Apple Documentation consolidates Apple’s official user guides, repair manuals, tech specs and downloads in one convenient place with easily searchable content.
As first spotted by the Japanese blog Mac Otakara, Apple recently launched a new Documentation page on its support website with various user guides, repair manuals, technical specifications and software downloads for its products.
You can type a product name in the search field to surface relevant resources or click specific product families to choose your desired model.
At the same time, the company has redirected its old Manuals page from apple.com/manuals to the new Documentation page at support.apple.com/docs.
Apple Documentation hosts manuals, specs and downloads
Technical documentation listed on the new page like manuals, user guides, technical specifications and fact sheets, as well as software downloads, was previously scattered across various places on the Apple website. The new page consolidates these resources, making them conveniently accessible from a single place.
For example, repair manuals referenced on Apple’s Self-Service Repair Store are now linked to their relevant sections on the Documentation page.
All current products are represented on the page, from the iPhone, iPad and Mac to the Apple Watch, Apple TV, Vision Pro, AirPods and HomePod, including the the Studio Display and Pro Display XDR external monitors and various accessories such as Apple Pencils, Magic Keyboards, AirTags, dongles and cables.
Apple Documentation isn’t restricted to current and recent Apple products because discontinued and vintage hardware like AirPort wireless base stations, iPod music players and old iTunes versions are equally represented.
Ancient installers and old firmwares
Speaking of iTunes, software downloads are tied to each device. Simply click a desired section like Mac, then choose macOS to browse the various versions of the Mac operating system dating as far back as early Mac OS X versions like Jaguar.
The same goes for Apple hardware, but don’t forget to click the Show More link at the bottom of the page to reveal resources for ancient products like iBooks.
The page appears to be a work in progress. I could download the Lion installer, but the Mavericks installer was unavailable at publication time. Some older service manuals, schematics and user guides were also missing (longtime Apple fans will mention the excellent Every Mac website hosting old Apple manuals).
Apple Books no longer hosts the latest Apple manuals
All the user guides available through Apple Documentation are web-based versions that can be viewed in any web browser. I don’t know whether this is related to the new Documentation page, but I noticed Apple recently stopped providing official user guides as downloadable electronic books on Apple Books a while ago.
For example, the iOS 17 guide has been available on the web since the update released in September 2023, but it’s nowhere to be seen in the Books Store.