hoakley October 28, 2024 Macs, Technology, Updates

Apple has released macOS Sequoia 15.1, and security updates to 14.7.1 and 13.7.1

As expected, Apple has released the update to macOS 15.1 Sequoia, together with security updates to bring Sonoma to version 14.7.1, and Ventura to 13.7.1. There should also be Safari updates to accompany the latter two.

The Sequoia update is around 2.9 GB for Apple silicon Macs, and about 2.4 GB for Intel models.

As expected, this brings the first release of Writing Tools, in the first wave of new AI features, only for Apple silicon Macs using US English as both their primary language, and that set for Siri. Apple hasn’t got round to providing any list of new or changed features, and you may find that offered by Software Update is the same as for 15.0.

Security release notes are available here for 15.1, which has around 50 entries, here for 14.7.1 with around 39, and here for 13.7.1 with around 36.

iBoot firmware on Apple silicon Macs is updated to version 11881.41.5, T2 firmware to 2069.40.2.0.0 (iBridge: 22.16.11072.0.0,0), and Safari to 18.1 (20619.2.8.11.10).

I will post details of changes found later tonight.

[Updated 1820 GMT 28 October 2024.]

19Comments

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1

amelchi on October 28, 2024 at 5:04 pm

what are the improvements for Calendar and Reminders?

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- 2
  
  hoakley on October 28, 2024 at 9:07 pm
  
  I’m sorry – that was misleading duplicated info given by Apple via Software Update. I now have a fuller account posted.
  Howard.
  
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3

Maurizio on October 29, 2024 at 8:29 am

Sonoma 14.7 did not list Safari 18.1 as separate components (as it was before), it is integrated on 14.7.1 (may be is no more an external cryptoex and is integrated on the OS snapshot image)

Finding available software

Software Update found the following new or updated software:

* Label: macOS Sonoma 14.7.1-23H222

Title: macOS Sonoma 14.7.1, Version: 14.7.1, Size: 1438721KiB, Recommended: YES, Action: restart,

* Label: macOS Sequoia 15.1-24B83

Title: macOS Sequoia 15.1, Version: 15.1, Size: 6570305KiB, Recommended: YES, Action: restart,

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- 4
  
  hoakley on October 29, 2024 at 9:10 am
  
  Thank you.
  No, I don’t think Safari has been integrated into the SSV, as it hasn’t in any version of macOS since Big Sur. However, regular macOS updates also update cryptexes, so I suspect that all Sonoma’s security updates will come with Safari updates integrated into them.
  Howard.
  
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  - 5
    
    Maurizio on October 29, 2024 at 9:33 am
    
    You are right , the main reason is that at moment there is no 18.1 for Sonoma , i am on 14.7.1 and Safari still 18.0.1
    
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      hoakley on October 29, 2024 at 1:36 pm
      
      Thank you. I will be checking later in a VM and will update this as necessary.
      Howard.
      
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7

Maurizio on October 29, 2024 at 5:52 pm

thanks for checking

May be you not update from a previous version as i did. But in my case for the first time at the end of the update process , just after login , it ask me to initiate a profile setup (partial), ask me how i like to be welcomed (with male or female pronoum) , to provide my icloud account (skipped) and then icloud ask access to keychain (a the end it remember my icloud account and flawlessy logged in) . Also filevault generate a new key. At the end not the smoothes uodate ever, next time i will not rush :-)

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- 8
  
  hoakley on October 29, 2024 at 10:07 pm
  
  Both mine are VMs, and both were updated from x.7. As those VMs don’t support iCloud, they’re much simpler to work with, and updated quickly and simply.
  Howard.
  
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9

josefrysanek on November 5, 2024 at 1:44 pm

For me 15.1 introduced always full backup (TM). https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/1gk4mmq/time_machine_doing_full_backup_again_and_again/

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- 10
  
  hoakley on November 5, 2024 at 4:23 pm
  
  I presume that post on Reddit is from you, and you’re asking me to help?
  If so:
  – “a lot of files was changed during upgrade” That’s not true, and hasn’t been since Catalina. Almost all of the upgrade is on the SSV, the System volume, which doesn’t get backed up by Time Machine. Changes on the Data volume, which does get backed up, are small.
  – rather than using Ulbow and looking at the whole log, I recommend you download and use T2M2, which is specifically designed to help diagnose TM problems.
  – then, connect your regular TM backup store and let TM run an automatic (not manual) backup to that, fully.
  – open T2M2 once that has completed, and using its Help book, examine its report. Most important here is the method used to determine what to back up. If that’s not FSEvents, then it explains why this is happening. Further details given there should lead you to a reason.
  – the T2M2 product page contains links to some of the many articles I have posted here about how TM works, how to diagnose its problems, and how to fix them. Use the more recent ones, as they apply to recent versions of TM backing up to APFS.
  – once you have done those, I’m always happy to help, either in comments here (which aren’t ideal) or via email. My address is in the About page and elsewhere.
  I wish you success.
  Howard.
  
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  - 11
    
    josefrysanek on November 5, 2024 at 8:41 pm
    
    Howard my message for you is below, I accidentally replied to whole thread.
    
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12

josefrysanek on November 5, 2024 at 8:40 pm

I’m sorry Howard didn’t have time to explain it better here but more details are on reddit. It was rather “Beware of this issue” than ask for help because it seems to me like only someone from Apple could help now. Yes reinstall, I see you…

I tried all above before (except wait for automatic backup) and many many more things like reset Spotlight, fseventsd, … Also tried T2M2 and Mist yesterday, went through debug messages (that was pain) and so and so.

Because I’m desperate I now tried again and waited for automatic backup as you recommended. But with same result. No error anywhere, backup finished and data are there. Just metadata plist is empty and Delta in log is Zero KB as I described on reddit.

I found that I’m not the only one with this issue but no posts with resolution so far.

T2M2 gives me no explanation why FSEvents is not used. It reports no issues at all.

One thing I noticed when I now tested automatic backup is related to T2M2 – it reports that last backup was manual. But that is not correct. I waited and TM starts backup itself after about 1 minute when I added new disk. I uploaded report here if you want to check this out. https://gist.github.com/jorycz/d8a39f34f1948474eb155854bb8e9947

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- 13
  
  hoakley on November 5, 2024 at 8:44 pm
  
  Thank you. Now leave it and inspect the next auto backup.
  Howard
  
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- 14
  
  hoakley on November 5, 2024 at 9:45 pm
  
  First, there’s no evidence in what I have seen from what you’re reporting that there’s any bug involved. You can only arrive at that conclusion when you have eliminated other potential causes, which is what I’m trying to do now.
  
  Next, before you start trying things, it’s essential to understand what’s going wrong here. TM is quite complex, and something else may well be causing these large backups. Until you know how TM is deciding to repeat a full backup – if indeed that is what is happening – this is just guesswork, and will get you nowhere.
  
  This has absolutely nothing to do with Spotlight, nor I suspect with empty property lists.
  
  It’s usual for the first full backup to be recorded as a manual backup, as that’s not triggered by the DAS-CTS despatch system, but by TM itself. However, what’s odd here is that (if that was being made to your original TM backup store, with its old backups already there) that backup should have used the last Reference snapshot and FSEvents from there.
  
  Are you sure that is the original TM backup store, with all your previous backups on it, or is it a new and empty volume that TM is backing up to?
  Howard.
  
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  - 15
    
    josefrysanek on November 5, 2024 at 11:03 pm
    
    It’s was a new and empty HDD. First backup should be full and then deltas which never happened after Sequoia update.
    
    I waited for next auto backup and let it finish. And it is again full backup. Full log from T2M2 https://gist.github.com/jorycz/d8a39f34f1948474eb155854bb8e9947
    
    There is something wrong with FSEvents data which seems to be empty or not saved to backup. The property list is not empty on other Macs.
    
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    - 16
      
      hoakley on November 5, 2024 at 11:17 pm
      
      Thank you. So yes, TM has made 3 first full backups.
      
      I thought you said that this Mac had been upgraded from a previous version of macOS. Did it not have TM backups from then?
      
      The next step is to look through the TM log in more detail, using the Browse Log button. In that window, uncheck DAS, CTS and Other, set the Period to -2 hours, and the time to the present. Then click on the Get Log button, and you’ll be able to trace the progress of at least one of those auto backups. You’re particularly interested in the phase between speed tests and the start of the backup, in which TM will look for FSEvents and decide which method it’s going to use to work out what needs to be backed up. If FSEvents isn’t available, then there should be some explanation as to why not.
      
      I wish you success.
      Howard.
      
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    - 17
      
      josefrysanek on November 5, 2024 at 11:52 pm
      
      I stopped using NAS when I noticed there is something wrong with TM and started testing on external HDD, so my previous backups stay safe…
      
      Get Log button shows me the same log I put on reddit already. T2M2 doing something similar like macOS’s log show with timestamp and predicate like subsystem == “com.apple.TimeMachine”.
      
      Unfortunately, there is no explanation why FSEvents is not used.
      
      Thank you Howard for your time.
      
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    - 18
      
      hoakley on November 6, 2024 at 8:30 am
      
      I think that FSEvents is not being used because the correct data isn’t being written out to your backup storage. To see why that isn’t happening, you’ll need to look further down the log, towards the closing entries for each backup. However, before you do that, I think it’s essential to ensure that your backup store is correctly formatted. I suggest that you use Disk Utility to erase the whole disk, and format it in APFS Case-sensitive. That should give you a single partition, with a single container, and a single case-sensitive APFS volume that TM should be able to use without having to create its own.
      Howard.
      
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- 19
  
  hoakley on November 5, 2024 at 9:47 pm
  
  Oh – and reinstalling macOS isn’t likely to do anything to help this problem, as that primarily reinstalls the SSV, the System volume, which isn’t involved in backups.
  Howard.
  
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