macOS Monterey (version 12) is the eighteenth major release of macOS, Apple's desktop operating system for Macintosh computers. The successor to macOS Big Sur, it was announced at WWDC 2021 on June 7, 2021, and released on October 25, 2021. macOS Monterey was succeeded by macOS Ventura, which was released on October 24, 2022.
The operating system is named after Monterey Bay, continuing the trend of releases named after California locations since 2013's 10.9 Mavericks.
macOS Monterey is the final version of macOS that supports the 2015–2017 MacBook Air, Retina MacBook Pro, 2014 Mac Mini, 2015 iMac and cylindrical Mac Pro, as its successor, macOS Ventura, drops support for those models. It is the last version of macOS that can run on Macs with 4GB of RAM and MagSafe 2 Macs, and is the first version to run on a MacBook with MagSafe 3.
Changes Monterey introduced several new features and changes, including the following:
Shortcuts for the Mac TestFlight for the Mac Provisions to allow the planned introduction of Universal Control, which allows a single keyboard and mouse to control multiple Macs and iPads. It works on Macs with Apple silicon and some with an Intel processor, including MacBook Pro (2016 and later), MacBook (2016 and later), MacBook Air (2018 and later), iMac (2017 and later), iMac (5K Retina, 27-inch, Late 2015), iMac Pro, Mac Mini (2018 and later), and Mac Pro (2019). It works on these iPads: iPad Pro, iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad (6th generation and later), and iPad Mini (5th generation and later). Support for the Apple Music Voice Plan Subscription. Portrait Mode and Noise Cancellation features for FaceTime and some apps (in Control Center). New Toolbar features and designs for Finder and the Preview app. Have a Live Memoji and Animoji right on the lock screen. A yellow privacy indicator on the menu bar for indicating if the Mac's microphone or camera is active. Live Text, which allows a user to copy, paste, translate and look up text from images displayed by Photos, Screenshot, Quick Look, and Safari. New Passwords Manager for Mac New on-device machine-learning–activated keyboard dictation using Siri, and also now for almost unlimited duration. Low Power Mode for Mac that enables longer battery life for lightweight workflows such as reading PDFs, Web browsing, listening to music, etc. This works on MacBook Air (2018 and later) and MacBook Pro (2016 and later). A redesigned optional compact interface for the Safari browser. Support for playing AirPlay content streamed from recent iOS and iPadOS devices and Macs, including MacBook Pro (2018 and later), MacBook Air (2018 and later), iMac (2019 and later), iMac Pro (2017), Mac Mini (M1, 2020 and later), Mac Pro (2019), iPhone 6s and later, iPad Pro (2nd generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad (6th generation and later), and iPad Mini (5th generation and later). Older iPhone, iPad, and Mac models may share content at a lower resolution to supported Mac models when "Allow AirPlay for" is set to "Everyone" or "Anyone on the same network" in Sharing preferences. Improvements to FaceTime, including the ability to share a screen and the SharePlay function that enables multiple users to watch or listen simultaneously and in sync (e.g., to music or TV shows). The ability to factory reset the Mac from the System Preferences app. Visual Look Up makes it easy to identify objects (e.g. cat breeds, dog breeds, etc.) found within user's photos. Focus to set different modes to filter notifications across iPhones, iPads and Macs. The Time Machine backup functionality excludes more system files. Provisions to allow the planned introduction of "Expanded Protections for Children," which will apply cryptography to detect and help limit the spread of child pornography, officially known as "child sexual abuse material" (CSAM) online by scanning the user's iCloud photos., until the feature was cancelled due to backlash and user discomfort. Accessibility option to change the mouse pointer's colors. Tips notifications. The removal of a previously bundled PHP interpreter. The removal of a previously bundled Python 2.7 interpreter (from 12.3) The removal of the ability to use custom Quartz Composer filters and plugins in Photo Booth. networkQuality, a command-line tool for measuring upload/download capacity, upload/download flows, and upload/download responsiveness An automatically populated "Games" folder within launchpad Support for ProMotion in new 2021 MacBook Pro New Object Capture API for creating 3D models using images
Applications
Notes In the Notes application, users can now apply arbitrary tags to a note (e.g., #cooking, #work); groups of notes with a given tag or tags can be viewed in Smart Folders or a Tag Browser in the sidebar. The new Quick Notes function enables a user to create a note from within any app via system-wide keyboard shortcut or hot corner.
Maps Apple Maps adds a 3D globe, with increased mountain, desert, and forest detail.
Messages Messages supports new features, also introduced in iOS 15, such as "Shared with You" which provides shortcut links to content shared via Messages in other Apple apps such as Safari, Photos, Music, and News.
When multiple photos are sent/received, they are now displayed as a collection instead of multiple messages. A download button is provided to download all photos simultaneously.
Known problems Users and developers have reported the following: Laptops unable to boot (fixed with 12.0.1 update) Inability to charge sleeping laptops with MagSafe (fixed with 12.1 update) Mouse pointer memory leak issue (fixed with 12.1 update) Audio issue with speaker and audio output crackling and popping Problems connecting external displays to Mac using any version of Monterey Unicode Hex Input does not work if the code point number is 0??0 (first and last digits are zero) (fixed in Ventura 13.3) DualShock 3 controllers no longer work
Supported hardware
macOS Monterey drops support for Macs released from 2013 to 2014, including all Macs with Nvidia GPUs.
Macs that support macOS Monterey are as follows.
iMac (Late 2015 or later) iMac Pro (2017) MacBook (Early 2016 or later) MacBook Air (Early 2015 or later) MacBook Pro (Early 2015 or later) Mac Mini (Late 2014 or later) Mac Pro (Late 2013 or later) Mac Studio (2022)
By using patch tools, macOS Monterey can be unofficially installed on earlier computers that are officially unsupported, such as the 2014 iMac and the 2013 MacBook Pro. Using these methods, it is possible to install macOS Monterey on computers as old as a 2008 MacBook Pro and iMac and 2009 Mac Mini.
Release history + macOS Monterey releasesVersionBuildRelease dateDarwin VersionRelease notes12.021A344October 25, 202121.0.1xnu-8019.30.61~4Tue Sep 14 20:56:24 PDT 2021Release notesSecurity content12.0.121A55921.1.0xnu-8019.41.5~1Wed Oct 13 17:33:23 PDT 202112.121C52December 13, 202121.2.0xnu-8019.61.5~1Sun Nov 28 20:28:54 PST 2021Release notesSecurity content12.221D49January 26, 202221.3.0xnu-8019.80.24~20Wed Jan 5 21:37:58 PST 2022Release notesSecurity content12.2.121D62February 10, 2022Release notesSecurity content12.321E230March 14, 202221.4.0xnu-8020.101.4~2Mon Feb 21 20:34:37 PST 2022Release notesSecurity content12.3.121E258March 31, 202221.4.0xnu-8020.101.4~15Fri Mar 18 00:45:05 PDT 2022Release notesSecurity content12.421F79May 16, 202221.5.0xnu-8020.121.3~4Tue Apr 26 21:08:22 PDT 2022Release notesSecurity content21F2081June 14, 202221F2092June 16, 202212.521G72July 20, 202221.6.0xnu-8020.140.41~1Sat Jun 18 17:07:22 PDT 2022Release notesSecurity content12.5.1 21G83 August 17, 2022 21.6.0xnu-8020.141.5~2Wed Aug 10 14:25:27 PDT 2022 Release notesSecurity content12.6 21G115 September 12, 2022 21.6.0xnu-8020.140.49~2Mon Aug 22 20:17:10 PDT 2022 Release notesSecurity content12.6.1 21G217 October 24, 2022 21.6.0xnu-8020.240.7~1Thu Sep 29 20:12:57 PDT 2022 Release notesSecurity content12.6.2 21G320 December 13, 2022 21.6.0xnu-8020.240.14~1Sun Nov 6 23:31:16 PST 2022 Release notesSecurity content12.6.321G419January 23, 2023 21.6.0xnu-8020.240.18~2Mon Dec 19 20:44:01 PST 2022 Release notesSecurity content12.6.421G526March 27, 202321.6.0xnu-8020.240.18.700.8~1Thu Mar 9 20:08:59 PST 2023 Release notesSecurity content12.6.521G531April 10, 2023 Release notesSecurity content12.6.621G646May 18, 2023 21.6.0xnu-8020.240.18.701.5~1Mon Apr 24 21:10:53 PDT 2023 Release notesSecurity content12.6.721G651June 21, 2023 21.6.0xnu-8020.240.18.701.6~1Thu Jun 8 23:57:12 PDT 2023 Release notesSecurity content12.6.821G725July 24, 2023 21.6.0xnu-8020.240.18.702.13~1Thu Jul 6 22:18:26 PDT 2023 Release notesSecurity content12.6.921G726September 11, 2023 Release notesSecurity content12.721G816September 21, 2023 21.6.0xnu-8020.240.18.703.5~1Fri Sep 15 16:17:23 PDT 2023 Release notesSecurity content12.7.121G920October 25, 2023 21.6.0xnu-8020.240.18.704.15~1Wed Oct 4 23:55:28 PDT 2023 Release notesSecurity content12.7.221G1974December 11, 2023 21.6.0xnu-8020.240.18.705.10~1Thu Nov 9 00:38:19 PST 2023 Release notesSecurity content12.7.3 21H1015January 22, 2024 21.6.0xnu-8020.240.18.706.2~1Sun Dec 17 22:55:27 PST 2023 Release notesSecurity content12.7.4 21H1123March 7, 2024 21.6.0xnu-8020.240.18.707.4~1Mon Feb 19 20:24:34 PST 2024 Release notesSecurity content12.7.5 21H1222May 13, 2024 21.6.0xnu-8020.240.18.708.4~1Wed Apr 24 06:02:02 PDT 2024 Release notesSecurity content12.7.6 21H1320July 29, 202421.6.0xnu-8020.240.18.709.2~1Mon Jun 24 00:56:10 PDT 2024Release notesSecurity content
See Apple's main pages for Monterey release notes: for consumers and for enterprise, as well as their current security content page.
Timeline of Mac operating systems
References
External links – official site