Alright, so the little red badge popped up again. System Settings screaming at me about a new update, macOS Sonoma 14.5 this time. I always get a little twitchy seeing those. It’s like, do I really need this right now? Is it gonna break something? You know the drill.
I was on 14.4.1, which was running okay, mostly. Had a weird Bluetooth hiccup the other day, but nothing major. Still, that notification sits there, judging you. So, I thought, okay, let’s get it over with. But first things first, gotta do the responsible adult thing.
Fired up Time Machine. Always, always back up before an update. Seriously, don’t skip this. Plugged in my external drive and let it run its course. Took about 30 minutes, maybe a bit more. Grabbed a coffee while it was doing its thing. Peace of mind, you know?
Backup done. Deep breath. Clicked that “Update Now” button. The download started. My internet isn’t super fast, so it took a good while. Said about 45 minutes, probably ended up being closer to an hour. Watched some YouTube to kill time. Then came the preparation phase, the progress bar slowly creeping along. More waiting.
Finally, the restart prompt. Closed all my apps, saved everything, and hit restart. Mac goes black, Apple logo pops up, another progress bar. This part always makes me nervous. Feels like it takes forever. I think it was maybe 20 minutes total for the install and restart? Something like that. Didn’t time it precisely, just felt like the usual update time.
And then… back to the login screen. Looked the same. Logged in. Everything seemed normal at first glance. Desktop looked identical. Dock was the same. Didn’t get any weird pop-ups or errors, which is always a good sign.
First thing I checked was the “About This Mac” – yep, says macOS Sonoma 14.5. Okay, update successful. Now, the real test. Started opening my usual apps:
- Safari: Popped right open. Websites loaded fine. Felt maybe a tiny bit snappier? Could be placebo, hard to tell immediately.
- Mail: Synced up, no issues there.
- Notes: All my notes were intact.
- My code editor (VS Code): Launched fine, projects loaded.
- Terminal: Opened instantly, commands worked.
Spent the rest of the afternoon just using the Mac like normal. Did some browsing, wrote a bit, messed around with some settings. The Bluetooth thing I mentioned? Paired my headphones, seemed stable. Fingers crossed that’s sorted, but only time will tell.
Haven’t noticed any huge performance boost or massive new features jumping out at me. Apple’s release notes usually mention security fixes and bug squashing for these point releases, and that seems about right. It feels… solid. Stable. Which is honestly what you want from a .5 update. No drama is good drama.
So far, so good. No disasters, no major slowdowns. Everything just seems to be working as it should. If you were holding off, based on my experience just jumping in, it seems like a pretty safe update. Just remember that backup first!