Golden Gate

2026-08-01

Apple announced macOS version 26, "Golden Gate," on 08 Jun 2026.
Apple released macOS 26.0 on 14 Sep 2026.

This note describes how to update a computer from an older version of macOS to Golden Gate.

The latest version of macOS is version 27.0, "Golden Gate", released on 08 Aug 2026.

I have not installed Golden Gate yet.

Features of Golden Gate

See new features. (I have no plan to use features marked *.)

See Apple's site macOS Golden Gate.

If you let it, Apple Intelligence will train itself on your data in iOS 27. When you install Golden Gate, "Users will see a prompt that asks users to help improve the chatbot, with an agree or "not now" button." (Appleinsider article)

Should I Install Golden Gate?

Not yet.

What you Should Do Now to Get Ready for Golden Gate

Who Can Update

Not everyone can use the new OS version.

Plan your install

When you decide to install Golden Gate, do it carefully. You may find that there are issues that affect you: do your homework. Check MacInTouch to see if there are problems with macOS 26 that affect you.

Make sure you back up your entire disk before starting to install Golden Gate. Preferably to more than one place.

Make a list of the hardware you depend on, and search the web to check that each device will work. Older printers and scanners can have issues.

Leave yourself enough time. Upgrading will tie up your computer for an hour or so. Your computer may be slow until it re-does the Spotlight index.

Particular issues before upgrading

Here is a partial list of minimum program versions needed for Golden Gate. For other programs, check product websites.

ProgramMinimum VersionNotesFunction
Aquamacs Emacs3.6Text editing
Audacity3.42Music editing
Adobe PhotoshopCC Photoshop CC is $120/yr. See below. (ARM supported.) Graphics
Adobe IllustratorCC Illustrator CC is $240/yr. See below. (ARM supported.) Graphics
Apple XCode26 free with registration; also install Command Line Developer Tools in Terminal application development
Little Snitch6.1.1 A new version of Little Snitch is required for Golden Gate. (Some Apple traffic such as Maps and ads doesn't show in Little Snitch. This sucks.) Security
Brother HL-4150CDN driver Brother does not support this printer, according to their website. Support stopped at 10.15.x Catalina. Apple no longer maintains https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201465 . I have this printer and it is working OK on Golden Gate using the CUPS driver. Printer driver
Brother HL-5450DN driver Brother does not support this printer, according to their website. See above. I have this printer and it is working OK on Golden Gate using the CUPS driver. Printer driver
Homebrew4.3.21, same version I had for Sonoma. Replaces MacPorts. This is where I get Perl, ImageMagick, Go, and GraphViz. Unix applications
Microsoft Officehave to upgrade to Microsoft 365 or use Word, Excel, PowerPoint for free at microsoft365.com from any browser.
Onyx4.5.6 free System configuration
Super Duper3.9.1 You should change all your backup volumes to be APFS. Much faster and more reliable. backup
Brother P-Touch Editor5.3.13 Label printer driver
Banktivity8 now $60/yr. Personal finance
Inkscape1.3.2 seems to be fixed. SVG drawing

Adobe: Renting Instead of Buying

Adobe no longer sells regular application versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat. Instead they rent you a Creative Cloud subscription. Stop paying, the apps stop working. They tell you that one advantage is that you'll get bug fixes and new features whenever they decide to release them. (There are a lot of tricky deals, initial teasers, different bundles. You could pay $20/app/mo or $600/yr for all CC apps. Adobe also sells Photoshop Elements 2020 and Premiere Elements 2020 as non-cloud applications for $100 each one-time, or both for $150.)

There are alternatives to Adobe products. I am using Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer. They are one-time-purchase instead of rent.

Affinity has been sold to Canva. Canva's other products are sold by subscription instead of one-time purchase. Ruh-roh.

I want a replacement for Adobe Acrobat: PDFPen ($80) might work. Has to be scritptable.

Microsoft: Renting Instead of Buying

Microsoft wants to rent you "Office 365" for $70/yr, $100/yr for up to 6 people. If you use Office, you have to upgrade to Microsoft 365 or use Word, Excel, PowerPoint for free at microsoft365.com from any browser.

There are free alternatives to Microsoft products. LibreOffice 25.2 is one.

Quicken: Renting Instead of Buying

Same story with Quicken. I bought Banktivity and it seems to work.

Banktivity: Renting Instead of Buying

Banktivity has gone from a one-time purchase to a yearly sub. Grrr.

Installing Golden Gate

I have not installed Golden Gate.

  1. Clean up and update software before installing.
    • You can download the Golden Gate Installer from  ► System Preferences... ► Software Update. It is free. This downloads a large file, the Golden Gate Installer, to your disk.
    • Get the applications on your computer ready for Golden Gate: apply the latest fixes.
    • Delete junk files. Carefully.
    • Delete Safari, iTunes, and Firefox caches, so your backup will be faster.
    • Write down your settings for applications and system parameters, e.g. your desktop background and screensaver. Some Apple-provided screensaver pictures may not be available in the next version: make a safe copy of anything you will want after upgrading.
    • Empty the Trash.
    • Clean up damaged and duplicate fonts.
    • Have your software license keys handy in case you have to re-authorize products.

    For Programmers

    • If you use MySQL, back up your databases with mysqldump databasename > db.sql. Then stop MySQL.
    • If you are using a local Apache, save a copy of /etc/apache2/httpd.conf.
    • If you installed modules via CPAN, make a list of them.
    • Homebrew often does not need to be reinstalled on a macOS upgrade. If you are changing machine architectures, compilers, etc, then uninstall it and then reinstall Homebrew, and the programs it installs, after updating the OS. To list your ports do brew list > brewmods.txt in a Terminal window.

    Here is a little shell script I run to do the backups.

    	#!/bin/sh
	# PRE-UPGRADE
	# .. run before an OS upgrade
	# .. saves lists of things that may have to be repaired after upgrading
	#
	# dumps them into $HOME/Documents/preup so that they will be synced to iCloud
	if [ -d $HOME/Documents/preup ] ; then
	  cp /etc/apache2/httpd.conf $HOME/Documents/preup/saved.httpd.conf
	  perldoc perllocal | grep :: > $HOME/Documents/preup/cpan_modules.txt
	  brew list > brewmods.txt
	  mysqldump mydatabase > $HOME/Documents/preup/mysql_dump.sql
	  echo "Back up your hard drive"
	else
	  echo "$HOME/Documents/preup not found.. create it and rerun"
	fi
	#
  2. Backup and prepare.
    • BACK UP YOUR HARD DRIVE to an external disk. I used SuperDuper to clone my whole drive. Some cautious people make two backups.
    • If you are using an anti-virus product like Microsoft Defender ATP, disable it, or installation will fail. Some anti-malware programs see the utility that converts HFS to APFS as malware, and prevent it from running. Since most anti-virus software is tightly integrated with the operating system, you may have to install a Golden Gate-specific version of your software after installing Golden Gate anyway. Check with the maker of your software.
    • If you connect your Mac to the network using Wi-Fi, select  ► System Preferences... ► Network ► Wi-Fi and delete any Wi-Fi networks you don't want to use. (If you don't, your computer could connect to a very slow network during installation, which will slow down your install.)
  3. Install
    • If you use a wireless mouse or keyboard, put in fresh batteries.
    • Set screen saver to NEVER, and turn off Time Machine.
    • Dismount and unplug or power off external drives.
    • Restart your computer. (I've had problems where my computer hangs on shutdown. Restarting seems to fix it for a while. Don't want this trouble when installing a new OS.)
    • Run the Golden Gate (macOS 26) installer. If you downloaded it, use that copy. Or you can just select  ► System Preferences... ► Software Update and install by clicking on the link.
      • The installer will run for about half an hour, then reboot.
      • The "time remaining" will show wildly varying estimates as the installer proceeds.
      • Eventually you will be presented with a login screen; enter your password.
      • Then the system will display your desktop. All your files and applications should be there.
    • If Golden Gate asks you if you want to "enable Desktop and Documents folder syncing to iCloud," you can say NO, and turn it on later. I say YES and use iCloud for this and it seems to be great.. I had to move files around to make it back up the right things. If you say YES, these folders will be backed up in iCloud and available on all devices, which you may not want. Saying YES may also enable "Optimize Storage" without asking, which will delete files from your computer's drive if it gets too full -- I do not enable this. Check  ► System Settings... ► Internet Accounts ► iCloud ► Optimize Mac Storage to make sure it is OFF. Adam Engst's TidBITS article on Optimized Storage is very helpful.
    • Once the install has completed, use  ► System Settings... ► General ► Software Update and  ► App Store... to make sure you have installed the latest versions of Apple software. This step may find additional OS and application updates (might take another hour).
    • Do a "smoke test" to verify that your computer is working OK: make sure the applications you depend on are still working. Try out the applications from Apple that were updated with the OS. If you have trouble, restore your backup and go back to the old OS version.
  4. Recover
    • Wait for Spotlight to finish indexing (may take several hours). Performance will suck till it finishes.
    • Turn on Time Machine and start your backup.
    • Restart the computer. Often this speeds things up.

Post Install Tasks

Once you are satisfied that your computer works acceptably, and you are going to stay on Golden Gate, you can make some adjustments. Some folks have complained that installing an update changed their settings.

Customization

You will probably want to set up per-user customizations, such as your desktop background and screensaver. Visit every setting in  ► System Settings... and make sure it is what you want, and choose values for new settings. After each new OS generation this is something of an adventure; functions get renamed and moved around. See below.

Rwplacing Microsoft Products

I have installed LibreOffice (free) and plan to use its tools going forward instead of Word/Excel/PowerPoint. This will require some learning and configuring of LibreOffice .. I will write it up.

Devices

All my attached devices from Tahoe worked fine on Golden Gate without any change.

Golden Gate Observations

Other New Features in Golden Gate

Next Steps: Homebrew updates

New Golden Gate Features I Am Not Using Yet

see above

Planning for the Next Version of macOS

The next macOS version, macOS 27 "name," will be released sometime. See https://www.apple.com/os/macos/.

Keep a list of the software and devices you use and depend on, so you can check that they are supported.

Home | FAQ © 2010-2026, Tom Van Vleck updated 2026-09-15 14:52