watchOS 10.5
Juli Clover (release notes, security):
While watchOS 10.5 is primarily a bug fix update, it does introduce a new Pride watch face to go along with the Pride band that Apple introduced earlier in May.
Previously:
Archive for May 13, 2024
Xcode 15.4
Xcode 15.4 supports simulating web distribution while running or testing your app.
[…]
Some Macs recently received a macOS system update which disabled the simulator runtimes used by Xcode, including the simulators for iOS, tvOS, watchOS, and visionOS. […] To resume using the simulator, please reboot your Mac. After rebooting, check Xcode Settings → Platforms to ensure that the simulator runtime you would like to use is still installed.
The download link was showing a 403 Forbidden error for much of the day but now seems to work.
I’m not seeing fixes mentioned for the issues reported with Xcode 15.3.
Previously:
Update (2024-05-15): Dave DeLong:
I pretty firmly believe that Swift’s tooling is an existential threat to the entire language. It’s so tightly coupled to Xcode, and what you get there is a mixed bag. Stale warnings persist for ages, which means newcomers can’t even trust that what they’re seeing is accurate. How is anyone supposed to learn?
The stale warnings still aren’t fixed in Xcode 15.4.
See also: 10 years on, what would you change about Swift?.
The answer, which I’m sure you’re dying to know, is that the current version of Xcode and Swift 5.9 can compile an app for iOS 7.
The major caveat being no armv7 support — which means you can only build for 64-bit, so the only possible device this could ever run on is a non-upgraded iPhone 5s.
You also have to substitute in a bunch of arclite libraries into the SDK, which are trivial to find if you go looking
Why is working with crashes in Xcode still so torturous? I am using vanilla everything from Xcode Cloud down. Completely standard. And yet crashes simply don’t show up, or show up in AppStoreConnect but not in Xcode, and when they do, they are not symbolicated. It’s pretty fundamental stuff.
Update (2024-05-17): Jesse Squires:
I guess no one who works at Apple has ever used git branches with Xcode and SwiftPM.
This 4 year old bug is still not fixed.
Interface Builder got very buggy in Xcode 15.4…
Update (2024-05-20): Rob Jonson:
Sometimes XCode likes to bring back old errors - little happy memories.
Sometimes the build fails - and you just need to build again.
Sometimes, you need to clean the Build Folder and build again.Sometimes - Issues are real.
Annoying that you can’t easily tell the difference.
Special bonus - those fake errors also show up in the build log 🤪
Update (2024-05-29): Dave DeLong:
Today is one of those days where the state of Swift tooling is REALLY getting to me. Command-click is totally broken. There are no docs. The Swift forum threads I find are years out of date.
All I want is to wrap a C library in a swift package and include “./configure” as part of its build process. Apparently this is impossible, even though this is rudimentary stuff.
The Javascript ecosystem is looking MIGHTY APPEALING right now. I can’t believe we put up with this.
Update (2024-05-30): Adam Tow:
Apps built with Xcode 15.4 may have broken AppIntents (i.e. Shortcuts actions) when run on iOS 16 and iPadOS 16.
[…]
Found a workaround from Xcode 15.3 release notes[…]
Update (2024-06-12): Adrian Schönig:
If you get this error: “The server declined to authorize this image on this device for this user.” errors when trying to run on a device”, then delete your ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/[OS] DeviceSupport folder.
Xcode 15 included a bug (114820860) where Swift apps would crash at launch on macOS 10.13:
Workaround: Add
$(TOOLCHAIN_DIR)/usr/lib/swift-5.0/macosx/libswiftAppKit.dylibto the Other Linker Flags build setting in Xcode. This should be removed when the deployment target is increased to 10.14 or later.
This was since fixed, but I found a similar bug (FB13820420), still in Xcode 15.4, where Swift apps that use the Network framework crash at launch on macOS 10.13 through 13.x (when using the 10.13 deployment target). A similar workaround of adding $(TOOLCHAIN_DIR)/usr/lib/swift-5.0/macosx/libswiftNetwork.dylib helps.
It’s more than a little frustrating we’re about to start a new beta cycle without getting a stable release of last year’s macOS or Xcode (especially Xcode).
macOS 14.5
Juli Clover (release notes, security, developer, enterprise, full installer, IPSW):
macOS Sonoma 14.5 adds a new word game for Apple News+ subscribers and allows for tracking stats and streaks of News+ games.
It’s not clear why this update also causes new FileVault recover keys to be generated.
See also: Mr. Macintosh and Howard Oakley.
Previously:
Update (2024-05-15): Francisco Tolmasky:
macOS is straight up rotting. It is absolutely nuts that this FileVault key re-generation thing has just gone unaddressed for a year. This isn’t about Apple News being a joke or drag and drop not working anywhere anymore. This is a potentially catastrophic data-loss bug that Apple has just decided is the new normal and just does not give one single shit about.
Update (2024-05-16): Norbert Noerner:
After downloading many gigabytes, macOS got stuck for more than HALF AN HOUR, doing some undisclosed “Preparing”.
This is just BS, I checked what happened, and a secret Apple tool named “UpdateBrainService” was slowly crunching away with a lousy 99% CPU. And that on one of the fastest Macs ever been built.
Really, #Apple, that is the best you can do?
And now, the Mac is crippled by dozens of “mdworker_shared” processes, because for EVERY SINGLE macOS update, as small as it is, Spotlight needs to reindex ALL DATA, slowing down macOS for many more hours.
[…]
And yes, the ugly and buggy “System Settings” in #macOS 14.5 still crash and hang all the time.
Update (2024-05-17): Juri Pakaste:
I’m having a really bad time with macOS 14.5. Apps (both Safari and third-party) and the screenshot tool routinely go into a state where they just beachball and/or refuse to start up. I’ve had to shut it down twice now the power button.
Nothing like this before the OS upgrade.
The FileVault key regeneration is that thing where it generates a new key but actually still keeps using the old one if you try to verify the new one in the Terminal? I experienced that with the macOS 14.4.1 update.
It can do either, I’m afraid, hence the importance of checking the key.
Update (2024-05-20): Howard Oakley:
If you’ve been delaying updating Sonoma, or upgrading from any earlier version of macOS, version 14.5 looks the most stable and free from bugs.
One broad indicator of its quality is its rate of writing to the log, which determines how long entries in the log can be retained, as macOS thins log entries largely to maintain the size of its log files, rather than thinning purely by age. When running 14.4 and 14.4.1 on this ageing Intel iMac Pro, after a restart the log only retained entries for 8-12 hours, and that steadily fell over time, so that after a few days of constant running only 4-6 hours of entries were kept. This same iMac Pro has been running macOS 14.5 continuously for 6 days now, and still has log entries from nearly 2 days ago, a huge improvement implying a fall in the rate of writing entries to 25% or less.
[…]
One problem that has continued to occur in the Sonoma 14.5 update, just as it did in 14.4 and 14.4.1, is the provision of new FileVault Recovery Keys. This appears to be random, but only seems to affect those who have already opted to create a recovery key and not to use iCloud recovery.
Update (2024-05-23): Vítor:
I previously reported that 14.4 broke searching manual pages.
Happy to report this has been fixed in 14.5 (23F79).
Update (2024-06-14): ednl:
Update on Sequoia: I got word from Pixelmator that a serious help-menu bug has been fixed.
macOS 13.6.7 and macOS 12.7.5
This document describes the security content of macOS Ventura 13.6.7.
This document describes the security content of macOS Monterey 12.7.5.
Previously:
iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5
Juli Clover (release notes, security, developer):
There are new features for Apple News+, such as an offline mode, and tracking notifications are now available cross-platform for alerts about Bluetooth trackers regardless of platform.
Previously:
Update (2024-05-16): Juli Clover:
In this article, we’ve rounded up everything new in iOS 17.5.
Apple appears to have a bug that’s dredging up data that iPhone owners thought was gone. Some iPhone owners are reporting that, after updating their phones to iOS 17.5, their deleted photos — some quite old — are popping up again, according to a Reddit thread that MacRumors spotted. iOS beta testers had the same complaints about the bug last week.
[…]
The person who started the thread claimed that NSFW photos they had deleted “years ago” were back on their phone.
[…]
There’s a chance it’s not specific to photos, either, as one person posted on X that they saw old voicemails come back after the update. Several beta testers said the same thing about earlier iOS 17 betas. Whether the issue implies Apple is secretly holding onto old deleted data or it’s just a quirk of how iOS 17.5 handles that data, it’s not an ideal situation.
Google accidentally deletes. Apple accidentally restores old data. they should team to maintain the equilibrium
Previously:
- Google Cloud Accidentally Deletes Customer’s Account
- iOS 17.5 “Fixes” client_id But Breaks App Marketplaces
- No Bounty for Kernel Vulnerability
- iCloud Deletion Bugs
Update (2024-05-17): Tim Hardwick:
More reports have been trickling in overnight. One said: “I had a random photo from a concert taken on my Canon camera reappear in my phone library, and it showed up as if it was added today.”
It’s not clear what’s happening, but given that some of the photos were apparently taken years ago, this cannot be an issue with recently deleted photos being undeleted. In Apple’s Photos app, deleted photos and videos are kept in the Recently Deleted album for 30 days, so that users can recover or permanently remove them from all devices.
The reports could be down to an indexing bug, photo library corruption, or a syncing issue between local devices and iCloud Photos.
Over the past few days, some iPhone users have said the “Allow Apps to Request to Track” toggle in the Settings app is suddenly grayed out on their devices.
tvOS 17.5
Juli Clover (release notes, security):
We did not find new features during the tvOS 17.5 beta testing process.
Previously:
audioOS 17.5
Apple does not specify what’s included in the HomePod 17.5 software, and the generic release notes only say that it brings stability and performance improvements.
Previously:
