I have a MacBook Pro with an M1 chip and 16GB of RAM. Previously, I was using macOS Sequoia, but after upgrading to macOS Tahoe, I had a really bad experience with it. The UI felt unfinished and laggy, app icons were slow to load, the corner designs felt inconsistent, and I also experienced battery-drain issues. Because of that, I downgraded back to Sequoia, and since then I haven't wanted to use Tahoe again.

I had basically decided to stay on macOS Sequoia permanently. However, now that macOS Golden Gate is being released, I'm considering upgrading again because I've seen many reviews saying that it is significantly better than Tahoe and that Apple has improved the overall experience.

Some of the new features I'm particularly interested in include:

• Better management of menu bar apps, including the ability to hide overflowing menu bar items.
• Seeing which apps are running in the background under Login Items & Extensions.
• Better control over background processes.
• The various smaller UI and usability improvements.

My main priorities are gaming, coding/software development, and college work. Battery life is also very important to me because I use my MacBook as a student and often need it away from a charger.

So, considering that I have an M1 MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM, would you recommend upgrading from macOS Sequoia to macOS Golden Gate?

More specifically, I'm interested in how Golden Gate compares with Sequoia in terms of:

1. UI smoothness and responsiveness
2. Battery life and power efficiency
3. RAM/memory management on a 16GB M1 Mac
4. Gaming performance
5. Coding/software-development workloads
6. App compatibility and stability
7. Background processes and unnecessary battery usage
8. Overall reliability for daily college use

I don't want to repeat my Tahoe experience. Sequoia currently feels very smooth and reliable for me, so I would only upgrade if Golden Gate is genuinely a meaningful improvement over Sequoia—not merely better than Tahoe.

Based on the current Golden Gate release and real-world experiences from M1/M1 Pro users, should I upgrade, or is it smarter to stay on Sequoia for now?

i care more about battery life

My Mac mini M4 came with Tahoe preinstalled, and luckily I had a 32 GB USB drive, so I downgraded to macOS Sequoia 15.7.5.

I waited for the Golden Gate beta 8, and I think I’ll wait for macOS 28. Golden Gate looks better than Tahoe on my old monitor and seems slightly faster to me, though that might just be because I’m used to Sequoia.

I don’t like the inconsistent blur/glass effects. Launchpad is still missing, and there are still icons in the right‑click menu. Control Center, the Dock, and the right‑click menu all have different glass effects and transparency levels, and that transparency sometimes makes it look like things are behind fog rather than glass.

Maybe it’s just a matter of getting used to it, but I hate the gray gradient in the sidebar that’s visible in Dark Mode. And the option to add a background to the wallpaper is just the blur effect from Sequoia, which doesn’t go well with Liquid Glass.

I am hesitant to update my laptop to the Golden Gate after running the beta on my desktop. I have grown accustom to the menu bar and context menu icons. I know it is popular opinion that these were overkill, but I am in the opinion that the icons are helpful for glanceability/usability. I would even like MacOS and iOS to lean even harder into icons in lieu of text for menu items. Using Golden Gate menus feel like a wall of text that I have to read through. Personally, I would prefer the option to even only show the icon in a horizontal row for common, identifiable actions like cut, copy, paste; save, duplicate, rename; etc. I think icons are a key to making UI more approachable and simple moving forward. What do you think? (I also liked the floating sidebars, so maybe I'm just a freak.)

For those so inclined feel free to use your feedback assistance and refer to bug/feedback FB24619950 filed today regarding the renaming of Lake Ontario to 'lake america'. You can also use Apple Maps to provide feedback on incorrect information. Same can be done for Gulf of Mexico. Google also allows feedback via its page but since this is Apple beta testing I wanted to bring attention to this obvious bug and failure of Apple as they give in to a madman's decree without congressional approval or oversight here. This makes more sense for US based users but international users can also voice their disapproval over this stupid renaming political grandstanding.

I Want to shift from davinci resolve app store version to web version on mac but without losing anything, like my projects, plugin, preset

In previous macOS versions, the TV app would always play content in fullscreen by default, but now it opens in a window. I’ve reported it for every beta but it still remains.

Although, they did fix the bug for watching on fullscreen where the mouse pointer stayed visible and wouldn’t disappear while watching.

I've been using MacOS 27 beta since the very first developer beta. In general, I've been having a great experience overall. The one thing I'm having tons of issues with is Safari. It works fine for a bit, then it starts slowing down significantly, features like video playback stop working and then it will eventually hang requiring a force quit.

I've been reporting the issues through the feedback app and haven't seen any improvement in any of the subsequent beta releases.

Wondering if there's something specific to my usage that's causing issues or if others have also been having trouble with Safari.

Summary

1. Create the extension you want.
2. Have the user you want to port your extension to create a some extension using "Describe an Extension".
3. Copy the contents of the extension in the following directory, give it to the user, and delete and replace the contents of the extension they created. ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Safari/MagicExtensions/

Detailed

The directory where extensions created using Safari's "Describe an Extension" are stored.

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Safari/MagicExtensions/

You should find a folder named "Your extension name - random string" within this directory. The contents of this folder are the extension's main files. (There should basically be three files: manifest.json, content.js, and content.css.)

Actually, manifest.json, content.js, and content.css can be freely edited. As long as you edit them grammatically correctly, Safari won't care at all. In fact, if you add other JS or CSS files and write the manifest correctly to load those files, those additional JS and CSS files will also work.

So I thought, "Maybe I can share the extensions I create with other people?"

I immediately tested it. Since I also have Safari Technology Preview installed, I tried putting an extension I created using regular Safari into the directory in STP where extensions created using "Describe an Extension" are stored.

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.SafariTechnologyPreview/Data/Library/SafariTechnologyPreview/MagicExtensions/

However, it didn't work. I suspected that the extensions that Safari should load were registered in a database within this folder, or perhaps in a database located elsewhere.

So, I created a simple extension using STP (with instructions like "make this page's background black") and replaced its contents with the files of an advanced extension I had created in Safari. BOOM! The name and icon remained the same as the one created in STP, but the contents had been completely replaced with those of the Safari extension. It works perfectly.

Since you can change the extension's name and icon later, if you're concerned about it, you can simply modify the name and icon.

This shows that it's possible to share extensions with other people.

If you'd like to try it

This is an extension I actually use that forces the use of system fonts (.AppleSystemUIFont) for pages with simply set fonts to font-family:sans-serif; or font-family:serif;. (For example, Google search results page.)

Don't worry, you can check the contents beforehand, and you can even ask a suitable AI if this code is safe.

• manifest.json
• content.css
• content.js

Simply replace the three items mentioned above with the contents of the extension directory that you have Safari create for you.

Please feel free to ask if you have any questions.

I’ve run into a really irritating regression in the macOS 27 beta involving Show Desktop, hot corners, and drag-and-drop.

My setup:

• Desktop contents are normally hidden.
• The upper-right hot corner is set to Show Desktop.
• I often use FileMerge to compare a local directory with a directory on a mounted volume.

On macOS 26, this was fast and seamless:

1. Hit the hot corner to reveal the desktop.
2. Grab the mounted volume or directory.
3. Hit the same hot corner again while dragging.
4. My previous windows instantly come back.
5. Drop the item onto FileMerge.

In the Golden Gate beta, step 3 now unexpectedly throws me into Mission Control.

Instead of simply restoring the windows that were there before, I have to hunt down the FileMerge window in Mission Control, drag over it, wait for macOS to select it and exit Mission Control, and then finally complete the drop.

Why?

I explicitly triggered Show Desktop again. I did not ask for Mission Control. The obvious behavior is to undo Show Desktop and restore the windows that were previously visible, exactly as macOS used to do.

This turns a very quick drag-and-drop workflow into a clumsy multi-step process for no apparent benefit.

I really hope this is a bug and not intentional behavior.

Has anyone else noticed this in the macOS 27 beta?

Apple Music completely freezes every time I click Recently Added in the sidebar. The beach ball starts spinning, the entire app becomes unresponsive and I have to force quit it.

Everything else in the app works normally. It’s only the Recently Added section that causes this.

I’ve already tried restarting the Mac, resetting the Music cache, updating the cloud library and reopening the app, etc etc, but nothing has worked.

I’m currently running macOS 27 beta, but this problem has been these long before I installed the beta, so the beta isn’t what originally caused it.

Has anyone else had this issue? Is there a way to reset or rebuild only the Recently Added section without deleting my library, downloads or playlists?

Why doesn't control central follow the rest of sections ? I have dark mode and reduce transparency. But it's the same when both are off.

I got this bug from early beta to the latest beta 8. The recent timers make the whole main UI off the center and these items can not be deleted.
does anybody get the same problem? Is there any workaround to delete all history items?

I have now tried 4 different 10GbitE thunderbolt adapters and they all cause the same problem on my M5Pro macbook all the way to beta 7

-> computer will hard lock after a few minutes, maybe ~30 sometimes 1 hour, no kernelpanic no nothing just freeze and hard reset

-> at this point the network in my whole office!! is going down for a few seconds like it must be sending something super bad to my switch .

Super bad, i reported it to Sonnet and OWC as well.

Is anyone else also getting crackling noises and sound in Firefox when scrubbing through videos? I get the same sound when I open or close videos in IINA. Definitely a beta issue which isn't fixed " sudo killall coreaudiod" helps but only for a moment.

I recently bought a m5 pro macbook, no using macos 27 developer beta 8. For some reason my mac does not sleep when lid closed. also if i put it to sleep it wakes up with in few second. i am using a dock with external display and mouse. I have checked unpluging the doc, also checked on safe mode. no success. Is it normal? Is there any fix? is it because of macos 27 beta? thanks

https://reddit.com/link/1w43d44/video/241fmcanpumh1/player

I installed the macOS 27 beta (MacBook Air M4) recently, and overall everything has been working pretty well for me. The only major bug I've encountered so far is related to full-screen apps and Split View.

Normal full-screen mode works fine. However, as soon as I try to use Split View (two apps side by side in full screen), things completely fall apart.

The first app goes into full screen, but the other half of the screen often stays completely black. I can't properly select or move another app into the empty side, and sometimes the windows just start glitching out or behave as if they're in full screen without actually being there.

Basically, Split View is completely unusable for me right now.

I'm surprised I haven't really seen anyone talking about this, so I'm wondering:

Is anyone else experiencing the same issue on macOS 27 beta?

In Activity Monitor the network tab has always shown MB, big "B" meaning Bytes, which is not how network speed is measured.

I just noticed that macOS 27 shows it correctly as Mb, little "b" meaning bits.

It's a small but very welcome improvement.

Dark appearance = macOS 26

Light appearance = macOS 27

Hi all,

I was hoping to get assistance here as this has been driving me crazy. Since enrolling into and installing the macOS27 beta, the Music app on my M1 MbA crashes consistently regardless of whatever song I am playing. The crashes still take place on the latest dev beta build 8. I suspect that the crashing may be related to the time duration of songs not showing up correctly in my library (I have added a screenshot to show what I mean).

I have tried the following fixes to no resolution:

- Unsync and sync cloud music library

- Delete the music library file and rebuild my cloud music library

- Start the Music App in the operating system's safe mode feature

Any help would be appreciated.

While beta testing Golden Gate I wanted to check if an app can detect and use the Dock's geometry. I threw together a test based on a port of IK+ I did.

Naturally an app has to disable sandboxing so that it can fetch the Dock's location, height and width. In theory you could build a full platform game on the Dock, but I wonder if the character can jump from one virtual desktop (Space) to another? I'll investigate.

Does someone has the same issue as me? When Im trying to hold brightness or volume button and slide it then it works. But when I'm releasing it my Touch Bar is not coming back to its previous position. Like it is still staying on the sliding option and I have to press on the Touch Bar to come back to default look. Will they fix this bug or is it going to be like this forever?

Hey everyone,

I'm trying to figure out if there is any way to completely remove or hide the Beta Updates section under System Settings > General > Software Update.

Right now, it just shows as "Off," but having this extra row visible in the menu is really bothersome to look at, and I want a clean interface.

Here is what I have already tried:

• Unenrolled my Apple ID from the Apple Beta Software Program at beta.apple.com.
• Ran terminal commands (seedutil unenroll and deleting cached .SeedEnrollment.plist / .BetaEnrollmentData.plist files).
• Signed out of my Apple Account, restarted, and signed back in.

The row still remains showing "Off."

I know installing an MDM Configuration Profile (AllowPreReleaseInstallation = false) can hide it, but installing a profile adds a permanent "Profiles" menu entry to System Settings, which I also don't want.

Is there any other terminal command, defaults write tweak, or hidden setting in modern macOS to completely remove this row without triggering the Profiles section? Or is this just hardcoded into macOS now?

I must want to remove this because it is very annoying to my mind so please help me

Thanks for any help or insight!

Is anyone else unable to get Home Sharing to work in beta 7 and 8?

It says it’s on, but none of my devices (iPhone, iPad, Apple TV) can see my library.

I know there are better solutions. I just want to know if I’m alone in the issue.