hoakley Macs, Technology, Updates

What has changed in macOS Big Sur 11.3?

At last Apple has returned to providing extensive release notes to accompany the Big Sur 11.3 update. Because they’re so long and detailed, I won’t attempt to summarise them, but recommend that you read them:

Looking through the bundled apps, almost all have been updated. Those which have changed version rather than just build number include:

  • Books, to 3.2
  • Music, to 1.1.4
  • News, to 6.3
  • Notes, to 4.8.1
  • Stocks, to 3.3
  • TV, to 1.1.4
  • Bluetooth File Exchange, to 8.0.4
  • Migration Assistant, to 11.3.

Major changes seen in the System folder include:

  • Flow Delegate Plugins in /System/Library/Assistant/FlowDelegatePlugin have been increased in number.
  • AppleVirtIOSound.driver has been added to /System/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL, and others have been updated.
  • A few Automator actions have been updated, mainly those for PDF.
  • AddPrinter in CoreServices has been updated.
  • Feedback Assistant has been updated to 5.1.
  • DiskImageMounter has been updated.
  • The Dock has been updated.
  • The Finder has been updated from 11.1 to 11.3.
  • JavaLauncher has been updated to 319.
  • ManagedClient has been updated to 13.2.
  • Siri has been updated to 201.4.11.
  • A new driver extension has been added for Apple16X50PCI
  • Most AMD extensions have been updated to 4.4.17.
  • AGX and AppleGraphicsControl extensions have been updated to 173.22.1.
  • AppleStorageDrivers extension has been updated to 511.101.1
  • A new extension, AppleVirtualPlatform, has been added.
  • The HFS file system extension has been updated to 556.100.11.
  • The System extension and its plugins have been updated to 20.4.0.
  • APFS and its extension has been updated from 1677.81.1 to 1677.100.114.
  • The SMBFS extension has been updated from 3.4.1 to 3.5.
  • Many frameworks have been updated.
  • Many OpenDirectory modules have been updated.
  • Bluetooth, Keyboard, Localisation and Profiles panes have been updated.
  • Many private frameworks, including Backup, Catalyst, components for Mail, have been updated.
  • Two new private frameworks, for RealityKit_Ogma and SceneKit_Ogma, have been added.
  • Spotlight mdimporters now include Mail, version 11.0, which hadn’t been included in 11.2.3, and a new build of the Rich Text mdimporter.
  • Video Plug-Ins which have been updated include AppleAVEEncoder and AppleAfterburnerProResDecoder.

This is a very large update. If something hasn’t changed, that’s surprising.