macOS Sequoia 15.5 lands with minor Mail, Screen Time improvements

AppleInsider

The new macOS Sequoia 15.5 is now publicly available, but significant new features are being held back for WWDC and the announcement of macOS 16.

Apple has released macOS Sequoia 15.5

After the regular round of beta testing, macOS Sequoia 15.5 is now rolling out worldwide. As of now, it is the system that will ship on new Mac, and as ever, it is recommended to upgrade to it -- after a few days.

This release of macOS is chiefly focused on bug fixes and improving performance, but any macOS update is major. So while the bug fixes, the better performance, and also further security, are all reasons to update, wait until it's been out for a little while.

The build number for macOS Sequoia 15.5 is 24F74, the same as the build number used in the RC version.

Inevitably, once an OS is released publicly and is in the hands of millions of users, new problems will be found. So before you update, let others find them and, most importantly, let Apple fix them.

What's actually new in macOS 15.5

There is precious little that is new in macOS 15.5, and even less that can be seen in visible changes and improvements. It definitely feels like a release intended to tidy up macOS Sequoia before Apple launches the next major macOS update.

Or possibly it feels as if this had been intended to be a release that added more Apple Intelligence features.

However, there is an improvement to Screen Time. Now should a child tries to meddle with the Screen Time passcode, his or her parents will get a notification on their devices.

There's no information about what the child will subsequently get from the parents.

Apple has also added a slight but useful new feature to System Settings. Since you probably just go into Settings to change one thing, you may not have noticed, but it always reopens at the General settings section.

If you do go into more than one section and don't quit System Settings between them, it has long offered you a back button. Now, even after you've quit and relaunched it, Apple has added a history feature to help you more quickly go back to recently used sections.

Bug fixes

Apple says that it has addressed an issue with Apple Intelligence that now makes using it a little smoother. Reportedly, there were circumstances where Apple Intelligence requests were delayed because the LLM download had been interrupted before completion.

Apple Intelligence also had a bug in its various regional versions, which has been resolved.

There's also said to be a smoother feel to the Safari browser, but in this case, it's due to unspecified stability improvements.

While Apple also doesn't specify any details about the work it has done with applications, it says that random app crashes and system panics have been addressed.

What happens next

Barring unexpected problems, this is almost certain to be the last release of macOS Sequoia before its replacement is announced at WWDC in June 2025. It's unlikely, though, to be the final release of this edition.

While there have been no announcements and, at time of writing, no further versions in beta testing, there will be a macOS 15.6.

It will not, however, introduce any new features.



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coolfactor

If you do go into more than one section and don't quit System Settings between them, it has long offered you a back button. Now, even after you've quit and relaunched it, Apple has added a history feature to help you more quickly go back to recently used sections.

What is this about? Scouring around and don't see this "history" feature. I even tried re-enabling Recents (which I normally keep disabled) and that didn't change anything.

Can you elaborate a bit more? Maybe a screenshot referencing what you are referring to by "history"?

EDIT: Found it... long-clicking on the Back button reveals a History list... gotcha.

edited May 12

fastasleep

Zero mention of Mail in the article. ¯\(°_o)/¯ 

alex1n

It’ll be interesting to see if the update stops the string of kernel panics associated with sleep mode that has cropped up on my Mac mini M4 Pro since the last ‘update’. That’s been quite annoying, to say the least.

michelb76

I'd like to put 'Game Mode' on the list of things to fix, as it does improve performance, but greatly interferes with input devices such as wireless keyboards and mice.

spheric

Alex1N said:

It’ll be interesting to see if the update stops the string of kernel panics associated with sleep mode that has cropped up on my Mac mini M4 Pro since the last ‘update’. That’s been quite annoying, to say the least.

I doubt that this is an OS issue, since nobody else seems to be having it. 

What hardware do you have attached, and do you have any device drivers installed?

applepoor

Even my M1 Ultra MacStudio is having "sleep" related kernel panics and restarts. So do my two Mac M4 Pro minis.

elijahg

coolfactor said:

EDIT: Found it... long-clicking on the Back button reveals a History list... gotcha.

This also works (and has done for a long while) on the back buttons in iOS.

edited May 16

elijahg

I've never been able to quickly find my way around the "new" settings app. I still prefer the old icon-based one when things were categorised more sensibly.

For example, why have a general section which then contains a load of other things like login items, which are related to login, but automatic login settings are in Users and Groups which is its own section.

Why are there duplications; Wifi is available directly, and then also via Network > Wifi, only that version has personal hotspot missing. Same with VPN.

Surely Wallpaper and Appearance should be merged? Why is Touch ID and Password separate from Security and Privacy? The Wifi pane is a mess too, for some reason the ellipsis next to the network name > network settings shows some network options, but the actual lower level, important settings such as IP address aren't settable here (though confusingly they are shown) - you have to connect to a network and then click details in the main pane. The exact same pane as the ellipsis version of network settings is shown, with the same uneditable IP, but this time you can select other panes on the left, and then change network settings. Why are some settings per-network and some system-wide? It's not intuitive at all.