OS 26.3 Updates Focus on Bug and Security Fixes
Apple has released version 26.3 of all its operating systems, a few weeks later than past performance would have predicted. Although the company has signaled that OS 26.4 will introduce a more personalized Siri, OS 26.3 is still remarkably light on identified changes. The release notes for each update say only that it “provides important bug fixes and security updates.” Luckily, the community has identified a few welcome refinements to Liquid Glass.
Liquid Glass Polish
Thanks to Howard Oakley for noting that Apple improved how Reduce Transparency works in macOS 26.3. Previously, some awkward aspects of Liquid Glass transparency persisted even after the user enabled Reduce Transparency, as shown in the Finder sidebar header and the System Settings Search field.
Two other Liquid Glass-related pecadillos fared less well. First, although Apple fixed a macOS 26.2 problem that caused the column divider handles to be overwritten by scroll bars (first screenshot below), if you hide both the path bar and status bar, an unseemly gap appears between the scroll bar and the handles (fourth screenshot below). Additionally, while toggling the path and status bars, I managed to get the filenames to overwrite the status bar (third screenshot below). Worse, all of these were taken with Reduce Transparency on, so why are filenames ever visible under the scroll bar? And why are the scroll bars so dark?
Second, the problem Norbert Heger identified with the way you grab to resize a window remains. Apple now lists this bug as a known AppKit issue in the macOS 26.3 developer release notes, and Heger shows how the fix appeared in a beta but didn’t make the final release.
Security Fixes
Each of these operating system updates also addresses a significant number of security vulnerabilities, and Apple also provides security patches for still-supported older versions:
- iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3: 37 security vulnerabilities
- iOS 18.7.5 and iPadOS 18.7.5: 30 security vulnerabilities
- macOS Tahoe 26.3: 53 security vulnerabilities
- macOS Sequoia 15.7.4: 30 security vulnerabilities
- macOS Sonoma 14.8.4: 36 security vulnerabilities
- tvOS 26.3: 14 security vulnerabilities
- watchOS 26.3: 16 security vulnerabilities
- visionOS 26.3: 25 security vulnerabilities
- Safari 26.3: 6 security vulnerabilities
All the OS 26.3 updates address a vulnerability that Apple describes as being exploited “in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals on versions of iOS before iOS 26.” That’s the language Apple uses for bugs being exploited by spyware, but even those of us who don’t typically worry about state-sponsored attacks would be smart to update soon.
Curiously, although Apple says this vulnerability affects versions of iOS before iOS 26, the iOS 18.7.5 release notes make no mention of it.
Enterprise Changes
Perhaps because system administrators are a more technically demanding audience, Apple saw fit to detail the fixes for several of the updates.
In macOS 26.3:
- FileVault is correctly enabled for standard users when enforced by a device management configuration during Setup Assistant.
- Screen Recording permissions for apps are shown correctly in System Settings when a device management configuration allows them to be enabled by standard users.
- Platform SSO login completes successfully when using the User Principle [sic] Name if the identity provider password is changed outside of macOS.
In iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3:
- Resolved an issue where the Global Address List was not returning search results in Mail and Calendar.
- Basic Authentication Exchange accounts added via profile will not get stuck in the new account creation flow when password or S/MIME settings are modified, or when changing how emails are deleted.
- The lock screen will be shown on Single App Mode devices when a passcode is set on the device.
- Declarative device management software update notifications will not prompt repeatedly prior to the final 24-hour required update window.
- New accounts will not be prevented from logging into Shared iPad due to insufficient storage.
- Resolved an issue with devices losing communication with some device management services.
- The App Store restriction can no longer be bypassed by using Spotlight search or Siri to find and download apps.
Howard Oakley says:
He’s right! I’ve updated the article.
It’s reportedly also changed the corner resizing issue and at least part of the Finder column resizing widget being covered by a scroll bar.
Source: 9to5mac.
Looks like the Finder column resizing issue has improved somewhat, but the corner resizing area remains. I’ve significantly updated the article.
Norbert published a second blog post.
In one of the betas the corner issue was addressed, but the change didn’t make it into the final release.
I am still using Sequoia because 1) nothing earth shattering in Tahoe that I need, and 2) a version of SuperDuper! (SD) compatible with Tahoe has not been released yet. There is a beta of such a version available, and I suspect it works fine, considering David Nanian’s reputation. But I prefer to run stable, fully developed versions of all the software I use.
Saw there was an update of Sequoia to V15.7.4 taht contained some important security features. So I downloaded it, and proceeded to do a clean installation of it on both of my Macs (after of course taking a SD backup for each machine. As expected, the process went smooth. Yes, somewhat time consuming, but it’s been a while since I did a clean installation of Sequoia. In any event, all is well.
Something clearly did change in 26,3 final release – when I try to resize by corners I now get the double arrow to resize on the curved border itself. Previously it appeared only of the intersection of the top and side border – away from the actual curved edge of the window.
In iOS 26.3, Apple also improved the process of transferring to Android, added a Weather wallpaper, and added an option to limit carrier location tracking for the iPhone 16e and iPhone 17 Air.
That was always happening as expected. The issue was that we akso got it mostly outside of the window corner and not that much inside the window.
Updated my iPhone & iPad to 26.3 yesterday. There is a bug with The Weather Channel app on the iPad. It is stuck in landscape mode, even when the iPad is in portrait orientation. I have tried various fixes without success.
Interesting that the app store entry for TWC includes an email address for giving feedback: [email protected]
So I have reported this bug.
While I will not be going to 26.x until August, it is interesting that my iDevices (1 iPhone and 3 iPad Minis) are only trying to get me to go to 26.2.1. Of course if Apple releases a new iPad Mini 8, it will have 26.x on it.
My iPad M1 does not have a problem with the weather rotating back and forth between portrait and landscape
It’s not doing that for me.
Not at all true on my M4 iPad Pro.
Strange. Still happening with my iPad Air M3. No other apps seem to have the issue.
Perhaps OS 26.4 won’t bring the more personalized Siri after all…
I see iOS v26.3 so far. I assume macOS, tvOS, etc. got theirs too. Apple security releases - Apple Support for their security fixes. It’s still early so I won’t upgrade yet since I am too busy to deal with possible new issues if any.
I’m downloading Sequoia 15.7.4 on my 2022 M2 MBA. It showed up today when I opened the MBA.
This thread at MacRumors might be interesting to anybody avoiding or unable to use Apple’s currently supported OS’s:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/after-more-than-a-year-apple-offering-12-7-6-full-installer-again-in-the-app-store-and-softwareupdate-list-full-installers.2477596/
I temporarily unblocked Software Update and installed 15.7.4 and Safari 26.3 — the whole processes was very smooth.
I wonder then they’ll stop Safari updates on macOS 15? That starts a time bomb until certain websites stop working.
macOS 15 is Sequoia.
Apple has consistently updated Safari for the current release plus the last two releases of MacOS (26.3 also supports Sonoma), so I suspect that Safari will stop being updated when MacOS is released in September-ish 2027 - presumably when macOS 28 is released.
Just woke up to see v26.3 (manually upgrade overnight since I was ready) in old 11 Pro Max. Weird. An IMAP email account password had to be re-entered when checking emails. :O
That works for me! Gives them two more cracks at liquid glass before I have to make up my mind
Useful Siri has become the PowerBook G5. It’s an embarrassment.
Curiously, Apple does not offer 18.7.5 as an update for my iPhone 12 mini and iPad Air 4, now on 18.7.2. Since I have no intentions to ‘downgrade’ my devices to 26 I feel I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place
Thanks to Apple 
I’m in the same boat. I have 18.7.3 on my iPhone 13 mini, thanks to the beta program. I’d gladly update to a newer 18.x version, but that is not an option.
Unfortunately, some of the security fixes in 18.7.5 and 26.3 seem to be pretty important, so it may be time to move on, even if I don’t want to.
Yeah, Apple is forcing us to upgrade. I had to get a new iPhone because of iOS v26 being slow as a heavy user. :(