Apple Releases macOS Sierra 10.12.3 With Graphics Fixes for 2016 MacBook Pro

Apple today released macOS Sierra 10.12.3, the third update to the macOS Sierra operating system that launched on September 20. macOS Sierra 10.12.3 comes over a month after the release of macOS Sierra 10.12.2, and has been in testing since December 14.

macOS Sierra 10.12.3 is a free update for all customers who are running macOS Sierra. The update can be downloaded using the Software Update function in the Mac App Store.

macossierra10-12-3
No specific changes, bug fixes, or feature additions were discovered during the beta testing process, and Apple only said the update "improves the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac." Apple's release notes paint a more complete picture, stating that the update improves graphics switching for the new 15-inch MacBook Pro, fixes issues with Adobe Premiere, and includes important fixes for Preview.

The macOS Sierra 10.12.3 Update improves the stability and security of your Mac, and is recommended for all users.
This update:

- Improves automatic graphics switching on MacBook Pro (15-inch, October 2016).
- Resolves graphics issues while encoding Adobe Premiere Pro projects on MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (13- and 15-inch, October 2016).
- Fixes an issue that prevented the searching of scanned PDF documents in Preview.
- Resolves a compatibility issue with PDF documents that are exported with encryption enabled.
- Fixes an issue that prevented some third-party applications from correctly importing images from digital cameras.

Enterprise content: Resolves an issue were network or cached user accounts (such as Active Directory accounts) using the maxFailedLoginAttempts password policy were becoming disabled.

macOS Sierra 10.12.3 will likely soon be followed by another update, as Apple has been committed to regularly making updates to the operating system since its September release.

Related Forum: macOS Sierra

Popular Stories

iOS 26

15 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.2

Friday December 5, 2025 9:40 am PST by
Apple is about to release iOS 26.2, the second major point update for iPhones since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least 15 notable changes and improvements worth checking out. We've rounded them up below. Apple is expected to roll out iOS 26.2 to compatible devices sometime between December 8 and December 16. When the update drops, you can check Apple's servers for the ...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature 1

Apple to Make More Foldable iPhones Than Expected

Tuesday December 9, 2025 9:59 am PST by
Apple has ordered 22 million OLED panels from Samsung Display for the first foldable iPhone, signaling a significantly larger production target than the display industry had previously anticipated, ET News reports. In the now-seemingly deleted report, ET News claimed that Samsung plans to mass-produce 11 million inward-folding OLED displays for Apple next year, as well as 11 million...
iPhone 14 Pro Dynamic Island

iPhone 18 Pro Leak Adds New Evidence for Under-Display Face ID

Monday December 8, 2025 4:54 am PST by
Apple is actively testing under-screen Face ID for next year's iPhone 18 Pro models using a special "spliced micro-transparent glass" window built into the display, claims a Chinese leaker. According to "Smart Pikachu," a Weibo account that has previously shared accurate supply-chain details on Chinese Android hardware, Apple is testing the special glass as a way to let the TrueDepth...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds Second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to Developers and Public Beta Testers

Monday December 8, 2025 10:18 am PST by
Apple today seeded the second release candidate version of iOS 26.2 to developers and public beta testers, with the software coming one week after Apple seeded the first RC. The release candidate represents the final version iOS 26.2 that will be provided to the public if no further bugs are found. Registered developers and public beta testers can download the betas from the Settings app on...
iPhone 17 Pro Cosmic Orange

10 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 18 Pro

Monday December 1, 2025 2:40 am PST by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth...
Johny Srouji

Apple's Chipmaking Chief Johny Srouji Responds to Report About Him Potentially Leaving

Monday December 8, 2025 9:23 am PST by
Apple's chipmaking chief Johny Srouji has reportedly indicated that he plans to continue working for the company for the foreseeable future. "I love my team, and I love my job at Apple, and I don't plan on leaving anytime soon," said Srouji, in a memo obtained by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Here is Srouji's full memo, as shared by Bloomberg:I know you've been reading all kind of rumors and...
Johny Srouji

Apple Chip Chief Johny Srouji Could Be Next to Go as Exodus Continues

Sunday December 7, 2025 10:41 am PST by
Apple's senior vice president of hardware technologies Johny Srouji could be the next leading executive to leave the company amid an alarming exodus of leading employees, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. Srouji apparently recently told CEO Tim Cook that he is "seriously considering leaving" in the near future. He intends to join another company if he departs. Srouji leads Apple's chip design ...
Google maps feaure

Google Maps Quietly Added This Long-Overdue Feature for Drivers

Wednesday December 10, 2025 2:52 am PST by
Google Maps on iOS quietly gained a new feature recently that automatically recognizes where you've parked your vehicle and saves the location for you. Announced on LinkedIn by Rio Akasaka, Google Maps' senior product manager, the new feature auto-detects your parked location even if you don't use the parking pin function, saves it for up to 48 hours, and then automatically removes it once...
google pixel 10

Switching Between iPhone and Android Will Get Easier With New Apple and Google Collaboration

Monday December 8, 2025 11:10 am PST by
Apple and Google are teaming up to make it easier for users to switch between iPhone and Android smartphones, according to 9to5Google. There is a new Android Canary build available today that simplifies data transfer between two smartphones, and Apple is going to implement the functionality in an upcoming iOS 26 beta. Apple already has a Move to iOS app for transferring data from an Android...
Intel Inside iPhone Feature

Apple's Return to Intel Rumored to Extend to iPhone

Friday December 5, 2025 10:08 am PST by
Intel is expected to begin supplying some Mac and iPad chips in a few years, and the latest rumor claims the partnership might extend to the iPhone. In a research note with investment firm GF Securities this week, obtained by MacRumors, analyst Jeff Pu said he and his colleagues "now expect" Intel to reach a supply deal with Apple for at least some non-pro iPhone chips starting in 2028....

Top Rated Comments

jclo Avatar
116 months ago
MacRumors, making the daring predictions.
Here's a little behind the scenes look at the decisions we make... I added that because I don't like to end posts with blockquotes (it looks funny) but I didn't really have much else to say about 10.12.3. I do expect 10.12.4 alongside iOS 10.3!
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HobeSoundDarryl Avatar
116 months ago
Apple, what are you doing these days?
Swimming in the money vault...

Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chucker23n1 Avatar
116 months ago
Admittedly no version of OSX has been perfect. However, I do not recall any of this being an issue with such as Snow Leopard.
People like to paint a grass-is-greener picture of Snow Leopard, but it's not as though that version was perfect. There were eight point releases for it, one of which (10.6.3) needed a "Supplemental Update" because its original release had some issues.

Here's a random assortment of things fixed in Snow Leopard point releases:


* Addresses an issue that might cause DVD playback to stop unexpectedly
* Addresses an issue that might make it difficult to remove an item from the Dock
* an issue that caused data to be deleted when using a guest account
* resolves an issue that causes the keyboard or trackpad to become unresponsive
* Improves reliability of Ethernet connections.

There were also weird off-shoots like the "Snow Leopard Font Update". Which, incidentally, included PDF-related fixes.

You'd think something like DVD playback and Ethernet connections would be rock-solid by the seventh major release of OS X. But alas. They weren't.

Perhaps someone could explain how that once working fine no longer does several versions later?
Well, regressions generally happen when code is modernized, optimized, or for other reasons replaced by an equivalent. In this case, Apple appears to have tried to unify some of the PDF code between iOS and macOS. One positive effect of this is that you can now print to PDF from any iOS app (though the UI to do so is bizarre ('https://9to5mac.com/2016/09/18/how-to-print-to-pdf-from-iphone-and-ipad-ios-10/')). The negative effect is lots of breakage ('http://mjtsai.com/blog/2016/12/21/more-macos-preview-pdf-trouble/') in the meantime.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
realeric Avatar
116 months ago
Safari still kills entire system on specific websites, with intel 4600 GPU. Apple, what are you doing these days?
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Cougarcat Avatar
116 months ago

macOS Sierra 10.12.3 will likely soon be followed by another update, as Apple has been committed to regularly making updates to the operating system since its September release.
MacRumors, making the daring predictions.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jsw Avatar
116 months ago
I just returned my 15" MBP (stock, low-end 2016) after 13 days because I had numerous issues, including Touch Bar freezes, spontaneous reboots, and this lovely screen of colored static on multiple occasions (which doesn't appear to be listed as an issue or one that's fixed):



and also because of obvious places Apple didn't update the OS to realize the Touch Bar was there. Example from when I restored macOS prior to returning it (note how the user is asked to hit the Escape key for help... and yet the Escape key [and entire Touch Bar] isn't visible - and couldn't be make visible, at least in my attempts):



I hope this update fixed similar issues for others, but I've decided to wait until the next hardware rev before I buy a new 15". I ordered a base 2016 13" (no Touch Bar) cheap at Best Buy this weekend, and I'll use that for now... if I decide it's worth the risk to open it. This 15" was the first Mac I've ever returned after opening it. I'm really disappointed in the number of issues I had over a relatively short period of time using it doing pretty much nothing but software development. These were, in my opinion, pushed out of the factory way before they should have been.

I get that OS updates are needed and that new hardware isn't going to be perfectly supported all the time, but come on. It sounds like, even after this OS bump, there are still going to be a lot of people with issues, and I had far too many different problems on a new system that I barely stressed. I miss the old days when they really did just work.

Attachment Image

Attachment Image
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)