The macOS Catalina 10.15.5 Update 19F96 is now Available.
The much anticipated macOS Catalina 10.15.5 update is live! The update is now available for download as a full installer.app, delta and combo update. This update looks like it includes a fix for the MacBook Pro 16″ wake from sleep Kernel Panic Issue! Let’s take a look at the Catalina 10.15.5 Update 19F96 to find out what’s new. The update also includes a fix for the GPU Freezing issue with some Macs with an Intel Only Graphics Chip.
UPDATE 06/02/20 – Apple just released a 10.15.5 Supplemental Update. I have the info here – https://mrmacintosh.com/macos-catalina-10-15-5-supplemental-update-19f101-cve-2020-9859/
UPDATE 05/27/20 – I wrote an article on the changes to the softwareupdate --ignoreflag and what it means for MacAdmins. mrmacintosh.com/10-15-5-2020-003-updates-changes-to-softwareupdate-ignore/
10.15.5 Patch Notes Summary
- 2 Announcements
- 3 New Features
- 8 Resolved Issues
- 5 Enterprise Fixes
- 41 Security Fixes
Apple’s Public Patch Notes / Release Notes Documentation
NOTE: Apple Documentation takes a little while to show up online after release. I will update when the new articles are made available.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210642
developer.apple.com/documentation/macos_release_notes
developer.apple.com/documentation/macos_release_notes/macos_catalina_10_15_5_release_notes
For more detailed information about this update and previous updates, please visit: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT210642
Previous 10.15 Releases + Previous Patch Notes
- 10. 10.15.5 = (19F96) May 26, 2020
- 9. 10.15.4 = (19E287) April 8th, 2020
- 8. 10.15.4 = (19E266) March 24th 2020
- 7. 10.15.3 = (19D76) January 28th 2020
- 6. 10.15.2 = (19C57) December 10th 2019
- 5. 10.15.1 = (19B2106) November 13th 2019
- 4. 10.15.1 = (19B88) October 29th 2019
- 3. 10.15.0 = (19A603) October 21st 2019
- 2. 10.15.0 = (19A602) October 15th 2019
- 1. 10.15.0 = (19A583) October 7th 2019
Catalina 10.15.5 Info & Download Links
Delta Update
The “Delta” update is smaller in size because it only includes fixes for the previous point release only.
Download Link – https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2039
Size = 2.98 GB
Product ID = 061-78581
Requirements = 10.15.4
Combo Update
The “Combo” update is for all previous versions of Catalina.
Download Link – https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2040
Size = 4.76 GB
Product ID = 061-78580
Requirements = 10.15.0, 10.15.1, 10.15.2, 10.15.3 or 10.15.4
Full Installer.app
Link – Catalina 10.15.5 Mac App Store
Size = 8.73 GB
Product ID = 061-78580
Requirements – 10.15 Catalina Requirements
T2 BridgeOS Update
T2 BridgeOS was updated along with the 10.15.5 update.
Size = 392.8 MB
Product ID = 061-70034
BridgeOS Update Version = 17.16.15290
Security Content for Safari 13.1.1
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211177
New Apple Support Documents
Adapters for the Thunderbolt 3 or USB-C port on your Mac or iPad Pro
If the cable from your external device doesn’t connect to the Thunderbolt 3 or USB-C port on your Mac or iPad Pro, you might need an adapter.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207443
About Mac notebook batteries
Learn how to optimize the life of the battery in your Mac notebook, fix battery issues, and get service.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204054
Catalina 10.15.5 Update 19F96 Overview
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210642
macOS Catalina 10.15.5 introduces battery health management in the Energy Saver settings for notebooks, an option to control automatic prominence of video tiles on Group FaceTime calls, and controls to fine-tune the built-in calibration of your Pro Display XDR. The update also improves the stability, reliability, and security of your Mac.
Battery Health Management
- Battery health management to help maximize battery lifespan for Mac notebooks
- Energy Saver preference pane now displays battery condition and recommends if the battery needs to be serviced
- Option to disable battery health management
For more information, please visit https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211094
FaceTime Prominence Preference
- Option to control automatic prominence on Group FaceTime calls so video tiles do not change size when a participant speaks
Calibration Fine-Tuning for Pro Display XDR
- Controls to fine-tune the built-in calibration of your Pro Display XDR by adjusting the white point and luminance for a precise match to your own display calibration target
This update also includes bug fixes and other improvements.
- Fixes an issue that may prevent Reminders from sending notifications for recurring reminders
- Addresses an issue that may prevent password entry on the login screen
- Fixes an issue where System Preferences would continue to show a notification badge even after installing an update
- Resolves an issue where the built-in camera may not be detected when trying to use it after using a video conferencing app
- Addresses an issue for Mac computers with the Apple T2 Security Chip where internal speakers may not appear as a sound output device in Sound preferences
- Fixes a stability issue with uploading and downloading media files from iCloud Photo Library while your Mac is asleep
- Resolves a stability issue when transferring large amounts of data to RAID volumes
- Fixes an issue where the Reduce Motion Accessibility preference did not reduce the speed of animations in a FaceTime group call
Enterprise Fixes
- Improves performance on certain Mac models when enabling hardware acceleration in GPU-intensive apps such as those used for video conferencing.
- Addresses an issue where Microsoft Exchange accounts were unable to sign in during account setup when using Conditional Access.
- Resolves an issue that prevented some displays connected to MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019) from waking from sleep when the Mac wakes
- Single sign-on (SSO) works immediately after installing an app that contains a third party SSO extension.
- Apple Push Notification Service traffic now uses a web proxy when specified in a PAC file via the Proxies payload
Announcements
Software Update
For increased security, major releases of macOS are not hidden when using the --ignore flag and the softwareupdate command starting with macOS 10.15.5. A major release is defined as one which receives a name, such as macOS Catalina.
Starting with macOS 10.15.4, major releases of macOS can be deferred for up to 90 days using MDM.
More on this here – mrmacintosh.com/10-15-5-2020-003-updates-changes-to-softwareupdate-ignore/
networksetup Command
Starting with macOS 10.15.5, the networksetup command behaves differently when run as a standard user versus an admin user. Standard users can do the following:
• 1. Read various network settings
• 2. Turn Wi-Fi power on or off (networksetup -setairportpower en0 on)
• 3. Change the Wi-Fi access point (networksetup -setairportnetwork en0
ExampleWiFiAP)
Other network settings can no longer be modified by standard users via networksetup.
For admin users, networksetup will continue to behave as it has in previous releases of macOS, provided System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Advanced… > “Require an administrator password to access system-wide preferences” is unchecked (which is the default state). If it is checked, admins will be bound by the same constraints as standard users when
using networksetup.
Security Content for 10.15.5
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211170
Catalina 10.15.5 Update 19F96
Another victim of Catalina here… can confirm that the update did not complete at first and, when it finally completed after multiple reboots, the bloody kernel_task kicks off after a few minutes and renders a $3000 laptop useless. SO frustrating
Two things I dislike about Mac’s now, the path that Mac OS has taken, and Apple’s obsession with security and the T2 chip in new Macs. I finally had to sell my 2018 MacBook Air for several reasons, and revert back pre T2 chip Mac mini when security boot didn’t exist. Catalina has not given me any hope that Apple knows what it’s doing with Mac’s. This has to be the worst Mac OS release I can remember and I can go back to OS X 10.0 and say that wasn’t so bad now. I’m finally back to Mojave on my Mac mini and don’t see myself trying Catalina anytime soon. In fact it’s time to consider waiting to see what 10.16.1 brings to the table. If it isn’t much better, I may have to finally abandon Mac’s altogether.
I have a 2015 MacBook Air and I have had no problems at all with the Catalina update, which was installed automatically when it first came out. And a few weeks ago I decided it would be a good idea to do a clean install of the OS after so many years, and hopefully free up some space. I had never done a clean install before, and I was surprised how incredibly easy it was. Again the Catalina clean install worked perfectly, and my Mac even seemed a bit faster, but maybe that was just imagination!
So if you have had a problem with Catalina, then maybe the problem was caused by something else.
In FCPX 10.4.8 using Catalina 10.15.5 I get this message when trying to Share my project:
The operation couldn’t be completed. (com.apple.Compressor.CompressorKit.ErrorDomain error -1.)
Any idea what’s going on?
My iMac hangs after a few minutes after updating to 15.5.5
Before the update I had no problems at all.
Don’t know how to solve ?
My problem is solved!
I removed the extra memory that i added my self and the system is working fine.
The strange ting is that I had no memory problems running version 10.15.4, after some testing I found out that one memory module is causing the problem.
So if you have added extra memory your self it is worth it to remove the memory and see if your problem is solved!
10.15.5 review
Sucks (as usual.. the new normal for MacOS updates).
The GPU fix not working (See the 10.15.5 fix claim below).
Something that that has been reported for many months now. I have spend 8 hours with Apple support and downgraded to Mojave in the process, over a weekend. Now Back to Catalina, after being excited about this bug fix.
BUT Kernel_task shoots up to 800%+ with 6 minutes as you connect external monitor and makes the laptop useless after that, since it freezes everything else.
It has made my 2019 MBP useless.
After 16 years of Mac use considering, evaluating Windows now.
This is the 10.15.5 claim: “Improves performance on certain Mac models when enabling hardware acceleration in GPU-intensive apps such as those used for video conferencing”
Just updated 27″ late 2015 iMac to 15.5.5 (from 15.5.4) and it will not run more than a few minutes without freezing. No particular activity related to freezing, other than it happens within a few minutes of start up.
Follow up: after a restart, the system threw up a message that one of my external drives could no longer be used. It seems highly coincidental that the drive went down when the update was applied, but I have not been able to test it on another machine and reconnecting it causes the freezing to return (doesn’t mount, as well). It is a LaCie 4TB Thunderbolt drive that’s just past two years old. Luckily not my TM drive.
Undaunted, I have just run the update on my MBP 15″ (2018 6-core), with no apparent issues so far.
@Tweed – interestingly this seems to be a specific issue with LaCie after 10.15.5, so might not be a coincidental (although the support thread I’m participating in seems to be predominantly USB rather than TB drives).
I used the video editing app, Final Cut Pro X; while rendering/exporting it stucks at transcoding! When I checked the activity monitor, ProTranscoder tool is not being able to write in the disk.
I tried various hard disk. Even it cannot write in the system SSD. Checked all the HDD and internal SSS with disk utility but no error is seen!
Looks like ProTranscoder tool (system tool) used in various video edting tools is not being able to write in the disk! Looks like a disk firmware problem. Doesnot go with downgrading!
15.5.5 update too could not fix this. Started after installing 15.5.4 update. Everything else is fine for me in this new 15.5.5 update except for all video editing apss not rendering/transcoding/exporting.
Check on your mac preference panel, security wich apps can write on disk… add compressor to this list…