macOS Monterey 12.1 Update (21C52) is Live! What’s New?

23 thoughts on “macOS Monterey 12.1 Update (21C52) is Live! What’s New?”

1. Hi Mr Mac,

   Having upgraded my iMac 14,2 to Monterey 12.0.1 with OCLP 0.31, I’ve noticed that with my 12.0.1 update that the mac won’t ‘sleep’ and dynamic desktop doesn’t appear ‘dynamic’. Is there a fix for this?

   Also, System Preferences is showing that 12.1 is available – can I update from there or should I run 12.1 and OCLP 0.33?

   Many thanks for what you and the team do – it’s saved my iMac from the scrapheap!

   Cheers, Karl

2. Hi Mr Mac,

   I finally plucked up the courage to try the update to 12.0.1 on my 27” iMac 14,2 with Fusion and using OCLP 0.31. It took a few goes and web searches (especially for the Fusion drive) and managed to get it all up and running. Closing tabs on Safari seems to cause crashes and unlock using Apple Watch doesn’t seem to work. Do you think an upgrade to 12.1 with OCLP 0.33 would give a better result? If so, would you recommend a clean install or upgrade?
   Thanks for what you do – it’s amazing!

3. wel, well, well,
   System Preferences shows me the newelty!
   But I am not sure I will update my iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013 OCLP patched to macOS Monterey 12.0.1) to 12.1., because the new architecture of release OCLP 0.3.3, is too much different than the previous (fully working for me) one.
   Also, I have read about several issues occurred to whom have tried.
   So, as MrMacintosh suggest, I’ll be patient for a while…
   meanwhile, Happy New Year to all of you!

4. I see comments on your “Big Sur Upgrade not Enough Free Space” article are now closed, which is unfortunate as the problem still exists – with the Monterey 12.1 installer, as I found out to my cost today.

   I suffered the same symptom as reported in your article when upgrading my 2017 iMac from Mojave to Monterey – the installer did its thing, rebooted a few times and then got stuck at the macOS update assistant and my startup disk appeared to have vanished. Furthermore it didn’t even appear as a boot disk when holding option at startup; in fact at first I thought my disk had died. In the end, since I had a backup taken just before the update, I opted to erase the internal drive and copy everything back, which seems to be progressing fine. The disk doesn’t appear to be dead at all, but whatever had happened during the update had rendered it completely unable to do anything but be formatted.

   The configuration – in case it helps – is a 2017 27″ iMac, i5 with 1TB internal fusion drive (with lots of free space!). I have FV2 and firmware password enabled – at first I thought this might have caused an issue during the upgrade, particularly with some of the changes from Mojave to the newer versions of the OS, but I did the same upgrade on my MacBook Air (Mojave to Monterey) which also has FV2 and firmware password enabled and it sailed through. I should also mention that my iMac had over 300GB free before initiating install, and on my MBA I did it with about 35 – so this isn’t just related to drive space. I’m hoping it was just a random occurrence and that the restore and subsequent re-re-install of Monterey works, but it seems this issue isn’t completely buried.

5. I am on Monterey now. But everything is very small on the screen. I used open core. I have no ideal to fix this.

6. So I accidentally upgraded to 12.2 Beta last night without realizing it (2013 15 retina 11,3) and everything seems to be working fine. It hung up on start, as expected from the initial install, and I had to reboot with shift into safe mode. From there, I re-installed the current volume patch, rebooted, and everything is running stable as I write this.

   FYI.

   1. you can go back to macOS high Sierra form a usb https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

      Download MacOS high Sierra https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-high-sierra/id1246284741?mt=12

      here’s the video to see how to make a usb https://youtu.be/sXwaOVx8txA

      you need a usb to make usb boot and you need in the USB 16GB or more and a backup

7. My MacBook Pro 11,1 running OpenCore Legacy Patcher does not detect the update. What could be causing this? Thanks for all your great work.

8. Follow up…

   Successful Monterey 12.1 install on my 2014 mini using the full 21C52 InstallAsistant.pkg link!
   Again this was downloaded to my iPad and Airdrop to my mini, after about a dozen or so attempts to download the 12.1 update using Software Update in Preferences, maybe it’s a package manager issue or something like that but it’s blazingly slow connecting to the hotspot of the very same device that I’m able to download the .pkg file directly in just over an hour. Huge Thanks MrMacintosh!

   My only wish now is that Adobe CC would allow direct downloads of their products, I’m paying for full CC suite 3 months now and literally half the time is used just slooooooooowly downloading frequent updates, even with file sync turned off.

   Another note regarding MacOS, I have iCloud turned off on my mini and as an extra precaution do not save anything special, like projects I’m working on or app add-ons, to documents or downloads just in case it gets accidentally switched on and off temporarily. Really a burden that MacOS will delete files when iCloud is turned off but accessing the internet via iOS mobile hotspot there really isn’t any available bandwidth for unnecessary data syncing.

9. I really appreciate the direct MacOS download links provided by Mr Macintosh, my 2014 mini was eligible both from the App Store and Updates in Preferences but the update failed every time I tried.
   I installed a fast SSD to replace the old hybrid drive and properly formatted so the issue I think was my only connection is via hotspot from my iPhone or iPad, and I strongly suspect my service provider throttles hotspot downloads, but not as much with device downloads… I tried for about a week, using preferences it would take several days to complete the download to Monterey 12.0.1 only to fail and restart from the beginning, content catching on in sharing helps with some downloads but not for Monterey, was finally able to download the full installer to my iPad in about an hour and then Airdrop to my Mac mini (2014 w 8g) and then the installer still needed to download the full package again but this time it was able to finish and I’m happy to report have been running 12.0.1 for about 2 weeks without any problems and my mini runs a lot faster too, apps that took several minutes to open now literally open in the blink of an eye, probably because of the new SSD but I have to give some credit to Monterey as well I guess.

   Now with the 1st major update, at 2.8g on my mini have been having the same issue as before, about 8-12 hours downloading using the preferences update via hotspot from my iPhone fails and restarts, it’s been going on for about a week I’ve lost count how many times I’ve tried. I’ve had several different errors including “could not personalize”, and preparing (after download seems completed?) hangs forever at 10 minutes remaining then restarted, checks for updates and begins downloading again from the beginning… I wish there was a direct Apple server link for just the delta update from 12.0.1 to 12.1 but short of that am going to try with the complete 12.1 installer link from MrMacintosh

   1. Thank you Robert! I’m glad that the full installer package worked on your Mini. I also miss the old combo packages, it would have made your update a lot easier.

10. Dear All,

    is it possible to install the OpenCore Legacy Patcher on an iMac 14,2 with a Fusion Drive (currently with Catalina but planned to be moved to Monterey)?

    Has anybody tried this yet and how does it work?

    There are two EFI partitions on that fusion drive, one on the harddrive and one on the SSD. Would you install the boot loader on both EFI partitions?

    Thanks!

    1. Hey Mark.
       I did the Beta and had no issues.
       Just updated to Delta today (week after release )
       All is well.
       LED Cinema Display: came back up after re applying the OCLP to system volume.

       No issues with beta, No issues so far with delta.
       Installed OCLP to my spinny disk, as it reported to be the pre-boot, recovery drive.

    2. Hi Marc, I’ve just managed to get 12.0.1 on my iMac 14,2 with Fusion drive. It took a few goes! Following Mr Macs video there’s a couple of bits of note: 1) at the point where you’re in the boot picker and select EFI which takes you to the HD and USB option, immediately select the USB otherwise it starts to boot from the HD. 2) to erase the Fusion drive, show all devices (as in the video) and select ‘container 2’. This seemed to work. Also, don’t add your backup data until you’ve sorted the EFI boot picker as shown at the end. It’s not perfect, mine seems to crash when closing safari but I’m looking into this and also 12.1. Good luck.

11. Some M1 users had issues with external (USB) drives unmounting randomly. Any reports if this has been addressed with the 21.1 update?

12. Hello and thank you for your site which provides good service, long life and thank you.

13. Just a heads up: recent Apple release of Monterey 12.1 broke the drivers for Komplete Kontrol S61 & Komplete Kontrol. Not sure about anything else NI, but this one is bad – MIDI dropping in and out, KK plug locking up etc. Dreadful Apple practice re. customers & 3rd party as usual, tho’ did not really expect to find this on a point update. Rolled back to macos 12.01 and everything works as it did before.

14. Good stuff and thanks for what you do! Your efforts help save me a lot of time digging through all the details. Will be joining the Patreon effort soon as a show my appreciation of your good work! The delayed features and not that big of a deal to me or our clients at this point.

    1. Thanks Jason! While I do like the new features, I agree we just want a reliable system for our users!

15. I am running 11.6.1 on MBP 10,1
    It runs really good.
    I used the OpenCore Legacy Patcher and followed your instructions.
    But..the recovery partition is missing. How can I get over this? Is there a way to install the recovery system?
    Before I follow your guidance to upgrade to Monterey, I would like to have the recovery installed.
    Would you please advise me and tell me how to go about this issue?
    Many thanks,
    André

    1. Did your Airplay Disable? and its no longer even in the Sharing Settings.

       1. My Airplay Disabled too, even i tried OCLP numerous times still the same no longer in Sharing Settings, appreciate your kind advice @ Mr. Macintosh.

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