macOS Sequoia 15.0 - Is it "Safe"/"Worth" updating from Sonoma 14.7 on Macbook Pro 13" M1 2020?

There is no need to rush to upgrade an OS to the next major version. In fact it is usually best to hold off until you have researched & tested your setup with the new OS. I never upgrade to a new major version of any OS until after at least the first update patch. I'm in fact still on macOS 13.x Ventura since I have no need for Sonoma or Sequoia.

Research by checking out the Apple forums here, especially the Sequoia forum to see what issues people are talking about, perhaps even some fan forum sites if you have any you follow. Keep in mind the majority of issues people report here tend to be associated with unnecessary third party software which are known to interfere with the normal operation of macOS (anti-virus apps, cleaning apps, optimizer apps, security software).

Also check with the developer's of all the third party software you use to make sure their apps are fully compatible with the new OS....this includes any plug-ins or extensions that you utilize. If those developers also have forums, then check them out to see what issues the early adopters are reporting. Keep in mind some third party developers may take weeks or months before updating their apps to be fully compatible with a new OS (some have been known to take a year).

Then there is the research part where you perform the tests yourself by testing the new OS yourself. This latter option will provide you with the best results since the online research is only a very rough guide for what you may encounter.

There are several ways to test out the new OS yourself:

• Install Sequoia into a new APFS volume assuming you have enough Free storage space (minimum 80GB just for the OS without any third party apps)
• Install Sequoia to an external drive (speeds of external SSDs vary greatly)
• Have a second backup computer which you can use for testing & emergencies

All three of these options allow you to dual boot so that you can continue working with your current setup while testing out the new OS to confirm whether there are any issues. Once you are sure everything is fine, then upgrade the OS on your main boot volume. If you chose option#1, then you can safely delete the newly created APFS volume to free up the storage space (first make sure to change the default Startup Disk in System Settings).

It is best to test everything for yourself since everybody's setup is completely different even if they are using the computer & OS for the exact same things. All it takes is one piece of hardware, or one plugin that you may use which could make a difference from success or failure with the upgrade.

Most important......always have frequent and regular backups of your computer and all external media (including the cloud) since there are a lot more new ways to permanently lose access to the data on the internal SSD due to all the hardware, software, and security changes of the more recent Macs.

I usually wait 6 months for developers to catch up. But if you don't work on professional apps for work, editing, etc... then you'll be fine. The updates to MacOS are rarely worth updating to...unless you're one of those hip 26 year olds in their ads with afros and short pants that eat brunch twice a day.

Always a crap shoot, right, when updating...

No. It's not. The vast majority of people update/upgrade with zero issues whatever. They do it in safety because they make a back up, or even two, and then run the update. And go on with their lives. If there is a significant issue then they have a back up the can roll back to. Simple. Safe.

If you wait until there are no posts on this forum about a version of the OS then you will never update. The safety is in your back ups, not in waiting for a "perfect" piece of software that causes nobody no problems ever. It doesn't exist. It never will. And there are plenty of people who'll tell you never to upgrade until the .1 version. Even more will tell you wait for the .3 version (tho for some reason no one ever seems to say wait for the .2 version, I wonder why...). That's all voodoo. Each of those versions will be imperfect too, just in slightly different ways. Even the version of the OS you're running now... that's imperfect to.

Is it worth it? Only you can decide. Only you know what you use the Mac for.

But remember million of people upgrade with no issues. And they always back up first.

At this moment in time, I would not update to Sequioa. With 14.7, you updated lower level firmware, so going back to anything might also be tricky. Considering the many, many problems reported here and on Reddit, I would wait.

Do not let FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) break your Mac. Sequoia certainly has some bugs that will get fixed. There is no pressing need for you to upgrade immediately.

I would recommend you wait until 15.1 is released and watch the forums. In the business world we typically defer macOS upgrades 90 days as a precaution. We test the dev and public betas and the latest release. It's broken a ton of stuff so we have to wait as well. I am confident that Apple will fix things soon and that 3rd party developers will be fixing their software as well.

Speaking of Chrome, have you tried the Arc Browser yet? It's based on Chrome but a rather unique approach. They just released support for Sequoia. They were not ready at launch. It worked fine but it works better now that they pushed out updates to fix issues in Sequoia.

Whatever you do, backup your Mac before you install Sequoia.

a big annoyance, Activity Monitor no longer shows 12 hour energy column in Energy tab. Once you're in Energy tab, a View - Application in last 12 hours menu gets available, but that's all. You can no longer have two columns at the same time, one with Energy and one with 12 hours energy.

also, I wrote much more but the reply dissapeared: WindowServer is still leaking memory. Safari invoked Force Quit today with 40GB ram usage and 20GB page file used.

My question is a simple one:

What's the skinny thus far on Sequoia 15.0 running on Macbook Pro 13, M1, 2020, or similar architecture in this series? Is it "safe"? Is it "worth" it? Am I "missing out" if I refrain, and stay with Sonoma right now?

Thanks for weighing in!

If you don’t install crapware and don’t use network management tools as Internet security, every macOS upgrade is “safe.” But, I don’t know what that word means in the context of a computer upgrade. I don’t imagine it will cause your Mac to burst into flames, but I suppose that is a possibility.

If you have external hardware with special system modifications to make it work, don’t upgrade until the manufacturer makes it compatible (if they ever choose to do so).

Will there be features you don’t like? Maybe. Will there be changes that hamper your current workflow? Yep, that’s entirely possible, also.

I’ve had Sequoia running on an M1 Mini for several months. I have not had a problem with it or any of the previous macOS upgrades.

The only third-party app I can’t live without (Autodesk Fusion) worked from the beginning with Sequoia. I haven’t found any apps that don’t work.

If you have room on your drive, add an APFS Volume in Disk Utility and install it there. Don’t migrate anything, just try it out. Install apps you need and test.

macOS Upgrade best practices

1. BACKUP! It is very important. Time Machine or CCC or SuperDuper.
2. Take inventory of any security software or 3rd party network (VPN). Check all 3rd party apps and hardware are compatible with new macOS version. You may have to wait months for prerequisite requirements to be met.
3. Don’t let FOMO, Fear of Missing Out result in a broken Mac. There is zero need to upgrade immediately.
4. Waiting for a patch release or even two or three will ensure a smoother upgrade. Monitor how the upgrade is working for most people.
5. Do not skip multiple versions. Such as upgrading from Big Sur to Sequoia. Skipping multiple versions can result in upgrade failures.
6. Remove old software you no longer use.
7. If an upgrade fails, try running it again while booted into Safe Mode.
8. Be prepared for failure by being ready to recover a failed upgrade.
9. if you have only one Mac and you cannot afford any downtime. Then it is well advised NOT to upgrade day one with a dot zero release. Just wait a bit and upgrade after 2-3 dot releases. Most of the bugs will be fixed by then.

DO NOT UPGRADE !!!

All of your widgets and vpn products will stop working.

Upgrading seems very incompatible with MS Office. It has absolutely ruined my life for the past few days. I can open documents, but I cannot save them as different file names or create PDFs from them in Word. What a mess. It's a well-discussed issue going on - it "ain't just me."

I usually wait 6 months for developers to catch up

Why 6? Why not 5? Why not 7? Why not 11? What developers? Why are you working with apps where the developers are six months behind the OS?

The updates to MacOS are rarely worth updating to..

Then why update at all?

Great to hear you haven't had any issues with your apps after upgrading. Aside from updates that are focused around architecture transitons (e.g. Mojave > Catalina, Intel > Apple Silicone), that's usually how it goes for most people, especially with the everyday GUI apps we all use. These apps rely on higher-level macOS APIs that Apple mostly keeps stable and backward-compatible. Since they're sandboxed, they don't mess directly with the core system or depend on system-level stuff, so they're less likely to break during upgrades.

But when it comes to command-line tools like Homebrew or Xcode's CLI utilities, they dig much deeper into the operating system. System Integrity Protection limits what parts of the system these tools can change, and any tweaks Apple makes can throw off tools that need access to specific system directories. With frequent updates to compilers and SDKs, CLI tools have to constantly adapt. If they're using outdated compilers or frameworks that have been deprecated, they'll break until they're updated. These tools also handle dependencies that often need rebuilding or recompiling for the new macOS version.

This means developers and users who rely on CLI tools face ongoing challenges with each macOS release. While most folks won't need to think about this, it's a common concern for anyone depending on a CLI environment whenever a new version comes out.