Archive for March 31, 2025

Monday, March 31, 2025

macOS 15.4

Juli Clover (release notes, security, enterprise, developer, full installer, IPSW):

With macOS 15.4, Apple is bringing Mail Categorization to the Mac. The Mail app features dedicated categories like transactions, updates, and promotions, with important emails organized into a primary section.

Apple News+ subscribers now have access to an Apple News Food section with recipes, food articles, and more. There’s a new Sketch style for Image Playground, Memory Movie support in the Photos app for custom slideshows, and new emoji characters.

See also: Mr. Macintosh and Howard Oakley.

Apple:

FSKit is now available, enabling delivery of user space file systems as Application Extensions. These file systems support integration with DiskArbitration.

[…]

To enable the new HTTP loading mode, set usesClassicLoadingMode to false on URLSessionConfiguration. The new loading mode will become the default in a future release.

[…]

Fixed: M4 Macs are unable to launch virtual machine, and attempts result in a system restart.

Khaos Tian:

FSKit on macOS 15.4 doesn’t seem to work without manually writing some files to a place where we shouldn’t… Did anyone at Apple tested this before shipping it 🫠

TIL they put this toggle under “General -> Login Items & Extensions -> File System Extensions”… macOS settings is a mess 😛

Quinn:

Historically the boundary was at the transport layer. When you enable the new loader, URLSession uses Network framework’s HTTP implementation.

Jeff Johnson:

Incidentally, before updating my Mac mini, I got an “Upgrade to macOS Sequoia” notification even though the Mac was already running Sequoia (15.3.2).

[…]

After the updates, both my Mac mini and my iPad showed one of the most confusing “welcome” screens that I’ve ever seen. Indeed, they confused even me!

[…]

The two options given were “Continue” and “Only Download Automatically”. Which of those two did I want? Confused, I selected Continue.

I turns out that I wanted neither.

It looks like a dark pattern to encourage people to auto-update.

Rich Trouton:

I have not found a way to suppress this screen using a defaults command, but it is possible to suppress the Update Your Mac Automatically screen on macOS Sequoia using a configuration profile.

Paul Haddad:

Our long Apple Intelligence nightmare is over, I upgraded to 15.4 on two machines and neither turned that stuff back on! Still wasting several GB of storage, but it’s progress.

Marcin Krzyzanowski:

The release of macOS 15.4 builds is different from that of RC2. YET my computer does not update.

Rich Trouton:

Apple has added new management options for Apple Intelligence as part of the release of macOS Sequoia 15.4.

Marcin Krzyzanowski:

PSA: don’t upgrade macOS to 15.4 if you need to use Xcode 16.2 - the lldb debugger is crashing on start.

Previously:

Update (2025-04-01): Ric Ford:

Apple apparently has no interest in fixing its recurring bugs with home folder relocation, forcing security compromises in unacceptable workarounds. Lee Mendoza emailed us about his latest tests of the longstanding problem.

The issue with System Integrity Protection (SIP) preventing users whose home directories are not on the boot volume has not been resolved in the macOS Sequoia 15.4 release. This is a recurring issue that most recently started with macOS Sequoia 15.3 and has persisted in the 15.3.1, 15.3.2, and 15.4 releases.

Marcin Krzyzanowski:

damn it, the macOS 15.4 and iOS 18.4 may be the worst release for app developers so far. It is “just” a minor update, but it feels like if some major changed in the platform.

this time broken URLSession

Sebastiaan de With:

Things are super broken for me and users are seeing it too.

Marcel Weiher:

Anyone else encountering the problem with that Seqouia 15.4 update simply not installing?

For me it downloaded (I think, at least it was busy for a while), reboots as if applying the update (but that goes too quick) and then comes back as 15.3.2 with an update available.

[…]

It was insufficient disk space. No warning, no message. Just fails.

[…]

And why was there insufficient disk space? 100s of GBs of Xcode simulator detritus.

Update (2025-04-02): Paul Kafasis:

Though MacOS 15.3 didn’t include any known audio fixes, today’s update includes a key audio-related bug fix to the operating system.

Geoff Duncan:

So, macOS Sequoia 15.4 arbitrarily turned on automatic installation of operating system and security updates. These are things that are enabled by default on a new install—which I think is understandable. However, I had previously deliberately disabled automatic updates, and Apple decided to override my explicit actions.

[…]

I don’t have automatic software updates enabled because I’ve had Apple’s operating system updates effectively brick my machine. I do a lot of music/audio work, and there’s basically no telling when Apple is going to do something that will make the drivers for your music/audio hardware unusable.

Dr. Drang:

I updated my Mac to macOS 15.4 last night and after the reboot, my desktop was white. Pure white.

[…]

I opened System Settings, chose Wallpaper from the list along the right edge, and saw that although my custom color was displaying properly in the little box on the right, the miniature desktop on the left was white.

Ric Ford:

We encountered desktop background corruption and new crashes with third-party software after installing macOS 15.4.

[…]

Meanwhile, we and others see macOS 15.4 continuing to steal gigabytes of disk space for “Apple Intelligence” even if it is turned off.

Jeff Johnson:

The Music app now pinwheels for about 5 seconds every launch on macOS 15.4.

It doesn’t happen if my internet is disconnected.

It’s probably trying to load an ad for Apple Music.

macOS 14.7.5 and macOS 13.7.5

macOS 14.7.5 (full installer, security):

This update provides important security fixes and is recommended for all users.

macOS 13.7.5 (full installer, security):

This update provides important security fixes and is recommended for all users.

Previously:

iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4

Juli Clover (no iOS/iPadOS release notes, security, enterprise, no developer):

iOS 18.4 adds Priority notifications for Apple Intelligence-capable devices, showing you your most notification first. There’s a dedicated Apple Vision Pro app for Vision Pro owners, and a new Apple News Food feature for Apple News+ subscribers.

There’s lots more quoted in her article, though they do not yet appear on Apple’s site.

See also: John Voorhees.

Keith Broni:

Today Apple has officially debuted 8 new emoji designs within iOS 18.4, bringing the likes of a paint splatter, a harp, and a face with bags under its eyes to iPhones, iPads, and all other Apple devices across the world. Plus, Genmoji in the EU and a redesigned Syrian flag emoji.

Previously:

Update (2025-04-01): Juli Clover:

With iOS 18.4, Apple made a small tweak to Safari that could be polarizing because it puts your search history front and center. When you open up a new Safari tab and then tap into the search field, Safari shows your recent search history.

Ryan Jones:

iOS 18.4 headlines: new style in image playground, recipes in News+, and organization in Photos….

Priority notifications must not work well. Photos redesign must be on hotseat. Apple must still think image playgrounds isn’t terrible.

Update (2025-04-02): Juli Clover:

This guide covers everything new in iOS 18.4.

Ric Ford:

And, two days later, Apple still hadn’t updated its web pages to acknowledge and document the iOS/iPadOS 18.4 updates.

Tim Hardwick:

Several Reddit threads (1,2,3,4) and posts on Apple’s Community Support pages over the last 24 hours are filled with reports from users who, after having updated to iOS 18.4, immediately discovered third-party apps and/or games installed on their device that were not there before.

Going on the reports, the iOS 18.4 update has manifested a bug that is causing apps to reappear – since in most cases it appears that the apps had been deleted by the users months or even years ago and long forgotten.

Previously:

tvOS 18.4

Juli Clover (release notes, security, no developer):

Apple shares full release notes for tvOS in its tvOS support document, which is updated after each new version of tvOS comes out.

But all it says is “performance and stability improvements.”

Previously:

Update (2025-04-02): Ryan Christoffel:

At the top of the TV app’s interface, the featured carousel has three noteworthy changes:

  1. there’s a large plus button for easily adding titles to your Watchlist
  2. next to it is a big ‘i’ button for accessing a title’s information page
  3. finally, details on a show’s release schedule is now a lot more prominent

watchOS 11.4

Ryan Christoffel (release notes, security, developer):

After initially listing watchOS 11.4 on its website as released, the site has since been updated to remove the update. It’s unknown when it will return.

Previously:

Update (2025-04-01): Juli Clover:

Apple today released watchOS 11.4[…] With watchOS 11.4, Apple has added an option for a Sleep Wake Up alarm to break through Silent Mode, so you can have your Apple Watch make a sound in addition to haptic tapping when a morning alarm goes off. There’s also support for Matter-compatible robot vacuum cleaners in the Home app.

visionOS 2.4

Juli Clover (no release notes, security, developer, enterprise):

The visionOS 2.4 update brings Apple Intelligence to the Vision Pro for the first time, putting it on par with the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

[…]

Along with Apple Intelligence, Apple added a Spatial Gallery app for the Vision Pro. The Spatial Gallery app offers a curated assortment of spatial videos, spatial photos, and panorama images from artists, filmmakers, and photographers. Apple plans to offer a range of content featuring sports, culture, arts, lifestyle, nature, travel, entertainment, and more.

Previously:

audioOS 18.4

Apple:

This update includes performance and stability improvements.

Previously:

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