macOS Sonoma Upgrade Availability
Campus Macs will start advertising the availability of the upgrade to macOS Ventura 13 during the semester break, in late December 2023. These messages come from Apple and are not controlled by Davidson T&I.
While we have not found any showstopper issues in our testing, Ventura is still fairly new. Feel free to try it out or to wait before upgrading, as you prefer - though you may want to wait until after the college reopens on January 2, 2024, in case there are any issues. We will notify you when we officially recommend the upgrade for all Davidson College Mac users.
Notes about Upgrading to macOS Ventura
This upgrade comes with all of the usual warnings and caveats:
- Check compatibility of any crucial apps beyond the basic ones we supply.
- Check your backups.
- Allow plenty of time, at least 30-60 minutes or more depending on your hardware.
- Don't do it shortly before a major deadline.
Plus a few special ones:
- If you are reading this in December 2023, consider waiting until after the college reopens January 2, 2024, when T&I will be open again to offer assistance in case of any issues.
- On newer model Macs, a new feature called "Reactions" will automatically be active in any & all video calling software you may use (Zoom, FaceTime, Teams, etc.). This may not be what you want in a professional environment. Learn more about Reactions including how to turn them off. Note that Reactions are enabled per app, so your setting for them in (for example) Zoom does not affect FaceTime or vice versa.
If you have questions or encounter issues, please contact ti@davidson.edu.
Learn more about Sonoma's new features.
Updated December 20, 2023