macOS "Tahoe" 26.5 released: Is it time to upgrade from Sequoia? (poll)

[PotentPeas]

I'd like to try this poll after each minor macOS upgrade is released (X.1, X.2). I'm curious how community sentiment changes over time, and it could also help other users gauge the community consensus on whether upgrading at this time is a "good idea" or not.

The poll will remain open for 30 days. I'll post another one when macOS 26.6 drops. If Apple follows their typical release pattern, the release window for macOS 26.6 is late July. (I will not post a poll for 26.5.1. If there is such a release, it will most likely include just a small number of targeted fixes and won't change the overall picture by much.)

Past polls:
macOS "Tahoe": 26.1 (37.5% yes); 26.2 (36.1% yes); 26.3 (37.4% yes); 26.4 (43.0% yes)
(I'll put some kind of chart here when I have some more data.)

———

As someone who values stability and "things working right" more than access to the latest new features, I'm holding off on upgrading to Tahoe until I believe that it will be a reasonably smooth experience.

With the initial Tahoe release, reading comments and posts from the community, I saw a lot of repeatedly noted issues. For example: Dock randomly going to autohide. Network printers not working. Rounded corners on PDFs. Large "hit box" for the green maximize button at the top of windows. To me, it really seems like Apple pushed Tahoe out to hit a self-imposed deadline, and it was still somewhat "beta" quality at launch; they did not wait for it to be adequately polished. ...However, these kinds of things seem to have been largely cleaned up and are largely addressed in 26.1, 26.2, and 26.3.

I haven't been seeing as many consistent issues recently, so I am thinking that this OS may finally be solidifying. However, there has been a number of concerning reports of earlier Apple Silicon MacBook Pros being bricked when attempting to upgrade to 26.4 or 26.4.1 (recovery requires restoring 26.3 via DFU mode, and Apple support people haven't been consistently offering that option, usually opting for hardware replacements instead), and there have been issues with network filtering apps in both the 26.4 and 26.5 beta cycles (ironed out by release, but clearly Apple is still messing with stuff).

I am interested in your take, after using macOS Tahoe 26.5 for a bit. Did they make any improvements that meaningfully fix or improve any issues you were experiencing with prior 26.X releases? Should a "regular" user upgrade yet? Is it "safe"? Or is it still not worth it, because of the bugs and UI jank?

Vote in the poll, and comment if you like!

Thanks.

 

[M5RahuL]

Subb'd.. Interested in this as well!

 

[DankeBrutus]

I only played around with Tahoe in a VM so I haven't used it on real hardware yet. At this point I'm just sticking with Sequoia until I see macOS 27. For me my primary issue is usability. I haven't tried a Tahoe since 26.1 so I should whip up another VM but when I last used it I did not like the new Finder layout. I found Liquid Glass led to a lot of wasted space, just less usable surface area for similar sized windows between Sequoia and Tahoe. Also breaking column view, even if they've since fixed it, was unacceptable. Your released product should not break something so basic.

I've moved both my Macs to the Sequoia beta since those are now just security updates for the most part. Depending on how things look in June I'm either sticking with Sequoia until it is EOL or I'm updating in September/October.

 

[Antares23]

26.4.1 finally made me upgrade from Sequoia, that was two days ago, I upgraded to 26.5 and everything is fine. Tahoe is finally as smooth as Sequoia was, I have yet to test battery life tho

 

[PotentPeas]

I actually just upgraded myself after waiting for 8 months.

I had a pretty good idea of what to expect.

I don't like some of the "wasted space" especially as it concerns the weird sidebar in things like Finder. But I have a 16" screen, and it is bearable. I'd be way more annoyed if I had a smaller screen, I am sure.

The window border radius does bother me, especially as it is inconsistent between apps. I run a lot of apps filling the entire desktop, so sometimes I can see the "corners" of apps behind my current one at the edges. This wasn't an issue prior to Tahoe, when all windows had the same border radius.

The rest of the liquid glass experience is … fine. I did set it to "Tinted" and turned on the menu bar background.

Took a battery hit after the upgrade, but that is to be expected as it is reindexing and such. Will see if battery life is "normal" while doing regular work over the next few days.

There are some weird animation glitches. For instance, if I lock the system (Ctrl+Cmd+Q), it does a weird flicker as it transitions to the lock screen. I wonder if this will fix itself once the system gets done with the just-upgraded-background-work or not.

A couple of minor niggles, like the Messages app was only showing me phone numbers instead of contact names after the upgrade, until I rebooted again. Several of my apps seemed to have the "remembered" window position slightly off when opening them for the first time.

We'll see how I feel after using it for a few days…

 

[TheGeneralist]

I don't think it makes any sense to ask this question right now.
26.5 has just been released, absolutely no one knows anything about its stability.
In a few days, this will not really have gotten any better.

In about two weeks (at the earliest!), the community will have satisfactory knowledge about the stability of 26.5.
By then, this thread will likely have been long forgotten.

 

[SDAVE]

M class Mac: Yes
Intel Mac: No

 

[SDAVE]

I don't think it makes any sense to ask this question right now.
26.5 has just been released, absolutely no one knows anything about its stability.
In a few days, this will not really have gotten any better.

In about two weeks (at the earliest!), the community will have satisfactory knowledge about the stability of 26.5.
By then, this thread will likely have been long forgotten.

.5 has been in beta for a month so people know if its good or not...