macOS Sequoia Slated to Launch in Mid-September Alongside iOS 18

macOS Sequoia, the newest version of the operating system that runs on the Mac, is set to launch in mid-September, MacRumors has learned. While Apple's iOS updates are consistently introduced in September, macOS launch dates vary, and new Mac updates have been released in September, October, and November in recent years.

macOS Sequoia Night Feature
This year, Apple plans to release ‌macOS Sequoia‌ around the same time as iOS 18 rather than holding it until October. Introducing both updates at the same time will ensure that cross-platform features are functional and working as intended, such as iPhone Mirroring. A key new feature, ‌iPhone‌ Mirroring allows an ‌iPhone‌ running ‌iOS 18‌ to be controlled using a Mac running ‌macOS Sequoia‌.

Other new features coming to ‌macOS Sequoia‌ include refreshed window tiling capabilities, a dedicated Passwords app, and updates to Safari, Messages, Maps, Notes, and more.

Apple Intelligence features will not be in ‌macOS Sequoia‌ or ‌iOS 18‌ at launch, with Apple instead introducing the functionality in subsequent iOS 18.1 and ‌macOS Sequoia‌ 15.1 updates. We expect to see those updates released in October.

Apple is in the final stages of beta testing ‌macOS Sequoia‌ and ‌iOS 18‌ ahead of its annual fall iPhone-focused event. If Apple sticks with the timing that it has used for the last several years, the most likely event date is September 10. If that's the event date, new iPhones could launch a week later on September 20. New iOS updates typically come out on the Wednesday before new iPhones launch, so with that timeline, we could see ‌iOS 18‌ and ‌macOS Sequoia‌ on September 18.

There is some wiggle room with dates, though, and Apple could opt to hold the event later in September, which would change the software launch date guesstimate. Apple could announce its ‌iPhone‌ event as soon as next week.

Related Roundup: macOS Sequoia
Related Forum: macOS Sequoia

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Top Rated Comments

Harry Haller Avatar
14 months ago
Dear Apple,

2 year upgrade cycle, please.

Thank you.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cocoua Avatar
14 months ago
cant wait to see how many new bugs are coming to the collection!

bugs are the new new features
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sublunar Avatar
14 months ago

Got a bit of a dilemma here on this one. I can't afford for this to break my workflow. Sonoma broke a fairly large bunch of things I use on a daily basis (mostly third party Unix/Qt/homebrew/R/sbcl stuff). I am turning into a colleague of mine who is still on Monterey and is so afraid to change anything he won't upgrade because we got broken badly on Ventura. Other colleagues have moved to Windows because of this and seem to have less issues.

Fundamentally I don't trust them not to blow up some API somewhere. The Cocoa/Qt crashing nightmare went on for months.
Realistically there's no dilemma, just wait 6 months for 2 or 3 point releases to fix any ongoing bugs. If you're using MacOS in a production vital environment you should just accept that and go with the most patched up previous OS that still gets updates for as long as you can
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Dave-Z Avatar
14 months ago

WSL on Windows is a mess you don't want to touch.
I use WSL on Windows often and don't experience this. I installed it manually via PowerShell and I download the tar images for the distro(s) I use. Then (again, in PowerShell) I just create/destroy containers as I need them using the local images on my device.

I think the graphical portion of WSL (running windowed applications) is a flaky, but the command line stuff (web servers, databases, Python utilities, etc.) has worked quite well for me.


We all made the choice to move to macOS when it was good, really good. But the yearly major releases are destroying macOS. They simply move too fast.
I started on Windows. Then moved to Mac OS X around 10.3. In 2018 I started using Windows again. I have macOS 14.6.1 on my Mac mini now and Windows 11 (23H2) on my laptop. I think, overall, macOS has a nicer, more unified experience. However, if I'm being honest, Windows 11 really does just work; I have zero issues with it. MacOS is also fast and it works, but it's not a great experience. There's a ton of little bugs that, while not show-stoppers, make using it more frustrating. Window management is just bad and buggy. I'm not even talking about tiling (which is long overdue), but even things like when I open a new application (with Raycast or Spotlight) it randomly puts that application behind all others instead of bringing it to the front in focus. Other times, I can't bring focus to a window unless I click on a different application then back to the one I want. Nothing that is a deal-breaker, but it slows me down and is not consistent.

These days I'm probably 60% Windows and 40% macOS, but that number keeps sliding more and more to Windows because Apple doesn't seem to want to fix things.

It's really a shame, there's tremendous potential with the Mac but Apple just doesn't seem to put that last bit of effort into it any more. (Not surprising since they are now basically a cell phone manufacturer that sells online services as an upgrade.)
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cjsuk Avatar
14 months ago
Got a bit of a dilemma here on this one. I can't afford for this to break my workflow. Sonoma broke a fairly large bunch of things I use on a daily basis (mostly third party Unix/Qt/homebrew/R/sbcl stuff). I am turning into a colleague of mine who is still on Monterey and is so afraid to change anything he won't upgrade because we got broken badly on Ventura. Other colleagues have moved to Windows because of this and seem to have less issues.

Fundamentally I don't trust them not to blow up some API somewhere. The Cocoa/Qt crashing nightmare went on for months.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
poematik13 Avatar
14 months ago
every new macOS release since Lion is an absolute mess

my rule is NEVER update macOS unless you buy new hardware and it forces you
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)