{"id":51169,"date":"2026-03-05T13:47:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T18:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=51169"},"modified":"2026-03-30T14:08:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T18:08:39","slug":"avoiding-tahoe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/05\/avoiding-tahoe\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoiding Tahoe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rob Griffiths<\/a> (Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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I have macOS Tahoe on my laptop, but I'm keeping my desktop Mac on macOS Sequoia for now. Which means I have the joy of seeing things like this wonderful notification on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

Or I did, until I found a way to block them, at least in 90 day chunks.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

The secret? Using device management profiles<\/a>, which let you enforce policies on Macs in your organization, even if that \"organization\" is one Mac on your desk. One of the available policies is the ability to block activities related to major macOS updates for up to 90 days at a time (the max the policy allows), which seems like exactly what I needed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

John Gruber<\/a> (Mastodon<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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I followed Griffiths’s instructions about a week or so ago, and I’ve been enjoying a no-red-badge System Settings icon ever since. And the Tahoe upgrade doesn’t even show up in General → Software Update. With this profile installed, the confusing interface presented after clicking the “ⓘ” button next to any available update<\/a> cannot result in your upgrading to 26 Tahoe accidentally.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Liam Proven<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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The Reg<\/em> FOSS desk has an entry-level MacBook Air, with just 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD storage, and doesn’t have room for the new OS version. We also don’t like the sound of it, so for six months or so, we’ve been dismissing the upgrade reminders – but in recent weeks Apple is making them more prominent. For us, this handy little tool arrived at an opportune moment.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

It’s a neat little hack, and we know of a few people who tried out Tahoe and disliked it enough to do manual downgrades. We suspect this little tool may prove temporarily quite popular.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Chris Pirillo<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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AFAICT, MacOS Tahoe is worse than malware because it disguises itself as an upgrade.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Andrew Cunningham<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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My general approach to software redesigns is to just roll with them and let their imperfections and quirks become background noise over time—it’s part of my job to point out problems where I see them<\/a>, but I also need to keep up with new releases whether I’m in love with them or not.<\/p>\n

But this person has no such job requirement, and they had two questions: Can I downgrade this? And if so, how?<\/p>\n

The answer to the first question is “yes, usually,” and Apple provides some advice scattered across multiple documentation pages. This is an attempt to bring all of those steps together into one page, aimed directly at new Mac buyers who are desperate to switch from Tahoe to the more-familiar macOS 15 Sequoia.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Howard Oakley<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Although the way that macOS updates itself has changed<\/a> beyond all recognition over the last few years, we tend to assume that it still works much as it did in the past, downloading a single update file, decompressing and installing that. This series of articles takes a deeper dive into what actually happens, and tries to explain how it differs from previous package updates.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Andy Ihnatko<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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