” screen! – My M4 Mac mini was actually running macOS Tahoe 26.0.

So my Mac was updated to Tahoe 26.0 against my will. (I definitely wanted to go to Sequoia 15.7.) But I noticed the following:

• Other than slight visual differences (icons, buttons, etc.,) the Mac functionality was the same as Sequoia 15.6.1 everywhere.
• The free (available) storage space is about 25 GB less than yesterday.
• Analog-clock widget can be kept on the Desktop, which is nice (Under Sequoia, I had to move the pointer to screen corner to see widgets.)
• To my joy, Apple Intelligence is still inactive, because I keep the System language to Japanese and the Siri language to American English. (so I’ll never be bothered by Apple Intelligence)

So far, macOS Tahoe is fine to me. I just wonder what was the correct procedure to go to Sequoia 15.7 – I might have been absent-minded, but certainly it was a confusing user interface (for offering TWO updates at the same time.)

The other issue is that the longer you wait, the harder it is to find support for problems that occur. I know that a few weeks after I upgrade, I find it difficult to remember how things that were upgraded worked before the upgrade. As time goes on, fewer and fewer people will be in a position to help you.

Just took 45 mins to backup the iPhone, and did the 18.7. Then jumped on the Mac and did the MacOS 15.7 while also disabling Automatic updates for Mac OS.
Do not want to just yet (waiting till I pickup my iPhone 17Pro, case, and magsafe carmount).

THOUGHTS: I have seen popup notifications that next OS won’t support TimeCapsule disks, likely due to the new AFIS image that won’t work on the Timecapsule (based on disk images). However, is it true that Apple won’t allow any Timemachine backups over network attached server (NAS)? And only to a local attached drive (USB-C/Tbolt)?

One thing I’ve run into on previous upgrades – not sure how it applies to this one – is that assuming all your devices are OS26-capable, there may be iCloud-related features that don’t work as expected when devices are on different major OS versions. So if you upgrade your iPhone and your iPad this week and hold off a month for your Mac, it’s not guaranteed that everything will work as it should during that period.

Dave

Apple currently supports Time Machine backups across networks using either the Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) networking mechanism or version 3.x of the SMB networking protocol with Time Machine extensions.

As of macOS 27, Apple will drop support for Apple Filing Protocol, so Apple Time Capsules and many third party devices will lose support for Time Machine backups over a network.

As far as I know, the extended SMB method will continue to be supported for networked Time Machine backups by macOS 27 and later.

Not all third party NAS devices support the necessary SMB version and extensions, but I expect that many of the major NAS manufacturers will provide updates to at least some of their devices to allow it. If you have a third party NAS, check with the manufacturer for more information.

I am in the “cautious users” group, and have been a member of that group for just about every time a new version of theMac OS appears. I certainly plan on waiting until at least V26.2 of Tahoe arrives. But with Sequoia, I waited until V15.3 appeared, as there were still some bugs in V15.2. Again, there was nothing earth shattering that I needed in Sequoia, and it’s the same with Tahoe.

Additionally, given that I use third party software on both of my Macs, it is imperative that I insure ALL of them are compatible with the new version of the Mac OS. Fortunately that typically involves having 2 or 3 programs updated.

I don’t normally ‘live on the edge’ but now I’m retired I can afford to be a bit more relaxed about upgrades. Two things I’ve noticed immediately after the update. Software Update was changed to “Install all updates” rather than Security Updates Only, and Filevault was turned on despite me having it turned off.
I’m not interested in getting into a debate of the value of these features, but it REALLY annoys me when Apple decides to ignore my previous choices and does whatever it wants.

Arrrghh, I wonder how many other things have been changed without my permission. Not happy!

Since nobody knows. Apple will not tell us. It is down to what you believe.

I believe it is the new parts of the OS that introduce security issues that Apple fixes. I am probably more secure on 18.7. I will, however, upgrade in about ten days. Then I will know no major bug has surfaced.

I finally got the 18.7 notification on the 13 Mini, but not when it’s plugged into my Mac - from there I can only do 26

I’ve upgraded my phone, iPad, and watch (I’d been running the public beta on my iPad so had a sense there were no show-stopping bugs) and so far, so good. My Mac is mission-critical so I’ll wait a week or so to see if there’s anything bad that comes out in wide release and then take the plunge.

That count, in isolation, doesn’t say much.

Although it implies that there are 41 bugs in 15.7 that Apple hasn’t bothered to fix, that isn’t necessarily true. It could also be that:

• Some of those bugs were previously fixed in an earlier release (e.g. 15.6.x)

• Some of those bugs may be fixed in an upcoming release (15.7.1?)

• Some of those bugs may not actually affect macOS users. Apple routinely triages upstream bugs to decide what they want to include.

  • They may be in 26 because they’ve integrated the latest upstream code for some open source components, but have decided that the bug is not serious enough to require a back-port to older releases.
  • The bug may also only exist in the latest version of an upstream code-base. The older version found in an older macOS release might not have the bug.

Or Apple really is just sitting on 41 critical security bugs because they don’t care about version 15 anymore. I’m just saying that there are multiple explanations for the different bug counts.

. This is the second time Apple has pulled that stunt. I wonder if they’re next going to do something where the cancel button triggers an upgrade, like they did for the Sonoma release.

Once is a bug. Twice is incompetence. Three times is a conspiracy.

I assume this is due to local snapshots holding pre-upgrade content on your Data volume. Please check to see if this remains the case 24 hours later, after those snapshots expire.

I did an EA install on AppleOS IOSPhone IOSPad, because i need to be ready for when my customers call me -surprised -at login questions and changes, (I used to be bleeding edge- but i have my own production workflow needs these days) - so far so good. - Revealed a couple multiple message threads (family group) that hopefully is resolved. My midi keyboard seems to be getting messages over usb. I may install on my 2018 Mini (that’s collecting dust) just to see how it deals with Tahoe. Caveat Downloadtor!

I loaded Sequoia 15.7 on my M1 Max Pro, my primary laptop. No problems.

This morning, I loaded Tahoe on my M4 Air. Logging initially into the admin account had no problems (after I got through the ‘new OS introductory’ gunk.) HOWEVER, then logging into my normal user account has generated the spinning technicolor beachball in the “Setup Assistant” application. Other stuff is running in the background (I got a notification about a PT appointment in a couple minutes…) But I can’t Command-tab to switch away from that app. I’ll let that run another hour or so, and then if it’s still there, force-reboot. Fortunately, there’s nothing critical on that machine I’d lose if I have to delete and restore my everyday account.

One more note: There’s a new version of Music.app, it’ll be interesting to see if this solves the chronic problems I’ve had with previous versions.

This is because you didn’t click on the little “i” icon next to the Sequoia option, where Apple conveniently preselected Tahoe instead. It was surprising to see that mistake, but not really. Apple has done this before.

Usually fall into the Cautious User category & wait at least a week or more before upgrades. Started having problems w/my iPhone a few days ago; it wasn’t “ringing” for incoming calls, calls were going straight to voice mail but no voice mail notification. Calls weren’t even showing on Recent Call screen, only knew I’d missed the calls as my daughter texted me; no alerts shown anywhere.
Also, iPhone wasn’t “ringing” for texts either; they were showing up in Messages but no “noise” when they came in. Even my Apple watch, which is set to Silent but vibrate for incoming calls & texts, wasn’t responding.
Was dreading a tech support call to Apple so I went ahead & updated both iPhone OS & Watch OS, phone is again ringing for calls/texts & watch is vibrating. Guess sometimes it might be necessary to update the OS quickly. YMMV.

I’m not deploying Mac upgrades for a while. The Music app is one thing that gets little coverage, moving the controls to the bottom reminds me of Apple’s attempted forcing of the Safari URL and controls to the bottom. Unlike Safari, I have my doubts Apple will ever give users a choice in Music. They’ve done other things to ruin Music, like eliminating the status bar.

Reducing Transparency will help, but not solve the Liquid Glass visual problems. I support a number of users with imperfect vision and I know they will not do as well with Tahoe. Left justifying text in dialogue boxes is ugly too.

I’ve usually been an “early adopter” or an “enthusiastic user”, but OS 26 feels too unpolished and poorly considered. I’ve decided to be a “cautious user”, perhaps even a “reluctant upgrader”, for the first time since the Lion / Mountain Lion era. I will be staying on 15.x/18.x for me for the foreseeable future.

I noticed that there are security updates for devices that can’t be upgraded to the latest OS versions. Updates to fix a vulnerability in iOS/iPadOS 15.x and 16.x were released. The iOS/iPadOS 17.x update that addressed this particular vulnerability already was released already a few weeks ago.

OK, when I came back from PT, the Setup Assistant was still running with spinning beachball. I force-rebooted the laptop, logged onto the admin account, ran Disk Utility → Disk First Aid. That reported and repaired damage. I was then able to log onto the normal user account, which launched as expected.

It looks like the old advice “Run Disk Utility → First Aid Before installing an update” is still good advice.

Yes! I saw that too. I figured it was only because I clicked the “I” to see what other update was hiding (it was Safari). Based on this I’m glad I did.

It’s not a “mistake”, but it is VERY DISAPPOINTING behavior by Apple. This is the kind of effluent we expect from Microsoft. Same thing applies to the setup assistant pre-selecting “automatically install updates,” overriding by default my previous “notify and download, but let me decide when to install” preference.

This is indeed astonishing.

I’m looking at Software Update. It offers “macOS Tahoe 26” up top and then “Other Updates” below. If you click on the the little i next to it, that reveals that “Other Updates” consists of:
macOS Tahoe …………… 26
macOS Sequoia …………… 15.7
Safari …………… 26
So “Other Updates” ends up preselecting the same as the top-offered choice. Meanwhile, macOS Sequoia 15.7 remains unchecked despite the specific “Other Updates” section it’s listed in.

I really hope this was an individual screw-up as opposed to Apple essentially admitting they have such little faith in the benefits of their upgrade that they believe it’s trickery that will achieve their desired result. As @shamino points out above, this is not the first time we’ve seen such a stunt.

I did an upgrade to OS 15.7 on both of my Macs last night, and no hitches at all.

A new version of Onyx will soon be available for Tahoe, which is typical. In looking at the Shirt Pocket Software blog about SuperDuper!, David Nanian is encountering some “weird” things, but I am confident he will get through all them.

But even if all the third party software works with Tahoe, I will still wait until at least V26.2 arrives.

When I selcted Software Update, Tahoe was listed first, but the one for Sequoia OS 15.7 was clearly listed next. No problemo selecting it. Update went smoothly on both of my Macs.

So then at the very least that button and its associated circle-i information section would be inconsistent. That is indeed quite a “problemo”.

No! As I said, the two updates were CLEARLY listed separately. No need to click on the little i near the Tahoe part. The one for Sequoia 15.7 was clearly there. I just selected that, and the update, as expected, proceeded easily and cleanly. No need to make it difficult to select the i.

I'm waiting until I have my new iPhone before updating to iOS 26!

I remembered in the nick of time that the last two times I got an iPhone – my 15 Pro two years ago, and 14 Pro a year before that – I’d jumped at installing the new iOS on my previous phone as soon as it came out, so I could play with it.

By the time I had the new phone, I’d already updated to a .0.1 bug-fix release in the intervening days. The new phone arrived with the .0 version, and the Migration Assistant was unable to do a simple migration of the contents of the old phone because it was running a newer version of the OS. Each of the last two times.

It required a lot of extra jumping through hoops to get to a state where I could migrate the old phone onto the new and get back to using my iUniverse.

This time? I’m staying on iOS 18 on my iPhone 15 Pro until I pick up my new iPhone 17 Pro on Friday. I’ll let the Migration Assistant on the new phone call the shots from there.

Of course it’s possible Apple has fixed this problem in the intervening time, and can manage a migration from old phone (with new OS) to new phone regardless, but I’m not counting on it.

Good catch. Yes, when I click the i button next to 15.7, I get this selection, which wants to install Tahoe:

ScreenFloat Shot of System Settings on 2025-09-16 at 17-17-071184×1176 185 KB

Hmm! Did you try a migration via iCloud? I would assume that would work.

I can’t say I’ve run into this explicitly, and I’m often running betas on my old iPhone.

I’ll see what happens on Friday, when the new one comes.

Perhaps you see no need. But perhaps the rest of us do. The 15.7 section says

Other Updates
macOS Sequoia 15.7 and
1 more…

The only way to find out what that “more” means is to click the circle-i. And when you click that circle-i next to Sequoia update, you see Tahoe is selected and Sequoia update is not. And that is just plain bad usability.

Yup, tried a local migration and a migration from iCloud backup. I wouldn’t expect you would see this if your old phone was running a beta, since the new phone’s release version would be newer than that.

As I said, it might be that this has been addressed and won’t happen this year, but it was such a pain the last two times that I’m not taking the chance, and wanted to share a warning for anyone who might also be about to get a new phone and was considering updating the old one first.

When I went looking for the 15.7 update I found Tahoe on the of updates and as a Cautious User went looking for 15.7 rather than just clicked on Tahoe. That kind of glitch can be annoying.

If you have an M3 Ultra Mac Studio, like me, the answer is NEVER. That’s because macOS 26 Tahoe WILL NOT INSTALL on these machines; you can’t update the existing system nor install it onto an external drive.

I spent HOURS trying to figure out what I might’ve been doing wrong, and I just found this page:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/256136192?sortBy=rank

Everyone there has an M3 Ultra Mac Studio, and like me, they are all experiencing the same problem: whether installing onto another drive or trying to update the internal drive, the process completes and then restarts back into 15.7 again. Logs show an Apple Neural Engine “hardware failure,” where Tahoe is trying to call a driver that isn’t there.

BTW, I used the same installer and the identical drives on my M4 MacBook Pro, and everything went without a hitch.

I called Apple about this, but the guy I spoke with didn’t know anything. I also filed a report, but I’m posting here in hopes of getting the word out on this and putting some pressure on Apple to fix it!

I already had read about the two “updates” on another site, so I was well aware of what the one for Sequoia entailed. Also, the coming of V15.7 had been mentioned for a number of days already. Hence, I knew to just select it, and it worked as expected.

But I do agree with you that it was just plain bad on Apple’s part to make it so difficult. As Tom Hanks said in “Forrest Gump”, Stupid is as stupid does. Aplle is the stupid one in this instance.

Also, Apple used to adhere to the KISS philosophy: Keep It Simple, Stupid. But that went by the wayside a number of years ago.

I went to update a second machine to 15.7 and was surprised to see Tahoe selected when I clicked the “i” next to the 15.7 button (similar to the screenshot that @ace included above).

It truly is a poor UX design, adding to the irony of Apple beginning its September product event with the famous Steve Jobs quote:

“Design is not just what it looks or feels like; design is how it works.”

I would go as far as saying that this particular update interface qualifies as a “dark pattern”, whether intended as such or not.

I’m a seasoned Mac user and yet turned to TidBITS for advice on this matter; and sure enough he had this helpful post. I’ve been running MacOS 26 on my 2026 Mac Mini since July, but will wait and check back here (and on Michael Tsai’s blog) before upgrading my main (2021) Macbook.

Like Adam, I’m not a big fan of Liquid Glass, and like Bike Outliner’s developer, (Jesse Grosjean; discussion here) we’ve held off on updating our app to Liquid Glass – though we will need to do it.

I updated my iPhone SE(2), iPadAir (2022) and MacBook Air (M2) to OS26.
After all I´ve read in the past months I was almost a bit disappointed, that I had NO problems at all. Everything just works like before.
I´m not so much concerned by looks like a lot of other people. I get used to a new look in a very short time and just keep on working.

(just my two eurocent…)

I would like to assume that this is a bug (and one they absolutely should have caught during the beta cycle) and will be fixed in the future.

It would shock me if this was intentional.

A better philosophy is “Everything Should Be Made as Simple as Possible, But Not Simpler” (source).

But Apple doesn’t follow that either.

Yeah, definitely a poor Apple design! Too bad Apple does not adhere to Steve’s belief anymore. And this snafu is just a perfect example of what I said above: Stupid is as stupid does. And also Apple keeps getting further and further away from the KISS philosophy: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Why not try to make things simpler? That would seem to be the way to go.

By the way, I’m surprised no one else has mentioned another reason not to move to Tahoe right away (I have said it a couple of times). One needs to insure that any third party software they use is compatible with Tahoe, especially critical applications. Seems like recently whenever an article is posted about upgrading, that critical piece is left out.

For me, given that I use all third party software for just about all my tasks, such a precaution is obvious and necessary.

Suggesting a more complicated principle is in violation of… the KISS principle.

It’s a subtle point, but I think this touches on one of the most important changes in how operating systems have been viewed over the years.

I’m painting with a broad brush and oversimplifying a bit, but as recently as the early 2000s, people tended to put the applications first, especially in the business context. Operating systems were seen as stable foundations upon which to run your applications. New OS features were welcome, but the feeling of the sands shifting under your feet was not. Application features mattered more than new OS features, and because they were foundational, new OS features were expected to be very carefully thought out. In other words, applications are what drove the decisions of OS and OS version.

It seems that nowadays, in the era of major annual OS updates, the roles have flipped, and operating system changes seem to be driving app changes. There is pressure to “upgrade” to a new OS, even when the new features are cosmetic ones of dubious value, and it is expected that app developers will quickly invest in updating their apps to accommodate the OS. The OS has become as much about keeping up with fashion as it is about running apps effectively.

I write that as someone who has spent most of my adult life as an early adopter of apps and new OS versions. I feel that in 2025, the tail is wagging the dog.

Harrumph.

Well stated. But the “flipping of roles” has been going on for quite a while. And based on what you said, and also how one depends on 3rd party applications, it still needs to be emphasized about 3rd party software compatibility before “moving/upgrading” to a new Mac OS. Again though, that has been definitely missing in numerous recent articles about upgrading to the new Mac OS. That includes Tidbits. Fortunately I can make the point here about third party software compatibility.

Two of my critical applications are Onyx and SuperDuper!. For just about every new Mac OS, Titanium Software releases a version of Onyx for the new OS shortly after the OS arrives. But for SuperDuper! (SD), the past couple of Mac OS releases have been problematic for SD. Fortunately, David Nanian, SD’s developer, has been dedicated, persistent, and relentless in getting SD to work with each new OS. I am definitely appreciative of David’s efforts, and SD still continues to be the only backup software that makes bootable backups.

For the remainder of the third party software I use, it’s been quite a while since a newer version needed to be developed for each new Mac OS. Maybe those programs are “generic” enough to survive each new Mac OS, but that is just a guess on my part.

I agree. It’s also unfortunately about staying current with security updates, as the latest OS always seems to get more updates, which presumably are not all migrated down to older releases.

Tahoe also seems to have changed more things than usual behind the scenes, breaking more apps (according to some developers), which warrants more verification that apps will work as expected.

Interesting you say this. My primary reason for updating was the desire to get the Journal app on Mac. If it was available for Sequoia I wouldn’t have updated. I’m sure Apple believe everything is well thought out, but some of the things they do - and how users might react - would question this proposition.

I am a reluctant adopter. Adding feature upon feature may be good for some users, but some users are basic to moderate users and do not need such enhancements. I prefer the Mac to the PC, but that does not mean that I am a super power user who appreciates new features that do nothing for my work flow. My tech consultant is more game to making updates, but he also advises his clients that rapid upgrades are not ideal. Wait until .1 of an update or even .2. I did, however, update to the latest version of Sequoia. I do not allow automatic updating; I want control as to when an update will be applied.

Updated most of my apps prior to install. Backed up. Installed. All good for now. M2 Max Studio, M1 iMac and M1 iPad 11"

Sounds good. But I need to wait for at least Onyx and SuperDuper! to be updated. A new version of Onyx specifically for Tahoe should be available very soon, but with the issues David Nanian of Shirt Pocket Software (developer of SuperDuper!) is seeing with Tahoe, that update will take longer. No biggie, as I plan on waiting until at least OS 26.2 is released. Meanwhile Sequoia works just fine.

I was going to write this up for TidBITS, but in my testing, the Update Now button works correctly, despite the confusing checkbox selection. On two Macs, I confirmed that clicking Update Now under Also Available first presented the Sequoia legal agreement, started downloading updates branded with the Sequoia icon, and eventually installed 15.7.

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ScreenFloat Shot of System Settings on 2025-09-18 at 15-12-521434×1626 191 KB

In other words, I can’t explain how some people inadvertently ended up with Tahoe when they thought they were getting Sequoia, but it’s not as simple as the Tahoe checkbox underneath the i button being selected as it is by default.

Akent, both of them have updated whilst in Tahoe as well as Cocktail. No issues

Just another data point:

I usually back up my i/Pad/OS devices to my desktop Mac Mini (in addition to regular iCloud backups) before updating the OS. Today I plugged my iPad Pro 11" (M4) and my iPad Pro 12.9" (M1) both running 18.6.2 into my Mini (M2) running 15.6.1, and clicked on the mounted iPad in a Finder window. It gave no indication that 18.7 exists:

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Interestingly, on the 11" iPadOS had not flagged the Settings app icon, and under Settings itself no “Software Update Available” option appeared, while an Update was flagged on the 12.9" but only the 26 option appeared when selecting Settings > Software Update Available. On both machines under Settings > General > Software Update it lists both the 18.7 and 26 as available.

Curious.

This might be helpful. On my iPhone SE3 (2020) I can get to either iOS 18.7 or iOS 26 depending on how I select the upgrade.

Selecting “Software Update Available” gives me iOS 26.

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20250918_1408_IMG_4627750×1334 178 KB

Selecting "General —> Software Update gives me iOS 18.7.

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EDIT: How do I get these images to load two across instead of a single column? Thanks.

Edit2: Fixed the column layout.

I’ve found that making sure the markup ( ![filename](upload://....) ) tags for the two images are in the same paragraph (no newline between them) in the editor will do it. They’ll end next to each other unless wrapping is necessary due to window/frame size.

In my case, I opened System Settings > Software Update screen quite early (September 16, 7:20 AM, Japan Time, that is September 15, 6:20 PM, U.S. Eastern Time.) That screen listed just 3 items: “macOS Tahoe 26.0”, “macOS Sequoia 15.7”, and “Safari 26.0”.

Below that 3-item (3-line) list, only the usual things: “Installed: macOS Sequoia 15.6.1”, “Automatic Updates:”, “Use of this software is subject to …” and the “?” icon were shown. Nothing else. No “Design”/“Apple Intelligence”/etc blah blah, as shown on your first screenshot, nor any “Also Available” or anything like that.

Only the simple 3-line list was added, on the usual Software Update screen.

So, I just clicked the second item on the list: “macOS Sequoia 15.7”, and then clicked the “Update Now” button. (I didn’t click the “i” button.) – Then, I was surprised to see my Mac was updated to Tahoe 26.0.

Perhaps Apple had not finalized the interface on the screen yet, at 6:20 PM, U.S. Eastern Time?

“On two Macs, I confirmed that clicking Update Now under Also Available first presented the Sequoia legal agreement, started downloading updates branded with the Sequoia icon, and eventually installed 15.7”

That’s exactly what I did also for each of my Macs. Just glad it worked as expected. Sure is a bad “snafu” on Apple’s part.

If I am understanding everyone’s experiences correctly (including my own), simply clicking on the “Update Now” button next to macOS 15.7 will correctly update the system to macOS 15.7.

However, if you click on the “i” button next to the 15.7 “Update Now” button, you will get an “info” screen with the Tahoe upgrade counterintuitively being selected (along with Safari and possibly other updates). In this case, macOS 15.7 surprisingly is deselected. If you aren’t paying close attention, it is all too easy to click the “Upgrade Now” on that second “info” screen and get Tahoe by mistake.

My only question is if you close that “info” screen without deselecting the Tahoe upgrade and then click on “Update Now”, does the button still update to macOS 15.7, or did the default Tahoe selection on the second “info” screen toggle the button’s behavior, causing macOS 26 to be installed?

I’d check it myself, but I’ve already updated my machines to 15.7, so I don’t have anything to test.

Either way, this is an awful user experience!

From what I surmise, you are correct. I actually have never clicked on that “i” button, as I’ve never seen the need to. The upgrade has always worked fine for me.

I’m nearly certain that if you cancel out of the screen that defaults to showing Tahoe selected and then click Update Now, you’ll get 15.7 (I got the Sequoia license agreement).

The confusing bit is that if you leave Tahoe selected, the confirming button is Upgrade Now, and I think that will get you Tahoe. From what I can see, the buttons always read Update Now for 15.7 and Upgrade Now for 26.0.

Thanks. That sounds correct to me.

On the long-standing distinction between “update” and “upgrade” that you raised, the same thought occurred to me. Part of my discomfort sprang from the ambiguity in listing the “upgrade” in a window that indicates “updates are available”.

upd26570×559 66.1 KB

Again, there seems to be a lack of attention to logical consistency in important parts of the interface. I can imagine a slew of reasons why Apple may think it is not a problem worth fixing, but I can’t help but think there is a better way.

Well, I think they are being consistent in naming, anyway. Upgrade Now is always for a major release; Update Now is always for a minor one.

Besides the terminology snafu, why Apple had to include Tahoe when one clicks on the i for the Sequoia upgrade/update is beyond logic and common sense! For The Sequoia upgrade/update, information related to JUST Sequoia should, if necessary, be included. Why include information about another OS?

Once again I state two simple facts: 1) Apple provided a pristine example of Stupid is as stupid does, and 2) Apple no longer believes in the KISS philosophy: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Four days have passed, and now the free (available) space is about 45 GB less. Furthermore, the “Used” amount shown on the topmost line on System Settings > General > Storage is more than 60 GB larger (although the free space is only 45 GB smaller) than last week.

I am guessing this has to do something with Apple Intelligence. Although Apple Intelligence is inactive – can’t be active because Siri language setting (American English) is different from System language (Japanese) – perhaps Tahoe is downloading a large amount of data for Apple Intelligence, that can never be used (because it cannot be activated) on my Mac.

I do not plan on using anything related to AI, at least for now. But that is disturbing. I wonder if it also has to do with the “enhancement” to Spotlight? I have been using EasyFind instead Spotlight for so long, and it works real well.

I also do not use even half of the storage I have on each of my Macs, so I am OK if Tahoe “eats” up some extra storage (although it’s bothersome that it could be due to applications I do not use).

Good Grief! Thank goodness I’m no longer an Early Adopter! I’ll wait til the first big fix comes out…

Apple just came out with Tahoe 26.1 Beta. Adam mentioned 26.1 should be available in October. It looks like things are going on schedule.

Wow I’m super late to the party but just wanted to say thank you for pointing out that the older iOS updates only come to devices that can’t take the latest.

However what’s interesting, they always get a patch when a new major release comes out, and then one or two after that as of the last few years.

It seems Apple’s new way of quietly communicating when they think the iOS releases are truly ready is to stop releasing the patches for the older iOS releases on devices that can receive the latest major release. It’s been the pattern for the last two years now, I’m betting it holds.

It’s a good compromise between being reasonable and being pushy about it.

Here’s a recent “review” of OS 26.1 Beta:

Looks like still some bugs.

Perhaps this group should also consider delaying upgrading macOS to Tahoe until Electron applications they that depend on have been updated:

Tahoe Electron Detector • furbo.org

I’ve been running Music.app on a M1 Mini that I moved to Mac OS 26 Tahoe. This has been a better experience, but some Heisenbugs still exist. At least the “stops playing when moving to the next track” bug seems to be gone. The “Shuffle by track ignoring the menu Controls→Shuffle by” is still there. AirPlay connections with my HomePod Mini seem to be particularly troublesome, and occasionally it’ll stop sending to the Mac Mini attached speakers. Pausing and reselecting the set of outputs resolves that.

My primary laptop is still on Sequoia, though. I don’t see anything else that would discourage me from rolling the primary machine forward.

I will definitely be using ‘Heisenbugs’ in future to refer to such issues!

I’ve spent a fair amount of time on previous versions of Music.app trying to figure out the pattern or set of conditions that recreate my problems. No luck. I think they are likely truly ‘Heisenbugs,’ where there’s a set of conditions across concurrent activities that occasionally collide to create the problem. It’s likely they revolve around AirPlay and my streaming to multiple destinations. But that’s just a guess!

Music is probably the app I use most and since upgrading to Tahoe I’ve seen the spinning pizza of death more than ever before. It’s not crashing, just indicating a slow-down. For example, in the information pane, clicking > (next track) used to be instantaneous, now I get the pizza. I’m using an M1 Powerbook so it should be able to cope.

TL;DR
The underlying bug in Electron has been fixed and these apps are now working as a result of being rebuilt::

1. Slack
2. Discord
3. Figma
4. Visual Studio Code

These apps still aren’t working well because they continue to rely on older Electron builds:

1. 1Password
2. Dropbox
3. Bitwarden
4. Postman

This article explains the underlying Electron bug:

https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/10/10/update-your-slack-discord-clients-the-electron-tahoe-gpu-slowdown-bug-is-fixed

I control Music on a Mac mini from an iPad using the Remote app, and since upgrading to Tahoe it has played the first track and then stopped. So at the moment I’m using Screen Sharing on a MacBook Air to control Music, which isn’t the best experience due to latency. I could connect the Music library to the MacBook and then play that through the Mac mini, but I’m hoping for Apple to provide a fix.

RStudio works fine, but they have a very large user base so would have been following the betas.

For me, upgrading to Tahoe will require Apple to add preferences they’ll probably never add. Testing Tahoe 26.01 in a VM these are some frustrations:

Folder Names – Left Justified names shoved up against the window controls are harder to see.

Scroll Bars – are Left Justified too. In Apps like Safari it looks weird with no empty space, like it’s grinding against the edge.

SMB Shared Folder – Only shows 77 of over 1,500 items in a SMB folder. Has anyone else experienced this?

Music – empty space at the top of the window needs to show the Player controls that used to be there. That space shows the Status Bar if enabled. Hopefully Apple adds a preference like in Safari to revert this. It’s ugly and less useable. In older OS’s, I have the Music window partially off screen (bottom right corner of the display), so I can see more info in Song View with access to controls at the top. Tahoe makes this choice impossible.

Not in real Tahoe.

Apple has yet to tell me that I can upgrade my iPhone SE from iOS 18.6.2 to anything else, despite that it was bought in 2022 and the box says (in extremely tiny type) says it’s an SE3. I don’t know what kind of glitch this is, but I am quite happy to leave it where it is now. I’m getting very tired of new “features” that turn out to be bugs. As for my new 2024 MacMini, I’m going to leave it on Sequoia because I just spent a while finding how to remove another “feature” that introduced an annoying bug. Sorry, but wasting time trying to find the magic word that I need to use to get Apple Support to tell me how to fix another of those bugs gets rather annoying.

This doesn’t come as a huge surprise, but Tahoe appears to drain fully charged M1, M2, M3, and M4 MacBook Airs about an hour faster than Sequoia..

But why? Is there anything substantial that should taxing the circuitry so much more? I’d like to think updates should make things more efficient, not more wasteful. I admit I didn’t want the full video, I just can’t watch these “influencer” videos anymore. But from the first few seconds it sounds like he’s placing the blame on Liquid Glass. Is the claim seriously that the added translucency effects amount to reducing battery life by something on the order of 10%?

He never quite makes that claim, though he does suggest that it is the most obvious answer. The comment is that even though the modern hardware makes the additional rendering much more efficient, the additional rendering is complex and nearly always running. It is perhaps more likely that other background processes, especially indexing and media recognition are responsible for a greater share of the impact.

In any event, he didn’t test for the specific cause. He wrote a test script to simulate his own typical usage (a mix of web use, programming tasks, and video consumption), and then ran it on the same hardware under Sequoia and under Tahoe, after giving the newly installed OS time to “settle down”. No doubt the tests are imperfect and idiosyncratic, but they seemed reasonable enough to me.

Indirectly, I am surprised at how taxing even Sequoia is on older, unsupported hardware using OCLP, despite very good performance. Performance is actually very good on my 2012 MacBook Pro. I would say that interactive use, including web browsing, is comparable to Catalina, the last OS officially supported by the hardware, but the machine is clearly working much harder to achieve that performance. Under Catalina, the fans rarely are noticeable, but under Sequoia, they run often and they run hard.

My intuition is that for things a person actually uses a Mac to do most often, there isn’t much specific benefit or performance boost from running newer versions of macOS, but there is an enormous increase in background tasks that may or may not yield meaningful benefits, aside from constantly cataloguing images and other media. Then again, given the complaints about Spotlight and other technologies on recent TB threads, I’m not so sure.

PS. I’d like to think so, too, but my guess is that efficiencies in some tasks are used to support wasteful eye candy and other “capabilities” that people like me didn’t ask for elsewhere. If it weren’t for security updates, I probably would have gotten off the upgrade train around Monterey or thereabouts.

I’m a “Reluctant Adopter” primarily because I haven’t seen ANYTHING in the last 8 versions of MacOS to justify buying a new iMac. My Mid-2011 iMac is maxed out at MacOS 10.13.6 High Sierra. HOWEVER, a 30” or larger iMac would be VERY tempting!

As for iOS, I always wait until August of the next year before installing the most recent major version on my iPhone & iPads. Last, I actually don’t know what version is installed on my 4K  TVs and my  Watch A2095 is apparently maxed out at 10.6.1.