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

[jphall]

Update: @jphall THANK YOU! See this is what MR forums are all about... helping each other in times of need! Followed this Apple help article you posted carefully and my laptop is now on and finishing the 10.15.5 update!

High five! That's awesome! So glad my 3 day adventure a couple of months ago of bringing that Air back from the dead paid off for someone.

My wife still appreciates that she walked to her desk the next morning and her Air was back to work. I had a new one picked out to buy for her, but got to keep my credit card safe in my wallet.

 

[ignatius345]

I'm SO glad I've so far avoided getting Macs with that infernal T2 chip. It seems like this chip has brought nothing but headaches without really adding any useful features.

I'm really digging TouchID on my 2020 MacBook Air. Unless I'm mistaken, that only exists on machines with that T2 chip. So, that's a very useful feature in my opinion.

 

[liberte1776]

What a **** update, still no grouping of notifications like in iOS, and 2015 15" MBP does not show battery health features. Apple really lost its way with Macs. Their latest laptops still have a crap 720P camera for that matter as well.

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

Interesting. This nifty shortcut for the full installer seems to have stopped working with the 10.15.5 full installer. My laptop was acting wonky, so I decided to do an in-place full reinstall of Catalina with the 10.15.5 update. While the installer was proceeding, I tried this keyboard shortcut with no go. I know this shortcut worked properly in the 10.15.3 full installer. I really hope this was a temporary change, not a permanent removal of the shortcut by Apple.

 

[BaltimoreMediaBlog]

You know this whole Catalina thing is probably Tim Cook's first baby start to finish and he's a baby killer and bean counter.
Has there been any good press on this release at all? Finder FREEZES? I haven't seen that since MacOS 9!
It doesn't seem like things have been totally stable since High Sierra. LOL

 

[Henk Poley]

Uhm.. the fact that this 'Battery Health Management' feature only works on MacBooks since the they came with Thunderbolt 3 ports, is kinda important to mention. E.g. the MacBook Pro 2016 and MacBook Air 2018 and later.

 

[urtext]

Waiting for the 10.15.5 combo update to be released.

macOS Catalina 10.15.5 Combo Update: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2040

 

[sakagura]

Yeah, I remember. My 13" MacBook 2007 was an inch thick and weighed 5.2 lbs, absolutely porcine by today's standards.

Replaceable batteries were in existence up to around 2012. From 2012-2015 the laptops had the most solid and reliable thermal and durable designs and easier to fix and nothing 'porcine' about them.

But yeah...screw real users and good designs. The only thing that matters is that you have a skinny laptop that warps under heat, with failing keyboards, can't be serviced easily, has **** throttling graphics performance, T2 kernel panics and eats your retirement money.

The only people that matter are Apple's top shareholders and young youtuber reviews. Youtubers are the most important human beings who ever lived and their opinions are gold. One day youtubers will become all the world's leaders and if you disagree with anything they say the troll army will take you away and you'll be flogged on a livestream. If youtubers didn't call out any T2 kernel panics and pop poppp popping sound then it didn't happen and you real users are imagining things.

I'm going now to buy $900 wheels for my iPad.

 

[Jimmy James]

I know for a fact this is a clear case of planned obsolescence by Apple.

How do I know this?

Because I have written some software to do precisely what Apple is doing here, as a "weekend" project (OK, took a little more than a weekend, but not that much more). If I may say so myself, it's a much better implementation than Apple's, because I control when I want the computer to charge or not. And it has been successfully tested on computers that are older than 2016, including my wife's 2014 MacBook Air, which I monitor closely. So technically nothing prevents Apple from implementing this on older computers.

Before anyone asks: I could easily post this code on GitHub, or sell it, or whatever. But I can't do that because knowing Apple, they'll find a way to restrict access to this API (who knows, maybe they already did on 10.5.5? Though I can't say if the API they're using is the same I'm using.)

I just wanted to point out that Apple is doing this on purpose to get people to upgrade. I know theories of planned obsolescence abound, but rarely can you confirm them like I just did (as a matter of fact, anyone reading this can't really confirm what I'm saying as I'm not showing the code or the app; but I don't care, because I know it's true).

Bump for Planned obsolescence.

 

[petvas]

Anybody else missing the Refresh Rate setting for their build in Retina display on the MacBook Pro 16"?

Change the refresh rate on your MacBook Pro or Apple Pro Display XDR - Apple Support

You can switch between refresh rates on your 16-inch MacBook Pro, 14-inch MacBook Pro, or Pro Display XDR.

support.apple.com

Option click on scaled resolution and the setting will be there.

 

[Detnator]

I know for a fact this is a clear case of planned obsolescence by Apple.

How do I know this?

Because I have written some software to do precisely what Apple is doing here, as a "weekend" project (OK, took a little more than a weekend, but not that much more). If I may say so myself, it's a much better implementation than Apple's, because I control when I want the computer to charge or not. And it has been successfully tested on computers that are older than 2016, including my wife's 2014 MacBook Air, which I monitor closely. So technically nothing prevents Apple from implementing this on older computers.

Before anyone asks: I could easily post this code on GitHub, or sell it, or whatever. But I can't do that because knowing Apple, they'll find a way to restrict access to this API (who knows, maybe they already did on 10.5.5? Though I can't say if the API they're using is the same I'm using.)

I just wanted to point out that Apple is doing this on purpose to get people to upgrade. I know theories of planned obsolescence abound, but rarely can you confirm them like I just did (as a matter of fact, anyone reading this can't really confirm what I'm saying as I'm not showing the code or the app; but I don't care, because I know it's true).

What a load of codswallop. If you actually knew anything about real software development you’d understand that “on purpose” and “planned obsolescence” is paranoid BS. There are genuine quality software development reasons for not maintaining support for old hardware.

Ever wonder why macOS is so much better, cleaner, more stable, etc than Windows? More than any other reason it’s because Apple doesn’t bend over backwards trying to make it run on every piece of hardware under the sun. Limiting the hardware each release runs on means they can purge it of old code and keep it clean and lean.

Windows is great how it supports so much more hardware including so much older hardware, but the resulting overall experience sucks in comparison because of the exact same reason.

(And if you don’t agree that macOS is better than Windows then what are you doing here in the first place? Surely not because of Apple’s tiny hardware selection.)

You can take off the tinfoil hat. Really.

 

[LV426]

I'm SO glad I've so far avoided getting Macs with that infernal T2 chip. It seems like this chip has brought nothing but headaches without really adding any useful features.

Why the heck does Apple think they need an entirely separate CPU in Macs, running its own operating system? Could they not see this would add another point of failure and instability in the system? Unnecessary complexity is the enemy of reliability!

Having a co-processor handle extremely sensitive operations (like sampling fingerprints or decrypting a hard drive) is actually a really good thing. It makes it much much harder to compromise a machine via malware for one thing. The risks of the T2 chip failing are outweighed by the benefits it brings.

 

[H2SO4]

On the subject of battery, (power???) management, have been working remotely. Last night was busy and the Macbook went to sleep.
I get on site today and it'a warm as I pull it from the case, 3% battery. Great. Nowhere to charge it either. What a crappy software.
Anybody know if it's fixed?
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What a load of codswallop. If you actually knew anything about real software development you’d understand that “on purpose” and “planned obsolescence” is paranoid BS. There are genuine quality software development reasons for not maintaining support for old hardware.

Ever wonder why macOS is so much better, cleaner, more stable, etc than Windows? More than any other reason it’s because Apple doesn’t bend over backwards trying to make it run on every piece of hardware under the sun. Limiting the hardware each release runs on means they can purge it of old code and keep it clean and lean.

Windows is great how it supports so much more hardware including so much older hardware, but the resulting overall experience sucks in comparison because of the exact same reason.

(And if you don’t agree that macOS is better than Windows then what are you doing here in the first place? Surely not because of Apple’s tiny hardware selection.)

You can take off the tinfoil hat. Really.

No. planned obsolescence is real. Whether this is the case here or not I don't know.

Companies allow for it, in sales projections if you don't believe that then I have a bridge to sell you.
Things they 'underdesign' things and refuse to fix design faults they know about in a current iteration of hardware or software but fix in the next. They assess the potential costs of court cases and recalls and bet on the fact that some will just upgrade/update/replace rather than await the fix.
The important part of that is ignoring design faults, I don't mean faults that suddenly appear out of nowhere, I mean faults that have been known about for some time.
Windows sucks and is cleaner and more stable??? That's an opinion and nothing more. I prefer OSX but know plenty that think it sucks and prefer Windows and incidentally, I saw a Mac long before before I ever used one. That is to say it was the tiny hardware selection as you put it that made me make the purchase.

 

[fonzy91]

OS X 10.2 (Tiger) in 2005 cost $129.95.

Yeah but that was one exciting one! And worth it!

 

[L Caputo]

Yeah but that was one exciting one! And worth it!

Although Mac OS X 10.2 was called Jaguar. Tiger was 10.4

 

[Detnator]

Yeah, I remember. My 13" MacBook 2007 was an inch thick and weighed 5.2 lbs, absolutely porcine by today's standards.

I might be in the minority but I actually like my 2.75 lb. MacBook Air. I'm okay giving up the non-user replaceable battery. To have user replaceable parts requires ports, sockets, components designed as a discrete unit.

A replaceable battery has limited shapes and requires a plastic case. The battery compartment itself requires additional space.

Exactly. How the hell do all the complainers and conspiracy theorists not understand this?

These are supposed to be PORTABLE machines. Today’s 16” MBP is more portable than the 12” PowerBook and almost half the size and weight of the last 15” laptop that had a removable battery. And hundreds of times more powerful.

Smaller but still faster more powerful ports, and glued/soldered parts are a large part of why.

Apple don’t make these products this way for all the conspiracy reasons the complainers say. They do it because the complainers are the small minority, while most of their customers (including me) actually prefer it.
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OS X 10.2 (Tiger) in 2005 cost $129.95.

Errm... Not to split hairs or anything but Tiger in 2005 was 10.4.

Your point still stands of course: macOS used to cost a lot extra (though still less than Windows). Now it’s free.

Under “greedy” “nickel & dime”-ing Tim Cook to boot. (/s).

 

[otternonsense]

I think its more about getting people to upgrade to macOS Catalina

Indeed. I don't know what they're cooking for 10.16, but I'll be holding on to 10.15.5 for a while until they manage to get a grip on QA.

 

[H2SO4]

Exactly. How the hell do all the complainers and conspiracy theorists not understand this?

These are supposed to be PORTABLE machines. Today’s 16” MBP is more portable than the 12” PowerBook and almost half the size and weight of the last 15” laptop that had a removable battery. And hundreds of times more powerful.

Smaller but still faster more powerful ports, and glued/soldered parts are a large part of why.

Apple don’t make these products this way for all the conspiracy reasons the complainers say. They do it because the complainers are the small minority, while most of their customers (including me) actually prefer it.
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Errm... Not to split hairs or anything but Tiger in 2005 was 10.4.

Your point still stands of course: macOS used to cost a lot extra (though still less than Windows). Now it’s free.

Under “greedy” “nickel & dime”-ing Tim Cook to boot. (/s).

This one is a killer. Mac OS is NOT free. NOT. They have factored it in to the cost already. How do people parrot this rubbish?

 

[Detnator]

On the subject of battery, (power???) management, have been working remotely. Last night was busy and the Macbook went to sleep.
I get on site today and it'a warm as I pull it from the case, 3% battery. Great. Nowhere to charge it either. What a crappy software.
Anybody know if it's fixed?
[automerge]1590562518[/automerge]

No. planned obsolescence is real. Whether this is the case here or not I don't know.

Companies allow for it, in sales projections if you don't believe that then I have a bridge to sell you.
Things they 'underdesign' things and refuse to fix design faults they know about in a current iteration of hardware or software but fix in the next. They assess the potential costs of court cases and recalls and bet on the fact that some will just upgrade/update/replace rather than await the fix.
The important part of that is ignoring design faults, I don't mean faults that suddenly appear out of nowhere, I mean faults that have been known about for some time.
Windows sucks and is cleaner and more stable??? That's an opinion and nothing more. I prefer OSX but know plenty that think it sucks and prefer Windows and incidentally, I saw a Mac long before before I ever used one. That is to say it was the tiny hardware selection as you put it that made me make the purchase.

Yes, you’re right and I should have clarified: planned obsolescence is a real thing, but it’s paranoid BS most of the time people here claim it’s there in Apple stuff.

Software development is hard. And the broader the range of hardware and/or other software any OS or app has to cooperate with the more ways there are for it to go wrong.

Apple’s primary interest is and has always been the best user experience. Part of how they achieve that naturally results in some obsolescence when needed. My point is I don’t believe Apple is purposefully and primarily conspiring to make 5 year old hardware not work with today’s OS just to force people to upgrade.

Aside from which, I just don’t get those people. The advances in hardware across any 5 year period is enormous. That someone would so desperately want today’s OS and not want today’s H/W or vice versus just makes no sense to me. If it’s a case of “can’t afford” today’s hardware then that’s actually an easily solved financial management problem. Basically, “You’re buying it wrong.”

Regarding your choice to purchase Apple because of the hardware regardless of the software, you’re most certainly in a minority. Most people buy Apple because of how well it all works together, in comparison to the fragmented competition, and we tolerate the limited hardware choices as part of the package.

Lastly, preferring Mac or Windows as a matter of taste is not the same metric as which is more stable, cleaner, etc. Yes, Apple stuff has its issues but it’s still better than the competition in the areas I described - stability etc. And if you genuinely believe otherwise then I have a bridge to sell you.

 

[novis]

Anyone else pissed off that the MacBooks that can most use this battery management right now, older ones, don't have the feature?

I know Apple wants us to upgrade our hardware but at least don't be so blatant about it.

Just entered to say the same. Mine (2012 macbook pro) doesn't show any new featute.... as lots of catalina features (sidecar...) maybe is a comercial trick to show that old macs have updates but it doesn't.

 

[H2SO4]

Yes, you’re right and I should have clarified: planned obsolescence is a real thing, but it’s paranoid BS most of the time people here claim it’s there in Apple stuff.

Software development is hard. And the broader the range of hardware and/or other software any OS or app has to cooperate with the more ways there are for it to go wrong.

Apple’s primary interest is and has always been the best user experience. Part of how they achieve that naturally results in some obsolescence when needed. My point is I don’t believe Apple is purposefully and primarily conspiring to make 5 year old hardware not work with today’s OS just to force people to upgrade.

Aside from which, I just don’t get those people. The advances in hardware across any 5 year period is enormous. That someone would so desperately want today’s OS and not want today’s H/W or vice versus just makes no sense to me. If it’s a case of “can’t afford” today’s hardware then that’s actually an easily solved financial management problem. Basically, “You’re buying it wrong.”

Regarding your choice to purchase Apple because of the hardware regardless of the software, you’re most certainly in a minority. Most people buy Apple because of how well it all works together, in comparison to the fragmented competition, and we tolerate the limited hardware choices as part of the package.

Lastly, preferring Mac or Windows as a matter of taste is not the same metric as which is more stable, cleaner, etc. Yes, Apple stuff has its issues but it’s still better than the competition in the areas I described - stability etc. And if you genuinely believe otherwise then I have a bridge to sell you.

Not quite. Apples primary interest is to make money. They go about it in a different way than some other companies. I'm going to suggest that a lot of people that first make the transition to Apple haven't really spent the time using one.
It's not like a car where you see one you like, get a free test drive and decide you want to buy it.
Again, the Windows 10 part of my life as much as I don't like it, has been FAR more stable than the Mac OS side, (of last few years). This is regardless of whether it runs native or virtualised. So there's your better than the competition part taken care of.
How did you get those numbers? Did you take the total number of computers running OSX and compare with Windows?
Did you normalise the result given far more will be running Windows?
Did you account for those Macs running Windows and not OSX?
My guess is no.

As far as a matter of taste is concerned you can sell as many bridges as you like - I'll buy the ones that sweet me.

 

[Detnator]

This one is a killer. Mac OS is NOT free. NOT. They have factored it in to the cost already. How do people parrot this rubbish?

Indeed, you’re right. It’s not free. It’s included in the price of the hardware. But how easily people forget that when they complain about the price of the hardware.

Nothing is free. Everything of any financial value is paid for - by the customer/end user - one way or another. Even “free” open source software has a price. It all depends on the business model. My comment that macOS upgrades are “free” is in a particular context.

The point is: the fact that someone can buy a Mac and then upgrade the OS for years without paying any more money for that counts for something. You can’t do that in the Windows world.

 

[tvquang]

I think those battery health measurements are kind of approximate. The battery in my iPhone 8 sat in the high 90s for a long time and then dropped rather precipitously into the mid-80s.

Battery degradation is not a linear process. Just because it degraded 12% in 7 years doesn’t mean it will take another 7 to degrade a further 12%.

(Sorry if I’m not donating my time even further by spending time searching for “the science” to link, as some posters here appear to demand; if perchance you’re one of those, we can discuss my going rates for consulting, and if you’re not, just pretend I never said anything.)
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[johnnyzg]

It’s not that they are approximate (which they indeed are, but not in the sense you’re talking about here). They’re a snapshot of the battery capacity at that moment in time; they’re usually good enough to predict the runtime for the next discharge cycle (unless of course you store the battery for years before the next cycle), and even then, it depends on how quickly you discharge the battery, on temperature and so on.

However, chemical changes within the battery are not a linear process. Over time it will lose capacity and there isn’t really a fixed %/year or %/cycle figure you can count on; these figures vary over the lifespan of the battery, and quite often the final degradation is especially quick.

I had a mid-2013 MBP whose battery started noticeably degrading after about 5 years, and over the span of a few months, it died completely (literally not enough to take the charger off the wall and quickly, i.e. one second later, put it back again). So again, it’s not a linear process.

I second this statement. My mid-2013 rMBP 13" started overheating two months ago and battery info was "service battery". It still had around 70% capacity at around 600 cycles, but it was risky to use. Also some swelling started to appear. I have replaced it (took out old one with dental floss) and since then my MBP is like new
I hope for another 6,5 years with this one.
Batteries die after some time and it is a normal thing to expect, so they must be user replaceable!

 

[Big Ron]

It’s not that they are approximate (which they indeed are, but not in the sense you’re talking about here). They’re a snapshot of the battery capacity at that moment in time; they’re usually good enough to predict the runtime for the next discharge cycle (unless of course you store the battery for years before the next cycle), and even then, it depends on how quickly you discharge the battery, on temperature and so on.

However, chemical changes within the battery are not a linear process. Over time it will lose capacity and there isn’t really a fixed %/year or %/cycle figure you can count on; these figures vary over the lifespan of the battery, and quite often the final degradation is especially quick.

I had a mid-2013 MBP whose battery started noticeably degrading after about 5 years, and over the span of a few months, it died completely (literally not enough to take the charger off the wall and quickly, i.e. one second later, put it back again). So again, it’s not a linear process.

Excellent advice - ignore the pedants & keep it up.