Feel Free to Upgrade to macOS 15 Sequoia When You’re Ready

Feel Free to Upgrade to macOS 15 Sequoia When You’re Ready

While we typically advise caution when considering upgrades to the latest major macOS release, we believe Apple has sufficiently refined macOS 15 Sequoia to warrant an upgrade for those interested. You don’t need to upgrade immediately, but there are no significant reasons for most people to delay further.

The big win in upgrading now is that Apple has released betas of most of its promised Apple Intelligence features for Macs with Apple silicon. In other posts, we’ve looked at the artificial intelligence-driven features that arrived in macOS 15.1 and macOS 15.2, including:

●     Writing Tools for proofreading, rewriting, summarizing, and composing text

●     Clean Up in Photos for removing background objects, plus natural language searches

●     Audio recording in Notes, with transcription and summarization

●     Summaries replacing snippets in Mail message lists, plus summarization of long messages or threads

●     A Smart Reply feature in Mail and Messages for quick replies

●     Notification summaries that reduce distractions from chatty apps

●     Integration of ChatGPT with Siri

●     Image Playground for generating custom images based on your descriptions

Sequoia has been quite stable, with two caveats. First, there have been some networking issues related to Apple’s built-in firewall and VPNs; we don’t yet know if macOS 15.2 resolves these. Second, macOS 15.2 introduced a new bug that causes problems for backup apps trying to make bootable backups on Apple silicon Macs. Although that’s annoying and will likely be fixed shortly, Apple has been deprecating bootable backups for years in the name of security. The modern approach is to install macOS from macOS Recovery, then use Migration Assistant to restore from Time Machine or a data-only backup.

Apple will continue to release macOS updates in 2025. If past performance is any indication, you can expect macOS 15.3 in January, 15.4 in March, and 15.5 in May with a few new features, plus a few security and bug fix updates in between.

That said, you can put off the Sequoia upgrade as long as you’re running macOS 13 Ventura or macOS 14 Sonoma and are staying current with Apple’s security updates. Earlier macOS versions no longer receive security fixes, rendering them more vulnerable to attack. Possible reasons to continue delaying include:

●     You’re too busy. The upgrade process will take a few hours, plus some additional time to configure everything properly afterward. When you are ready to upgrade, aim for when a little downtime will be convenient.

●     You rely on incompatible software. The jump from Ventura or Sonoma to Sequoia isn’t a big one, so most modern apps should have been updated by now. But if a necessary app is known to have issues, you’ll either need to wait for an update or switch to an alternative that works.

Sequoia may not transform your experience of using a Mac, but it has new features you might appreciate beyond Apple Intelligence. The most noticeable is probably iPhone mirroring, which lets you use your iPhone in a window on your Mac. Also potentially interesting are its new window tiling features that let you quickly arrange windows, the standalone Passwords app, Highlights and Distraction Control in Safari, and collapsible headers in Notes.

Before You Upgrade

Once you’ve decided to upgrade to Sequoia, you have three main tasks:

Update apps:Make sure all your apps are as up-to-date as possible. If you regularly put off updates, now’s the time to let them complete so you have Sequoia-compatible versions.

Clear space: Sequoia may need as much as 25 GB of free space to upgrade, and the Sequoia installer itself is nearly 15 GB, so we recommend making sure you have at least 50 GB free. Don’t cut this close—you should always have at least 10–20% free space for virtual memory, cache files, and breathing room. Check in Sonoma or Ventura by choosing System Settings > General > Storage; in earlier versions of macOS, choose About This Mac from the Apple menu and click Storage. System Settings provides quick ways to free up space. Another easy option for iCloud Drive users is to Control-click large folders and choose Remove Download to “evict” the local versions of those files temporarily; Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive have similar features.

Make a backup: Never, ever install an update to macOS without ensuring you have at least one current backup first. In an ideal world, you’d have an updated Time Machine backup, a data-only duplicate, and an Internet backup. That way, if something goes wrong, you can quickly revert.

Upgrading

After completing those tasks, ensure you won’t need your Mac for a few hours. There’s no telling exactly how long the upgrade will take, so never start an upgrade if you need the Mac soon.

To initiate the upgrade, open System Settings > General > Software Update in Sonoma or Ventura (System Preferences > Software Update in previous versions of macOS), click the Upgrade Now button, and follow the instructions. If you’d like more guidance, check out Joe Kissell’s ebook Take Control of Sequoia.

After You Upgrade

Part of the reason to set aside plenty of time for your Sequoia upgrade is that there are usually cleanup tasks afterward. We can’t predict precisely what you’ll run into, depending on what version of macOS you’re running now and what apps you use, but here are a few situations we’ve noticed in the past:

●     macOS may need to update its authentication setup by asking for your Apple ID password, your Mac’s password, and, if you have another Mac, its password. Don’t worry that malware has compromised your Mac—these authentication prompts are fine.

●     Some apps may have to ask for various permissions even though you previously granted them. Again, that’s fine.

●     If you use your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac and apps (and you should; it’s great!), you may need to re-enable that in System Settings > Touch ID & Password (or Login Password on a non-Touch ID-enabled Mac). In older versions of macOS, it was in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General.

●     If you use Gmail, Google Calendar, or other Google services, you may need to log in to your Google account again.

●     Websites that usually remember your login state may require you to log in again. However, if you’re using a password manager like Apple’s Passwords or 1Password, that’s easy.

●     You may have to re-enable text message forwarding to your Mac. You do this on your iPhone in Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding.

With all that housekeeping done, it’s time to check out all the new features in Sequoia!

(Featured image by Apple)

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Social Media: When should you upgrade to macOS 15 Sequoia? There’s no need to install it today, but we think it’s safe for those who want to take advantage of the new features and integration with Apple’s other operating systems.

Manage Default Apps in One Place in iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2

Manage Default Apps in One Place in iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2

An unheralded feature in iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2 helps you manage the default apps on your iPhone and iPad. A default app is one that opens automatically for a particular function, like opening a Web link or inserting a saved password. Previously, the only way to change a default app was within the settings for that app, but now you can go to Settings > Apps > Default Apps to see and set all your options in one place. The Calling and Messaging options are new in 18.2, but Apple hasn’t yet given any third-party apps permission to appear in those lists. This new screen isn’t that big of a deal, but we wanted to use it as a reminder that alternatives to Mail and Safari might better fit your needs.

(Featured image based on an original by iStock.com/Thicha Satapitanon)

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Social Media: Many people don’t realize they can choose alternatives to Apple’s Mail and Safari on the iPhone and iPad. A new Default Apps screen simplifies reviewing your options and changing your defaults.

Mail on the iPhone Can Categorize Your Messages in iOS 18.2

Mail on the iPhone Can Categorize Your Messages in iOS 18.2

Apple slipped a significant new feature into Mail in iOS 18.2 that has nothing to do with Apple Intelligence: Categories. Like Gmail and other email apps, Mail can now automatically categorize messages into four buckets: Primary, Transactions, Updates, and Promotions. The idea is that categories make it easier to pay attention to important messages while collecting other messages for later processing. Tap the buttons at the top to switch between categories

Oddly, Categories are currently available only on the iPhone. To maintain the same email experience across all Apple devices, you’ll have to wait for future versions of Mail on the iPad and the Mac.

Here are answers to questions we’ve heard about Mail Categories.

Can You Turn Mail Categories Off?

Apple turned Categories on by default in iOS 18.2, but not everyone appreciates the change. If you have your own organizational system, find the extra sections distracting, or just want to see all your email in one list, you can turn the feature off. Tap the ••• button at the top right of the Mail screen and select List View.

It's also possible to keep Categories turned on but still see all your messages in a simple chronological list. Swipe left on the line of buttons to switch to an All Mail category that shows exactly what you’d see in List View.

What Appears in Each Category?

With Categories turned on, Mail automatically separates your mail into four categories:

●     Primary: Personal messages, plus time-sensitive information from another category

●     Transactions: Order confirmations, receipts, and shipping notices

●     Updates: News, mailing lists, newsletters, and social media updates

●     Promotions: Sale announcements, new products, coupons, and anything commercial

These categories are built-in, so you can’t select some but not others. Nor can you add your own.

Is There a Way to Recategorize Messages?

Unfortunately, Categories isn’t very good at categorizing messages at the moment. (Perhaps it should use Apple Intelligence!) In particular, we see newsletters and other items that should be in Updates incorrectly showing up in Promotions. Fortunately, you can easily recategorize messages from particular senders so Mail can correctly categorize similar messages in the future. How you recategorize messages depends on whether a message is in Primary or another category. For messages in Primary, tap the left-pointing blue arrow at the bottom of the screen and then tap Categorize Sender. For messages in other categories, tap the ••• at the top right of the screen and then tap Categorize Sender.

In either case, tap the desired category on the next screen and confirm your action.

The main problem with recategorizing is that messages from discussion-based mailing lists may be identified by their senders, not the list, so you may have to recategorize every sender from the list separately.

Why Are Messages from the Same Sender Grouped?

When you open a message in Transactions, Updates, and Promotions, you may be surprised to see a digest view that displays all the other messages from that sender. It’s often a helpful way to keep like messages together. Opening a message shows the most recent message, but you can scroll to see the rest. Whether you scroll up or down depends on whether Settings > Apps > Mail > Most Recent Message on Top is turned on. Additionally, how many lines appear in the message view depends on what you’ve selected in Settings > Apps > Mail > Preview.

Not a fan of the sender groups? You can turn the feature off for each of Transactions, Updates, and Promotions by tapping the ••• at the top right and deselecting Group by Sender.

What Are Priority Notifications?

If you’re using an iPhone 15 Pro model or any iPhone 16 with Apple Intelligence turned on, you may see priority notifications on the Primary screen. It’s designed to surface the most important messages, as determined by Apple Intelligence. If you don’t like it, tap ••• in the upper right and deselect Show Priority.

Overall, Mail Categories feels like Apple is playing catch-up with other email apps. If it works with your email stream and you find it useful, that’s great. But if not, don’t hesitate to turn it off and return to your familiar email workflow.

(Featured image by iStock.com/Giulio Fornasar)

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Social Media: A noticeable change in iOS 18.2 is Mail Categories, which divides your incoming email into Primary, Transactions, Updates, and Promotions. It can be helpful, but you may want to adjust its settings, and if you still don’t like it, it’s easy to turn off.