How long will Monterey be supported now that Ventura is out or soon will be?

[chevyboy60013]

Wondering how much longer macOS Monterey will be supported now that macOS Ventura is out or will be very soon?

 

[TriciaMacMillan]

Apple does not give an official statement, but in the past, they used to support the previous macOS with important bug fixes for one more year (but they do not fix all bugs), then after that, only important security fixes are provided for a varying period of 1-n years.

There’s no guarantee whatsoever, however, that’s what I would expect with regard to Monterey, too.

 

[velocityg4]

Typically, macOS versions get three years of support from release. The first year. When it's the most current version gets a lot of OS and security updates. The remaining two years are mainly security updates.

 

[chevyboy60013]

So I don’t have to be in a hurry to upgrade

 

[velocityg4]

So I don’t have to be in a hurry to upgrade

No. It’s often better to give the new version four to six months. If reliability is important. For major bugs to get patched.

 

[chevyboy60013]

sounds like a plan to me

 

[rpmurray]

Typically Apple just provides lip service for the old OS once a new one is released. They may provide a security update every so often if they're shamed into doing so by the security community, but other than that they consider the older OS to be dead to them.

 

[JustAnExpat]

Via MacTracker:

MacOS 11 ("Big Sur")
Released November 2020
Most recent update: July, 2022

Mac OS 10.15 ("Catalina")
Released October 2019.
Most recent update: September, 2020

Mac OS 10.14 ("Mojave")
Released September 2018.
Most recent update: July 22, 2019

Mac OS 10.13 ("High Sierra")
Released September 2017
Most recent update: July 9, 2018

Mac OS 10.12 ("Sierra")
Released September 2016
Most recent update: July 19, 2017

However, most people use the internet, such as Safari. Safari 15, released with Monterey, 2021, can work with Catalina. Safari 14, released with Big Sur, can be installed on Mojave systems. Safari 13, released with Catalina in 2019, can be installed on High Sierra.

Conclusion:
1. Once the new MacOS Operating system is released, the one old does not get any updates - EXCEPT for Big Sur
2. Safari is supported for two operating systems prior.