Apple has officially released macOS Monterey 12.5, adding performance improvements and possibly updated security features to previous beta versions. The new macOS Monterey 12.5 has been in developer beta since May 18, 2022, and has undergone five revisions since then.
Apple has not released a new release note for that fifth beta, which means that macOS Monterey 12.5 is a minor update overall. macOS Monterey is likely to see major updates as well – there is a release specifically for Macs running with M2 processors. At this stage, however, it is more likely that visible improvements will be reserved for the upcoming release of macOS Ventura.
For now, macOS Monterey 12.5 is the official public version of the operating system that will come pre-installed on new Macs and existing users will be prompted to update, but it usually takes some time before the new version is rolled out to all users.
The build number for macOS Monterey version 12.5 is 21G72, which is the same as the build for the second release candidate.
Apple has also released macOS Big Sur 11.6.8 to the public for older machines that cannot be updated to macOS Monterey. This is an update focused on providing patches for several known potential security issues.
Users should exercise caution when installing operating system updates on critical hardware. Despite being a smaller release, some bugs may still cause problems and will be reported within the first few days of release.
