hoakley Macs, Technology, Updates

What has changed in macOS 26.1 Tahoe?

The update bringing macOS 26 Tahoe to version 26.1 is substantial, and has a great many increases in build numbers, so this overview of its changes concentrates on those substantial enough to merit an increment in version number. The update itself varies widely in size, ranging between about 3-14 GB, which is unusual and hard to explain.

Apple’s security release notes report that it addresses a total of 90 vulnerabilities, none of which have been reported as being exploited in the wild.

General release notes are extremely brief, and include:

  • a new tinted appearance option for Liquid Glass,
  • AutoMix support for Apple Music over AirPlay,
  • better FaceTime audio over low bandwidth connections,
  • Communication Safety and Web content filters are enabled by default for existing child accounts.

The only other release notes available are those for enterprise.

There are firmware updates to bring Intel T2 Macs to 2094.40.1.0.0 (iBridge 23.16.11072.0.0,0), and Apple silicon Macs to iBoot version 13822.41.1. The build number for macOS 26.1 is 25B78.

Version changes seen in bundled apps include:

  • Audio MIDI Setup to 3.7
  • Books to 8.1
  • ColorSync Utility to 12.2.0
  • Freeform to 4.1
  • iPhone Mirroring to 1.5
  • Music to 1.6.1
  • News to 11.1
  • Passwords to 2.1
  • Safari to 26.1 (21622.2.11.11.9)
  • Screen Sharing to 6.1
  • Stocks to 8.1
  • Tips to 26.1 (routine for this update)
  • TV to 1.6.1.

Notable changes seen in /System/Library include:

  • several PDF Automator actions have build increments
  • Archive Utility has changed, with removal of a pref pane
  • SystemIntents is a new app added to CoreServices at version 1.0
  • two new driver extensions (dext) have been added, for AppleSunriseBluetooth and AppleSunriseWLAN
  • kernel extensions updated include many for AGX, as well as AppleDiskImages2 and AppleEmbeddedAudio
  • new kernel extensions include AppleSPINORFlasherDriver at version 1.0, and a family of AppleT8142 kexts to support the M5
  • APFS is updated to version 2632.40.15
  • added to DiagnosticExtensions are new items ScreenTimeDiagnosticExtension and ToolKitDiagnosticExtension
  • added to PrivateFrameworks are new SpotlightDiagnostics and ThumbnailsBlastDoorSupport frameworks
  • the RichText mdimporter is unchanged, remaining at version 6.9 (350).

As expected, the Spotlight bug described here recently remains unchanged in macOS 26.1.