macOS 15.3
Juli Clover (release notes, security, enterprise, developer, full installer, IPSW):
macOS Sequoia brings Genmoji to Macs that support Apple Intelligence, which means it’s now possible to create custom emoji characters using the Messages app.
The update also removes Notification summaries for news and entertainment apps to prevent misleading Apple Intelligence headline summaries.
See also: Mr. Macintosh and Howard Oakley.
It includes a fix for the replicator failure in 15.2. Once installed, SuperDuper “Erase, then copy” backups should start working again.
Previously:
- Apple Intelligence Enabled Automatically
- Apple Intelligence News Notification Summaries
- macOS 15.2 Breaks Bootable Backups
- macOS 15.2
Update (2025-01-28): Howard Oakley:
Bugs fixed include improved stability for apps over VPN connections when using the built-in software firewall and content filter extensions, and successful AirPlay connections with the firewall and content filters.
Applying the most recent macOS 15.3 security patch reset the hostname on my system (definitely should not happen). Spotlight index also nuked and failing to rebuild (mdutil is not indexing).
Releases notes show that
.onKeyPressnow works inside ofNavigationSplitView.
Apple, in its eagerness to please the stock market by forcing the so-called “beta” of Apple Intelligence on customers, offers no way to dismiss the advertisement in System Settings without opening the Image Playground app.
[…]
You can use the same workaround in the future whenever you see a message at the top of System Settings that you want to remove.
Update (2025-01-29): Ric Ford:
Apple’s recurring home directory bug is back yet again with macOS 15.3, as Jeffrey Kane notes in an email.
Apple has now released macOS 15.3 which fixes the problems PowerPhotos experienced on 15.2, and restores its previous capabilities with non system libraries.
macOS 15.2 broke all my shit, and I’ve spent the last three months fixing things to work again.
macOS 15.3 undid the shit breaking, so everything works like it did before.
So yay, it’s not broken anymore?
But I just wasted like three months of my life with this shit?
And who knows if it’ll break again in 15.4 or whatever?
Apple has added a couple of new management options for Apple Intelligence as part of the release of macOS Sequoia 15.3.
Also still not working in macOS 15.3: Preview cannot cope with grayscale TIFFs with a depth of 16.
Update (2025-01-30): Christian:
Is it just me, or did switching windows with command ^ stop working in Safari with 15.3?
The Command-` Cycle Through Windows shortcut works for both of us with a US keyboard layout, but he says Command-^ doesn’t work with any of the German keyboard layouts.
It’s broken since ever Safari Profiles were released, if you have more than one set. Weirdly, Command + Shift + ` (switching backwards) works fine.
Update (2025-01-31): Pierre Igot:
Of course, after updating from macOS 15.2 to macOS 15.3, I find that Apple has unilaterally reset my Downloads folder in Safari to the default one (the Downloads folder inside my home folder), even though I have been using a different one for YEARS.
Update (2025-02-07): Patrick Wardle:
If you write security tools for macOS, you have to get used to Apple breaking things all the time …and you (+your users) then having no recourse but to patiently wait for their fix 🫠
(Example: Apple broke Airplay Mirroring in macOS 15.2 😬 …but at least it’s fixed in 15.3)
Apple’s latest macOS Sequoia 15.3 update appears to have resolved a bug that prevented popular backup utility SuperDuper from creating bootable backups, according to developer Dave Nanian.
Starting with macOS 15.3, this automatic removal of embedded system extensions no longer works. Although the system still claims to remove them, they remain installed and active, so they continue to run in the background without users even noticing.
Note that this affects not only Little Snitch but also all third-party Mac apps that include a system extension, such as VPN and network filtering apps, endpoint security tools, and hardware drivers.
There have been many reports of problems with Thunderbolt 5 support in Apple’s latest MacBook Pro and Mac mini models with M4 Pro and Max chips. Among the more concerning have been poor performance when accessing SSDs through TB5 docks and hubs, and the inability to drive more than two 4K displays through those.
[…]
As the evidence here suggests, macOS 15.3 or later is required for full TB5 performance, and OWC now includes that in the specifications for its TB5 hub. It also states that TB3 support requires macOS 15, although USB4 should still be supported in macOS 14 Sonoma.
I installed the macOS 15.3 update last week and…
This here record clearly shows that I turned this option OFF a month ago… and therefore that the macOS 15.3 update arbitrarily turned it back on without my consent.
I suppose that, by Apple’s calculation, it’s OK to regularly annoy a subset of users just in case the great masses of clueless Mac users might be somehow helped by these so-called “tips”.
Update (2025-02-10): Peter Steinberger:
Bought a new Thunderbolt 5 controller and now macOS is crapping out on T8110DART overnights.
Now, five years later, after upgrading our machines to macOS 15.3, we have once again noticed that ICMP traffic no longer reaches our network extension, so we cannot show it in Network Monitor nor can we intercept and block it.
[…]
We very much hope that ICMP support was not intentionally removed by Apple, but that this is merely “just another bug” that will be fixed in a future macOS update.
Of course, we have already reported our findings to Apple (FB16450831).
Every “minor” OS update nowadays is like a major OS update: new bugs every time.
I personally noticed two other new bugs in macOS 15.3: tiff rendering broken (FB16418368) and Safari 18.3 broke iOS web inspector over wifi (FB16423111).
When do we ever get a “stable” version?
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Enough with the emoji/genmoji stuff already! I know literally no one who uses it. Go spend developer time on doing something useful.
Is the caret a separate key on a German keyboard? I have a Dutch keyboard and settings, and Cmd-` still works. Cmd-Shift-6 is the only way for me to approximate Cmd-^ but yeah no, that doesn't work.
@Ed Lucky you ;) It is always command and the key on the left of 1. This is form the "Mac keyboard shortcuts – Apple Support" site: "Command–Grave accent (`): Switch between the windows of the app you're using. (The character on the second key varies by keyboard. It's generally the key above the Tab key and to the left of the number 1.)"
@Christian Not on my Dutch keyboard: the key left of 1 is § (and ±). For us, the ` (and ~) key is left of Z. And yes, now I see that on a German Mac keyboard the ^ is left of 1. I think this is merely a bug or anomaly squashed. Maybe they checked scan codes by mistake and that made "the key left of 1" work. Of course it SHOULD only be the actual symbol, backtick.
I had never tried Cmd-§ (the key left of 1 for me) so I don't know if that used to work, but now it doesn't. Sorry for the confusion where I didn't get that the caret was left of 1 for you.
