Apple Releases macOS Sierra 10.12.3 With Graphics Fixes for 2016 MacBook Pro

Apple today released macOS Sierra 10.12.3, the third update to the macOS Sierra operating system that launched on September 20. macOS Sierra 10.12.3 comes over a month after the release of macOS Sierra 10.12.2, and has been in testing since December 14.

macOS Sierra 10.12.3 is a free update for all customers who are running macOS Sierra. The update can be downloaded using the Software Update function in the Mac App Store.

macossierra10-12-3
No specific changes, bug fixes, or feature additions were discovered during the beta testing process, and Apple only said the update "improves the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac." Apple's release notes paint a more complete picture, stating that the update improves graphics switching for the new 15-inch MacBook Pro, fixes issues with Adobe Premiere, and includes important fixes for Preview.

The macOS Sierra 10.12.3 Update improves the stability and security of your Mac, and is recommended for all users.
This update:

- Improves automatic graphics switching on MacBook Pro (15-inch, October 2016).
- Resolves graphics issues while encoding Adobe Premiere Pro projects on MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (13- and 15-inch, October 2016).
- Fixes an issue that prevented the searching of scanned PDF documents in Preview.
- Resolves a compatibility issue with PDF documents that are exported with encryption enabled.
- Fixes an issue that prevented some third-party applications from correctly importing images from digital cameras.

Enterprise content: Resolves an issue were network or cached user accounts (such as Active Directory accounts) using the maxFailedLoginAttempts password policy were becoming disabled.

macOS Sierra 10.12.3 will likely soon be followed by another update, as Apple has been committed to regularly making updates to the operating system since its September release.

Related Forum: macOS Sierra

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
iphone 16 apple intelligence

Apple Drops Plans for iPhone Hardware Subscription Service

Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
blackmagic vision pro

Blackmagic Debuts $30K 3D Camera for Capturing Video for Vision Pro

Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro. The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
mac pro creativity

Apple Launched the Controversial 'Trashcan' Mac Pro 11 Years Ago Today

Thursday December 19, 2024 7:00 pm PST by
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup. The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature Single Camera 2 Redux

Top 5 Apple Products to Look Forward to in 2025

Friday December 20, 2024 2:22 pm PST by
It's looking like 2025 is going to be an important year for Apple, with the company planning to revamp the iPhone, push further into smart home products, and improve Apple Intelligence. There are tons of new products rumored for 2025, including new iPhones, M4 Macs, a smart home command center, and much more. We've highlighted the top five Apple products that will have the biggest impact in...
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

New Apple TV Rumored to Launch Next Year With These Features

Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year. Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Rumored to Stick With 'Triangular' Camera Design

Wednesday December 18, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
elevation lab airtag battery

Your AirTag's Battery Will Last for Up to 10 Years With Elevation Lab's New TimeCapsule Enclosure

Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag. Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...

Top Rated Comments

jclo Avatar
103 months ago
MacRumors, making the daring predictions.
Here's a little behind the scenes look at the decisions we make... I added that because I don't like to end posts with blockquotes (it looks funny) but I didn't really have much else to say about 10.12.3. I do expect 10.12.4 alongside iOS 10.3!
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HobeSoundDarryl Avatar
103 months ago
Apple, what are you doing these days?
Swimming in the money vault...

Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chucker23n1 Avatar
103 months ago
Admittedly no version of OSX has been perfect. However, I do not recall any of this being an issue with such as Snow Leopard.
People like to paint a grass-is-greener picture of Snow Leopard, but it's not as though that version was perfect. There were eight point releases for it, one of which (10.6.3) needed a "Supplemental Update" because its original release had some issues.

Here's a random assortment of things fixed in Snow Leopard point releases:


* Addresses an issue that might cause DVD playback to stop unexpectedly
* Addresses an issue that might make it difficult to remove an item from the Dock
* an issue that caused data to be deleted when using a guest account
* resolves an issue that causes the keyboard or trackpad to become unresponsive
* Improves reliability of Ethernet connections.

There were also weird off-shoots like the "Snow Leopard Font Update". Which, incidentally, included PDF-related fixes.

You'd think something like DVD playback and Ethernet connections would be rock-solid by the seventh major release of OS X. But alas. They weren't.

Perhaps someone could explain how that once working fine no longer does several versions later?
Well, regressions generally happen when code is modernized, optimized, or for other reasons replaced by an equivalent. In this case, Apple appears to have tried to unify some of the PDF code between iOS and macOS. One positive effect of this is that you can now print to PDF from any iOS app (though the UI to do so is bizarre ('https://9to5mac.com/2016/09/18/how-to-print-to-pdf-from-iphone-and-ipad-ios-10/')). The negative effect is lots of breakage ('http://mjtsai.com/blog/2016/12/21/more-macos-preview-pdf-trouble/') in the meantime.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
realeric Avatar
103 months ago
Safari still kills entire system on specific websites, with intel 4600 GPU. Apple, what are you doing these days?
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Cougarcat Avatar
103 months ago

macOS Sierra 10.12.3 will likely soon be followed by another update, as Apple has been committed to regularly making updates to the operating system since its September release.
MacRumors, making the daring predictions.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jsw Avatar
103 months ago
I just returned my 15" MBP (stock, low-end 2016) after 13 days because I had numerous issues, including Touch Bar freezes, spontaneous reboots, and this lovely screen of colored static on multiple occasions (which doesn't appear to be listed as an issue or one that's fixed):



and also because of obvious places Apple didn't update the OS to realize the Touch Bar was there. Example from when I restored macOS prior to returning it (note how the user is asked to hit the Escape key for help... and yet the Escape key [and entire Touch Bar] isn't visible - and couldn't be make visible, at least in my attempts):



I hope this update fixed similar issues for others, but I've decided to wait until the next hardware rev before I buy a new 15". I ordered a base 2016 13" (no Touch Bar) cheap at Best Buy this weekend, and I'll use that for now... if I decide it's worth the risk to open it. This 15" was the first Mac I've ever returned after opening it. I'm really disappointed in the number of issues I had over a relatively short period of time using it doing pretty much nothing but software development. These were, in my opinion, pushed out of the factory way before they should have been.

I get that OS updates are needed and that new hardware isn't going to be perfectly supported all the time, but come on. It sounds like, even after this OS bump, there are still going to be a lot of people with issues, and I had far too many different problems on a new system that I barely stressed. I miss the old days when they really did just work.

Attachment Image

Attachment Image
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)