hoakley August 17, 2023 Macs, Technology, Updates

Apple has released macOS Ventura 13.5.1 update

Apple has just released the update to take macOS Ventura to version 13.5.1. It’s just under 500 MB for Intel Macs, and around 1.87 GB for Apple silicon Macs.

There are no security release notes, as this update doesn’t address any vulnerabilities.

Apple’s general release notes state: “macOS Ventura 13.5.1 fixes an issue in System Settings that prevents location permissions from appearing”. I can confirm that this fixes the bug introduced in 13.5 that stopped providing access to apps in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services. That section is now restored to its former glory, giving the user full control again.

There don’t appear to be any firmware updates, at least not to Intel Macs with T2 chips, nor to Apple silicon Macs. The macOS build number is incremented to 22G90.

There are no changes in version or build numbers among bundled apps. Safari remains at version 16.6 (18615.3.12.11.2).

The only changed version or build numbers in the whole of the /System/Library folder are in 8 items, each of which has been updated from version 2787.0.6 (2787.0.6) to 2787.0.7 (2787.0.7). Those components updated are:

in CoreServices, CoreLocationAgent.app
in Frameworks, CoreLocation.framework and CoreMotion.framework
in LocationBundles, CountryTracker.bundle and TimeZone.bundle
in PrivateFrameworks, CoreLocationReplay.framework, CoreMotionAlgorithms.framework and LocationSupport.framework.

This confirms that the bug introduced in 13.5 in Location Services controls is the only known bug that is fixed in macOS 13.5.1.

Updated at 1930 GMT 17 August 2023.

27Comments

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1

João Próspero Luis on August 17, 2023 at 6:39 pm

It’s 717 MB for Apple Silicon Macs

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- 2
  
  hoakley on August 17, 2023 at 6:42 pm
  
  Thank you. It does seem to vary, but what you must be careful about is not believing the stated download size from the server. Apple silicon Macs in particular have additional overhead which is only apparent during the download itself. I quote the figures from those actually displayed during the download, not the server’s claims.
  Howard.
  
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- 3
  
  hoakley on August 17, 2023 at 8:31 pm
  
  I’ve just checked this in a VM, and what’s happening is that Apple’s software update server gives the size of the update as just over 700 MB, which is common to both Intel and Apple silicon Macs. In my case, that’s downloaded from the local Content Caching server. However, ever since the first Apple silicon Macs and Big Sur, there’s an additional direct download of around 1 GB that has to be obtained in addition to the stated size of the update. In this case, it brings the total download to around 1.8 GB for each Apple silicon Mac.
  I’m glad that I’ve solved this long-standing mystery at last.
  Howard.
  
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4

Marshal on August 17, 2023 at 7:16 pm

You’re invaluable. I have been following you for a long time and you’re the only other tech blogger I read daily other than Daring Fireball, who I sometimes chatted with over email when he started out. Your skills and attention to detail are over the top. Thank you! And yes, I’m using iCloud’s “Hide My Email”, but I have conversed with you over my real iCloud email.

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- 5
  
  hoakley on August 17, 2023 at 8:25 pm
  
  Thank you for your generous words.
  Howard.
  
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6

artiste212 on August 17, 2023 at 9:12 pm

Location services for apps have been fixed!

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- 7
  
  hoakley on August 17, 2023 at 9:49 pm
  
  Yes indeed.
  Howard.
  
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8

SarahB on August 17, 2023 at 9:21 pm

I decided to run first aid again since last macOS updated messed up things. I see the same thing happened again. Realized I couldn’t take a screen shot since the Mac is locked during first aid. I took a shot with my phone but hard to type out all it said. Just when it gets to checking snapshots they all fail and it says they are corrupted. The line where it says that says this:

warning: snapshot fsroot / file key rolling / doc-id tree corruptions are not repaired; they’ll go away once the snapshot is deleted

They after it checks each snapshot ( there were 20 ) It says

warning inode (id 111119059): Resource Fork xattr is missing for compressed file

Shows the same id # for every error above on every snapshot. Then as it moves on through the check near the end says :

The volume /dev/rdisk1s1 was found to be corrupt and needs to be repaired

But then goes on to preform deferred repairs and then says that disk is ok. This is on a native Mac not a OCLP one. Not sure how long this has been going on but I noticed it after the last 2 macOS updates. Glad it fixes the problem and I sometimes delete the snapshots since it tells me to in a way there. Glad it’s easy enough to fix. I am using file vault on this Mac.

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- 9
  
  SarahB on August 17, 2023 at 9:41 pm
  
  Forgot to mention I run first aid from the bottom of the tree on my main data container then up from there. I kept having the same errors on other containers. Tried starting in safe mode same thing. Had to restart in recovery and then in disk utility there finally was able to clear all this corruption and errors. Such a pain.
  
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- 10
  
  hoakley on August 17, 2023 at 10:00 pm
  
  I don’t think that macOS updates have anything to do with this. This is a recurrent problem that simply isn’t going away – every snapshot has the same error in it. That’s either because something is damaging the snapshots, or there’s a file that’s broken, and being included in every snapshot. As snapshots are strictly read-only, I don’t believe that something is damaging them, but that volume has a rogue file on it that is damaged, propagating that damage into every snapshot made of that volume.
  Are these snapshots on the Data volume of your internal SSD? Are they being made by Time Machine with its hourly backups? As you have an inode number for the corrupt file, you can discover which it is, although that would be best performed by Apple Support, perhaps.
  Howard.
  
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  - 11
    
    SarahB on August 17, 2023 at 10:09 pm
    
    I run first aid kind of often though and even did yesterday and didn’t show this error. Only been seeing it lately after the last two updates. They are on the data volume since I always start with that like apple tells us to. Then I go up checking each other. After checking the data one still was getting the same snapshot errors on the volumes/containers above even with the same ID#.
    
    I do have a Time Machine ssd hooked up all the time backing up hourly. After I restarted in recovery finally I was able to make them all go away. In safe mode still were there. So I know how to fix them but next macOS update I will run first aid before I do the update then after and see. Not a big deal really for me. I just prefer to see no corruption if possible or errors. I’ll try to check more often to see if they pop up soon.
    
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  - 12
    
    SarahB on August 17, 2023 at 10:14 pm
    
    Forgot to mention again I ran first aid on my Time Machine ssd also and it scared 58 snapshots but not a single error there.
    
    LikeLiked by 1 person
13

Brian Higgins on August 21, 2023 at 6:19 pm

Installed Ventura 13.5.1on a MacBook Pro M1 2020. A disaster!! Keyboard problems galore. This is what happens when I type the individual letters on keyboard lower case:

1234567890ß´
qwertzuiopü+#
asdfghjklöä
yxcvbnm,.-

upper case
>!”§$%&/()=?`
QWERTZUIOPÜ*’
YXCVBNM;:_
In short a complete disaster!!

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- 14
  
  hoakley on August 21, 2023 at 6:21 pm
  
  First, restart your Mac.
  If that doesn’t fix it, shut it down, then start up in Recovery and restart it in Safe mode. After a couple of minutes, restart it back into regular mode.
  Howard.
  
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  - 15
    
    hoakley on August 21, 2023 at 6:23 pm
    
    And if those don’t fix it, open Keyboard settings and edit Input Sources to use the correct keyboard.
    Howard.
    
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16

Maurizio on August 24, 2023 at 8:15 am

Hello Howard i have to bother you one more time 🙂 , did you notice this ?

The 13.5.1 is a rushed and unclean release

most of the file are created on 2 augusteven if the fix 13.5.1 was installed on 18 august

look all the things added by this package

pkgutil –files com.apple.files.data-template

pkgutil –pkg-info com.apple.files.data-template
package-id: com.apple.files.data-template
version: 13.5.1
volume: /
location: /
install-time: 1692342319
groups: com.apple.FindSystemFiles.pkg-group com.apple.OSTemplate.pkg-group

dunno the pourpose of doing this, like adding apache2 etc etc. Are you on the same situation ?

PS: 13.6 is a regression , the location bug is back again , they forked it before 13.5.1

Regards

Maurizio

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- 17
  
  hoakley on August 24, 2023 at 9:15 am
  
  I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what you mean by “rushed and unclean”.
  Every item in the SSV is dated as being created on 2 August – that’s similar to every SSV. You can’t read anything into that date, but have to look at version and build numbers, as I do.
  Those demonstrate that 13.5.1 is identical in its /System/Library and Applications folders to 13.5, except for the changed items that I have itemised above. That’s what I’d expect, given that it only fixes this single bug. As a ‘patch’ release, Apple doesn’t expose it to external beta-testing either, which is normal for such bug fixes.
  Because 13.6 was already under way when this Location Services bug was first reported, it doesn’t surprise me that the first betas don’t contain the fix yet. However, it should start to appear now in later betas of 13.6. Interestingly, the bug didn’t appear in Sonoma betas at all.
  Howard.
  
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18

Maurizio on August 24, 2023 at 9:24 am

may be rushed was not the right term , but unclean a bit more approrpiate. I have the feeling that all the content of pkgutil –files com.apple.files.data-template was not intent to stay to the final release, sincerly i did not remember it on 13.5 and previous release. Most of the template scheme seams for internal test only

could you expose the total number on previous release ?

maurizio@MacBook apache2 % pkgutil –files com.apple.files.data-template | wc -l
9752

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- 19
  
  hoakley on August 24, 2023 at 10:34 am
  
  Can you give me the path to those templates, please? I keep full listings of the contents of /System/Library and Applications for each version of macOS, so can easily check. However, I can tell you that didn’t appear there recently, but have been there in previous versions.
  Howard.
  
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  - 20
    
    Maurizio on August 24, 2023 at 10:41 am
    
    sure , please use pkgutil to get the full list
    
    pkgutil –files com.apple.files.data-template
    
    most of them are under /user/share and /private
    
    LikeLiked by 1 person
    - 21
      
      hoakley on August 24, 2023 at 1:58 pm
      
      Thank you. I’m sorry, I only have lists for /System/Library and Applications. Listing the entire SSV wouldn’t be practical, and many of the files such as Mach-O executables don’t have readable version or build numbers either. I do have the ability to obtain hashes to compare, but that’s even more painstaking, and tells you only whether a file has been changed.
      Howard.
      
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22

Maurizio on August 27, 2023 at 9:02 am

checked , fault of my memory (and my overreaction), com.apple.files.data-template was already in monterey

On my local store they forget to update one mbp , i have had the chance to check it on monterey

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- 23
  
  hoakley on August 27, 2023 at 10:55 am
  
  No problems. That was a useful find!
  Howard.
  
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24

Wade Dowser on September 11, 2023 at 3:28 pm

Huge thanks Howard for sharing and updating this vast amount of hardly acquired knowledge .
13.5.2 is already out (7/09) and it seems that 13.5.1 was indeed an “unclean” update…
https://support.apple.com/fr-fr/HT213906
https://citizenlab.ca/2023/09/blastpass-nso-group-iphone-zero-click-zero-day-exploit-captured-in-the-wild/

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- 25
  
  hoakley on September 11, 2023 at 3:51 pm
  
  I don’t know what you mean by an “unclean” update. 13.5.1 had the same version and build number for the ImageIO framework with the vulnerability, and so did 13.5. I suspect, though, that the vulnerability goes back further, possibly even to Big Sur or before. But only Apple knows that, and might reveal the answer if it includes the same fix in the next security update to Monterey. I’m afraid that any remaining vulnerability in Big Sur is likely to remain.
  Howard.
  
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26

mato on September 22, 2023 at 7:42 pm

And it took Apple more than 3 weeks to fix? I’d expect better. 😐

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- 27
  
  hoakley on September 22, 2023 at 8:48 pm
  
  I trust that you have filed Feedback with Apple?
  Howard.
  
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