Welcome to macOS 26 Tahoe Apple Support Communities

Owl-53 wrote:

Auto enable FileVault during installation process, not as I recall on previous versions where we had a choice being presented

"If you sign in to an Apple account as part of setting up macOS, FileVault now turns on automatically

[...]

But if you decline to sign in with an Apple Account during setup, just creating a local account, the macOS installer offers FileVault encryption, generating a recovery key that you can write down and store elsewhere, but it's possible to skip FileVault entirely."

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/09/macos-26-tahoe-the-ars-technica-review/#toc-h8

Ran the Software Update method

Over all much better

Down from 17 GB Full Version to 15.61 GB expected

Download speeds over Fibre Optic and 6E is all over the map - expected

Actually installation time, start to finish - start @ 04:20 AM EDT to final reboot and log in 04:36 AM EDT

Have yet to make a Bootable Installer but think 17 GB full version may not fit on 32 GB drive and suggest double this to 64 GB just in case

So far so good but be aware that Tahoe turns on FileVault without asking. However after turning it off It took less than minute to decrypt my 2TB M1 Mac Studio Max.

90 minutes from start of installation to final reboot and log in

Auto enable FileVault during installation process, not as I recall on previous versions where we had a choice being presented

I chose to upgrade on day 0 for one reason... Jason Snell. Jason Snell is a well known Apple reporter, former editor of MacWorld, and runs the Six Colors website. Snell is also a regular on the MacBreak Weekly podcast. Several times now he has reported that he has been running all the betas and found them to be very stable and problem free. I trust Snell’s opinion implicitly.

So far so good. Yes, FileVault is turned on by default but is easily turned off.

Downloaded the full 17.0 GB version on a M2

Made copy to usb for the other 2 M-class machines

Back to the M2 and started installation

Has stalled at 31 minutes for the last 30 minutes

Patience and walk away

Let us see when it finishes

leroydouglas wrote:

15.7 dropped

macOS 26 right behind it

Yes. Just opened Software Update and saw that I had both options:

I think I'll wait on Tahoo 26 a bit to see what things I have to look out for (like File Vault being turned on) before I jump in. I'll go with 15.7 first.

The M2 Mac Mani was a bit of nail biting experience

Luck for me, my wife of 42 years encourage me to have more patience - phew, as always she was right

Will try the Software Update in Sequoia 15.6.1 on a M4 Mac Mini and see if the time factor is different

Then, report back

I can no longer access my WiFi, although it says it's connected. I've seen lots of folks are having this problem and have recommended patches that have not worked for me. Anyone have any ideas on how to fix?

I read somewhere people are experiencing slower network speed with macos26, which I also do. Is this a common problem? I have a windows unit and an iphone connected to the same network and speed tests show normal and comparable speeds on those. On the contrary network speed on the macstudio m2 max is unstable and usually around 10 % of the results on the other units.

Yrs sincerely

Beware all ye who enter here!.