Keeping your Mac up-to-date may seem like a chore, but it’s an essential part of protecting yourself online. Apple and app developers patch security holes when they’re found—and they add helpful new features to macOS and your applications, too.
Beyond the usual security patches and app updates, Apple offers shiny new versions of macOS to Mac users every year—for free. We’ll explain how it all works. You can automate much of this process so that updates take care of themselves without bothering you, too.
How to Install macOS Updates
Apple releases a new major version of macOS each year, usually around October. In between major updates, supplemental patches are deployed to fix bugs, patch security holes, and sometimes add new features and support for new products. These patches are referred to simply as updates and recorded in the version number, with 10.14.3 being the third such update to macOS 10.14.
These updates make changes to the core operating system, first-party apps like Safari and Mail, and may include firmware updates for hardware and peripherals. You don’t need to worry about installing the wrong thing since Apple only provides updates that are relevant to your Mac.
If you’re using macOS Mojave 10.14 or a newer version of macOS, you can update your Mac by clicking on “System Preferences” in the dock then choosing “Software Update” in the window that appears. Or, click the Apple menu icon on the menu bar and select “System Preferences.”
You can also search for this option by pressing Command+Spacebar, then typing “software update” to in the Spotlight window that appears.
Assuming you’re connected to the internet, your Mac will check for any available system updates. Click “Update Now” to start the update process. Your Mac may need to restart before the process is complete.
