Sequoia
2024-10-21
Apple announced macOS version 15, "Sequoia," on 10 Jun 2023.
Apple released macOS 15.0 on 26 Sep 2024.
Apple released macOS 15.0.1 on 09 Oct 2024, fixing a security hole.
This note describes how to update a computer from an older version of macOS to Sequoia.
The latest version of macOS is version 15.0, "Sequoia", relesed on 16 Sep 2024.
There have been reports that some people have problems with network access in 15.0.1.
I have not installed Sequoia 15.0 yet. I don't usually install .0 versions.
When I do install Sequoia, I do not plan to ever enable "Apple AI."
Features of Sequoia
xxx
(I have no plan to use most of these features.)
- Apple AI
- Continuity with iPhone
- Window tiling
- Safari
- Passwords App
- Gaming
- Messages
- Maps
- Notes
- AirPods
- Calculator, Calendar, Freeform, Photos, Weather, Home App, Privacy improvements
See Apple's site macOS Sequoia.
Should I Install Sequoia?
I am waiting..
Installing Sequoia on an Old Mac
A Mac that is too old will not run Sequoia. Many Macs before 2019 are not supported.
What you Should Do Now to Get Ready for Sequoia
- Use
and
to keep all Apple software up to date, including the OS.
- Apply all free updates to other software you use.
- Set up an external hard drive and use Time Machine.
Who Can Update
Not everyone can use the new OS version.
-
Sequoia does not support many Macs from before 2019. Check the official list on apple.com.
Computers over 7 years old are not supported.
MacBook Air has to be 2020 and later.
-
You can't install Sequoia over an ancient version of OS X, and the installer enforces this restriction.
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If you depend on the Classic environment to run Mac OS 9 programs from the 1990s, stick with OS X 10.4.
-
If you have a Mac with a PowerPC processor, Sequoia won't work on it.
Stick with OS X 10.5.8.
-
If you depend on PowerPC programs, the latest version of OS X that you can run is Snow Leopard,
since Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave, and catalina do not support Rosetta, the PowerPC emulator.
See the Frequently Asked Questions section about Sequoia.
In particular, pre-Lion Quicken, Microsoft Office 2004, and some features of Adobe CS3 will not run on Sequoia.
(See Adobe article.)
Stick with OS X 10.6.8a until you upgrade these applications.
(You could install VirtualBox (free) on your Mac, and install 10.6 into a virtual machine, and update it to 10.6.8a,
and run your PowerPC programs under the emulated OS.
I tried this on Yosemite, and it worked.)
-
Old printers and scanners may not work if the manufacturer has not updated the driver software.
Those with PowerPC or 32-bit drivers will not work.
Plan your install
When you decide to install Sequoia, do it carefully.
You may find that there are issues that affect you: do your homework.
Check MacInTouch to see if there are problems with macOS 15 that affect you.
Make sure you back up your entire disk before starting to install Sequoia.
Preferably to more than one place.
Make a list of the hardware you depend on, and search the web to check that each device will work.
Older printers and scanners can have issues.
Leave yourself enough time.
Upgrading will tie up your computer for an hour or so.
Your computer may be slow until it re-does the Spotlight index.
Particular issues before upgrading
Here is a partial list of minimum program versions needed for Sequoia.
For other programs, check product websites.
Program | Minimum Version | Notes |
Aquamacs Emacs | 3.6 | |
Audacity | 3.42 | |
Adobe Photoshop | CC |
Photoshop CC is $120/yr. See below. (ARM supported.) |
Adobe Illustrator | CC |
Illustrator CC is $240/yr. See below. (ARM supported.) |
Apple XCode | 15 |
free with registration; also install Command Line Developer Tools in Terminal |
Little Snitch | 6.1.1 |
A new version of Little Snitch is required for Sequoia.
(Some Apple traffic such as Maps and ads doesn't show in Little Snitch. This sucks.)
|
Brother HL-4150CDN driver | |
Brother does not support this printer, according to their website. Support stopped at 10.15.x Catalina.
Apple no longer maintains https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201465 .
I have this printer and it is working OK on Sequoia using the CUPS driver.
|
Brother HL-5450DN driver | |
Brother does not support this printer, according to their website.
See above. (Mine works.)
|
Homebrew | 4.3.21, same version I had for Sonoma. |
Replaces MacPorts. This is where I get Perl, ImageMagick, Go, and GraphViz. |
Microsoft Office | 2021 |
$129 |
Onyx | 4.5.6 |
free |
Super Duper | 3.9.1 |
You should change all your backup volumes to be APFS. Much faster and more reliable. |
Brother P-Touch Editor | 5.3.13 |
|
Banktivity | 8 |
$50/yr. Now they want you to upgrade to 9. |
Inkscape | 1.3.2 |
seems to be fixed. |
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Programs that will not be upgraded:
Some device drivers: check with your device manufacturers.
The free software CUPS drivers may work for some printers.
-
Peripherals:
Make sure your printers and scanners will be supported.
Some manufacturers don't release updated drivers for their printers for months after a new OS X release.
Adobe: Renting Instead of Buying
Adobe no longer sells regular application versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat.
Instead they rent you a Creative Cloud subscription.
Stop paying, the apps stop working.
They tell you that one advantage is that you'll get bug fixes and new features whenever they decide to release them.
(There are a lot of tricky deals, initial teasers, different bundles.
You could pay $20/app/mo or $600/yr for all CC apps.
Adobe also sells Photoshop Elements 2020 and Premiere Elements 2020 as non-cloud applications for $100 each one-time, or both for $150.)
There are alternatives to Adobe products. I am using Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer.
Affinity has been sold to Canva.
Canva's other products are sold by subscription instead of one-time purchase. Ruh-roh.
I want a replacement for Adobe Acrobat: PDFPen ($80) is looking attractive.
(There is a program called PDF Expert but its web site does not say how much it costs.
I am not going to install it just in order to find out.)
Microsoft: Renting Instead of Buying
Microsoft wants to rent you "Office 365" for $70/yr, $100/yr for up to 6 people.
You can still buy a "forever" Home and Student version of Office 2019 for about $130.
Quicken: Renting Instead of Buying
Same story with Quicken. I bought Banktivity and it seems to work.
Banktivity: Renting Instead of Buying
Banktivity has gone from a one-time purchase to a yearly sub. Grrr.
Installing Sequoia
This was the easiest macOS upgrade I have ever done.
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Clean up and update software before installing.
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You can download the Sequoia Installer from .
It is free.
This downloads a large file, the Sequoia Installer, to your disk.
You can create a bootable installer volume on a USB key using
these instructions.
(But see the TidBits article "Previously Downloaded OS X Installers No Longer Work".)
Apple's license terms say you can update all your computers with one purchase.
- Get the applications on your computer ready for 14.0: apply the latest fixes.
- Delete junk files. Carefully.
- Delete Safari, iTunes, and Firefox caches, so your backup will be faster.
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Write down your settings for applications and system parameters, e.g. your desktop background and screensaver.
Some Apple-provided screensaver pictures may not be available in the next version: make a safe copy of anything you will want after upgrading.
- Empty the Trash.
- Clean up damaged and duplicate fonts.
- Have your software license keys handy in case you have to re-authorize products.
For Programmers
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If you use MySQL, back up your databases
with mysqldump databasename > db.sql.
Then stop MySQL.
- If you are using a local Apache, save a copy of /etc/apache2/httpd.conf.
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If you installed modules via CPAN, make a list of them.
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Homebrew often does not need to be reinstalled on a macOS upgrade.
If you are changing machine architectures, compilers, etc, then
uninstall it and then reinstall Homebrew, and the programs it installs, after updating the OS.
To list your ports do brew list > brewmods.txt in a Terminal window.
Here is a little shell script I run to do the backups.
#!/bin/sh
# PRE-UPGRADE
# .. run before an OS upgrade
# .. saves lists of things that may have to be repaired after upgrading
#
# dumps them into $HOME/Documents/preup so that they will be synced to iCloud
if [ -d $HOME/Documents/preup ] ; then
cp /etc/apache2/httpd.conf $HOME/Documents/preup/saved.httpd.conf
perldoc perllocal | grep :: > $HOME/Documents/preup/cpan_modules.txt
brew list > brewmods.txt
mysqldump thvv_userlist > $HOME/Documents/preup/mysql_dump.sql
echo "Back up your hard drive"
else
echo "$HOME/Documents/preup not found.. create it and rerun"
fi
#
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Backup and prepare.
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BACK UP YOUR HARD DRIVE to an external disk.
I used SuperDuper to clone my whole drive.
Some cautious people make two backups.
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If you are using an anti-virus product like Microsoft Defender ATP, disable it, or installation will fail.
Some anti-malware programs see the utility that converts HFS to APFS as malware, and prevent it from running.
Since most anti-virus software is tightly integrated with the operating system,
you may have to install a Sequoia-specific version of your software after installing Sequoia anyway.
Check with the maker of your software.
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If you connect your Mac to the network using Wi-Fi,
select and delete any Wi-Fi networks you don't want to use.
(If you don't, your computer could connect to a very slow network during installation, which will slow down your install.)
-
Install
- If you use a wireless mouse or keyboard, put in fresh batteries.
- Set screen saver to NEVER, and turn off Time Machine.
- Dismount and unplug or power off external drives.
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Restart your computer.
(I've had problems where my computer hangs on shutdown. Restarting seems to fix it for a while. Don't want this trouble when installing a new OS.)
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Run the Sequoia (macOS 15.0) installer. If you downloaded it, use that copy.
Or you can just select and install by clicking on the link.
- If FileVault is enabled on your computer, the installer will ask for a password to unlock the disk.
- The installer will run for about 15 minutes, then reboot, then run for about half an hour, then reboot again. Might ask for your password again.
- The "time remaining" will show wildly varying estimates as the installer proceeds.
- Eventually you will be presented with a login screen; enter your password.
- You may see a window about privacy.
- Next you will be asked if you want to send analytic information to Apple. I usually say no.
- Then the system will display your desktop. All your files and applications should be there.
- You may be asked for your AppleID and password at least once.
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If Sequoia asks you if you want to "enable Desktop and Documents folder syncing to iCloud,"
you can say NO, and turn it on later.
I say YES and use iCloud for this and it seems to be great.. but I had to move things around to make it work right.
If you say YES, these folders will be backed up in iCloud and available on all devices, which you may not want.
Saying YES may also enable "Optimize Storage" without asking,
which will delete files from your computer's drive if it gets too full -- I do not enable this.
Check to make sure it is OFF.
Adam Engst's TidBITS article on Optimized Storage is very helpful.
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Once the install has completed, use
and
to make sure you have installed the latest versions of Apple software.
This step may find additional OS and application updates (might take another hour).
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Do a "smoke test" to verify that your computer is working OK:
make sure the applications you depend on are still working.
Try out the applications from Apple that were updated with the OS.
If you have trouble, restore your backup and go back to the old OS version.
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Recover
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Wait for Spotlight to finish indexing (may take several hours).
Performance will suck till it finishes.
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Turn on Time Machine and start your backup.
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Restart the computer. Often this speeds things up.
Post Install Tasks
Once you are satisfied that your computer works acceptably,
and you are going to stay on Sequoia,
you can make some adjustments.
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If your computer seems slow or buggy, try zapping the PRAM.
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If you have installed applications that are OS version specific, like Onyx, buy updates and install them.
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Clean your font caches by issuing the Terminal command sudo atsutil databases -remove and restarting.
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If FileVault was on, it should be on after upgrading.
Check to make sure.
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Find My Mac should be ON.
Check to make sure.
Customization
You will probably want to set up per-user customizations,
such as your desktop background and screensaver.
Visit every setting in and make sure it is what you want, and choose values for new settings.
After each new OS generation this is something of an adventure; functions get renamed and moved around. See below.
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I really hate the CAPS LOCK key, so I disable it.
In Sequoia, this is done by opening
and changing the action for CAPS LOCK to "No Action."
(I had this set on Big Sur and it was not brought over to Sequoia by Migration Assistant.)
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In ,
I uncheck "Scroll Direction: natural" .. it seems UNnatural to me after 36 years.
(I had set this on Big Sur and it was carried over by the upgrade process.)
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I disable or silence most Notifications. When new OS features are added, they may default to "noisy."
Devices
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Check that your printers work.
If a printer will not work, you may be able to get it working by
selecting ,
deleting the printer,
and adding the printer again:
for some printers, this will trigger running to get new printer software.
For other printers, you will have to download the correct printer driver from the manufacturer's web site.
(I used Migration Assistant to move from Big Sur and my printers were correctly installed and worked.)
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If you have a scanner, plug it in and power it on.
If the scanner appears in , remove it, and add it again.
For some scanners, this will invoke
to add a driver that will let you operate the scanner with Image Capture.
For other scanners, you will have to download the correct scanner driver from the manufacturer's web site.
If manufacturer-supplied software is not available, and Image Capture does not provide enough features,
you may be able to get it working by purchasing and installing VueScan.
Sequoia Observations
to be supplied
Bugs and Surprises in Sequoia
to be supplied
New Sequoia Features I Am Not Using Yet
to be supplied
Planning for the next version
The next macOS version will released in Fall 2025.
Keep a list of the software and devices you use and depend on, so you can check that they are supported.
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© 2010-2024, Tom Van Vleck
updated 2024-10-21 10:04