Tahoe

2025-11-03

The latest version of macOS is version 26.0, "Tahoe", relesed on 15 Sep 2025.

Apple announced macOS version 26, "Tahoe," on 09 Jun 2025. (The version number jumped from 15 to 26.)


Apple released MacOS 26 (Tahoe) Beta 1 in July 2025.
Apple released macOS 26.0 on 15 Sep 2025.
Apple released macOS 26.0.1 on 02 Oct 2025, fixing installation problems, 7 bug fixes, and 1 security bug.

This note describes how to update a computer from an older version of macOS to Tahoe. This is preliminary information and will change as others describe their experience.

Features of Tahoe (I am not interested in features marked *)

Should I Install Tahoe?

Not yet.

Early user feedback about the "L1quid Glass" appearance is very negative. I suggest you only install this release on a computer where it is easy to fall back to a previous version of macOS, in case you find it unusable. For example, see articles like this.

Some users have reported that their machines overheat after they install Tahoe. This may be an effect of Spotlight re-indexing their system volume. There may be issues with Slack, Vscode, and Cursor on Tahoe.

What you Should Do Now to Get Ready for Tahoe

Who Can Update

Not everyone can use the new OS version.

Plan your install

When you decide to install Tahoe, 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 26 that affect you.

Make sure you back up your entire disk before starting to install Tahoe. 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.

Howard Oakley has written a useful guide: Prepare to Upgrade MacOS.

Particular issues before upgrading

Here is a partial list of minimum program versions needed for Tahoe. For other programs, check product websites.

ProgramMinimum VersionNotesFunction
Aquamacs Emacs3.6??Text editing
Audacity3.7.5??Music editing
Adobe PhotoshopCC Photoshop CC is $120/yr. See below. (ARM supported.) Graphics
Adobe IllustratorCC Illustrator CC is $240/yr. See below. (ARM supported.) Graphics
Apple XCode26 free with registration; also install Command Line Developer Tools in Terminal application development
Little Snitch6.3 A new version of Little Snitch is required for Tahoe. Security
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 -- will it work using the CUPS driver??. Printer driver
Brother HL-5450DN driver Brother does not support this printer, according to their website. See above. I have this printer -- will it work using the CUPS driver??. Printer driver
Homebrew4.6.0 Replaces MacPorts. This is where I get Perl, ImageMagick, Go, and GraphViz. Unix applications
Microsoft Office?? was $129 Word processing, spreadsheet, etc
Onyx4.8.3 free System configuration
Super Duper3.20 B3 You should change all your backup volumes to be APFS. Much faster and more reliable. backup
Banktivity9.7.2 now $60/yr. Personal finance
Inkscape1.4.2 seems to be fixed. SVG drawing

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. They are one-time-purchase instead of rent. 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) might work. Has to be scriptable.

Microsoft: Renting Instead of Buying

Microsoft wants to rent you "Office 365" for $70/yr, $100/yr for up to 6 people. The "forever" Home version of Office 2024 will not be sold or supported any more.

Old non-365 versions of Office won't stop working, but there will be no more updates or technical support.

There are free alternatives to Microsoft products. LibreOffice 25.8.11 is one.

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 Tahoe

I have not installed Tahoe.

  1. Clean up and update software before installing.
    • You can download the Tahoe Installer from  ► System Preferences... ► Software Update. It is free. This downloads a large file, the Tahoe Installer, to your disk. You can create a bootable installer volume on a USB key using these instructions. Apple's license terms say you can update all your computers with one purchase.
    • Get the applications on your computer ready for Tahoe: apply the latest fixes.
    • Delete junk files. Carefully.
    • Delete Safari, iTunes, and Firefox caches, so your backup will be faster.
    • 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

    • 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.
    • If you installed modules via CPAN, make a list of them.
    • 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 mydatabase > $HOME/Documents/preup/mysql_dump.sql
	  echo "Back up your hard drive"
	else
	  echo "$HOME/Documents/preup not found.. create it and rerun"
	fi
	#
  2. Backup and prepare.
    • BACK UP YOUR HARD DRIVE to an external disk. I used SuperDuper to clone my whole drive. Some cautious people make two backups.
    • 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 Tahoe-specific version of your software after installing Tahoe anyway. Check with the maker of your software.
    • If you connect your Mac to the network using Wi-Fi, select  ► System Preferences... ► Network ► Wi-Fi 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.)
  3. 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.
    • 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.)
    • Run the Tahoe (macOS 26) installer. If you downloaded it, use that copy. Or you can just select  ► System Preferences... ► Software Update and install by clicking on the link.
      • The installer will run for about half an hour, then reboot.
      • The "time remaining" will show wildly varying estimates as the installer proceeds.
      • Eventually you will be presented with a login screen; enter your password.
      • Then the system will display your desktop. All your files and applications should be there.
    • If Tahoe 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.. I had to move files around to make it back up the right things. 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  ► System Settings... ► Internet Accounts ► iCloud ► Optimize Mac Storage to make sure it is OFF. Adam Engst's TidBITS article on Optimized Storage is very helpful.
    • Once the install has completed, use  ► System Settings... ► General ► Software Update and  ► App Store... 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).
    • 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.
  4. Recover
    • Wait for Spotlight to finish indexing (may take several hours). Performance will suck till it finishes.
    • Turn on Time Machine and start your backup.
    • 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 Tahoe, you can make some adjustments. Some folks have complained that installing an update changed their settings.

Customization

You will probably want to set up per-user customizations, such as your desktop background and screensaver. Visit every setting in  ► System Settings... 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.

Turning Off AI in Microsoft Products

My wife and I have old Microsoft Office installations of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint from 2023. Word is version 16.78. I did not want an "Internet version." I thought it was working until recently, when my wife tried to open a document from email, and got all kinds of offers from "help" using AI.

Here is what I did:

For me, doing this in Word also changed Excel and PowerPoint.

I have installed LibreOffice (free) and plan to use its tools going forward instead of Word/Excel/PowerPoint. This will require some learning and configuring of LibreOffice .. I will write it up.

Devices

All my attached devices from Sonoma worked fine on Tahoe without any change??.

Tahoe Observations

Next Steps: Homebrew updates

New Tahoe Features

TBD

Tahoe Changes

Launchpad has been eliminated in Tahoe. Instead, a new app search panel that is part of Spotlight Search is shown.

Planning for the Next Version of macOS

The next macOS version, macOS 27, will probably be released about September 2026.

Keep a list of the software and devices you use and depend on, so you can check that they are supported.

Home | FAQ © 2010-2025, Tom Van Vleck updated 2025-11-03 10:34