macOS

Shine a spotlight on the solutions to your most irritating Mac problems

- by GEOFF MOORE

Is Sequoia safe yet?

Q Is it safe yet to upgrade my iMac Retina 4K 2019, with 8GB memory, to macOS 15 (Sequoia)?

A Deciding when to upgrade is largely determined by compatibility of your working apps with the new version of macOS. Fortunately, macOS Sequoia is coming to the end of its year as the current major version, and there are few supported apps that aren't now fully compatible with it.

Checking through the list you supplied, current versions of apps in the Affinity creative suite all work well with macOS 15, as do Nikon NX Studio, Cubase 14 Elements and Band-in-a-Box 2024.

Most problems with earlier versions of macOS Sequoia concerned third-party software firewalls and security products, particularly when used with the macOS software firewall enabled. Thankfully, those issues appear to have been resolved now.

The only concern is that your Mac only has 8GB of memory although, as it’s an Intel model, it doesn't have access to any Apple Intelligence features that would increase its needs. Apple silicon models with only 8GB of memory may resort to using more virtual memory cached to disk, and some users find that disabling Apple Intelligence is the best way forward in this kind of scenario.