Here Are Apple's macOS Tahoe 26 Release Notes

[ErikGrim]

How's the Music app in Tahoe?

We have a thread for this:

Music - Missing Features, Bugs, Issues & Troubleshooting (Tahoe)

macOS 26.3 Tahoe - Music 1.6.3.2 Missing Features Status bar is gone: It's still in the view menu with a brand new icon no less, but showing or hiding it does nothing. Timed (karaoke) lyrics Sing Album/song view: Can't view albums in place. Music has a separate page for every album. Artist...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[CATiNTHESTORE]

Same buggy OS but with non sense liquid glass which is completely ruining UI perspective…

This OS doesn’t have any major features

 

[svish]

Will be updating soon. Eager to try everything out on my Mac. Happy with all the changes.

 

[insomniac86]

Doesn’t seem to be much features left for us living in EU and I hate the new menubar, so hard pass on this release.

Have no fear! You can turn it back on to have the solid menu bar, just like the old one.

Now you don't have to pass.
You're welcome.

 

[apr]

The main problem with this "idiot UI nobody asked for", that Tahoe will be the last OS for Intel macs. I"m sure next year the whole glass concept will be abandoned, but Intel macs won't be able to fixed by OS 27.

So the only option to stick forever with Sequoia on Intel macs.
(I would happy to switch to M4 or whatever, but I need some legacy win x86 virtualization support. Now I'm hoping/waiting for a powerful enough Mx, which will be able to simulate x86 environment for reasonable speed.)

Edit:
Just tested tahoma on 2019 intel mb pro. The UI is the worst I've ever seen, worse than windows vista.
The glass effect not looks like at all glass, instead you got some transparent blurry mess.
Also all this effect takes precious space, menus, toolbars and tabs height is too much.
Forget to use "reduce transparency" in settings, it not helps at all.
Bonus: do you remember the flickering, slow rendering icons in windows start menu and desktop? You get this in tahoe, epic!

Edit2:
Tahoe running bad and overheating because of the excess gpu usage on intel macs. I'm in the painful process to reverting back to sequoia. It takes more time than usual in tahoe running system optimization after the upgrade. Left the machine turned on overnight, and this will help.

 

[wanha]

I am actually pleasantly surprised how good it is. I am genuinely enjoying this OS. I just downloaded the RC yesterday and it's been fantastic. They seem to have ironed out all the visual things that bothered me initially.

nice to hear an honest take that doesn't disparage the new design (not because I have a strong opinion either way, but it's the critics that always seem to cry the loudest here)

I haven't tried it yet, but will embrace it with an open mind

 

[wanha]

Oh yeah and they messed up iPod sync with anything below gen6 classic and this is probably the end of perhaps the most iconic Apple device that is not a computer.

this is one of the most frustrating thing about accelerating technological progress - everything becomes outdated and stops working with other devices eventually, forcing us into a cycle of endless upgrades and learning curves and in some cases, cuts off access to devices we own and love

 

[johnnytravels]

this is one of the most frustrating thing about accelerating technological progress - everything becomes outdated and stops working with other devices eventually, forcing us into a cycle of endless upgrades and learning curves and in some cases, cuts off access to devices we own and love

Agreed, and makes me not want to buy into technological progress anymore as much as it used to.
There’s a feeling of fatigue surrounding consumer tech for me that makes me slow down my consumption.
It would probably take an average software engineer an afternoon or two to properly maintain the iPod drivers, but even that seems to much to ask.

 

[DavidDoyle]

I've looked at the release notes and just think - is there any under the hood improvements at all? Why is everything about this release just visual gimmicks? Previous releases enhanced eGPU performance and reliability, for example.

This just feels like another 'It's another year so we need to release something' which is the trap that Apple set for themselves.

 

[TheGenerous]

I will upgrade after two or four months, hopefully, all my paid software will continue working without the need for a new license

 

[djgamble]

Still using Big Sur coz like...

8==========D

Seriously though if we were using the traditional definition of point releases, what would macOS Taco 26 (Taco 26 has a ring to it!!!) actually be? 11.6 or so?

 

[djgamble]

Same buggy OS but with non sense liquid glass which is completely ruining UI perspective…

This OS doesn’t have any major features

They should call it MacOS 11.6 and have an oldschool extensions manager so that you can disable all the clutter.

 

[Paul76]

Oh yeah and they messed up iPod sync with anything below gen6 classic and this is probably the end of perhaps the most iconic Apple device that is not a computer.

Noooo

 

[.wojtek]

meh... none of the points on the list make me want to upgrade and the liquid glass actually makes me want NOT to upgrade... I'll stick with the current version for the foreseeable future...

 

[benwiggy]

Apps with Liquid Glass sidebars and toolbars reflect and refract what you're viewing, drawing more focus to your content.

"The content of the window blurs behind the toolbar, making both less legible." FTFY.

 

[Spcmac]

I've looked at the release notes and just think - is there any under the hood improvements at all? Why is everything about this release just visual gimmicks? Previous releases enhanced eGPU performance and reliability, for example.

This just feels like another 'It's another year so we need to release something' which is the trap that Apple set for themselves.

There is a new official way to run Linux containers. https://github.com/apple/container?tab=readme-ov-file

 

[Konigi]

We'll have the iOS's Journal app, right? I just don't understsand why they'd release this kind of app only for some OSs and not macOS.

 

[montuori]

I've looked at the release notes and just think - is there any under the hood improvements at all?

Funny, I look at the release notes and it sure seems like there have been a bunch of under the hood improvements.

 

[tennisproha]

Apple needs to bring back Safari Compact Tabs. It's insane that they removed it from macOS Tahoe but improved in on iOS 26

 

[Starfia]

But my biggest bugbear is the arbitrary removal of Launchpad from macOS.

With that new App Library-like Spotlight panel, I wouldn't call it arbitrary. But I'll certainly miss it.

 

[ebika]

I’ll hold off on upgrading my Mac this time around after all the bugs from last year. Can’t risk workflow-breaking bugs from Apple’s poor quality control as of late.

I've looked at the release notes and just think - is there any under the hood improvements at all? Why is everything about this release just visual gimmicks? Previous releases enhanced eGPU performance and reliability, for example.

This just feels like another 'It's another year so we need to release something' which is the trap that Apple set for themselves.

There are some definite visual glitches in Tahoe that are annoying. Such as the X or the Clear All button for notifications in the notification center. Most of the time they work as expected. Sometimes they freeze for about 2s. I've been running all the public betas and I'm on the RC. I can only speak to software engineering workflows, and I haven't run into anything that breaks my workflow so far. YMMV on other workflows, but I don't remember reading reports of any serious under-the-hood defects.

As for what-if-anything improved under the hood, the one that lured me onto Tahoe was Apple Container. It's sweet so far, and they've iterated from 0.1.0 to 0.4.1 during the Tahoe beta. It's available on Sequoia too, albeit with severe network limitations. The goofy glass UI on Tahoe was mildly irritating to me at first, but became a non-issue for me after a few days. I'm hyped that Apple Container might lead to much better devcontainer workflows on Mac, if anyone is into that sort of thing.

I'm bummed to hear they nuked 1394 Firewire support in Tahoe. However, it's not shocking, right? It's super niche tech at this point. While annoying, at least you can dual-boot into Sequoia or some equivalent solution and they don't jail OS versions on Mac right now (hopefully never).

 

[antonrg]

nice to hear an honest take that doesn't disparage the new design (not because I have a strong opinion either way, but it's the critics that always seem to cry the loudest here)

I haven't tried it yet, but will embrace it with an open mind

Another point to add, after using it for a couple of days I haven't noticed much for Liquid Glass, ie it did not bother me at all nor did it affect my workflow. Plus, there are overall less visual disturbances and overall design feels much more coherent, ie the curvature of the windows matches perfectly the top corners of the actual physical screen. The glass effect adds layers and overall there is more vividness to the system. I gotta stay, I am pleasantly surprised and I am enjoying it very much.

 

[JohnC1959]

Another point to add, after using it for a couple of days I haven't noticed much for Liquid Glass, ie it did not bother me at all nor did it affect my workflow. Plus, there are overall less visual disturbances and overall design feels much more coherent, ie the curvature of the windows matches perfectly the top corners of the actual physical screen. The glass effect adds layers and overall there is more vividness to the system. I gotta stay, I am pleasantly surprised and I am enjoying it very much.

And I've read that there is at least a small amount of user tweaking available. I plan to use all defaults at first and if anything doesn't grow on me after a couple weeks I may use these adjustments. I've gotten the impression that the liquid glass is less obtrusive for MacOS compared to on the iPhone.

 

[antonrg]

And I've read that there is at least a small amount of user tweaking available. I plan to use all defaults at first and if anything doesn't grow on me after a couple weeks I may use these adjustments. I've gotten the impression that the liquid glass is less obtrusive for MacOS compared to on the iPhone.

It's definitely less obvious on the Mac, but the thing is I love it on the iPhone, and I was criticising it to the max until I finally gave in and installed it first on my iPad Air 5. It is a beautiful software and I have yet to find something negative about it. Indeed, it is not a complete overhaul as the structure is still the same, but the visual touches, ironically, feel very well thought out. Of course, it's a whole other story when it comes to AI. I tried Apple Intelligence on my iPad and the Mac. Deactivated it pretty soon after. It's useless to say the least.

 

[Andy_2341]

No, two Mac user accounts linked to two individual iPhones.
My partner and mine.

If you have both accounts logged in it stops working, no more continuity camera, no more personal hotspot, it’s a mess.

Oh I see what you mean. That does sound like an issue.