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Mastering the Transition: Seamless macOS Sonoma Upgrades for Your MacBook Pro and iMac - Insights

Jason Hiner/ZDNET

Early adopters of new M3-powered MacBook Pro and iMac computers were surprised to unbox them to find Apple’s latest hardware running an old, outdated version of MacOS.

While Apple released MacOS Sonoma in October of this year, brand new MacBooks running Apple’s very latest M3 chips were being shipped out to customers running MacOS Ventura 13.5 – an operating system that was released back in July.

Also: MacBook Pro (M3 Max) review: A desktop-class laptop for an AI-powered age

And to make matters worse, it seems that those early adopters weren’t able to upgrade their hardware to the latest MacOS Sonoma release.

Here’s the good news: Following the blizzard of updates Apple released yesterday, owners can now upgrade their shiny new hardware to either Ventura 13.6.2 or Sonoma 14.1.1.

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If you are the owner of a new M3 Mac running Ventura 13.5, it is highly recommended that you update your system as soon as possible. To do this, fire up the System Settings app, then go to General and then Software Update.

So why are cutting-edge Macs being sent out running an old version of MacOS that’s packed with security bugs?

One theory is that Apple had planned initially on releasing the M3 14-inch MacBook Pro and 24-inch iMac earlier this year (maybe at WWDC in June) but something caused this release to be delayed, and so when these systems were manufactured sometime in July they had Ventura 13.5 loaded onto them, and were boxed up and stored until now.

Also: Apple’s M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chipsets: Everything you should before buying

Instead of being released mid-2023, Apple kept them back until the “Scary Fast” event at the end of October, when the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips were unveiled (which still leaves an M3 Ultra to be released in early 2024).