Should I update to macOS Sonoma 14.6.1?

yosemiteenjoyer wrote:

This is felt the most when you have low amounts of RAM (e.g. 4-8).

Until last week, I was using an MBA with 8 GB. It had Ventura when it was released and I updated it to Sonoma. There was no change in performance. And because it had so little RAM, I monitored performance more than I might have done otherwise. If I weren't sending the MBA as a trade-in, I'd be updating it to Sequoia.

Usually macOS releases start getting stripped down of features so they can function better on older macOS systems. This is also true for iPadOS and iOS releases.

In other words, so they don't slow things down.....

Dany_233 wrote:

My advice.

Do not update this version until Apple Support fixes the bugs.

I have seen many users complain about the issues in this community after the update to Sonoma 14.6.1

From my observations on the Sonoma Forums

Most of the issues for some experience are Self Inflicted issues

This can range from running Third Party Security Software ( unless to be polite ) to running Disk Cleaners / Disk Optimizers ( also useless being polite )

Then, the mismanagement by the user of the Internal Drives Capacity = Empty Space

Folk will come on and tell you that they never update until at least the .3 version. Some will say the .5 version. I've seen one poster say that he never upgrades the OS until the one after again is released. So he wouldn't go to Mac OS 14 until OS 15 is released. This is all specious logic, and more reflective of the poster's psychology than computer science.

Here's what you do:

Make a back up. Make a second, even.

Update. 99.9% chance that everything will be fine. Go on with your life.

If something does go wrong, then restore from your back up.

Any other approach means you will never upgrade or update as there is no perfect OS, and you'll grow old waiting for the right one to arrive.

Unless you want the newest features, Ventura is still a good macOS as of August 2024 (I'm using it right now, lol).

I do recommend keeping your Mac up to date with "security updates" (different than the once-a-year macOS updates).

If you want to experiment, you can install macOS Sonoma on a different "container" on the same hard drive. Use more than one version of macOS on Mac - Apple Support

Remember to always keep your Mac backed up to an external hard drive in case something goes wrong.

Hope this helps!

I'm talking about noticeable changes such as comparing Mojave with Sonoma (which has a drastic difference on my MacBook Air, also with 8GB of RAM and dual-booting Mojave & Sonoma). I wouldn't expect one macOS release to make a noticeable difference in speeds (which was my point on a previous comment), and if it happens, there would be an underlying problem.

An example of this is the performance hit for multiple users with both newer and older Macs when Big Sur first released. Big Sur was unoptimized for newer Macs and was just too big to handle for older Macs.

Also, optimizing functionality does not mean it will not slow down, just that performance differences will be minimal between updates (although noticeable in the long run).

OP should be able to go from Ventura to Sonoma with absolutely no problems, but the decision of whether staying in Ventura or upgrading to Sonoma is up to what OP prefers.

I updated and sure wish I had not. I have the same issue on slowing. Have to restart the computer every hour or so. My share screen stopped working. I used to use One keyboard and one mouse for two computers. That no longer works correctly. Now have two mice and two keyboards. I think this upgrade is a definite downgrade. I would not update if I had it to do over again.

[Edited by Moderator]

My advice.

Do not update this version until Apple Support fixes the bugs.

I have seen many users complain about the issues in this community after the update to Sonoma 14.6.1

do not update, mine was fine with ventura then slows down from recent update 14.6.1, freezes everytime i open the mac

Sonoma is a slightly improved version of what you are now having on Ventura. You will be getting some nice new features, can install apps that are needing Sonoma, but the Photos.app will be essentially as it is now. I like it very much, that now the exported photos are keeping the capture date as the file creation date.

The Photos.app on macOS Sequoia will be drastically changed, a culture shock, as you can see in the previews already released by Apple. For Photos users the upgrade from Ventura to Sonoma will be making less difference than the upgrade from Ventura to Sequoia.

ljuba9988 wrote:

I am especially asking this because I use the M1 as a secondary machine for very light video editing and graphic design (using DaVinci Resolve the most, Affinity Photo, Lightroom Classic, FCPX...), so is the update going to decrease the performance (i am also using the 8GB of ram)?

Until last week, I was using an MBA M1 with 8 GB of RAM. Ventura worked just fine. Performance hits as the result of updating are rarer than some people would have you believe.

Regardless of what version of macOS you use, you're going to have to pay more attention to memory pressure than someone with more RAM. By most modern standards, it's just not enough.

Even though Sonoma is very similar to Ventura in terms of features, the macOS that comes with your Mac is almost always the fastest because it was specifically designed for that Mac, but I don't think Sonoma will have any noticeable difference from Ventura... performance differences are noticeable around 4-5 macOS releases later (e.g. Mojave runs fastest but Sonoma is noticeably slower on the same Mac, compared on the same day)

OP can also use a third-party tool (such as Blackmagic's Disk Speed Test) to see whether performance varies between macOS releases.

Hope this helps!

yosemiteenjoyer wrote:

Even though Sonoma is very similar to Ventura in terms of features, the macOS that comes with your Mac is almost always the fastest because it was specifically designed for that Mac,

Some people keep saying that. But I've never seen any evidence or heard Apple say that. When you update macOS, the version that gets installed on your computer is appropriate to that hardware.

This is felt the most when you have low amounts of RAM (e.g. 4-8).

In my case, Sonoma is fast, but when you boot into Mojave (the OS my Mac was shipped with), you feel that lightning-fast out-of-the-box speed and compared to that, Sonoma feels sluggish.

Usually macOS releases start getting stripped down of features so they can function better on older macOS systems. This is also true for iPadOS and iOS releases.

I updated and sure wish I had not. I have the same issue on slowing. Have to restart the computer every hour or so. My share screen stopped working. I used to use One keyboard and one mouse for two computers. That no longer works correctly. Now have two mice and two keyboards. I think this upgrade is a definite downgrade. I would not update if I had it to do over again.

Millions of people have upgraded with no issues. This does not mean your issues are not real, but it does mean they are local to your machine. So rather than assuming your experience is universal - and it isn't - best to try and troubleshoot your problems. Create a new thread, include details of your hardware, and what apps are running when these issues arise. The more information you can give the more likely you are to get a useful response.

yosemiteenjoyer wrote:

OP should be able to go from Ventura to Sonoma with absolutely no problems, but the decision of whether staying in Ventura or upgrading to Sonoma is up to what OP prefers.

Exactly. There's no reason not to except for personal preference.