Apple Releases macOS Monterey 12.2.1 With Bluetooth Battery Drain Bug Fix

[Hexley]

How is 12.2.1 on 2019 MBP 16"?

 

[femike]

Thanks, it's been solid for me as well. The problem with Apple today, or at least one of the biggest is, they are targeting the average consumer more today than they were before, at least they WAY they are selling computers. Before, I would give you a pretty safe bet that most Apple veterans had at least some kind of technical, or professional background and knew how to use a computer correctly, and how to fix problems. I'm not saying the average person didn't use Macs then, but it was less in quantity. Today, Apple sells to more people who have no concept of the workings of a computer, or how to fix things when they break. Not only that, they are not JUST a computer company anymore, and I think in some ways that's hurt them for us old time computer users. I like their new products. I just think they've focused on the wrong things for too long, and not done the one thing they're good at. Then again how people use and expect from computers has really changed since I grew up through the 80's, and 90's as well.

I will also come out and say that using Mac OS X when it first came out, also helped teach me to understand and use Linux, and other Unix operating system better because I had Unix in the familiar Mac environment after leaving classic so the concepts were already there so sitting down to the other OS was much simpler. Today, I don't think the average mac user would care, or think about such things.

I'm probably a similar age to you and I totally agree. But there are many in Apple Managagement that are similar age too, and they really should be noticing what is happening under their noses. Apple's priorities have definitely changed and its very obvious. As a result, these days my main computer now happens to be a linux machine, Kubuntu in my case, which I am extremely happy with.

 

[loekf]

Sadly the wifi version of this bug remains unfixed Seems like BT was affecting more people though, so it's good to see it fixed.

It's my impression it affected desktop iMacs with Intel as well.

Had some big issues with my Western Digital My Books over the past week, where they would constantly wake up and go the sleep after a short time. Disabling "try to put the computer to sleep when the display is off" seems to help. I disabled this last night and things look ok again.

It also seemed to limit itself to drives connected via TB/USB-C.

 

[orbital~debris]

So this thread does seem to be an echo-chamber of people unimpressed with Apple software of late.

But it’s important to balance that sentiment with the generally less commented “everything’s working well, more or less”.

I get that specific bugs are irritating; a lot of these mentioned sound quite narrow or user setup/behaviour -specific. Corralling them to create an ‘Apple software quality is irrecoverably damaged’ narrative seems unwise.

 

[Alwis]

How would a two year cycle solve anything? Software development has an iterative life cycle and this would just delay or stretch things out every two years instead. Do you think Apple would catch all these bugs themselves? A majority of these bugs are found when it's released and hits a wider audience. Apparently they aren't being found during internal testing or during the developer and public betas, which has a much smaller user base.

First I think that it is more of ja joke, that features they announced last summer for the OS to be shipped in autumn are still not available outside beta versions.

And yes, a lot of bugs have been fouled after releasing the software. But they should have been found during testing. The bluetooth bug was so obvious that it make me believe Apple knew about the bug and shipped the update regardless.

What annoys me most is that bugs, that are known for years ( I reported a lot) are still not fixed today. This is epecially true for the "Music" and "Photos" App, which make me angry every time I have to use them.

When at the same time Apple ships "important" features like "Gender speech" in the German translation of the UI, which in itself is not only incorrect German but excluding as well this make me think, that they either have a to small team to handle all or the wrong priorities, probably both.

 

[Reggaenald]

I haven't really paid attention to be honest to Apple's customer satisfaction ratings. It's very rare I call any company's customer service, and Apple is no exception here. Most of the time I'm able to fix whatever problems I'm having. Whenever I reach out by phone, email, or these forums is for mainly for 3 reasons.

First: I have something to contribute
Second: I've run into a problem I can't solve by a simple search, or I'm unsure of the information I've gotten.
Third I just want some friendly conversation on topics that interest me.

Beyond that, I pretty much keep to myself (especially online.)

So this thread does seem to be an echo-chamber of people unimpressed with Apple software of late.

But it’s important to balance that sentiment with the generally less commented “everything’s working well, more or less”.

I get that specific bugs are irritating; a lot of these mentioned sound quite narrow or user setup/behaviour -specific. Corralling them to create an ‘Apple software quality is irrecoverably damaged’ narrative seems unwise.

From my experience, these have little to do with the user. I’ve set up my iPhone and Mac compeletely from scratch multiple times lately but the bugs are persistent.
Ok, maybe it has something got do with the setup, but in that case only with what Apple gave me. Nothing attached, no Apple ID, no backups. Blank and vanilla, still bad. I surely am happy to be fortunate enough to use an iPhone an MBP, but, considering the prices they charge(d) for these devices, they better make them work for that price, too.

 

[Reggaenald]

First I think that it is more of ja joke, that features they announced last summer for the OS to be shipped in autumn are still not available outside beta versions.

And yes, a lot of bugs have been fouled after releasing the software. But they should have been found during testing. The bluetooth bug was so obvious that it make me believe Apple knew about the bug and shipped the update regardless.

What annoys me most is that bugs, that are known for years ( I reported a lot) are still not fixed today. This is epecially true for the "Music" and "Photos" App, which make me angry every time I have to use them.

When at the same time Apple ships "important" features like "Gender speech" in the German translation of the UI, which in itself is not only incorrect German but excluding as well this make me think, that they either have a to small team to handle all or the wrong priorities, probably both.

I couldn’t agree more, even about the Music and Photos app. Good to know I’m not the only Kraut feeling left behind by Cupertino.

 

[Reggaenald]

How would a two year cycle solve anything? Software development has an iterative life cycle and this would just delay or stretch things out every two years instead. Do you think Apple would catch all these bugs themselves? A majority of these bugs are found when it's released and hits a wider audience. Apparently they aren't being found during internal testing or during the developer and public betas, which has a much smaller user base.

If this is what you're wanting, you could do this yourself. Stick with Big Sur (or Catalina), and then upgrade to Monterey (or Big Sur) when macOS 13 comes out.

Ever heard of Snow Leopard, or Snow Lion? It can be done, it has been done, it should be done.

*Mountain Lion

 

[n-evo]

View attachment 1957147

I love when that happens on the tram. Like 10 displays all showing a BSOD.

 

[pshufd]

Software development is complex, much more complex than making hardware. Yes, they have been a lot of bugs the last 10 years, but I am sure it was like that before too. Software has become very complicated. The difference to before is that now Apple has almost 2 billion users (including iOS) and a much higher visibility. Even the slightest issue will become public and of course, people will just do what they do better, namely complain and rant.
Just make a step back and think what the Apple ecosystem is offering you and what features you use every day. Think about the most simple tasks you perform.
Then try to think about how you would accomplish these tasks on a different platform. Even better, try to use a different platform and see how it works for you. After that you will appreciate Apple even more.
I have had to deal with an iCloud bug for almost two years (Safari bookmarks not syncing), but still never lost hope or never thought to go to Windows. Eventually Apple fixed my issue.
Another thing to consider is that yearly releases are difficult to manage. I would very much prefer if Apple said that it will go back to a two year release cycle, or maybe just announce each year what's in the pipeline for the year to come, then just release new features when they are ready, with no real major versioning. The problem is unfortunately that marketing doesn't like things like that, because it makes it more difficult to advertise.

My previous employer took about six months to validate software for upgrades and that includes macOS. If you use something for production, then you make sure that it works and you don't apply an update unless it has been validated by corporate. I am only running Monterey because I only have one system that requires it. My other Macs are running Big Sur, Mojave or High Sierra.

I changed how I used the MacBook Pro because of the software issues. I still love the 2021 MBP 16 but I just use it in a somewhat different way than I had planned for. They will eventually get the problems fixed and I just work around them for now. My main issues are the memory leaks, and the WiFi problem. I also have the 4k external monitor resets but I've seen those with Big Sur and Windows too. I got a couple of iMacs - I never have monitor resets with the iMacs.

I'm looking around for an article on whether or not I should upgrade. I'm on 12.1 and am looking for stability so I'll decide in a day or two.

 

[Pskordilis]

If I leave Wi-Fi enabled and sleep the machine, it stays connected to the AP and gets woken up about once a minute by incoming traffic from an Apple IP address (which I confirmed by dumping traffic bound for my MBP on the AP itself). It loses roughly 3% an hour from this; in about a day and a half it’ll be completely flat. My workaround has been to use an app that shuts off the Wi-Fi when I sleep the machine, and turns it back on upon user wake.

I imagine if you take the machine with you and leave the range of known APs, that would also solve the issue, but I work from home, so this has actually been a major issue for me.

I never had that problem personally. But without offending you why don’t you just turn of wifi when you put it to sleep?

 

[Scrossland]

Confirming Wifi sleep issue still not resolved either on my 16 inch M1 Max

 

[Jim Lahey]

Wonder what plethora of new bugs will be included with this release? Can’t wait to find out. I’ll get a pen…

 

[Stratus Fear]

I never had that problem personally. But without offending you why don’t you just turn of wifi when you put it to sleep?

I said in my post that I’ve been doing that, actually. Apple should fix the issue either way, though.

 

[macar00n]

From curiosity what is your problems with monterey?

I posted it elsewhere in the thread but my biggest one is kernel panics from plugging into 1 external monitor and waking from sleep via Bluetooth in an incredibly simple and common setup. Bug's been around since early 2021, Apple support useless. Many people have it, Macrumors 3 month review of M1 Pro/Max MBP mentions it first thing and MR used an Apple display so the bug persists even with first-party everything.

 

[usagora]

Was available on my MBA and iMac, but not my Mini. Strange.

Still not showing up on my Mini. I don't get it.

 

[zjack]

Possibly interesting observation here, I updated to 12.2.1 on my 2019 16" MBP this morning and have been shocked realising that the CPU temps are staying really low. It's on 41c while I'm typing this, plugged in to power and on a riser. Previously the only way to use my laptop on my lap is by using Macs Fan Control and setting a custom profile with fans on max speed. I don't know what part of my workflow usually causes this strain (perhaps OneDrive has had an update?) but I hope it stays this way!

Actually I also realise that I'm temporarily away from my external monitor, maybe I'll reserve my celebrations until I test that out...

 

[Alphazoid]

Updated 2018 MBP. Didn't have any issues before, dont have any new ones either *shrug*

 

[Feyl]

And what about fixing the lag fest known as Magic Trackpad, hm Apple?

 

[Neepman]

So GD tedious for these fixes rolling out days after you just spent hours updating. Why no just hold the back a week or so the update and fix it BEFORE releasing. Its not like they didn't know about some issue as obvious as this beforehand.

 

[teak421]

I was wondering why when plugged in I wasn't 100%... Since the patch, back to 100%... cool!

 

[jaw1964]

I think folks who are bitching about the frequency of updates need to appreciate that MacOS 1) Updates when convenient for YOU vs Micro$oft who updates at their convenience and your inconvenience. 2) MacOS system upgrades every year are free, last I checked Micro$oft system upgrades are a charge for each new OS. 3) MacOS is still lightyears faster than Micro$oft's OS.

 

[Fr@ns]

I have updated from MacOS 12.1 to 12.2.1. My MBP 2021 M1 16" battery is visibly draining (6 hours battery life). Nothing connected via Bluetooth, so there are more problems. Downgraded to 12.1; now back to normal battery life of 12-15 hours.

 

[opeter]

I think folks who are bitching about the frequency of updates need to appreciate that MacOS 1) Updates when convenient for YOU vs Micro$oft who updates at their convenience and your inconvenience. 2) MacOS system upgrades every year are free, last I checked Micro$oft system upgrades are a charge for each new OS. 3) MacOS is still lightyears faster than Micro$oft's OS.

1.) you can always choose a date/hour, when you want to install the system updates on Windows OS too.
2.) Well, I could upgrade my FPP version of Windows 7 without problems to Windows 10 and can also to Windows 11 (if I want) without any charge
3.) are you sure? Both system on a fast SSD behave quite similar...

 

[MacinMan]

So, I'm a bit confused here. The 12.2.1 update is labeled as resolving the BT issue on Intel based Macs. I thought people were having the same issue on M1 Macs, but Apple doesn't mention it in the release notes. Also, I hear mention of a Wifi bug. So, is the BT on Intel, and wifi is on M1, or are both on both Mac platforms ?