Apple has publicly released the macOS Sonoma 14.2 update, brining new Mac features like the ability to automatically fill forms and fields in PDF documents.
To download and install an over-the-air update, click and hold the System Settings icon in the Dock, then choose Software Update. If macOS Sonoma 14.2 shows up, hit Install to proceed. You must enter your administrator password to continue.
Your Mac periodically checks for and installs updates automatically. To turn this feature off, go to System Settings > General > Software Update, then click the ⓘ (Info) button next to Automatic updates.
Disable the Install macOS updates option if you’d like to manually install macOS updates via the Software Update mechanism. To have your Mac download updates without asking, toggle off Download new updates when available.
macOS Sonoma 14.2 release notes: New features and fixes
macOS Sonoma 14.2 makes Safari’s AutoFill feature work in other places, like PDF documents. There are new features across stock apps, too, and some of them are also available in iOS 17.2. The full release notes from Apple are included below.
This update introduces enhanced Autofill for PDFs and improvements to Messages and Weather. This release also includes other features, bug fixes and security updates for your Mac.
PDFs
● Enhanced AutoFill identifies fields in PDFs and other forms enabling you to populate them with information such as names and addresses from your contacts
Messages
● Catch-up arrow lets you easily jump to your first unread message in a conversation by clicking the arrow visible in the top-right corner
● Add sticker option in the context menu lets you add a sticker directly to a bubble
● Contact Key Verification provides automatic alerts and Contact Verification Codes to help verify people facing extraordinary digital threats are messaging only with the people they intend
Weather
● Precipitation amounts help you stay on top of rain and snow conditions for a given day over the next 10 days
● New widgets let you choose from next-hour precipitation, daily forecast, sunrise and sunset times and current conditions such as Air Quality, Feels Like and wind speed
● Wind map snapshot helps you quickly assess wind patterns and access the animated wind map overlay to prepare for forecasted wind conditions for the next 24 hours
Clock
● Multiple timers let you run several timers simultaneously and create a name for each timer
● Timer presets help you quickly start a timer with a range of preset options
● Recents makes it easy to restart your recently used timers
Bug fixes
● Favorite Songs Playlist in Apple Music lets you quickly get back to the songs you mark as favorites
● Use Listening History in Apple Music can be disabled in a Focus so music you listen to does not appear in Recently Played or influence your recommendations
● Shazam Music Recognition allows you to quickly identify songs playing online or around you, even when wearing AirPods
● New keyboard layouts provide support for 7 additional Sámi languages
For detailed information about the security contents of macOS Sonoma 14.2, read Apple’s support document. Keep in mind that some features may not work in specific countries, as detailed on Apple’s macOS Feature Availability page.
What’s your favorite new feature in macOS Sonoma 14.2?
macOS Sonoma 14.2 shares some of the new features with iOS 17.2 and iPadOS 17.2, like the new Weather widgets and enhancements in Messages. However, enhanced AutoFill is only available in iPadOS 17.2 and macOS Sonoma 14.2.
This uses a powerful on-device machine learning model to automatically populate fields in PDFs and other documents with appropriate names, addresses, etc.
Apple’s page mentions enhanced AutoFill as one of the new features it planned for iOS 17.0. It looks like iPhone customers will get this feature in a future iOS 17 update.