M3 MacBook Pro Ships With macOS Ventura, Can't Yet Be Updated to macOS Sonoma Over the Air

Apple's new entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro with the standard M3 chip began arriving to customers over the past day, and some early adopters have discovered that the laptop cannot currently be updated to macOS Sonoma over the air.

No 13 Inch M3 MacBook Pro Feature 2
As noted by @aaronp613 on X, at least some 14-inch MacBook Pro models with the M3 chip shipped with an unreleased build of macOS Ventura 13.5 installed. When users attempt to update to macOS Sonoma in the System Settings app, macOS Ventura 13.5 is listed as the latest version available instead of macOS Sonoma 14.1.

One user who experienced this issue is Daniel Rotar, host of the YouTube channel ZONEofTECH, according to a post he shared on X today. Additional users across X and the MacRumors Forums have mentioned the issue.


Given that macOS Ventura 13.5 was released in July, it seems that Apple began stockpiling the 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M3 chip several months ago.

It's unclear when Apple will address this problem, but in the meantime, software researcher Nicolás Álvarez said that affected users can download the Install Assistant for the M3-compatible version of macOS Sonoma 14.1 and manually install the update. It is also possible to enable macOS public betas to get the update to appear.

Update: As noted by 9to5Mac, this issue appears to affect the new iMac with the M3 chip as well.

Related Roundup: MacBook Pro
Buyer's Guide: MacBook Pro (Neutral)

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Top Rated Comments

sniffies Avatar
18 months ago
Sonoma requires M3 Ultra
Score: 56 Votes (Like | Disagree)
darngooddesign Avatar
18 months ago

The naming convention sucks.
I know right. None of their laptops are actually books.
Score: 31 Votes (Like | Disagree)
appleguy123 Avatar
18 months ago
Weird. I wonder how long these have been sitting around.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Billy_Bob Avatar
18 months ago
Apple under Steve Jobs: "It just works."

Apple under Tim Cook: "It just borks."
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
abatabia Avatar
18 months ago
What in the wide world of sports is this about?
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
OrenLindsey Avatar
18 months ago
There's always some goofy launch day problem.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)