macOS Mojave

macOS 10.14 refers to this version. For macOS 14, refer to macOS Sonoma.

macOS Mojave (pronounced mo-HAH-vee) is the fifteenth major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop operating system for Macintosh computers. macOS Mojave was announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 4, 2018, and was released to the public on September 24. The operating system's name refers to the Mojave Desert, continuing the use of California-themed names that began with OS X Mavericks. It succeeded macOS High Sierra and was followed by macOS Catalina. macOS Mojave is the last version of macOS that features the iTunes and Dashboard apps.

Developed by: Apple Computer, Inc.

General availability: September 24, 2018 (version 10.14 build 18A391 - original Mac App Store release)

Last release: July 21, 2021 (version 10.14.6 build 18G9323 - final security update; scroll down and click on "Release History" for all builds)

Preceded by: macOS High Sierra (version 10.13)

Succeeded by: macOS Catalina (version 10.15)

Kernel type: Hybrid (XNU)

Support status: Unsupported as of October 2021. iTunes is no longer being updated, but is able to download driver updates to sync to newer devices. (iTunes is replaced by separate apps in macOS Catalina, including Music, TV, Podcasts, and Finder for syncing devices.)

macOS Mojave brings several iOS apps to the desktop operating system, including Apple News, Voice Memos, and Home. It also includes a more comprehensive "dark mode", is the final version of macOS to support 32-bit application software, is the last version of the macOS capable of being booted from an HFS+ partition without third-party patching, and is also the last version of macOS to support the iPhoto app, which had already been superseded in OS X Yosemite (10.10) by the newer Photos app.

macOS Mojave was well received and was supplemented by point releases after launch.

System requirements

macOS Mojave requires a GPU that supports Metal, and the list of officially-compatible systems is more restrictive than the previous version, macOS High Sierra. Mojave drops support for various Macs released from late 2009 to 2011. Compatible models are the following Macintosh computers running OS X Mountain Lion or later:

iMac (Late 2012 or later)
iMac Pro (2017)
MacBook (Early 2015 or later)
MacBook Air (Mid 2012 or later)
MacBook Pro (Mid 2012 or later)
Mac Mini (Late 2012 or later)
Mac Pro (2013, 2010-2012 supported with a Metal-capable graphics card)/li>

macOS Mojave requires at least 2 GB of RAM as well as 12.5 GB of available disk space to upgrade from OS X El Capitan, macOS Sierra, or macOS High Sierra, or 18.5 GB of disk space to upgrade from OS X Yosemite and earlier releases. Some features are not available on all compatible models. Mojave installations convert the installation volume to Apple File System (APFS), if the volume had not previously been converted from HFS+.

Features

System updates

macOS Mojave deprecates support for several legacy features of the OS. The graphics frameworks OpenGL and OpenCL are still supported by the operating system, but will no longer be maintained; developers are encouraged to use Apple's Metal library instead.

OpenGL is a cross-platform graphics framework designed to support a wide range of processors. Apple chose OpenGL in the late 1990s to build support for software graphics rendering into the Mac, after abandoning QuickDraw 3D. At the time, moving to OpenGL allowed Apple to take advantage of existing libraries that enabled hardware acceleration on a variety of different GPUs. As time went on, Apple has shifted its efforts towards building its hardware platforms for mobile and desktop use. Metal makes use of the homogenized hardware by abandoning the abstraction layer and running on the "bare metal". Metal reduces CPU load, shifting more tasks to the GPU. It reduces driver overhead and improves multithreading, allowing every CPU thread to send commands to the GPU.

macOS does not natively support Vulkan, the Khronos group's official successor to OpenGL. The MoltenVK library can be used as a bridge, translating most of the Vulkan 1.0 API into the Metal API.

Continuing the process started in macOS High Sierra (10.13), which issued warnings about compatibility with 32-bit applications, Mojave issues warnings when opening 32-bit apps that they will not be supported in future updates. In macOS Mojave 10.14, this alert appears once every 30 days when launching the app, as macOS 10.15 will not support 32-bit applications.

When Mojave is installed, it will convert solid-state drives (SSDs), hard disk drives (HDDs), and Fusion Drives, from HFS Plus to APFS. On Fusion Drives using APFS, files will be moved to the SSD based on the file's frequency of use and its SSD performance profile. APFS will also store all metadata for a Fusion Drive's file system on the SSD.

New data protections require applications to get permission from the user before using the Mac camera and microphone or accessing system data like user Mail history and Messages database.

Removed features

Mojave removes integrations with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Vimeo, and Flickr, which were added in OS X Mountain Lion and Mavericks.
Mojave also removes support for sub-pixel rendering of text. The feature was previously used on non-Retina displays to improve the appearance of text on screen.
The only supported Nvidia graphics cards are the Quadro K5000 and GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition.

Applications

Mojave features changes to existing applications as well as new ones. Finder now has metadata preview accessed via View > Show Preview, and many other updates, including a Gallery View (replacing Cover Flow) that lets users browse through files visually. After a screenshot is taken, the image appears in the corner of the display, as with iOS. The screenshot software can now record video, choose where to save files, and be opened via ⇧ Shift + ⌘ Command + 5.

Safari's Tracking Prevention features now prevent social media "Like" or "Share" buttons and comment widgets from tracking users without permission. The browser also sends less information to web servers about the user's system, reducing the chance of being tracked based on system configuration. It can also automatically create, autofill, and store strong passwords when users create new online accounts; it also flags reused passwords so users can change them.

A new Screenshot app was added to macOS Mojave to replace the Grab app. Screenshot can capture a selected area, window or the entire screen as well as screen record a selected area or the entire display. The Screenshot app is located in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder, as was the Grab app. Screenshot can also be accessed by pressing ⇧ Shift + ⌘ Command + 3.

macOS 10.14.1, released on October 30, 2018, adds Group FaceTime, which lets users chat with up to 32 people at the same time, using video or audio from an iPhone, iPad or Mac, or audio from Apple Watch. Participants can join in mid-conversation.

The Mac App Store was rewritten from the ground up and features a new interface and editorial content, similar to the iOS App Store. A new 'Discover' tab highlights new and updated apps; Create, Work, Play and Develop tabs help users find apps for a specific project or purpose.

Four new apps (News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home) are ported to macOS Mojave from iOS, with Apple implementing a subset of UIKit on the desktop OS. Third-party developers would be able to port iOS applications to macOS in 2019.

With Home, Mac users can control their HomeKit-enabled accessories to do things like turn lights off and on or adjust thermostat settings. Voice Memos lets users record audio (e.g., personal notes, lectures, meetings, interviews, or song ideas), and access them from iPhone, iPad or Mac. Stocks delivers curated market news alongside a personalized watchlist, with quotes and charts.

A few security fixes were made.

Release History

Version	Build	Date	Darwin version	Notes
10.14	18A391	September 24, 2018	18.0.0	Original Mac App Store release
10.14.1	18B75	October 30, 2018	18.2.0 xnu-4903.221.2~2	About the macOS Mojave 10.14.1 Update
	18B2107			Added support for new Vega GPUs in MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.
	18B3094
10.14.2	18C54	December 5, 2018	18.2.0 xnu-4903.231.4~2	About the macOS Mojave 10.14.2 Update
10.14.3	18D42	January 22, 2019	18.2.0 xnu-4903.241.1~4	About the macOS Mojave 10.14.3 Update
	18D43	January 22, 2019		About the macOS Mojave 10.14.3 Update
	18D109	February 7, 2019		About the security content of macOS Mojave 10.14.3 Supplemental Update
10.14.4	18E226	March 25, 2019	18.5.0 xnu-4903.251.3~3	About the macOS Mojave 10.14.4 Update
10.14.4	18E227	March 25, 2019	18.5.0 xnu-4903.251.3~3	About the macOS Mojave 10.14.4 Update
10.14.5	18F132	May 13, 2019	18.6.0 xnu-4903.261.4~2	About the macOS Mojave 10.14.5 Update
10.14.6	18G84	July 22, 2019	18.7.0 xnu-4903.270.47~4	About the macOS Mojave 10.14.6 Update
	18G87	August 1, 2019	18.7.0 xnu-4903.270.47~4	Fixed a "Wake from Sleep" issue where Mac computers would not wake from sleep properly.
	18G95	August 26, 2019	18.7.0 xnu-4903.271.2~2	Security updates and bug fixes Solved: MacBook Shuts Down During Sleep Fixed: Performance degradation when processing large files. Fixed: iLife apps (Pages, Keynote, Numbers, GarageBand, and iMovie) not updating. Re-fixed a vulnerability that was accidentally left unpatched in a previous update, which could have led to hacking attempts
	18G103	September 26, 2019	18.7.0 xnu-4903.271.2~2	Security Updates and Bug Fixes
	18G1012	October 29, 2019	18.7.0 xnu-4903.278.12~4	About the security content of Security Update 2019-001
	18G2022	December 10, 2019	18.7.0 xnu-4903.278.19~1	About the security content of Security Update 2019-002
	18G3020	January 28, 2020	18.7.0 xnu-4903.278.25~1	About the security content of Security Update 2020-001
	18G4032	March 24, 2020	18.7.0 xnu-4903.278.28~1	About the security content of Security Update 2020-002
	18G5033	May 25, 2020	18.7.0 xnu-4903.278.35~1	About the security content of Security Update 2020-003
	18G6020	July 15, 2020	18.7.0 xnu-4903.278.43~1	About the security content of Security Update 2020-004
	18G6032	September 24, 2020	18.7.0 xnu-4903.278.44~1 Pulled 2020-09-30	About the security content of Security Update 2020-005
	18G6032	October 1, 2020	18.7.0 xnu-4903.278.44~1	About the security content of macOS 10.14.6 Supplemental Update
	18G6042	November 12, 2020	18.7.0 xnu-4903.278.44.0.2~1	About the security content of Security Update 2020-006
	18G7016	December 14, 2020	18.7.0 xnu-4903.278.51~1	About the security content of Security Update 2020-007
	18G8012	February 1, 2021	18.7.0 xnu-4903.278.56~1	About the security content of Security Update 2021-001
	18G8022	February 9, 2021	18.7.0 xnu-4903.278.56~1	About the security content of Security Update 2021-002
	18G9028	April 26, 2021	18.7.0 xnu-4903.278.65~1	About the security content of Security Update 2021-003
	18G9216	May 24, 2021	18.7.0 xnu-4903.278.68~1	About the security content of Security Update 2021-004
	18G9323	July 21, 2021	18.7.0 xnu-4903.278.70~1	About the security content of Security Update 2021-005

User interface

Mojave revamps Dark Mode. A light-on-dark color scheme, it initially affected only the dock, menu bar, and drop-down menus, while here, it darkens the entire user interface to make content stand out while the interface recedes. Users can choose dark or light mode when installing Mojave, or any time thereafter from System Preferences. All of the built-in apps support the revamp. App developers can implement the feature in their apps via a public API.

Stacks, a feature introduced in Mac OS X Leopard, now lets users group desktop files into groups based on file attributes such as file kind, date last opened, date modified, date created, name and tags. This is accessed via View > Use Stacks.

macOS Mojave features a new Dynamic Desktop that automatically changes specially made desktop backgrounds (two of which are included) to match the time of day.

The Dock has a space for recently used apps that have not previously been added to the Dock.

macOS update functionality has been moved back to System Preferences from the Mac App Store. In OS X Mountain Lion (10.8), system and app updates moved to the App Store from Software Update.