Archive for September 14, 2026

Monday, September 14, 2026

macOS 27 Golden Gate

Apple (release notes, security, enterprise, developer, full installer, IPSW):

Explore what’s new for macOS 27.

The page is designed in an annoying way that requires sideways scrolling, and there doesn’t seem to be a PDF list of the new features like in previous years.

See also:

Jeff Johnson:

There’s also a DEPRECATION NOTICE at the top of the man page that lists the diskutil replacements for hdiutil subcommands.

Patrick Wardle:

Fixed: launchd no longer supports loading launchd property list files with the quarantine extended attribute.

Dave Nanian:

[Even] though a bootable backup is properly configured to boot, they aren’t showing up as choices in either the startup disk preference pane or the startup picker. (FB24210103, reported quite a while ago, Apple friends.)

Previously:

Update (2026-09-17): See also: Hacker News.

Andrew Cunningham (Hacker News):

Generative AI is unavoidable if you install macOS 27 Golden Gate. I’m being very literal: There used to be a toggle you could hit if you wanted to turn off Apple Intelligence and delete the gigabytes’ worth of AI models it would download to your disk, and now there isn’t. Apple Intelligence defines the Golden Gate release, in everything from its marketing to its features to the chips it runs on to the amount of space it takes on your disk.

[…]

More impressively, for apps that support it, the iPhone Mirroring window can now be resized dynamically while running apps. Apps will resize themselves to take up all the available space, and once the window is wide enough, you can even take advantage of multi-column iPad-style views for the apps that offer them.

[…]

For most Mac users, though, Golden Gate is a no-brainer update with few major downsides. It won’t hurt anything to wait until the 27.1 or 27.2 release if you’re already on macOS 15 Sequoia or macOS 26 Tahoe and you’re not in a hurry.

Juli Clover:

macOS Golden Gate: 10 Features to Try First

Paul Haddad:

Did Virtualization under 27 get hit with the slow stick? Trying to run a Mac VM on my M1 Ultra and it feels basically unusable. Getting Intel flashbacks.

Jeff Johnson:

In System Settings Privacy & Security, the Accessibility pane has been renamed to Device Control and Data Access.

Avi Drissman:

Have you been noticing that, starting with macOS 27, you have been consistently failing to SSH to a remote machine? Is it the case that the remote machine’s password ends with a shifted character?

There is a new setting: “Shift Return sends Meta Return” under Settings > Profiles > (profile) > Keyboard. This setting (enabled by default!) will cause a shift-return keypress to insert an ESC before the return is sent.

Rich Trouton:

As part of testing macOS Golden Gate, it was discovered by myself and others that MDM enrollment does not appear to completely work.

Adam Maxwell (tweet):

Golden Gate broke AuthorizationExecuteWithPrivileges such that spawned tasks no longer inherit PATH of the calling process[…]

Daniel Compton:

After upgrading to macOS 27 Golden Gate, my beloved copy of 1Password 7 started crashing every time I unlocked it.

[…]

If you’re planning ahead, you can disable Watchtower from Settings before you upgrade to macOS 27, but if you’ve already upgraded, then you’ll need to disable it with the following terminal command[…]

Update (2026-09-21): Benjamin Mayo:

Ever since updating to Golden Gate, my Mac now periodically makes a scratchy paper alert sound. No idea from what.

Chris Pepper:

Hopefully 1Password will upgrade v7 for OS 27 compatibility, but I can’t count on them fixing bugs in v7 — they’re pushing users to v8.

I found a ‘fix’ for this crash, but that command didn’t work (even after enabling Full Disk Access for Terminal so it could actually execute), and isn’t available on iPhone or iPad.

Nicholas Riley:

Golden Gate status: wow, the new menu extra/Control Center area is rough. Not just unpolished UI behaviors but multiple crashes. Hidden Bar is no longer functional and none of the replacements I found actually worked, while having about 100 features I don’t want.

System keyboard shortcuts also seem to be an area that weren’t well tested. My preferred screenshot shortcuts were ignored until I opened that section of System Settings, and some Siri thing created a conflict with Spotlight so I get both of them when I press ⇧⌘Space.

Previously:

Update (2026-09-23): Jesse Squires:

macOS golden gate is still shockingly terrible in unexpected ways.

Steve Troughton-Smith:

I’m no math expert, but I’m pretty sure this doesn’t add up to anywhere near 16GB. I’ve only started seeing this dialog in the release build of macOS 27.0, despite running the betas all summer, so clearly there are some ghosts in this build

Mario Guzmán:

Okay… how do you

  1. make everything super huge like the text and pictures… while
  2. having way more empty space than you need AND STILL have to
  3. truncate your text labels?

8 of the 9 text labels are truncated.

Can we please have designers who know how to design for DESKTOP software and NOT magazines/print?

Jeff Johnson:

There are a surprising number of behavioral bugs in Golden Gate. It's not just a superficial update. Apple is basically breaking AppKit.

Mark Lilback:

I reported a bug to Apple in May, found while building Alcove. Two OS releases later it still isn’t fixed. It has gotten worse with each one.

[…]

On the betas the whole window went blank after the Cmd-Tab: sidebar, content, detail pane, status bar, everything but the toolbar. On the 27.0 release it usually doesn’t wait for the Cmd-Tab. In 5 of 6 clean launches the window came up with only the toolbar drawn. Cmd-Tabbing away and back doesn’t fix it. It moves the sidebar’s first row up under the traffic-light buttons and leaves the rest of the window empty[…]

Jeff Johnson (Reddit):

Golden Gate Finder bug:

If you start dragging a file, the mouse scroll wheel stops working.

Jeff Johnson:

I’m seeing a bug on Golden Gate where main menu item titles are not displayed if the item is added to the menu after launch. Examples: the Safari Develop menu and the Profile menus of Chrome and Firefox.

Update (2026-09-24): Avi Drissman:

It’s bizarre that hiding a main menu item would hold the space rather then shift things over.

Jeff Johnson:

Search on Golden Gate is twice as good.

Update (2026-09-25): Ric Ford:

Randy Singer emailed us about printer and scanner failures following macOS 27 installation. Fortunately, there’s a fix: reinstalling Apple’s deprecated and removed Rosetta 2 emulation code[…]

Paul Kafasis:

We’re also already recommending upgrading your Mac to Golden Gate. The new OS includes several important audio improvements, and as a result, Golden Gate provides the best experience when using our apps. Below, you’ll find details on key bug fixes Apple included in MacOS 27.

pdfu (via Jeff Johnson):

Hidden behind a feature flag, the System Settings app can now be resized in any direction. You can make the app window narrower than the default too, or adjust the sidebar to get even more space.

Update (2026-09-28): Matt:

Steve Jobs would fire the entire company and replace them with AI if he was alive to see this

Collin Allen:

Turns out, Backblaze is half busted on macOS 27 and there’s no fix yet. Have to launch /Library/Backblaze.bzpkg/bzbmenu.app manually for now, it seems.

Update (2026-10-05): Karsten Kusche:

Kudos to 1Password for providing an update for version 7 on iOS and macOS to restore compatibility with this year’s operating systems!!

iOS 27

Apple (release notes, guide, security, enterprise, developer):

Explore what’s new for iOS 27.

See also:

Devon Dundee:

The reason you should update your Apple devices today is performance.

Previously:

Update (2026-09-17): Christopher Lawley (via Matt Birchler):

Let’s talk about iOS and iPadOS 27 and all the new features, including Siri AI, Apple Intelligence, and changes to the iPad and system apps.

iPadOS 27

Apple (release notes, guide, security, enterprise, developer):

Explore what’s new for iPadOS 27.

See also:

Previously:

watchOS 27

Apple (release notes, security, developer):

Explore what’s new for watchOS 27.

See also:

Previously:

Update (2026-09-16): Sarah Reichelt:

If anyone like me is struggling to update their Apple Watch, the Install button in the Watch app scrolls almost off the bottom of the screen on my iPhone 17 Pro. You can just see a few orange pixels. Try to tap them and it should work.

Update (2026-09-22): Tim Hardwick:

Fortunately, there’s still a way to force quit apps in watchOS 27.

From the app you want to quit, press and hold the Side button until the sliders appear. Then simply press and hold the Digital Crown until the watch face appears.

Previously:

Update (2026-09-25): Juli Clover:

Apple’s release notes [for watchOS 27.0.1] say the update fixes bugs, including an issue that could cause the Apple Watch to restart unexpectedly.

visionOS 27

Apple (release notes, security, enterprise, developer):

Explore what’s new for visionOS 27.

See also:

Previously:

tvOS 27

Juli Clover (no release notes, security, developer):

tvOS 27 features a redesigned Podcasts app, options for larger text and customizable subtitles, and a more responsive Control Center. AirPlaying to an Apple TV from another Apple device is faster, apps open quicker, and animations are smoother.

tvOS 27 works on the 2nd and 3rd generation Apple TV 4K models, and it drops support for the Apple TV HD and the first-generation Apple TV 4K.

Previously:

Update (2026-09-23): Steven Aquino:

Back in late May, I wrote about tvOS 27’s support for larger text sizes. […] After installing tvOS 27 on my A15 Apple TV, I immediately made a beeline to Settings > Accessibility > Text Size and spent a few minutes playing around with the larger text setting. As you’d expect, the UI for it is exactly what you’d see on iOS or iPadOS: a horizontal slider with notched intervals, with text overhead showing the adjusted size.

[…]

In the TV app, for example, using large text has material effects on, say, show descriptions and metadata. This is helpful because I’ve always struggled to read this information without physically walking up to the TV screen itself. On the other hand, I’m guessing third-party developers need to support the new API; in my testing, apps like Netflix and Pluto TV don’t (yet?) support larger text.

audioOS 27

Juli Clover (no release notes):

HomePod Software 27 adds AirPlay improvements and support for AutoMix when listening to Apple Music.

Ryan Christoffel:

AirPlay improvements may sound like a minor change, but in practice they can make a big difference in connecting quicker than ever to your HomePod. Using the iOS 27 beta, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how fast and easy it is now to switch playback to and from my iPhone and HomePod.

[…]

There’s no Siri AI available in HomePod 27.

Previously:

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