macOS 26 comes out today, with a new liquid glass design and a whole host of exciting new features, BUT – if you use your Mac to create music – you should not update to macOS Tahoe.
Or not YET anyway. There is an exception here – if you use Apple-made music production programs like GarageBand, Logic Pro or Mainstage and you don’t use any third-party instruments, plugins or sample libraries – then it’s likely safe to update on day one with no issues.
For the vast majority of users who do make use of third-party effects and instruments, it’s best to wait until you get the all-clear from the companies who make the stuff you use.
Some companies have gone out of their way to explicitly warn their customers NOT to update to macOS 26 – Focusrite, for example, state: “Until we have finished fully testing macOS Tahoe Beta Versions, Golden Image, and first Release versions, we do NOT recommend updating to macOS Tahoe”.
And Arturia encourage their customers to: “Please hold off upgrading for now. As with all significant operating system releases, we strongly recommend you do not upgrade to macOS Tahoe just yet.”
Sweetwater have a fantastic macOS compatibility tool where they list all major music plugin and hardware manufacturers and their current compatibility status for macOS Tahoe. They have put together compatibility lists like this for years now and it is a brilliant way to see what manufacturers support new macOS versions at a glance. This year though, it’s a bit weird as the vast majority of companies have NO macOS 26 compatibility info available.
Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing; in fact, I think it’s more likely that companies are just hedging their bets, waiting and seeing how their products work with this new version of macOS once it’s released.
Anyone who was making music on a Mac back in 2019 will no doubt remember the massive headaches caused by the release of macOS Catalina, which was the first version of macOS to require all programs to be 64-bit. Any 32-bit programs or software that had to access 32-bit libraries were not compatible with it. Cue an industry-wide meltdown as early adopters excitedly updated their Macs only to find that none of their plugins or hardware, in some cases, worked anymore.
I don’t think macOS 26 will cause anything close to that level of carnage, but it may explain why companies like Native Instruments, iZotope, and Baby Audio, to name a few, are choosing to wait and see before releasing updates on their products’ compatibility.
Whatever the reason, if you rely on third-party instruments, plugins, or sample libraries for your creative workflow, hold off until you get the go-ahead from the companies whose products you use.