macOS Monterey(version 12) is the eighteenthmajor releaseofmacOS,Apple's desktopoperating systemforMacintoshcomputers. The successor tomacOS Big Sur,it was announced atWWDC 2021on June 7, 2021,[3][4][5][6]and released on October 25, 2021.[7][8]macOS Monterey was succeeded bymacOS Ventura,which was released on October 24, 2022.
| Version of themacOSoperating system | |
 | |
 Screenshot of macOS Monterey in light appearance | |
| Developer | Apple |
|---|---|
| OS family | |
| Source model | Closed,withopen sourcecomponents |
| General availability | October 25, 2021[1] |
| Latest release | 12.7.6[2](21H1320) (July 29, 2024)[±] |
| Update method | Software Update |
| Platforms | x86-64,ARM64 |
| Kerneltype | Hybrid(XNU) |
| License | Proprietary software with open-source components and content licensed withAPSL |
| Preceded by | macOS Big Sur |
| Succeeded by | macOS Ventura |
| Official website | www.apple.com/macos/montereyat theWayback Machine(archived 2022-10-18) |
| Tagline | High powered meets "Hi everyone." |
| Support status | |
| Unsupported as of September 16, 2024. Finder is still able to download driver updates to sync to newer devices. Drops support for most Macs released from mid 2013 to 2014, including all Macs with Nvidia GPUs. | |
The operating system is named afterMonterey Bay,continuing the trend of releases named afterCalifornialocations since 2013's10.9 Mavericks.
macOS Monterey is the final version of macOS that supports the 2015–2017 MacBook Air, Retina MacBook Pro, 2014 Mac Mini, 2015 iMac and cylindrical Mac Pro, as its successor, macOS Ventura, drops support for those models. It is the last version of macOS that can run on Macs with 4GB of RAM.
Changes
editMonterey introduced several new features and changes, including the following:[3]
- Shortcutsfor the Mac
- TestFlightfor the Mac
- Provisions to allow the planned introduction of Universal Control,[9]which allows a single keyboard and mouse to control multiple Macs andiPads.It works on Macs withApple siliconand some with an Intel processor, includingMacBook Pro(2016 and later),MacBook(2016 and later),MacBook Air(2018 and later),iMac(2017 and later),iMac(5K Retina, 27-inch, Late 2015),iMac Pro,Mac Mini(2018 and later), andMac Pro(2019). It works on these iPads:iPad Pro,iPad Air(3rd generation and later),iPad(6th generation and later), andiPad Mini(5th generation and later).
- Support for theApple MusicVoice Plan Subscription.
- Portrait Mode and Noise Cancellation features forFaceTimeand some apps (inControl Center).
- NewToolbarfeatures and designs forFinderand thePreviewapp.
- Have a Live Memoji and Animoji right on the lock screen.
- A yellow privacy indicator on the menu bar for indicating if the Mac's microphone or camera is active.
- Live Text, which allows a user to copy, paste, translate and look up text from images displayed byPhotos,Screenshot,Quick Look,andSafari.
- New Passwords Manager for Mac
- New on-devicemachine-learning–activated keyboard dictation usingSiri,and also now for almost unlimited duration.
- Low Power Mode for Mac that enables longer battery life for lightweight workflows such as readingPDFs,Web browsing, listening to music, etc. This works on MacBook Air (2018 and later) and MacBook Pro (2016 and later).[10]
- A redesigned optional compact interface for the Safari browser.
- Support for playingAirPlaycontent streamed from recentiOSandiPadOSdevices and Macs, including MacBook Pro (2018 and later), MacBook Air (2018 and later), iMac (2019 and later), iMac Pro (2017), Mac Mini (M1, 2020 and later), Mac Pro (2019), iPhone 6s and later, iPad Pro (2nd generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad (6th generation and later), and iPad Mini (5th generation and later). Older iPhone, iPad, and Mac models may share content at a lower resolution to supported Mac models when "Allow AirPlay for" is set to "Everyone" or "Anyone on the same network" in Sharing preferences.
- Improvements to FaceTime, including the ability to share a screen and the SharePlay function that enables multiple users to watch or listen simultaneously and in sync (e.g., to music or TV shows).
- The ability to factory reset the Mac from theSystem Preferencesapp.[11]
- Visual Look Up makes it easy to identify objects (e.g. cat breeds, dog breeds, etc.) found within user's photos.
- Focus to set different modes to filter notifications across iPhones, iPads and Macs.
- TheTime Machinebackup functionality excludes more system files.[12]
- Provisions to allow the planned introduction of "Expanded Protections for Children," which will apply cryptography to detect and help limit the spread ofchild sexual abuse material(CSAM) online by scanning the user's iCloud photos.[13]
- Accessibility option to change themouse pointer's colors.
- Tips notifications.
- The removal of a previously bundledPHPinterpreter.
- The removal of a previously bundledPython2.7 interpreter (from 12.3)[14][15]
- The removal of the ability to use customQuartz Composerfilters and plugins inPhoto Booth.
- networkQuality, a command-line tool for measuring upload/download capacity, upload/download flows, and upload/download responsiveness
- An automatically populated "Games" folder within launchpad
- Support for ProMotion in new 2021 MacBook Pro
- New Object Capture API for creating 3D models using images[16]
Applications
editNotes
editIn theNotesapplication, users can now apply arbitrary tags to a note (e.g., #cooking, #work); groups of notes with a given tag or tags can be viewed in Smart Folders or a Tag Browser in the sidebar.[17]The new Quick Notes function enables a user to create a note from within any app via system-wide keyboard shortcut or hot corner.[18]
Maps
editApple Mapsadds a 3D globe, with increased mountain, desert, and forest detail.[19]
Messages
editMessagessupports new features, also introduced iniOS 15,such as "Shared with You" which provides shortcut links to content shared via Messages in other Apple apps such as Safari, Photos, Music, andNews.
When multiple photos are sent/received, they are now displayed as a collection instead of multiple messages. A download button is provided to download all photos simultaneously.[20]
Known problems
editUsers and developers have reported the following:
- Laptops unable to boot (fixed with 12.0.1 update)[21][22]
- Inability to charge sleeping laptops with MagSafe (fixed with 12.1 update)[23]
- Mouse pointer memory leak issue (fixed with 12.1 update)[24]
- Audio issue with speaker and audio output crackling and popping[25]
- Problems connecting external displays to Mac using any version of Monterey[26]
- Unicode Hex Input does not work if the code point number is 0??0 (first and last digits are zero)[27](fixed in Ventura 13.3)
Supported hardware
editmacOS Monterey drops support for Macs released from 2013 to 2014,[28][29]including all Macs withNvidiaGPUs.
Macs that support macOS Monterey are as follows.
- iMac(Late 2015 or later)
- iMac Pro(2017)
- MacBook(Early 2016 or later)
- MacBook Air(Early 2015 or later)
- MacBook Pro(Early 2015 or later)
- Mac Mini(Late 2014 or later)
- Mac Pro(Late 2013 or later)
- Mac Studio(2022)
By using patch tools, macOS Monterey can be unofficially installed on earlier computers that are officially unsupported, such as the 2014 iMac and the 2013 MacBook Pro.[30]Using these methods, it is possible to install macOS Monterey on computers as old as a 2008 MacBook Pro and iMac and 2009 Mac Mini.[31]
Release history
edit| Previous release | Current release | Current beta release |
| Version | Build | Release date | DarwinVersion | Release notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12.0 | 21A344 | October 25, 2021 | 21.0.1
xnu-8019.30.61~4 Tue Sep 14 20:56:24 PDT 2021 |
Release notes |
| 12.0.1 | 21A559 | 21.1.0
xnu-8019.41.5~1 Wed Oct 13 17:33:23 PDT 2021 | ||
| 12.1 | 21C52 | December 13,
2021 |
21.2.0
xnu-8019.61.5~1 Sun Nov 28 20:28:54 PST 2021 |
Release notes |
| 12.2 | 21D49 | January 26, 2022 | 21.3.0
xnu-8019.80.24~20 Wed Jan 5 21:37:58 PST 2022 |
Release notes |
| 12.2.1 | 21D62 | February 10,
2022 |
Release notes | |
| 12.3 | 21E230 | March 14, 2022 | 21.4.0
xnu-8020.101.4~2 Mon Feb 21 20:34:37 PST 2022 |
Release notes |
| 12.3.1 | 21E258 | March 31, 2022 | 21.4.0
xnu-8020.101.4~15 Fri Mar 18 00:45:05 PDT 2022 |
Release notes |
| 12.4 | 21F79[a] | May 16, 2022 | 21.5.0
xnu-8020.121.3~4 Tue Apr 26 21:08:22 PDT 2022 |
Release notes |
| 21F2081[b] | June 14, 2022 | |||
| 21F2092[c] | June 16, 2022 | |||
| 12.5 | 21G72 | July 20, 2022 | 21.6.0
xnu-8020.140.41~1 Sat Jun 18 17:07:22 PDT 2022 |
Release notes |
| 12.5.1 | 21G83 | August 17, 2022 | 21.6.0 xnu-8020.141.5~2 Wed Aug 10 14:25:27 PDT 2022 |
Release notes |
| 12.6 | 21G115 | September 12, 2022 | 21.6.0 xnu-8020.140.49~2 Mon Aug 22 20:17:10 PDT 2022 |
Release notes |
| 12.6.1 | 21G217 | October 24, 2022 | 21.6.0 xnu-8020.240.7~1 Thu Sep 29 20:12:57 PDT 2022 |
Release notes |
| 12.6.2 | 21G320 | December 13, 2022 | 21.6.0 xnu-8020.240.14~1 Sun Nov 6 23:31:16 PST 2022 |
Release notes |
| 12.6.3 | 21G419 | January 23, 2023 | 21.6.0 xnu-8020.240.18~2 Mon Dec 19 20:44:01 PST 2022 |
Release notes |
| 12.6.4 | 21G526 | March 27, 2023 | 21.6.0 xnu-8020.240.18.700.8~1 Thu Mar 9 20:08:59 PST 2023 |
Release notes |
| 12.6.5 | 21G531 | April 10, 2023 | Release notes | |
| 12.6.6 | 21G646 | May 18, 2023 | 21.6.0 xnu-8020.240.18.701.5~1 Mon Apr 24 21:10:53 PDT 2023 |
Release notes |
| 12.6.7 | 21G651 | June 21, 2023 | 21.6.0 xnu-8020.240.18.701.6~1 Thu Jun 8 23:57:12 PDT 2023 |
Release notes |
| 12.6.8 | 21G725 | July 24, 2023 | 21.6.0 xnu-8020.240.18.702.13~1 Thu Jul 6 22:18:26 PDT 2023 |
Release notes |
| 12.6.9 | 21G726 | September 11, 2023 | Release notes | |
| 12.7 | 21G816 | September 21, 2023 | 21.6.0 xnu-8020.240.18.703.5~1 Fri Sep 15 16:17:23 PDT 2023 |
Release notes |
| 12.7.1 | 21G920 | October 25, 2023 | 21.6.0 xnu-8020.240.18.704.15~1 Wed Oct 4 23:55:28 PDT 2023 |
Release notes |
| 12.7.2 | 21G1974 | December 11, 2023 | 21.6.0 xnu-8020.240.18.705.10~1 Thu Nov 9 00:38:19 PST 2023 |
Release notes |
| 12.7.3 | 21H1015 | January 22, 2024 | 21.6.0 xnu-8020.240.18.706.2~1 Sun Dec 17 22:55:27 PST 2023 |
Release notes |
| 12.7.4 | 21H1123 | March 7, 2024 | 21.6.0 xnu-8020.240.18.707.4~1 Mon Feb 19 20:24:34 PST 2024 |
Release notes |
| 12.7.5 | 21H1222 | May 13, 2024 | 21.6.0 xnu-8020.240.18.708.4~1 Wed Apr 24 06:02:02 PDT 2024 |
Release notes |
| 12.7.6 | 21H1320 | July 29, 2024 | 21.6.0 xnu-8020.240.18.709.2~1 Mon Jun 24 00:56:10 PDT 2024 |
Release notes |
'See Apple's main pages for Monterey release notes: forconsumersand forenterprise,as well as their currentsecurity content page.
Timeline of Mac operating systems
edit| Timeline of Mac operating systems |
|---|
 |
References
edit- ^Clover, Juli (October 25, 2021)."Apple Releases macOS Monterey With AirPlay to Mac, Live Text, Safari Updates, Shortcuts App and More".MacRumors.Archivedfrom the original on October 25, 2021.RetrievedOctober 25,2021.
- ^"About the security content of macOS Monterey 12.7.6".Apple.July 29, 2024.RetrievedJuly 30,2024.
- ^abGriffin, Andrew (June 7, 2021)."MacOS Monterey: Apple launches new operating system for Mac".The Independent.Archivedfrom the original on June 7, 2021.RetrievedJune 7,2021.
- ^Clark, Mitchell (June 7, 2021)."macOS Monterey lets you run Shortcuts and share input and files between Macs and iPads".The Verge.Archivedfrom the original on June 7, 2021.RetrievedJune 7,2021.
- ^Rayome, Alison DeNisco."MacOS Monterey is on the way: Apple previewed MacOS 12 at WWDC and gave it a name".CNET.Archivedfrom the original on June 7, 2021.RetrievedJune 7,2021.
- ^WWDC 2021 — June 7 | Apple,June 7, 2021,archivedfrom the original on November 1, 2021,retrievedNovember 2,2021
- ^Fathi, Sami (October 18, 2021)."Apple Releasing macOS Monterey on October 25".MacRumors.Archivedfrom the original on October 18, 2021.RetrievedOctober 18,2021.
- ^"Here's When You Can Download macOS Monterey Today [Update: It's Out!]".MacRumors.October 25, 2021.Archivedfrom the original on November 2, 2021.RetrievedNovember 2,2021.
- ^"Apple macOS Monterey Review".PC Mag.Archivedfrom the original on November 2, 2021.RetrievedNovember 2,2021.
- ^"macOS Monterey Preview – New Features".Apple (Hong Kong).Archivedfrom the original on July 26, 2021.RetrievedJuly 26,2021.
- ^"Erase all content and settings on Mac".Archivedfrom the original on October 31, 2021.RetrievedOctober 31,2021.
- ^Oakley, Howard (September 8, 2021)."What doesn't Time Machine back up?".Eclectic Light.Archivedfrom the original on September 10, 2021.RetrievedSeptember 10,2021.
- ^"Child Safety".Apple Inc.Archivedfrom the original on September 3, 2021.RetrievedOctober 8,2021.
- ^"macOS Monterey 12.3 Release Notes".Apple Developer Documentation.Archivedfrom the original on April 13, 2022.RetrievedMarch 14,2022.
- ^Rossignol, Joe (January 28, 2022)."Apple Finally Removing Python 2 in macOS 12.3".MacRumors.Archivedfrom the original on March 26, 2022.RetrievedMarch 29,2022.
- ^Espósito, Filipe (June 9, 2021)."Hands-on: macOS 12 brings new 'Object Capture' API for creating 3D models using iPhone camera".9to5Mac.Archivedfrom the original on March 10, 2022.RetrievedMarch 10,2022.
- ^Broach, Taha (June 28, 2021)."How to add and manage Tags in Notes in macOS Monterey and iOS 15".The 8-Bit.Archivedfrom the original on July 9, 2021.RetrievedJuly 5,2021.
- ^Broach, Taha (June 9, 2021)."How to use Quick Note in macOS 12 Monterey".The 8-Bit.Archivedfrom the original on July 9, 2021.RetrievedJuly 5,2021.
- ^"iOS 15 Features – What's New?".Goriber Tech.September 23, 2021.Archivedfrom the original on September 24, 2021.RetrievedSeptember 23,2021.
- ^"All the New Features Coming to the Messages App in macOS Monterey".Make Use Of.June 18, 2021.Archivedfrom the original on November 16, 2022.RetrievedNovember 16,2022.
- ^Benjamin, Adam."MacOS Monterey was bricking some laptops. That's been fixed".CNET.Archivedfrom the original on December 4, 2021.RetrievedDecember 5,2021.
- ^Lawler, Richard (November 5, 2021)."Apple fixes bug that could cause macOS Monterey to brick Macs with a T2 security chip".The Verge.Archivedfrom the original on December 4, 2021.RetrievedDecember 5,2021.
- ^"Apple 'investigating' widespread MacBook Pro MagSafe charging issues".Macworld.Archivedfrom the original on December 4, 2021.RetrievedDecember 5,2021.
- ^"macOS Monterey 12.1 Fixes Major Tap to Click, YouTube HDR, and Charging Bugs".MacRumors Forums.December 7, 2021.Archivedfrom the original on August 6, 2022.RetrievedJuly 22,2022.
- ^Espósito, Filipe (May 10, 2022)."2021 MacBook Pro users complain about crackling and popping audio issues".Archivedfrom the original on July 27, 2022.RetrievedJuly 27,2022.
- ^"Can no longer detect 2nd display in MacOS Monterey".Archivedfrom the original on September 28, 2022.RetrievedSeptember 28,2022.
- ^"Have you noticed that Unicode Hexadecimal Input does not work if the UCS/Unicode four-digit hexadecimal code point number begins and ends with a zero, and what is done about it?".Archivedfrom the original on March 14, 2023.RetrievedMarch 15,2023.
- ^Pawar, Deepanshu (June 8, 2021)."List of All Macs Compatibility With macOS Monterey".Cyphers.in.Archivedfrom the original on June 12, 2021.RetrievedJune 12,2021.
- ^Clover, Juli (June 7, 2021)."Here Are All the Macs Compatible With macOS Monterey".MacRumors.Archivedfrom the original on June 9, 2021.RetrievedJune 7,2021.
- ^"Opencore Legacy Patcher – Monterey + Big Sur".Mac Research.November 2021.Archivedfrom the original on January 15, 2022.RetrievedJanuary 15,2022.
- ^"Supported Models".OpenCore Legacy Patcher.Archivedfrom the original on February 1, 2022.RetrievedFebruary 1,2022.
- ^"About iOS 16 Updates".Apple Support.RetrievedJanuary 23,2023.
External links
edit- macOS 12 Montereyat theWayback Machine(archived October 18, 2022) – official site