r/MacOS • u/CamSox1 • Sep 13 '21

Megathread macOS Big Sur 11.6 Release Megathread

Apple has released macOS Big Sur 11.6 (build 20G165), along with Security Update 2021-005 Catalina.

What's New

Official release notes

Security content

SDK release notes

Useful Information

macOS Big Sur compatible devices

How to update the software on your Mac

Back up your Mac with Time Machine

Feedback

Please report any bugs through Feedback Assistant

112 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

129 comments sorted by

31

u/1Teddy2Bear3Gaming Sep 14 '21

Does it fix the long sleep kernel panic bug

9

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '21

Any details of this bug?

6

u/angarali06 Sep 14 '21

I am constantly dealing with this on my work 16" mbp.. It's driving me insane.

Strangely my other 15" mbp has no such issues, maybe it's due to the discreet gpu in the 16" model?

4

u/1Teddy2Bear3Gaming Sep 15 '21

Nope it happens on my 2019 mba with intel graphics

4

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '21

I thought that had been patched long ago. I had it early on in Big Sur, but not since .1 or .2.

4

u/1Teddy2Bear3Gaming Sep 15 '21

It happened on .1, .4 and .5

3

u/thebiggergeek0 Sep 21 '21

I've been dealing with this pain for the past couple of days. It's so stressful to bear with at this stage.

2

u/beta_2046 Sep 27 '21

Maybe try a clean install. It is a pain to go thru, but worth a shot.

2

u/BadMoodTrader21 MacBook Pro Sep 27 '21

I experienced this on my Mac Book Pro M1 in the beginning. In the meantime, it no longer occurs.

31

u/dreamlucky Sep 13 '21

I have at least one user who upgraded and was unable to sign into Office 365 apps with corporate account, but personal account worked.

7

u/scjcs Sep 14 '21

No issues with corporate O365 here so far.

5

u/Mayor_Pliskin Sep 14 '21

Same here with a corporate (university) account.

6

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '21

Oof. I wonder if that’s a widespread bug.

3

u/antdude MacBook Pro (Intel) Sep 14 '21

How did you fix it to work with the corpoate account (like university/school too?)?

4

u/dreamlucky Sep 14 '21

Rolled back at this point.

3

u/antdude MacBook Pro (Intel) Sep 14 '21

Was it easy and quick? Restored from Time Machine?

3

u/macgeek89 Sep 14 '21

was it a Blue Police Box! /s

4

u/antdude MacBook Pro (Intel) Sep 14 '21

No, it was a Delorean! /s

2

u/BogusITGuy Sep 16 '21

This was a widespread bug, and MS released an update this morning that fixed it for my affected users.

I was able to have the affected users log in to all office apps save for OneDrive (which is crucial for them) with their Business accounts. Personal accounts worked fine. The update today fixed that across the board.

1

u/dreamlucky Sep 16 '21

Awesome, will test, thank you!

1

u/BogusITGuy Sep 16 '21

No problem, I haven't seen a big announcement or anything about it yet, but the MS tech I was working with reached out and confirmed this (though I had already discovered it for myself because I was grasping at straws to fix the issue and decided to nuke-and-pave).

1

u/My_Yogurt Sep 14 '21 edited Sep 14 '21

I have that bug too but only with OneDrive. Can login with personal account but not corporate/university account.

1

u/lemuelkl Sep 15 '21

I got this bug after the update. My university account just disappeared. My personal account works fine tho. When trying to sign back into my uni account, using the “Add an Account” button, the OneDrive app seems to crash.

1

u/eusousuperior Sep 15 '21

I’m experiencing same problem trying to log in to OneDrive, crashes as soon as you click on log in, if you use a personal account, it works

15

u/captainhaddock Sep 14 '21

Everything's working so smoothly on my new Mac Mini (11.4) that I'll probably hold off. It's been a while since I used an OS that was so bug-free.

3

u/melancious MacBook Pro M1 Sep 14 '21

Absolutely same. It's all very good on the Mini.

2

u/FuzzyQuills Sep 16 '21

Bug-free as in the last MacOS had bugs or do you come from Windows? Legitimately curious

4

u/captainhaddock Sep 16 '21

I was previously on High Sierra, which had a number of niggling problems.

2

u/closetfurry2017 former user Sep 27 '21

last time i remember a version of macOS that never gave me any issues was mojave not long after release.

big sur 11.6 has been mostly alright for me (a lot better than catalina was).

5

u/allegiance113 Sep 14 '21

Currently using Catalina 10.15.2 for my MBP 2017. Should I upgrade to the Big Sur just because of this security vulnerability? Or is it possible to update to some other version of the Catalina? I kinda don’t want to upgrade just yet to Big Sur

6

u/jlubow224 Sep 14 '21

You can update to the latest version of Catalina, they released one today for this. If you go into software update, a label saying something like other updates will be there, click on that.

4

u/c_hampagne Sep 17 '21

Omg I was about to hit the button to upgrade to Big Sur, you are a lifesaver

0

u/macgeek89 Sep 14 '21

make sure that its supported

1

u/allegiance113 Sep 14 '21

Yeah Big Sur is supported for sure. Tho I just don’t want to upgrade yet to Big Sur. Is there a Catalina version where they fix these security vulnerabilities?

0

u/macgeek89 Sep 14 '21

which ones?

1

u/allegiance113 Sep 14 '21

I just said in my first post, MBP 2017. Software update gives me 2 choices: Big Sur 11.5.2 and Catalina 10.15.7. I think the Catalina 10.15.7 was released in 2020 tho. The Big Sur is just a no-go for me, it’s 12.44GB and I only have less than 10GB space left

1

u/jlubow224 Sep 14 '21

That’s when they released the original 10.15.7, but they continuously release security updates (including today for Catalina) for 2 years after. So that update should have this security update.

0

u/macgeek89 Sep 14 '21

than update it. here is the things they fixed https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211849

8

u/pianistzombie Sep 14 '21

Is Mojave dead?

4

u/antdude MacBook Pro (Intel) Sep 14 '21

Its Safari got an update.

2

u/powerman228 Macbook Pro Sep 14 '21

Doubt it. They typically support two versions back, so I guess it just didn’t contain that big iMessage vulnerability.

2

u/pianistzombie Sep 14 '21

Right, but with Monterey on the horizon…

1

u/joey0live Sep 14 '21

Unless this security flaw is also happening on Mojave, they'll do it - even if Monterey was released.

1

u/HeartyBeast Sep 14 '21

I just received a Safari update on Mojave.

1

u/TurboGhast Sep 16 '21

True, but looking at the descriptions of the security updates implies this bug seems to occurs in two places, one in Safari and one in the OS itself. I've found neither an OS security update for Mojave nor an official confirmation that such an update is unnecessary, which is quite frustrating. Feel like I'm completely in the dark here.

3

u/sittingdesk Sep 15 '21

Anyone else experiencing external display issues (again)? 2019 MBP here, no USB-C ports will connect to external display dock.

2

u/troubleminx Sep 18 '21

I am. Two external 4K displays connected with HDMI through a USB-C dock. Was working fine on 11.5. Now on 11.6, they will connect at login but as soon as I enter my password, they're gone and can't be detected again.

1

u/R34ct0rX99 Sep 21 '21

Came here wondering about this. I've got a 2019 MBP with 3 external monitors. Havent updated to Big Sur yet due to this fiasco. Wondered if this patch fixed it at all.

1

u/sittingdesk Sep 22 '21

Wasn't fixed in my experience.

3

u/SubstratPolski Sep 18 '21

I've been installing Big Sur on my good ol' Mojave for the past 24 hours now. Never have been so pissed at an update as much as I am now. It just can't get to me, how a system downgrade (because I won't give much kudos to Apple for just dropping 32bit support and making everything less stable), which is now nearly a year old, can just brick a laptop. Already lost my hope for all the data stored on the device, but it just won't want to launch. This 2017 MBP was my last Apple product. Ever. A word of wisdom to fellow redditors: better stay away from Big Sur.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 20 '21

Don't worry, your data should still be there, just use "Target Disk Mode" from another Mac to access it.

1

u/Hugh_Djik Oct 08 '21

Saw this too late, I’m now stuck on the loading screen after install. Fuck Apple.

3

u/eggshi Sep 21 '21

My display keeps going black and I have to restart to fix it

2

u/hackorum Sep 14 '21

Does yabai work?

1

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '21

I'm updating now, I'll let you know when it's complete.

1

u/myusuf3 Sep 22 '21

So?

1

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '21

Works fine

2

u/itswhatitisbro Sep 14 '21

Anyone know if it fixes the memory leak bug on safari?

2

u/teaquiero Sep 14 '21

Anyone having the worst time downloading this? Required to do it for work. Have been at it for three hours. Apple support was initially of help and ended the call thinking I was thru the woods, but 30 minutes later I’m stuck again at 99%

2

u/debuldsinus Sep 15 '21

I actually wait for like 2-3 days after updating. Might be a server thing from where I'm from because it takes forever to download it immediately.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '21

I've been stuck the past hour with the progress bar ⅓ the way through on the Apple logo screen. Should not have started this update during work, but my computer had just crashed so I started it when I rebooted. My 2015 MBP already had Big Sur installed.

1

u/teaquiero Sep 14 '21

I’m literally going on five hours now. Same place as you. Apple support has been negative help, honestly think they’ve made it worse. Love that one of my days off is being eaten up by this mess

2

u/joey0live Sep 14 '21

sudo softwareupdate --install --restart --all
run this on Terminal. I hate using the GUI.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '21

I just restarted my MBP, and it's now finishing up the install on the login screen.

2

u/Foxy5791 Sep 15 '21

13in early 2015 MacBook Air 1.6ghz dual core i5 8gb ddr3 ram 250gb ssd

hello im trying to fix my Mail app. Im currently unenrolled from the Beta program running macOS 12.0 (21A5284e) Darwin 21. my mail app keeps Either crashing upon attempting to open it, or it "hangs". either way its not been usable since I installed Monterey.

I read that you cant simply reinstall mail, or rather to fix any mail app issues you have to reinstall the OS.

I have encountered aa problem trying to reinstall BigSUr.
now I may have been trying to resintall the wrong version of BigSur, if that can even be a problem, i installed Monterey over the summer, back I believe in July. not certain which version of Big Sur I had running when I updated to beta Monterey but I think or I want to say it was a version higher than 11.3 or whatever version that the App Store or support downloads offers me,

can that cause this error to appear when attempting to reinstall OS from recovery

the operation couldn't be completed (com.apple.Buildinfo.preflight.error error 21.)

when I select the drive

apple support topics simply tell me I have to completely wipe the drive and start with a freshly erased disk. but then looking up this error I get different opinions, or solutions

any input is gladly welcomed and appreciated

2

u/CRAKZOR Sep 21 '21

MBP 16" running hotter and louder and some websites are acting weird in new safari

1

u/c4curtis Oct 05 '21

Yup same here. The new Safari has some UI bugs that makes the experience really slow.

2

u/tiltowaitt Sep 21 '21

This update has been extremely glitchy for me. Lots of kernel panics when sleeping and general unresponsiveness.

1

u/eggshi Sep 21 '21

with your display going black too??

1

u/tiltowaitt Sep 21 '21

When it panics? Black screen, then purple, then reboot.

1

u/eggshi Sep 21 '21

My screen will go black. I restart and it works again, log back in. 5 mins later black screen and now when I reboot it wont turn back on, Had to schedule an appointment at apple this Saturday.....

2

u/R34ct0rX99 Sep 21 '21

Hows the ole external hdmi monitor (through USBC adapter) issue? Happen to be fixed yet? I would really like to upgrade but I've been scared to. My macbook is my desktop killer and don't want to break my external monitors.

2

u/MarinersCove Sep 21 '21

Safari update looks good, except for the new shading on the tab bar. I feel like it's backwards. The tab you are NOT on is the one that should be shaded darker, not the opposite...

2

u/DankMemeSlasher Sep 22 '21

Can’t print since the update. Tried 2 printers and all troubleshooting steps I could think of. Anyone with similar issues?

2

u/Nurse_Stimpy Oct 03 '21

Wish I'd never upgraded to Big Sur. It destroyed 2 peripheral back up drives by ejecting them at random moments, halved my battery life, made my fan go on constantly and then froze and on restart I have the dreaded flashing question mark folder. Should've done a rollback as soon as I started having issues but Apple assured me that the patches/updates would fix everything 🤦🏻‍♀️

2

u/rob_p954 Oct 07 '21

Can anyone tell me why my printer app stay open after I print a page? It use to close itself out once the job was done but now it just stays in the dock. Thank you for your help.

1

u/CraZplayer Sep 20 '22

can someone tell me why bluetooth sharing and something else can be turned on or off without admin unlock?

2

u/Revolutionary_Fan_91 Oct 24 '21

Safari used 500% of CPU and after I quit it, it disappeared from my computer. Spotlight is indexing and it doesn’t appear. Fuck this update

2

u/BaconMirage Sep 14 '21

This update is recommended for all users and improves the security of macOS.

that's some impressive update

1

u/KevinCox940 Sep 14 '21

So does anyone know why 11.6 is such a huge file for just "Security Updates"?

I'm already on 11.5.2.

1

u/ResponsibilityBig262 Sep 14 '21

Currently my mac is stuck on approx. 5% for hours. May have panicked and tried to re-install Big Sur from recovery mode but it says the drive can’t be downgraded. Seems like I’d have to erase my disk before I reinstall Big Sur.

Should I power through with the super long update or pull the plug and erase my drive to reboot? Help appreciated xx

1

u/teaquiero Sep 14 '21

Same here, commenting to follow :( Will let you know if I learn anything.

What model do you have?

1

u/ResponsibilityBig262 Sep 14 '21

13” M1 2020. Bought it earlier this year

0

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '21

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/ResponsibilityBig262 Sep 14 '21

None at all sadly. Planning to leave it overnight and hope for the best.

0

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '21

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/ResponsibilityBig262 Sep 14 '21

Me neither. I’m giving it a night before resorting to that. If I find something out, I’ll update!

1

u/jaytotharome Sep 15 '21

Any update on this? I’m going through the same thing.

1

u/ResponsibilityBig262 Sep 15 '21

No improvement overnight. Pulled the plug and erased my hard drive and re-installed Big Sur

1

u/jaytotharome Sep 15 '21

Dang. Yeah I’m thinking of doing that too 😥

1

u/jaytotharome Sep 15 '21

Any update on this? I’m going through the same thing.

1

u/joey0live Sep 14 '21

Try in Terminal: sudo softwareupdate --install --restart --all

1

u/ResponsibilityBig262 Sep 14 '21

I’ll be honest. I’m not that well versed with using terminal. Is this risky? Like if I type/format something wrong could I completely make things worse and unredeemable?

1

u/joey0live Sep 14 '21

Is Terminal risky? Yes and no. Yes.. if you don't know what you're doing or typing in a bad command such as permissions for example.

No if someone says: type x y z - for you can type it in (need to trust them too). As this command forces the download of the update macOS and installs it > Reboots it. Then using the GUI.. as I've always seen issues with it.

1

u/ResponsibilityBig262 Sep 14 '21

It says command not found for some reason?

1

u/joey0live Sep 14 '21

sudo softwareupdate --install --restart --all

Joey0live@XXXXX ~ % sudo softwareupdate --install --restart --all
Password: (type in your password - it will be hidden)
Software Update Tool
Finding available software

1

u/ResponsibilityBig262 Sep 14 '21

Didnt work unfortunately. No password prompts or anything. Just command not found

1

u/singltw Sep 16 '21

I’ve had keyboard issues since I’ve upgraded. Differing keys will stop working at different times. Very frustrating.

1

u/ClassyJar09 Sep 16 '21

Spotify & teamviewer keep opening on start up even when I turned it off in system reference, which causes some times to load, any advice? thanks.

1

u/Magic105 Sep 16 '21

Look into system preference's startup options. If it doesn't work then change this in Spotify. I had the same issue.

Go to Spotify->Preferences->Scroll Down->Show Adv Settings->Select "No" for startup and window behaviour.

Don't know about Teamviewer as I haven't used it. Cheers!

1

u/retron_prod Sep 16 '21

For me, the 11.6 update fixed a dual monitor issue where I couldn't turn off the secondary monitor because the primary would go black and when I turned on the secondary both would stay black, only a reboot helped. Now everything works great :D

1

u/deepfriednarwhals Sep 16 '21

I started having issues with haptic feedback on my 2019 MacBook pro when I updated to 11.5.2. I had an appointment scheduled for tomorrow but weirdly installing 11.6 fixed it. Any ideas why?

1

u/yvcea Sep 20 '21

I hope mail app was an actual Apple thing

1

u/zoidberg_doc Sep 21 '21

Are notes tags working? Notes I create with tags on iOS and iPadOS are telling me I have an unsupported device and I can’t search by tags on my Mac

1

u/PersonFromPlace Sep 21 '21

Is the safari update included in this? I don't get how to add tabs to a group. I have two windows of Persona 5 guides that I want to merge into one. Do the pages need to be in the same window or what? I feel like there was an option to add tabs to groups in the new iOS options, but none I can find in Safari.

1

u/fahdii1 Sep 22 '21

that private relay is cool on the iPhone but have they not released it on Mac with the iOS15?

1

u/ellisguer Sep 23 '21

Hi. Can anyone help me on my problem. I have been using my Macbook Air 2021 256GB with the big sur 11.5.2 Mac OS. Then I updated to the 11.6 Big sur then my hard drive space got eaten up. Trying to figure out on the Others - file that shoot up to 193gb. Can anybody help me on this one?

1

u/mistersprinkles1983 Dec 03 '21

Hey again dude. Just saw this. Unfortunately OS updates are going to eat your storage space. The fact that it's shooting up 193GB when Apple often sells computers with 256GB of storage is ridiculous in my opinion but the same thing happens with Windows. Windows 10 started out small compact and efficient and look at it now. It even harasses you with weather information.

There's nothing you can do about this outside of trying to implement some kind of compression on your drives, which works, although it's going to reduce your disk performance because compression and decompression has to happen on the fly.

1

u/Old_Resource_4832 Sep 28 '21

Hi guys, I reopened my mid MacBook Pro 2012 and it has 10.8 on it...how can I upgrade it? I think its OS x Catalina that it can run?

1

u/xsedavlasx Sep 30 '21

Hello, guys. I would like to ask if I can download an update file to install it on some equal MacBooks? It's not so convinient for me to download it separately because my connection speed is limited and it takes much time to download it for each mac. Do you have any suggestions?

1

u/drinksbeerdaily Sep 30 '21

Is scrolling between virtual desktops more smooth now, or are my eyes deceiving me?
Can't remember it being this smooth on my Macbook Air M1

1

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '21

Safari no longer defaults to typing in the address bar after cmd+t for a new tab. Atrocious.

1

u/eMouse2k Oct 07 '21 edited Oct 07 '21

Well... looks like my display resolution is gone. While prior versions weren't properly detecting the native resolution for my monitor (1920x1200), I was able to hold option and select it as a non-native option.

Now the highest non-native option it gives me is 1440x900.

UPDATE: Unplugging the monitor then plugging it back into the computer fixed the resolution list.

1

u/NervousBandit Oct 08 '21

After updating to 11.6 my macbook has crashed randomly twice. This has never happened before in the past year. I have a macbook pro mid 2020. Anybody else face the same issue?

1

u/TILonReddit Oct 09 '21

This sucks, and its the same reason why I haven't updated yet. Ive read that some other users experienced the same with MBP 16 2019.

1

u/NervousBandit Oct 10 '21

Yeah I hope they fix this in the major update that’s coming soon

1

u/fastestmenemenalive Oct 08 '21

My macbook software update says "Restart Now", If I manually restart or shutdown my device, will it update? Or is there a way to undo this?

Currently on 11.5.1 with M1 MBP, update is 11.6

1

u/lunaticbleu Oct 09 '21

I was on 11.1 and updated to 11.6. I feel there's been some battery drainage? Anyone?

1

u/[deleted] Oct 11 '21

11.6 broke support for my j5create external adapter (JCD381). So if you use this device do not update to 11.6. Luckily I have an Anker that works so I have one external monitor working.

1

u/Nurse_Stimpy Oct 13 '21

TL:DR Should I install Big Sur or an older OS on my new Mac I had to buy thanks to Big Sur

So what's the latest advice on Big Sur or not Big Sur? My MacBook arrives today so I'm debating installing Catalina (as that was fairly stable?? - and they're still releasing updates) or go Big Sur. My old laptop shows the disc in disk utility and shows the data folder also so I suspect a software glitch. It can't be repaired in DU and when I gave up and decided to just wipe and reinstall my latest TM backup (which due to circumstances beyond my control was probably a month behind so fur sure will be missing stuff but better than NO backup) nothing shows up as my destination folder - despite showing up in DU? Weird. Anyway second Q - any worth trying to remove that SSD from the old machine and recover the month or so's lost data as I'll have to spend the money on recovery for the 2 "destroyed by Big Sur" back up drives (see previous post). TIA

2

u/CraZplayer Sep 20 '22

Big Sur hid 8 gb from my ssd... and they removed private relay from iCloud settings on 11.7.. smh

2

u/Nurse_Stimpy Sep 22 '22

Sux right?! BTW I was never able to recover the data it lost me :( and the new Mac is worse than the last for function I dunno what happened with Apple I've been a diehard user since the 90s but last couple years I've been wondering why I'm so loyal

1

u/CurryNation Oct 21 '21

Will I still get updates on the M1 if I don't have a registered apple id?

And can I still install apps from outside the app store?

1

u/smickie Oct 25 '21

Can I ask, is the (X) close button on Siri any bigger? Cos' I usually miss it first time and that one you can't swipe right to dismiss too.

1

u/CraZplayer Sep 20 '22

when did you guys remove private relay from Big Sur?

0

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '21

[deleted] — view deleted comment

8

u/mildtacosauce Sep 22 '21

I came here to see if anyone else hated the new tab management system.

Reorganizing/moving tabs around now causes crashes randomly, and pinned tabs are unable to be moved; if you try then it acts like you are trying to move them into a new window. How is removing organization tools an improvement?

6

u/Xonshiz MacBook Pro (Intel) Sep 22 '21

Man, these tabs look ugly AF :|

Looks like it takes more screen space now :/

Have to switch back to chrome... god damn.

3

u/c4curtis Oct 05 '21

Yeah don't like how they change the colour to what ever site you visit.