macOS Monterey Beta 5 is now available for all developers.
macOS Monterey Beta 5 (21A5304g) is now available for Developers.
UPDATED 8/12/21
Apple just dropped macOS Monterey Beta 5, let’s jump in and find out what’s new!
Apple initially mentioned in the Beta 4 patch notes that Universal Control was available. Crazy thing is, Apple removed the reference in the patch notes shortly after release! I’m checking to see if Universal Control is enabled in Beta 5.
UPDATE: Universal Control is NOT enabled 🙁
Monterey Beta 5 is now available as a software update, and IPSW M1 restore file. The Public beta is live and the full installer of Beta 5 is also now available.
https://youtu.be/415KtVXF9sI
My macOS Monterey Beta 5 Update video, all the new features and changes!
macOS Monterey Beta Patch Notes Summary
1. New Features – 4
2. Known Issues – 21
3. Resolved Issues – 0
4. Deprecations – 5
Table of Contents
1. Apple Links
2. Mr. Macintosh articles of interest for Apple Silicon & macOS Monterey
macOS Big Sur 11.5.2 Update (20G95) is now available for all users!
UPDATED: 08/13
Apple just dropped the new macOS Big Sur 11.5.2 Update. Let’s find out what’s new in this update!
The only information that we have so far is this line from the update text.
“macOS 11.5.2 includes bug fixes for your Mac.”
UPDATE: Apple has updated the security updates page.
macOS Big Sur 11.5.2
This update has no published CVE entries.
The update must be related to an OS level fix.
I’m looking into the update now so we can figure out what it actually fixes.
UPDATE: Howard Oakley found that the build version of Safari increased from 16611.3.10.1.3 to 16611.3.10.1.6. He also noted a few version number changes to private frameworks.
macOS Monterey Beta 4 Update is now available for all developers.
macOS Monterey Beta 4 (21A5294g) is now available for Developers.
UPDATED 07/28/21
Apple just dropped macOS Monterey Beta 4, let’s jump in and find out what’s new!
Apple initially mentioned in the Beta 4 patch notes that Universal Control was available. The reference in the patch notes has been removed! I can confirm this as in Beta 4 the Advanced Button was removed from the display preferences pane.
Live Text is also now available for all Macs that support macOS Monterey. Previously this was an M1 Monterey only feature.
Monterey Beta 4 is now available as a software update, and IPSW M1 restore file.The Full installer is not available yet.
My what’s new in macOS Monterey Beta 4 Video!
macOS Monterey Beta 3 Patch Notes Summary
1. New Features – 3
2. Known Issues – 18
3. Resolved Issues -18
4. Deprecations – 3
Table of Contents
1. Apple Links
2. Mr. Macintosh articles of interest for Apple Silicon & macOS Monterey
macOS Big Sur 11.5 (20G71) is now available for all users!
UPDATED 07/24/21
Apple just dropped the new macOS Big Sur 11.5 Update. The update is usually released alongside iOS. We instead got a second release candidate of 11.5. The build version of RC1 was 20G70. The new build is 20G71. Apple did not provide any information on the differences between 20G70 & 20G71. It has been about one and a half months since Apple released 11.4. Let’s jump in and find out what’s new in this update!
macOS Monterey Beta 3 is now available for download for all developers!
macOS Monterey Beta 3 (21A5284e) is now available for Developers.
UPDATED 07/14/21
Apple just dropped macOS Monterey Beta 3, let’s jump in and find out what’s new! Apple also added Universal Control settings to the Display preferences pane under advanced, but the feature still does not seem to be working yet.
Monterey Beta 3 is now available as a software update, full installer and IPSW M1 restore file.
macOS Monterey Beta 3 Patch Notes Summary
1. New Features – 3
2. New Known Issues – 28
3. New Resolved Issues -32
4. New Deprecations – 3
https://youtu.be/zv-eccnwqS0
Mr. Macintosh macOS Monterey Beta 3 Update in 5 min video!
Table of Contents
1. Apple Links
2. Mr. Macintosh articles of interest for Apple Silicon & macOS Monterey
3. Apple Articles of interest related to the macOS Monterey Update
Hopefully QEMU, Parallels & VMware are not far behind.
I will walk you through the entire process. (UPDATE!KhaosT just released an updated GUI interface, more info at the bottom of the article)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxkzuFejjj0
My video walking you through the process of setting up a virtual machine that can run macOS Monterey!
Requirements & Instructions (Modified Original Instructions)
Download links are at the bottom.
Apple Silicon M1 Mac (running macOS Monterey)
Xcode 13 (Beta)
Apple Configurator 2
macOS Monterey IPSW
Empty dmg image (This will be your system storage, name it disk.dmg, you can create it from Disk Utility)
First Time Setup
1. Clone this project from Github save as zip for use in Xcode. Open zip in Xcode Beta.
2. Click the Run Button (VM will build)
3. Quit the app when “Virtual Machine” window showed up, move disk.dmg into the app’s container
4. Run it again
5. Open Apple Configurator 2, if everything works, There should have a VirtualMac in DFU mode
6. Temporary disable macOS Firewall and iCloud Private Relay (Apple Configurator 2 can’t restore VM with those features enabled) Both are default off if you did not turn them on or sign in with your AppleID
7. Drag macOS 12 IPSW file into Apple Configurator 2, click Restore to install macOS
8. When AC2 finishes the install you should be done and your vm should boot to macOS 12 Setup Assistant!
UPDATE!
KhaosT just released a new update to his code that gives us control over the VM Settings.
This database will contain download links for macOS 12 full Installer pkg files (InstallAssistant.pkg). This file is the same full installer that you would download directly from the App Store for Intel and Apple Silicon M1 Mac Computers. The InstallAssistant.pkg is stored on Apple’s servers and contains the full “Install macOS.app”. Once downloaded, all you need to do is install the pkg and the full installer of macOS will be in your applications folder. This change was made when Apple revised the full installer for Big Sur. The InstallAssistant.pkg is not available for Catalina or Mojave.
UPDATED: 1/03/25
NOTE: macOS Monterey is no longer supported by Apple. The final version is 12.7.6 released on 7/29/24.
If you are looking for Apple Silicon Full IPSW Restore files, go here >
NOTE:Depending on the browser you are using, you might need to right click and select “Copy link address”. Past this link into a new tab and it should start to download.
The InstallAssistant.pkg is just a standard package that includes the full macOS 12 installer.app. All the pkg does is install/move the app to your applications folder. Let’s take a closer look.
macOS Big Sur 11.2.3 via SUS Inspector
I am using SUS Inspector to view the full installer for macOS Big Sur 11.2.3. You can see the InstallAssistant.pkg file listed. You can also see the direct download path from Apple’s servers. The link does not last forever. For example, the download link for beta full installers only seem to last for a month or so.
Production links last a little longer. For example 11.2.1 is still available but 11.2 is not. This database will be updated when a new full installer is released.
Thank You
A big thanks to Eric Holtam @eholtam. When I need to verify something in SUS, he always lends a hand!
You can now upgrade or downgrade BridgeOS with an IPSW file and Apple Configurator 2!
You can now upgrade or downgrade BridgeOS on your Intel T2 Mac with an IPSW file & Apple Configurator 2!
As soon as Apple released the very first T2-equipped Mac, MacAdmins wished that they had a way to downgrade BridgeOS. You can now even downgrade BridgeOS on a T2 Mac up to 7 days after an update!
UPDATED: 6/07/22
BridgeOS IPSW Downloads
In the chart below is a list of previous BridgeOS IPSW files along with the signing status. (Signed = You can upgrade or downgrade) All links are Apple Software Update direct downloads.
You can downgrade BridgeOS to one previous version (with in 7 days of a new os update) if you are having issues or would like to test the software update mechanism. The requirement for BridgeOS downgrade is that you need to satisfy the minimum OS Version or newer.
Why would anyone want to downgrade BridgeOS?
Example – You updated to macOS Big Sur 11.2.3 from 11.1. Something in the new version of bridgeOS is causing problems on your T2 Mac. You now want to downgrade to a previous version so you can single out the issue. You will need to downgrade macOS down to 11.2 to support the previous version of BridgeOS. If you downgrade BridgeOS to an older version than the installed OS then macOS Big Sur will not boot and you will be prompted to update BridgeOS from the macOS Update Assistant environment. After downgrading BridgeOS you will need to reinstall/downgrade 11.2 over the top of 11.2.3, or reinstall 11.2. You will now be running 11.2 and the matching bridgeOS version 18P4346.
NOTE! You can only downgrade back one previous version. Apple usually supports T-1*, current minus one version. *Apple will usually leave the previous version of BridgeOS signed for about 7 days after the release of a new update. The BridgeOS signing schedule follows iOS. (Apple will unsign previous versions of iOS about one week after a new update)
How to Downgrade BridgeOS on a T2 Mac
If you would like to learn how to do this, click on the link below!
