February 2021 - Mr. Macintosh

macOS Big Sur 11.2.1 Update (20D74) is Live! What’s New?

MrMacintosh.com - macOS Big Sur 11.2.1 Update — macOS Big Sur 11.2.1 Update

The macOS Big Sur 11.2.1 (20D74) update is now available for all users!

UPDATE 2/15/21 – Apple has released a new macOS Big Sur 11.2.1 (20D75) Full Installer to address the Big Sur Upgrade not enough free space check issue! – https://mrmacintosh.com/big-sur-upgrade-not-enough-hd-space-serious-issue-possible-data-loss/

macOS Big Sur 11.2.1 (20D75) Full Installer – http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/00/60/071-05432-A_QOY2QE0UMR/puuz6c0epc7o0ozyovvi6tjxhzpf6uf04s/InstallAssistant.pkg

Sudo sudo sudo sudo sudo! I’ve sent out more than a few tweets about the CVE-2021-3156 Heap-Based Buffer Overflow in Sudo. I was trying to find out if macOS was vulnerable and if Apple would release a fix.

Today Apple released that fix it’s included in the following macOS Updates

1. macOS Big Sur 11.2.1 Update
2. macOS Catalina 10.15.7 Supplemental Update
3. macOS Mojave 2021-002 Security Update

2016-2017 15″ MacBook Pro Battery Problems + Replacement Program

This update also addresses a battery issue in 2016 & 2017 MacBook Pro Laptops. Update addresses an issue that may prevent the battery from charging in some 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro models.

Apple has just released an article that goes over this issue and how you can get your 2016-2017 MacBook Pro battery replaced if it’s having this issue.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212163

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Big Sur Upgrade not Enough Free Space = Serious Issue & Possible Data Loss! UPDATED

The macOS Big Sur upgrade is not checking to make sure enough free HD space is available. The upgrade will start, then run out of space and fail. If FV2 encryption is enabled, you will be locked out of your data!

UPDATED 10/07/21 – Latest Updates!!! – For the latest information be sure to check the UPDATES section below.

Quick Summary – When you start the macOS Big Sur upgrade, the installer should first check to make sure your Mac has enough free space available. If the installer finds that you do not have enough free space for the upgrade, it will stop and not let you continue. You should see a pop up message showing you how much space is needed before you can attempt the upgrade again. This free space check is NOT working. The upgrade will start even if you only have 1% of free space left and will fail. Your hard drive is now 100% full and the installer is now stuck in a boot loop attempting to finish the install. This leaves you unable access your data! I will go over all the details below and show you a fix at the end.

I’ve been trying to get a handle on this issue for over a month now. The first signs that this is becoming a larger issue came after the macOS Big Sur 11.2 update was made available. Reports started to roll in saying that the Big Sur Upgrade failed and the only way to fix it was to erase and reinstall macOS. I noticed an increase in traffic to this article. >

https://mrmacintosh.com/reinstalling-big-sur-on-apple-silicon-macs-with-11-0-20a2411-error/

The reason behind the traffic increase was because the M1 personalization error message was very close to the new error.

Big Sur Upgrade out of space error = An error occurred preparing the software update.

Big Sur Upgrade out of space error = An error occurred applying the software update.

Apple Silicon M1 personalization error = An error occurred preparing the update.

This led me to investigate this issue further.

Mr. Macintosh Full report and Deep Dive into the issue + Multiple fixes and workarounds to save your data and let the Big Sur Update finish!

macOS Big Sur 11.2 Update (20D64) is Live! What’s New?

MrMacintosh.com - macOS Big Sur 11.2 Update — macOS Big Sur 11.2 Update

The macOS Big Sur 11.2 (20D64) update is now available for all users!

MacOS Big Sur 11.2 was released on February 1st, 2021. The 11.2 update is the 2nd major update for Big Sur. This release had 5 beta updates, which is a record for small point releases. The 11.2 update was released one week behind the iOS 14.4 update.

UPDATE: 02/02

This version is the same BuildVersion as 11.2 Beta RC3 = (20D64)
If you installed macOS Big Sur 11.2 RC 3 (20D64) you have the production version of macOS and you do not need to update.
Full installer released – 12.22GB
Waiting to see if CVE-2021-3156 sudo buffer overflow sudo privilege escalation affects the macOS version of sudo 1.8.31. (11.2 still includes sudo 1.8.31)
NOTE for the next version of Xcode – “Xcode 12.5 Beta requires a Mac running macOS Big Sur 11 or later.”
SoftRAID – macOS Big Sur 11.2 update does not allow the SoftRAID driver to load
Safari 14.0.3 was just released at 5:30 PM CST for Catalina and Mojave (it’s included in the 11.2 update)

macOS Big Sur 11.2 Patch Notes Summary

0 – New Features
5 – Resolved Issues
6 – Enterprise Changes

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