macOS High Sierra 10.13.5 with Messages in iCloud support is now available

AppleInsider · June 1, 2018 5:09PM

Apple has updated macOS High Sierra to version 10.13.5, just a few days ahead of expected announcements for the future of the operating system at WWDC, with the latest release effectively consisting of support for Messages in iCloud and performance updates.

The public release version of macOS 10.13.5 follows after a total of five beta builds, equalling the number for watchOS 4.3.1 and tvOS 11.4, but fewer than the six required for iOS 11.4. The other three operating systems also received their own updates earlier in the week.

The main noticeable change in macOS shown in the betas was the addition of support for Messages in iCloud, a feature also shared with iOS 11.4. Messages in iCloud allows for conversations to be synchronized between multiple Apple devices logged into the same account.

Messages deleted from one logged-in device are removed from all other devices at the same time. Also, only the newest messages will be stored on devices, while earlier communications will be held in iCloud and loaded only when required.

Announced at WWDC 2017 for inclusion in iOS 11, Messages in iCloud has surfaced in betas for earlier versions of iOS, but was removed prior to the public release of those, and only fully implemented in iOS 11.4 on Tuesday.

The High Sierra update also includes a collection of bug fixes and performance improvements.

It seems the 10.13.5 update is relatively light in stand-out features compared to the macOS 10.13.4 release, which included Business Chat in Messages and improved support for external graphics cards.

This year's WWDC keynote, taking place on June 4, is expected to reveal Apple's future plans for its assorted operating systems, including macOS. It is plausible that Apple may be holding off on adding anything major to macOS until the next milestone release.

Apple launched the beta tests of macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 the same day that it released iOS 11.4.

Dead_Pool · June 1, 2018 5:29PM

Messages in iCloud will just use up your iCloud storage. I imagine there will be a lot of confused parents and grandparents calling for help.

caladanian · June 1, 2018 5:45PM

Dead_Pool said:

Messages in iCloud will just use up your iCloud storage. I imagine there will be a lot of confused parents and grandparents calling for help.

I totally disagree, it will make things much more coherent.

jbishop1039 · June 1, 2018 6:13PM

Dead_Pool said:

Messages in iCloud will just use up your iCloud storage. I imagine there will be a lot of confused parents and grandparents calling for help.

It's also optional and has to be enabled under Preferences in Messages. So yes, it'll use your iCloud storage, but only if you allow it to.

gregg thurman · June 1, 2018 6:40PM

Does this mean we will be able to Message using our Macs?

tallest skil · June 1, 2018 6:46PM

caladanian said:
I totally disagree, it will make things much more coherent.

iCloud already doesn’t reliably sync my Safari logins; I can’t imagine it maintaining iMessage very well. Before this update it already listed some comments out of chronological order at times. And yeah, I got a storage space warning after turning it on, so I turned it off again.

There’s also a bug in Safari introduced in 10.13.4 and iOS 11.3 regarding cross-origin restrictions that wasn’t fixed in 11.4, so I doubt it’s fixed in 10.13.5, too.

gregg thurman said:

Does this mean we will be able to Message using our Macs?

You’ve been able to do that for nearly a decade.

macxpress · June 1, 2018 6:54PM

gregg thurman said:

Does this mean we will be able to Message using our Macs?

What do you mean? You've been able to message (SMS Text and iMessage) out from your Mac since at least 2007'ish.

macxpress · June 1, 2018 6:55PM

Dead_Pool said:

Messages in iCloud will just use up your iCloud storage. I imagine there will be a lot of confused parents and grandparents calling for help.

I guess that depends. Maybe Apple will start offering more iCloud storage as well (both Free and paid).

lkrupp · June 1, 2018 7:11PM

So no APFS for Fusion drives I guess? Will we have to wait for macOS 10.14.x instead even though it was promised in 10.13.x? But I would rather wait for a stable, bulletproof release than have it nuke my Fusion boot drive.

Rikky86 · June 1, 2018 7:40PM

Seems more payload related;

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208723

williamlondon · June 1, 2018 7:43PM

macxpress said:

Dead_Pool said:

Messages in iCloud will just use up your iCloud storage. I imagine there will be a lot of confused parents and grandparents calling for help.

I guess that depends. Maybe Apple will start offering more iCloud storage as well (both Free and paid).

Maybe (and I'd love more of course), but if someone is going to hit a storage limit from too many text messages, they were already touching the storage ceiling.

ascii · June 1, 2018 7:47PM

Finally a macOS update that didn't pop up that annoying setup wizard when it was done! Just use the new equivalent of what the old settings were, same as iOS please.

tigger1962_1 · June 1, 2018 8:09PM

I'm a little confused! i got an update yesterday but it says Version10.13.6 Beta (17G31f) ( i am a public beta tester)

willcropoint · June 1, 2018 8:27PM

Can we assume the following... People who had iMessages in an iPad and iPhone had these backed up twice on iCloud. Now, thanks to iMessages in iCloud, those will potentially get back the half wasted space now that the messages will be stored in a single cloud repository instead of two cloud backups? I understand that it will be the case, anyone else's guess?

tallest skil · June 1, 2018 8:43PM

ascii said:

Finally a macOS update that didn't pop up that annoying setup wizard when it was done! Just use the new equivalent of what the old settings were, same as iOS please.

Mine did.

spice-boy · June 1, 2018 8:55PM

I won't enable this feature since I want to keep some sms iMessages on my iPhone but not one my other devices.

Mike Wuerthele · June 1, 2018 8:58PM

tigger1962_1 said:

I'm a little confused! i got an update yesterday but it says Version10.13.6 Beta (17G31f) ( i am a public beta tester)

The 10.13.6 beta rolled out the same day that the other betas rolled out, and before this one was finalized.

ascii · June 1, 2018 10:27PM

tallest skil said:

ascii said:

Finally a macOS update that didn't pop up that annoying setup wizard when it was done! Just use the new equivalent of what the old settings were, same as iOS please.

Mine did.

Wow, now I'm worried mine didn't install properly.

redgeminipa · June 2, 2018 11:13AM

tigger1962_1 said:

I'm a little confused! i got an update yesterday but it says Version10.13.6 Beta (17G31f) ( i am a public beta tester)

If you want public release, you have to de-enroll your Mac from the beta program, then restore it... That's a big reason I stopped beta testing, as I don't have spare devices to just tinker with.

tallest skil · June 2, 2018 3:41PM

ascii said:
Wow, now I'm worried mine didn't install properly.

It wasn’t a full “you must log into your iCloud account again” setup, but I got the setup window. I’m sure you’re fine.

ivanh · June 2, 2018 9:12PM

gregg thurman said:

Does this mean we will be able to Message using our Macs?

You can use Messages on a Mac already. You don’t need iCloud.

macOS High Sierra 10.13.5 with Messages in iCloud support is now available

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