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Is it worth updating Sequioa 15.5 to 15.7.7?

D

Damselfly

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hello all,

I'm totally new to Apple, & I've just purchased a brand new Macbook M4, 24GB, 512GB in Starlight colourway.

I'm not tech savvy at all, and just a typical 20 year old Girl so I'm sorry if this question comes over as ridiculous.

It's currently using Sequioa V15.5 and I like it a lot with no issues noticed, but I'm being prompted to update to 15.7.7.

There is also an option to change to MacOS Tahoa 26.5, but looking on YouTube, I'm not keen on the display, etc'.

Is it worthwhile to upgrade to Sequoia 15.7.7, or am I totally safe to stay on 15.5?

Many thanks.
 
Damselfly said:
Is it worthwhile to upgrade to Sequoia 15.7.7, or am I totally safe to stay on 15.5?
Click to expand...
Totally safe either way. However, press the little "i" circle next to "Other updates" (which include 15.7.7) and make sure Sequoia 15.7.7 is selected and Tahoe is unselected. Apple has been very sneaky in the last year about default selecting Tahoe. Also, press the little "i" circle next to Automatic Updates and make sure everything is disabled, otherwise, sneaky Apple will automatically upgrade your system to Tahoe.
 
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Bigwaff said:
Totally safe either way. However, press the little "i" circle next to "Other updates" (which include 15.7.7) and make sure Sequoia 15.7.7 is selected and Tahoe is unselected. Apple has been very sneaky in the last year about default selecting Tahoe. Also, press the little "i" circle next to Automatic Updates and make sure everything is disabled, otherwise, sneaky Apple will automatically upgrade your system to Tahoe.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the reply.

Yes, I definitely don't want Tahoe & much prefer the look of the Sequioa OS that was already on this.

I will be very careful if updating & follow your instructions exactly, so thank you for the heads up.
 
chrfr said:
It's really not "totally safe" to stay on 15.5. Apple has issued several very important security updates since 15.5 was released, so updating to 15.7.7 should be done ASAP.
Click to expand...
Disagree. This 'you must always be updated to the latest version because of security' myth has been with us since forever, but I never adhered to it, and I never saw any issue related to it. I've been on macOS 15.5 since last summer, and I agree with Damselfly; it may be the best, most stable system I've ever been on.

Having a day free, and for no special reason, I updated to 15.7.5 a couple of weeks ago, and everything is good. Whatever you decide, always have a backup! If you don't have a backup, stay on 15.5 until you get a good backup plan in place.
 
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Ben J. said:
Disagree. This 'you must always be updated to the latest version because of security' myth has been with us since forever, but I never adhered to it, and I never saw any issue related to it.
Click to expand...
It's good that you've been lucky, but Apple doesn't release these security updates just because they feel like it. For instance, the "Darksword" and "Coruna" exploits which were recently patched allow for the compromise of all sorts of data just by visiting a malicious website. Apple found that significant enough that they even patched iOS versions that are otherwise out of support, and expanded the update to cover devices still on iOS 18.
Either way, it is demonstrably not "totally safe" to stay on older unpatched operating systems.
 
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Agreed. This old-fashioned "don't fix it if it ain't broke" does not really apply to Internet-based security vulnerabilities, unless you keep your Mac disconnected from the Internet. Cyberworld does not remain static, and if you live in that world you can't be static either if you want to be responsible. Sure, if you don't like the look of Tahoe stay on Sequioa, but keep up with all of that OS's updates, at least for as long as they are provided.
 
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There are many recent vulns whereby having the latest **puts you at risk** and running older stuff is NOT AFFECTED.

To answer the OP's question: 15.7.7 seems to be OK for the most part, but I have found that windows sometimes
"pop-under" under already open windows instead of "on-top" (e.g. contacts is active and start Safari; Safari sometimes opens under the contacts window).

Check SMB sharing BEFORE you update - I have a serious problem (with work-around) whereby a "Share Only" user can't connect to SMB shares because it can't be enabled for the user. Normal and admin accounts are not affected. The associated UI is also buggy (it duplicates all the users).

Other than this, I haven't seen any problems.
 
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Damselfly said:
Hello all,

I'm totally new to Apple, & I've just purchased a brand new Macbook M4, 24GB, 512GB in Starlight colourway.

I'm not tech savvy at all, and just a typical 20 year old Girl so I'm sorry if this question comes over as ridiculous.

It's currently using Sequioa V15.5 and I like it a lot with no issues noticed, but I'm being prompted to update to 15.7.7.

There is also an option to change to MacOS Tahoa 26.5, but looking on YouTube, I'm not keen on the display, etc'.

Is it worthwhile to upgrade to Sequoia 15.7.7, or am I totally safe to stay on 15.5?

Many thanks.
Click to expand...

Sure go for it. Generally later versions of macOS become really stable compared to earlier releases.

Also for you even Tahoe will be a good upgrade....unless you want to wait for the next version of macOS27 (which is supposed to be better than Tahoe and focused on performance.)
 
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blufrog said:
15.7.7 seems to be OK for the most part, but I have found that windows sometimes
"pop-under" under already open windows instead of "on-top" (e.g. contacts is active and start Safari; Safari sometimes opens under the contacts window).
Click to expand...

oh my days, I work with dozens of textedit files open and when I have to search for the one I just opened, say from spotlight or finder, it's driving me up the wall sometimes - is this a glitch or some setting gone off?
 
There's now a 15.7.8 update showing up in my software update pane.
But... I'm set up to see developer and public beta releases, as well as "general" releases.
 
Fishrrman said:
There's now a 15.7.8 update showing up in my software update pane.
But... I'm set up to see developer and public beta releases, as well as "general" releases.
Click to expand...
Yes, 15.7.8 is not yet released, what you see is a beta/release candidate. 15.7.8 will release when 26.6 does. (unless Apple decides to change it to 15.7.9 like they did with 15.7.6 and 15.7.7.)
 
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Fishrrman said:
There's now a 15.7.8 update showing up in my software update pane.
But... I'm set up to see developer and public beta releases, as well as "general" releases.
Click to expand...
That is the first "Release Candidate" for 15.7.8, build 24G806. Up to five RC versions are released for developers and through the beta public beta channel before an update, like 15.7.8, is officially released.
https://betawiki.net/wiki/MacOS_Sequoia#15.7.8
Hiding Tahoe, without showing Sequoia beta updates - Go-Away-Tahoe https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/experimental-no-tahoe-for-sequoia.2480020/post-34538369
 
gilby101 said:
When you do update to 15.7.7 (as @Bigwaff has said), don't be surprised when you are then offered a new version of Safari. Do that update as well - it contains many web security fixes.
Click to expand...
Yes, you're correct.

I've not updated to 15.7.7 yet, but the checkbox for Safari was auto' ticked, and Apple have been sly & also auto ticked the checkbox for Tahoe even though I was on the Sequioa update section - quite a naughty trick in my opinion.

I'm still getting my feet wet with this new Mac & am really happy with 15.5, but I will no doubt update quite soon to 15.7.7.
 
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Bigwaff said:
Totally safe either way. However, press the little "i" circle next to "Other updates" (which include 15.7.7) and make sure Sequoia 15.7.7 is selected and Tahoe is unselected. Apple has been very sneaky in the last year about default selecting Tahoe. Also, press the little "i" circle next to Automatic Updates and make sure everything is disabled, otherwise, sneaky Apple will automatically upgrade your system to Tahoe.
Click to expand...
Hello,

I clicked on automatic updates & I see this.

I don’t recall altering anything in here, so is it OK to leave these like this or should I slide them all to off?
 

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Damselfly said:
Hello,

I clicked on automatic updates & I see this.

I don’t recall altering anything in here, so is it OK to leave these like this or should I slide them all to off?
Click to expand...
Turn Off "Download new updates when available" to prevent macOS from downloading Tahoe.

The best way to ensure that those settings are not altered by Apple is with a configuration profile
Example SoftwareUpdate.mobileconfig https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/experimental-no-tahoe-for-sequoia.2480020/post-34513569
 
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Damselfly said:
Hello all,

I'm totally new to Apple, & I've just purchased a brand new Macbook M4, 24GB, 512GB in Starlight colourway.

I'm not tech savvy at all, and just a typical 20 year old Girl so I'm sorry if this question comes over as ridiculous.

It's currently using Sequioa V15.5 and I like it a lot with no issues noticed, but I'm being prompted to update to 15.7.7.

There is also an option to change to MacOS Tahoa 26.5, but looking on YouTube, I'm not keen on the display, etc'.

Is it worthwhile to upgrade to Sequoia 15.7.7, or am I totally safe to stay on 15.5?

Many thanks.
Click to expand...
15.7.7 has been working fine for me so far. Recommended.
 
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Damselfly said:
I don’t recall altering anything in here, so is it OK to leave these like this or should I slide them all to off?
Click to expand...
You should definitely keep Install Security Responses enabled, and Install macOS Updates disabled. Otherwise your choice. I have "Install application updates from App Store" enabled just because I have so/too many apps installed.

Damselfly said:
There is also an option to change to MacOS Tahoa 26.5, but looking on YouTube, I'm not keen on the display, etc'.
Click to expand...
A lot of people are unhappy with the Liquid Glass interface, but it is not too bad and hopefully will be a bit more consistent in macOS 27. At some point you will want/need to update if only to ensure you get security updates - macOS 27.2 at end of this year might be good time.
 
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Allen_Wentz said:
15.7.7 has been working fine for me so far. Recommended.
Click to expand...
I ended up updating to 15.7.7 myself a couple of days ago, too.

No problems noticed, very happy with it, and if anything, I'm pretty sure battery life has improved somewhat even though it was excellent on 15.5.
 
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I've updated two of my systems to 15.7.7, iMac & MacBook Pro, and have had issues with both updates. The update runs and then the systems seem to hang and the display goes black after a few hours with only the cursor active. Have waited over 12 hours for it to complete. Finally on both systems have had to do a hard shutdown and restart to get the system to reboot. After reboot system seems to be fine and shows it has updated to 15.7.7.
Has anyone experienced this issue?
 
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