I have been reading about lots of problems with Sequoia in various Mac discussion forums. I know that upgrading from one OS to another always presents problems but they usually get taken care of in .x updates. I have Sonoma on my M3 Air. I just finally updated my iPhone to iOS 18.5 after waiting with 17 until people stopped complainig about 18. But I still see complaints about Sequoia. I’d like to update before OS 26 comes out. Am I being unduly paranoid?
I’d say if you have a reliable backup of your machine—or, better, backups made with different backup utilities—and updating before macOS 26 is released is a priority, give it a try. In any case, Apple’s OS developers are highly focused on the “26” versions now that the public betas are out so I doubt Sequoia will get many fixes going forward.
No, not imho.
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Thanks. I do have Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner backups on multiple disks. I’ve never had to use them when a new OS causes problems. I have used them when Restoring for other reasons.
The main reason that you stop hearing complaints about a version of macOS is because it has become obsolete, so most people have stopped using it. 
There’s nothing wrong with waiting for a few updates to install a major release of macOS (usually by the end of the year in which it’s released), but unless you rely on obsolete software that isn’t compatible, waiting longer has no benefit.
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I appreciate your input. I guess I feel like since I’m having no problems whatsoever with Sonoma and with software that is current I will stick with Sonoma. Also, Sonoma went through a few more updates/fixes than Sequoia has. It looks like Apple is close to releasing 26 now. Unless Sequoia sees more updates I think I’ll stay with Sonoma…
Obviously, you can do whatever you like, but I wouldn’t base your decision on the number of updates that Sonoma had versus Sequoia. Apple follows a roughly similar update schedule for all versions of macOS these days, with additional releases primarily focused on addressing urgent security fixes. (If anything, one could argue that more releases imply more bugs.)
Sequoia will be receiving at least one more bug fix update—Apple has 15.6 in beta testing now.
And macOS 26 Tahoe will almost certainly be shipping in September, with bug fix updates coming out on the regular schedule after that. For most people, I’d suggest upgrading to Tahoe near the end of the year.
Just don’t stick with Sonoma too long—the more versions of macOS you are behind what’s current, the more jarring the upgrade will be and the more likely you are to experience problems.
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Thank you again for such quick responses! I will wait for 15.6 and consider the update to Sequoia.
I think you should update to Sequoia. I have been using Sequoia 15.5, which runs smoothly on my Mac.
As well as Adam’s excellent advice, I would point out that discussion forums will always give a skewed sense of how likely it is that a MacOS update is going to give you issues. People rarely post to talk about how well it went but will post when there are issues (either to genuinely try and solve a problem or just to vent). It’s definitely worth waiting a bit to see if any major common issues arise. But there will always be a background noise of individual issues people have (until, as Adam says, most people aren’t using it anymore) that aren’t a good indication as to whether you personally will have problems.
My anecdotal experience is that I updated so Sequoia (from Sonoma) soon after it was released and experienced zero issues. It has been one of the smoothest OS upgrades I’ve had. I certainly wouldn’t consider it more problematic than Sonoma.
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I have always compared forums to hospitals. Very rarely will someone who is well go to one. It’s just that I’ve had macs since the eighties and have never seen so many reported problems as I have seen with Sequoia. I will take the advice here and will make the jump to Sequoia after the next (last?) update. I really appreciate the feed back here. Thank you all!
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I had to undo upgrades one or two times because of incompatibilities. The recoveries worked and allowed me to fix the problems so I could make changes that would allow the upgrades. I’m still running Sonora on a 2018 MacMini, but I’m planning to upgrade to Sequoia, which is as far as the mini will go. I have both Time Machine and CCC backups, but when I had to recover the contents of my wife’s MacBook to transfer it to a 2024 MacBookAir Time Machine proved the easier way to go
I just updated my 2013 MBA i7 to Sequoia via OCLP. Took a little time, but seems to be OK with what ever apps I need on the MBA.
I will next be updating my 2018 mini 3.2 GHz 6-Core i7, Monterey, to Sequoia after a friend who manages Pro Tools for a large facility told me his Intels are all good, as well as the Ms.
But, caveat, for both the MBA and the mini, I did a nuke & pave as my experience with Monterey, it performed better after I installed Monty the 2nd time with n&p.
YMMD.
I’ve been using Sequoia on both of my Macs (2020 M1 Mac Mini and 2023 M3 MacBook Air) since late October, and have had no problems at all, Of course I insured that all my software (I use third party software exclusively on both machines. Only Apple software I use is, once in a while, Music) would run fine with Sequoia. Some products did require updates, but that was easily manageable. Also, I did not move from Sonoma to Sequoia when it immediately came out. It has been proven time and time again that a new Mac OS always has issues with the first 2 or 3 releases. So I typically wait until the .3 version arrives before moving. As it is, there is nothing earth shattering in the new OS, and Apple still supports the prior one for at least a year or so after the new one arrives. You can safely and securely move from Sonoma to Sequoia (V 15.6 was released the other day). Just insure that any third party software you use is compatible.
Thank you!
You’re welcome. Also very good that you make backups. I use SuperDuper! (SD), and it is the only program for which the backup is bootable. There have been a few times where I needed to restore my system from such a backup due to either issues with the OS (very, very rare), or a problem with a program. But most of the time I’ve used the backup after installing the new OS to migrate all my “stuff” from the backup. A very smooth and reliable process. I would not be without SD.
What worries me most on upgrading to Sequoia now is how Microsoftware behaves. I still use a 2019 version of Office, and I don’t want MS to try to force me to upgrade to the latest version, particularly since I am still using a 2018 MacMini.
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I’m still using Office 2016 on this M4 Pro MBP with Sequoia. Easy peasy.
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I cannot get the camera working in Teams. Many complaints about this issue with people upgrading. It works in Zoom and Photo Booth but Teams doesn’t ask for access and I don’t see any way to force it.
First, I’m still using an Intel processor. I installed Sequoia soon after its release and the install process was like magic; and I’ve had only a few tiny problems since—none worth the mention.