Just a question. I've been reluctant to upgrade to Tahoe until I hear that the AI features are working well. If I upgrade now, can I keep AI turned off until I am ready?
You should absolutely upgrade.
About Apple software updates - Apple Support
You may turn Apple Intelligence on when you’re ready.
Use Apple Intelligence on your Mac - Apple Support
icelandscg wrote:
Just a question. I've been reluctant to upgrade to Tahoe until I hear that the AI features are working well. If I upgrade now, can I keep AI turned off until I am ready?
As noted, you don't have to use the AI features if they are not yet up to snuff.
Honestly, I haven't noticed a huge difference with Tahoe. It really doesn't look that much different (unlike iOS 26). Like the vast majority of users, I haven't had any issues with it. The security updates are well worth any minor changes in the interface.
I performed a clean install of macOS 26.0 Tahoe and have updated it several times until the most recent version 26.2. On my system Apple AI was disabled automatically from the start on my MBPro M1 2020 laptop. At least I don't recall changing it.
There is an enable/disable option in the "Apple Intelligence & Siri" System Settings.
See the following Apple article for some more details:
How to get Apple Intelligence - Apple Support
Don't upgrade.
(I rolled back to 15.7)
[Edited by Moderator]
I was a little cautious about upgrading because I have a 2019 MacBook Pro Intel 16" which I had read was the oldest model of laptop that could run Tahoe and that some experienced poor results with an older Intel laptop.
However the upgrade went smoothly and it actually feels like the computer runs more smoothly under Tahoe than earlier versions of MacOS. I initially disabled some of the "liquid glass" and other advanced visuals/graphics (because I had read they use up some energy) that come with Tahoe, but now they are active and turned on and everything runs nimbly. Notably, TurboTax had its very slow moments under Sequoia -- sometimes quitting the program could take tens of seconds -- but the latest (2025 tax year) version under Tahoe is quick and responsive. I also have printers/scanners from 2010 and 2015, they seem to work just fine under Tahoe, along with a brand new printer/scanner just acquired.
I'm pretty pleased, and welcome the new visuals and especially the improvements in security plus some bug fixes.
My laptop has only 16 GB memory, lots of free space (more than half of the 1 TB internal SSD is free). Right after the upgrade to Tahoe I thought I heard the fans come on briefly during and right after Time Machine backups, but now I don't hear the fans much at all several days later. I think there is some initial housekeeping that makes the computer busier than usual for a few days as these tasks complete in the background, perhaps this is more apparent with an older Intel Mac than the newer Silicon ones.
Read this (and other posts in various threads) first. Mac unresponsive after update to Tahoe 26… - Apple Community
TonyLima wrote:
Read this (and other posts in various threads) first.
From the millions (or tens of millions) of folks who upgraded to macOS Tahoe, there will be a few outliers who have issues. Further, the thread you referenced suggests causes unrelated to the macOS upgrade.
Out of several millions even several thousands is "a few" as it would represent no more than 0.1%
In life there is no such thing as a 100% guarantee . . . other than that you will die eventually!
A 0.1% probability of trouble is statistically unimportant especially as in many cases it will be down to user-error.
Many Macs must die every day so it's easy to mistakenly blame an update if one was performed recently.
Yuri Geller used to stop watches working on his TV show and several viewers would dutifully write in stating that their watch had stopped. Of course it was nothing to do with Yuri as many watches break down every day!
TonyLima wrote:
How did you do the rollback? Everything I have read says you have to wipe the boot drive and start from scratch. If there’s an easier way, please tell us!
Nope. There is no "easier way".
TonyLima wrote:
More than a few.
The link you provided described a situation that is not typical. When a new user was created, the "problems" were gone for that user, but persisted with the original user. So that clearly points to a non-Tahoe cause (since the problem-free user account was also running Tahoe on that same Mac), and points to something in the user configuration, probably something installed that is incompatible with Tahoe. Usually, those things can be updated fairly straightforwardly.
Thank you!!!
Glad I was able to help.
Enjoy your Apple gear.
More than a few.
How did you do the rollback? Everything I have read says you have to wipe the boot drive and start from scratch. If there’s an easier way, please tell us!
Whether or not to upgrade to Tahoe
