Apple Releases macOS Catalina 10.15.5 With Battery Health Management Features, Fix for Finder Freezing

[trusso]

Safari seems snappier...?

 

[Taz Mangus]

The Battery Health Management is not available on my 2014 MacBook Air.

Only available to 2016 or newer MacBook computer. Those that have TB3 ports.

 

[sidewinder3000]

Anyone know if this fixes the sleep crashes?

Man, these sleep crashes are a nightmare. My brand new, fully loaded MBP 16 crashed the first day I owned it and multiple times a day for a week, so I exchanged it for another... same problem on the new one.

WTF???
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Hopefully this actually does fix the finder beachball issues...

Oy, this beach all! I get the same thing on my brand new, fully loaded MBP 16. I have more RAM than god and still get the spinning beach ball when running Contacts.

 

[Arctic Moose]

I've got 20+ years of email archives too. I've also got this great thing called a backup drive that I use regularly

I use Backblaze. I use Time Machine on a NAS with redundant drives. I make SuperDuper! clones every now and then.

None of this will be of any use to me if individual e-mails go missing and I do not notice it until some time in the distant future when I try to find them.

I'd rather put off upgrading than to have to figure out how to find and merge missing e-mails from ancient backups back into the archive.

 

[watakoola]

I use Backblaze. I use Time Machine on a NAS with redundant drives. I make SuperDuper! clones every now and then.

None of this will be of any use to me if individual e-mails go missing and I do not notice it until some time in the distant future when I try to find them.

I'd rather put off upgrading than to have to figure out how to find and merge missing e-mails from ancient backups back into the archive.

Very happy user of Mail Archiver X! This should put your mind to rest.

Moth Software

Archive your emails with Mail Archiver to make them safe. Save hours of your time with automatic email management.

www.mothsoftware.com

 

[xnsys]

Still got this happening...



Guess that apple don't know how to fix it, I raised an original report back in November 2019 and still not fixed in all that time.

 

[Arctic Moose]

Very happy user of Mail Archiver X! This should put your mind to rest.

Moth Software

Archive your emails with Mail Archiver to make them safe. Save hours of your time with automatic email management.

www.mothsoftware.com

I'm not really sure what problem this would solve for me. I do not have any of the concerns described on their web page. I already have snapshots of my archives. I simply want to be confident that e-mails will not disappear from the primary interface (i.e. Mail.app) that I want to use unless I purposely delete them myself.

 

[watakoola]

I'm not really sure what problem this would solve for me. I do not have any of the concerns described on their web page. I already have snapshots of my archives. I simply want to be confident that e-mails will not disappear from the primary interface (i.e. Mail.app) that I want to use unless I purposely delete them myself.

I wouldn't be putting all my eggs in a single basket...

 

[Boomer5100]

Have you tried creating a new user and see if extensions can be enabled from the new user?

Go into Safari preferences and click on passwords. Type in your password to unlock and then try again checking or unchecking the extensions.

 

[Steve121178]

My guess is far too many features were scheduled for last year's releases (iOS 13, iPadOS 13, macOS 10.15, etc.). The rigid schedule (all need a beta in June, all except macOS need a final in September to ship on the new iPhones, and macOS needs a final not long after to stay in sync with stuff like Reminders) then screwed up the quality.

As a result, they had to resort to workarounds like shipping the new iPhones with iOS 13 with 13.1 already pre-announced, and skipping 13.0 altogether for iPads.

Short of changing the entire schedule, the best bet is to reduce the feature set.

This just proves what an utter nonsense an annual version upgrade is, especially for macOS. A new version of iOS isn't required to add new features either.

It seems Apple really is run by the marketing people.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Go into Safari preferences and click on passwords. Type in your password to unlock and then try again checking or unchecking the extensions.

@kalafalas is the one have an issue with extensions not me. I think you want to direct your response to kalafalas.

 

[gank41]

Since macOS 10.15.5 was released, my Apple Watch stopped unlocking my MBP.
tl;dr I was able to correct this by doing the following:

-Uncheck the option to unlock with AppleWatch in macOS under Settings/Privacy
-Unpair AppleWatch from the Watch App
-Setup AppleWatch again from the backup just done in previous step and wait to finish
-Check the option to unlock with AppleWatch in macOS under Settings/Privacy

It's hard to know if the issue was with my Watch or with my MacBook Pro, as the watch was unlocking my laptop just fine for the week prior to macOS 10.15.5 being released and after iOS 13.5 & watchOS 6.2.5 were released. But, everything's working now, and to my surprise the whole process only took roughly 30 minutes.
Hopefully this can help someone else in the future...

 

[Big Ron]

Like I said, you Americans can't picture that things may be different elsewhere.

I just configured a 16" MacBook Pro with the same config as my 2018 15" MacBook Pro, both in the US store and in my local store. It's 18% cheaper than what I paid for it at the time. In my local store, the 16" MacBook Pro currently costs 2/3 of the price I paid for my brand new car last year (you read that right, it's not a used car, I took it straight out of the dealer). So taking that 18% difference into account, we're talking 80% of the price of a new car. And I expect prices to further increase because of local currency devaluation.

Are you starting to get the picture how some people might need computers to last more than a couple years? Rest assured this is the real situation around most of the world -- America is the exception, not the rule.



It's my personal computer which I bring into work so I don't have to use a 10- or 15-year old PC. Like I said, as an American you wouldn't be able to understand the need to do that. The classic movie scene with an advertising agency office with hundreds of Macs in view is far, far removed from reality in many places of the world.

I'm salaried, I'll make the same at the end of the month whether I use the computer or the 10/15-year old PC, it's just my life would be totally miserable with the PC. So, I use it for work, and work doesn't pay for it. Not impossible after all, right?



Great to see you're confirming my theory of planned obsolescence. Luckily I'm resourceful enough to work around these artificial limits imposed by Apple. Others, though, will just leave the ecosystem.



I'm not sure where you got the idea that I have 5 year old hardware -- like I said, I have a 2018 MacBook Pro.

All I'm trying to point out is, Apple is needlessly screwing over the users most likely to be the first in line for upgrades -- I don't think people who just bought a 2020 MacBook Pro is going to be thinking about upgrades so soon. Here's hoping they remember Apple tried to screw them when they could have easily helped them.

It looks like you are, literally, invested in Apple (as in, a stockholder) and you're trying so hard to pretend everything is fine because you, too, see that it's not. From my view, the same people who were switching in droves from PCs to Mac ~10 years ago are looking to switch back (myself included).
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Not true. Similar software works on much older Macs. It's a case of planned obsolescence.
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Nothing changed. Keeping it plugged in at 100% has always been harmful (certainly for Li-Ion/LiPo batteries this has always been true). If anyone ever told you differently, they had no idea what they were talking about.

If all you aspire to is a battery that lasts 2-3 years, then you can do absolutely anything you want with your battery, it'll most likely last that long. We're talking people who want to have a usable (not like-new, usable) battery in 5 years.

Acidblood - you seem to be the voice of reason - and NO were are not related

My 2018 15" MacBook Pro currently shows a max charging capacity of 95%. I take this to mean that since I have had it, it has lost 5% of its maximum possible charge.

My question to you is: 'Reading your advice, by installing this latest Catalina update will I prolong my battery life' ?

Have I 'baselined it' at 95%?

If so how can this be a bad thing - surely I'm responsibly 'looking after' my battery just not from 100%?

Thanks

 

[edubfromktown]

You may be satisfied with a 5 year lifespan for your battery. I, on the other hand, have done the research and know that a battery can last much longer than that with proper battery management, far beyond the 1.000 cycles claimed by Apple. Twice that is easily achievable, and 5.000 is certainly possible if you prevent the battery from being exposed to high temperatures. Possibly even more if Apple would restrict the charging current to the battery, which is perfectly fine when it is left to charge overnight.

Again, go ask any EV owner if they would have bought one, if they were told they had to replace the single most expensive part on their car every 5 years. Yeah, some eco-nuts might, but anyone who buys things for their value and not to make a statement wouldn't.

Sure, we are not reaching theoretical maximums with laptop battery charging/lifetime and there is plenty of room for improvement. There are things we can do to extend battery life in the interim: do not charge overnight, charge when the battery is in the range of ~15%, only charge to 100% occasionally, etc.

When you jump in your car and turn the key, do you immediately smash the gas pedal to the floor (like my neighbor does)? If car designers limited your ability to do that, the car would last longer and not burn oil after a couple of years (like my neighbor's car). I value my car and have only purchased one new... >10 years ago. There are things that I do to take care of the car that the manufacturer did not recommend, document or advise me on that will extend the life of the vehicle.

I also value my Apple gear and take care of it in ways that fall outside of what "should be" theoretically possible so that each one maintains resale value and works reliably for a long time.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Ok this is cool. Left my 2017 MacBook Pro plugged in since updating and this morning it's at 89% saying "fully charged" - awesome!

I was worried it would take weeks/months to learn my charging habits like my iOS device but it's working within less than a week (my MBP has been plugged in since the update came out).

Very cool.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Ok that's weird. I'm seeing the % drop before my very eyes even though it says fully charged. I'm at 85% right now. Continuing to watch.

 

[Boomer5100]

Still can’t enable safari extensions

Go into Safari preferences and click on passwords. Type in your password to unlock and then try again checking or unchecking the extensions.
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@kalafalas is the one have an issue with extensions not me. I think you want to direct your response to kalafalas.

Sorry 'bout that...corrected.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Weird, it just charged to 100% ... lol.

 

[chrfr]

Weird, it just charged to 100% ... lol.

Last night my computer did that. Just runs down to about 90% (I didn't actually see how far down it went) and then charges back up.

 

[bugFinder]

Man, these sleep crashes are a nightmare. My brand new, fully loaded MBP 16 crashed the first day I owned it and multiple times a day for a week, so I exchanged it for another... same problem on the new one.

WTF???
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Oy, this beach all! I get the same thing on my brand new, fully loaded MBP 16. I have more RAM than god and still get the spinning beach ball when running Contacts.

Contacts has always been a beachball app, lol.

 

[appledAgain]

I have been putting off upgrading to Catalina due to the Mail issues that were reported after release. Can anyone confirm that it is now safe to upgrade from a Mail perspective?

I saw no reason to upgrade until shared iCloud Drive folders were available, but now that they are I’d like to do so, but absolutely not at the potential expense of risk to my 25 years of mail archives.

Exactly. Mail is acting drunk since Catalina. I had to restore all of my email. 50% came back in folders, the rest had been dumped out of the folders to the inbox. So that took some fixing. Good luck with your issues!

 

[Zetton]

I have a 6TB Lacie d2 Quadra USB 3 (USB-C) External Hard Drive. Since the first beta of MacoOS Catalina 10.15.5 I started having problems that every time the operating system went to sleep and the external disks went to sleep as well, when only the external disk Lacie d2 Quadra USB 3 (USB-C) went wake up. ) of 6TB was erroneously ejected. From the feedback assistance application I reported this in each of the new betas, they never solved it and the final version came with that problem. MacOS Catalina is a very unstable system and Apple is no longer what it was, the less the sector should be responsible for testing.

me too!
my system is:
iMac 27" 5K late 2015 Catalina 10.15.5
Lacie d2 Thunderbolt 3 8TB
connecting with USB-C (USB, not TB3) -> A (because my mac only have USB 3.1 A, no USB-C)

after disconnected, I can't re-connect Lacie by un-plug / plug the USB cable.

This trouble happens only since 10.15.5. I have no trouble with 10.15.4 and earlier.
I suspect Clean My Drive 2, so began to stop it, but I don't have any idea.

add:
Now I'm using my iMac, and suddenly d2 TB3 is disconnected, so Finder shows the alert dialog!

 

[Cyprusian]

Two points from me:

Battery Management

A couple of weeks ago I changed the battery in my nearly 6 year-old MBP (Retina, mid-2014, 13") after 1150 cycles, short battery life and system report flag "replace soon".

With an eye on the possible automatic safeguarding of my newly purchased battery's lifespan, my initial enthusiasm at early reports of new battery management functionality in MacOS 10.15.5 was soon dampened with the announcement this would only be available to devices with Thunderbolt 3 ports. No doubt there's a perfectly valid technical reason why this restriction has been imposed, but I fully concur with previous posts pointing out why this functionality would be particularly useful to older devices. I guess it's a consequence of my MBP being classed as vintage a few months ago......

Time Machine

A fix for issues with large file transfers to RAID drives was another feature of MacOS 10.15.5 that caught my eye.

I have had significant issues running Time Machine backups to my Synology DS218j NAS with twin disks mirrored in a Synology Hybrid RAID configuration. After successfully completing a full backup (199 GB over a LAN cable), Time Machine subsequently carries out a verification which fails and it insists on deleting the backup and starting again - with the same result. I have hoped with each successive iteration of MacOS update this would be an under-the-hood fix, but this has not yet been the case.

Sadly, and frustratingly, this issue remains with MacOS 10.15.5 .... perhaps one day!

 

[Risco]

I have a mid 2014 retina MacBook, but it has no battery health option?

 

[Cyprusian]

I have a mid 2014 retina MacBook, but it has no battery health option?

Nor do I - it's not available for legacy non-Thunderbolt 3 machines (see the comments in my post just before yours)