Upgrade to Tahoe?

[ParsaS]

Hi, after all the fuss around Tahoe and all those negative comments, I'm wondering whether to update to Tahoe or not. I have MacBook Air M2 and in Sequoia. It's stable for me and working great.

So my question is how stable is Tahoe for you? what about battery life?

 

[designerdave72]

Hi, after all the fuss around Tahoe and all those negative comments, I'm wondering whether to update to Tahoe or not. I have MacBook Air M2 and in Sequoia. It's stable for me and working great.

So my question is how stable is Tahoe for you? what about battery life?

If it’s stable, working great and you’re not very keen on the look of Tahoe, do not upgrade. I upgraded from Sequoia and things are all ok on my M1 Max but I’m not keen on the look and feel of Tahoe. Trouble is, they’ll make you upgrade at some point. Even macOS 27 will be as bad 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[apostolosdt]

I upgraded to Tahoe on day one, mainly for security reasons, but I kept Sequoia on an external disk, just in case. Tahoe is stable, but the new icons are terrible. The worst change however is the disappearance of the launch pad.

 

[bogdanw]

Similar
<macOS "Tahoe" 26.1 released: Is it time to upgrade from Sequoia?>
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...d-is-it-time-to-upgrade-from-sequoia.2470384/
<Are you delaying upgrading your Mac computer to Tahoe 26.1 but are or have already upgraded your iPhone to 26.1?>
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...already-upgraded-your-iphone-to-26-1.2470620/

 

[chmania]

I upgraded to the Tahoe developer beta when it appeared in June 2025, and I will move to the next developer beta when it arrives in June next year. It was the same with Sequoia and earlier versions; I never lost anything by doing that. I provide feedback to Apple.

 

[MBAir2010]

tahoe was the worse OS as I feel that was Cuppertino "auto pen" as I have no control over the computer!

I reverted to Monterey on my M1 Macs last Sunday and will never update anything  again.
perhaps to windows 11 on an Asus zen book in the future.

the problem or sour taste I have was we were lied to all summer how great this OS is.
every tech pundit heralded this disaster as the most responsive OS evaH!
that bothered me more than Tahoe 23 failures on my M1s 8GBram

perhaps this OS runs better on those new fangled Macs with M7 48GB rams chips?

 

[maflynn]

Tahoe 23 failures on my M1s 8GBram

Tbh, I can see Tahoe running poorly on an M1. I forget what thread (or threads) where I pointed out, that all of the eye candy being added into the UI will have an increased demand on the cpu/gpu. I was largely poo-pood, or in reddit parlance voted down - yet when the dust settled a number of older macs have struggled with performance.

I have a newer studio, so I don't expect the same level of performance degradation. At this point, I am somewhat tempted to install the OS

 

[chmania]

Tbh, I can see Tahoe running poorly on an M1. I forget what thread (or threads) where I pointed out, that all of the eye candy being added into the UI will have an increased demand on the cpu/gpu. I was largely poo-pood, or in reddit parlance voted down - yet when the dust settled a number of older macs have struggled with performance.

I have a newer studio, so I don't expect the same level of performance degradation. At this point, I am somewhat tempted to install the OS

Well, if you bought the M1 chip MacBook, you can only blame yourself, as the M1 was the first silicon chip, making you part of the experiment.

 

[MBAir2010]

Tbh, I can see Tahoe running poorly on an M1.

i'm just happy my MacBook Air m1 runs incredible now,
as I somehow have version 12.7.2 (21G1974) of Monterey
since the last version 12.7.6 has 3 major problems on the MBA
as I could not open text edit files as the program crashes,
I needed to close the lid after start up to adjust the screen brightness
and the volume would set to full blast on start up.

again im content and appreciate my MacBook an Mac mini now.

 

[MBAir2010]

Well, if you bought the M1 chip MacBook, you can only blame yourself, as the M1 was the first silicon chip, making you part of the experiment.

why would we blame anything?
the M1 chip is still great and works well depending on the OS.

 

[maflynn]

Well, if you bought the M1 chip MacBook, you can only blame yourself, as the M1 was the first silicon chip, making you part of the experiment.

I have to disagree, the M1 represented a huge leap forward in performance and battery life, its apple's fault for putting too much eye candy into the operating system for no discernible improvement in the actual improvement.

What they could have done was exclude the M1 from being compatible with Tahoe, but I think that would have caused more problems with harsh pushback from the mac user community, i.e., a 5 year old mac being dropped from support so early.

 

[chmania]

why would we blame anything?
the M1 chip is still great and works well depending on the OS.

It's meant to run the OS that it came with, and it might run the one after, Monterey. Tahoe arrived five years later, and Apple had stopped producing M1 MacBook Airs in 2024. M1 was the experiment; they would never go back. Apple also stopped producing M2 and M3 MacBook Air models in March this year. It's always wise to wait until the experiment settles.

 

[PotentPeas]

Ha, for more data, I posted one of these a few weeks ago.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-tahoe-26-1-released-is-it-time-to-upgrade-from-sequoia.2470384/

 

[designerdave72]

Tbh, I can see Tahoe running poorly on an M1. I forget what thread (or threads) where I pointed out, that all of the eye candy being added into the UI will have an increased demand on the cpu/gpu. I was largely poo-pood, or in reddit parlance voted down - yet when the dust settled a number of older macs have struggled with performance.

I have a newer studio, so I don't expect the same level of performance degradation. At this point, I am somewhat tempted to install the OS

I thought there was an issue with performance on my 2022 M1 Max after I upgraded but it turned out that File Vault was activated automatically. So many hanging tasks. I googled the issue, turned it off and it runs just as smooth as Ventura and Sequoia.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

I upgraded to the Tahoe developer beta when it appeared in June 2025, and I will move to the next developer beta when it arrives in June next year. It was the same with Sequoia and earlier versions; I never lost anything by doing that. I provide feedback to Apple.

We thank you for your service. Seriously.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

An X.2 version is usually the earliest that I will upgrade, because X.1 and sometimes X.2 typically remain beta IMO.
• One reason to wait is because my Macs' operation is enterprise critical. Beta OS operation is unacceptable.
• The second reason to wait is because even if the OS evolves out of beta operation, all the app devs also need to have their stuff together and solid with the new OS, which is in itself a moving target.
• The [IMO primary] reason to upgrade is to facilitate all the various Apple devices playing as nicely as possible with each other.

Commentary from early adopters is always much appreciated.

 

[aries81]

having zero issues with Tahoe, so in my opinion go for it.

 

[Hajj.david]

Tahoe is working great on my M1 max and my M4 Max studio. I think the complaints are way overblown and I think it looks quite good.

 

[Juraj22]

Not all is good. Xcode SwiftUI preview + any other app that is producing sound (like Music) may introduce sound cracking. (to fix: you have to restart coresound) If you leave Figma in browser with design open for too long you get complete UI slowness. only restart helps. So yeah, mostly good but not yet great. Battery is mostly ok, but hard to say after 4 years on M1 Max. Runs as fast as before, so no complaints in that regard.

 

[ignatius345]

I've updated one of my Macs to Tahoe, and left the other alone. The machine Sequoia (M4 Air) feels like it's running a "pro" OS and the one running Tahoe (M4 iMac) looks cartoonish and clunky throughout the UI. I very much dislike it and wish I had not updated. So many apps are just a pile of rounded rectangles with shadows heaped onto one another. Honestly, it looks like a bad photoshop mockup some design student would do without really thinking through how it would be executed across the whole OS.

S**t like the Contacts app just leaves me scratching my head and wondering how this is possibly made by Apple and WTF they were thinking here:

I guess the rumor now is that macOS 27 will be about refining this ****-show, and I would recommend waiting until then. Unless, I guess, they somehow just make it worse.

 

[SDAVE]

Runs horrible on a high end Intel Mac Pro unless Liquid Glass is disabled.

Maxed out M1 Max runs fine

 

[FatLouie]

Nope. I am on Sequoia until the "Disable" option is available for LG in 26. I have an OPPO Find X9 Pro in shipment now to replace my 15+. The iPad Pro M4 is next to go when I find a suitable replacement.

 

[maxoakland]

It's meant to run the OS that it came with, and it might run the one after

This is fabricated nonsense

 

[chmania]

This is fabricated nonsense

By Apple...

 

[TumbleDryer]

I haven't voted as I'm struggling to comprehend the poll question?! 'Would you update if you go back?' doesn't make sense (to me).

That being said I will say from my experience Tahoe is stable however the UI and UX is a big step backwards. I for one really dislike it and all the unnecessary effects and transparency. It just makes things harder to get things done with all the visual distractions and odd design choices making things more complicated than they need to be.

If I could I would go back to Sequoia.