Apple Releases macOS 12 Monterey with iOS 15.1, iPadOS 15.1, watchOS 8.1, tvOS 15.1, and HomePod Software 15.1

Apple Mail doesn’t seem to be mentioned as part of the Monterey update, so I assume there is no major update to that (which is tragic, as Mail keeps getting worse, or at least not better, while retaining all the egregious bugs, sigh …). Maybe that’s an opportunity to finally give up on it.

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I gave up on Mail during the Monterey beta testing because there were just too many problems with it. They got worse with each beta release instead of better. I’m currently using Spark. It’s not perfect, but seems more reliable than Mail.

Were the problems new with Monterey or had they already existed in Big Sur?

Also, do you know if any of them were resolved by the end of the beta testing?

Does Monterey Mail fix the nonsense with column widths not being preserved in Bug Sur mail?

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So one of four 2017 iMacs that came with maybe macOS 10.12.x, between 2.3 and 4.2GHz CPU and one of seven different internal drive options. Sorry, you haven’t given us much to go on.

How does it run with the macOS you are using today? 8GB RAM is probably a limiting factor, unless you only use a few apps at a time. Monterey needs more space than previous systems, both on your internal as well as RAM cache.

I may have the same model iMac as you with a 2TB SSD internal and needed to add 32MB of RAM to be comfortable running Mojave. If you aren’t able to upgrade RAM with your model, you’ll have to live with 8 no matter what macOS.

I own a mid-2015 mb pro, so that should work, right? Why would I get an error message that says “Required firmware update could not be installed. Compatible internal storage is required in order to update.” I have 16 GB of RAM, and have added a 1TB SSD drive that is APFS (encrypted); would these not be compatible? Help would be appreciated, of course, but, maybe more to the point here, is Apple disallowing memory or storage upgrades from outside vendors?

David, I had two major problems during the Monterey beta testing. All flags disappeared and smart folders quit working completely. The problems seem to have been fixed as far as I can tell.

It turns out that my EFI System Firmware version is 194.0.0.0.0, which is old, and was not updated in earlier OS updates.

Well here is something interesting: Homepod 15.1 changed back to how I say “good night” to Siri (Scene to turn off specific lights). After the last update 15, if you said, “Hey Siri, Good night”, the scene would run (lights off) and Siri’s reply was either “ok” or “done”. Prior it was “The scene is set, good night!”. And now its back to that, with the 15.1 Homepod update. Oh, and supposedly, you can now add your Vaccine card to the Applewallet. Lastly, I want to see if anyone has any indoor/outdoor Homekit camera recommendations, as now it lets you view multiple cameras on an AppleTV…

Apparently, to keep following up, the non-Apple-SSD is what creates the problem here: How can I avoid an error preparing macOS Monterey installation on a Mac with an OWC Aura Pro x2 SSD? - Ask Different

Thanks for the link.

I would love to know what possible technical reason there could be for this restriction.

I’m sure the more pessimistic among us will conclude that Apple is doing this in order to punish customers who had the audacity to install third-party storage instead of buying a more expensive laptop. But I won’t support that theory without actual evidence :smiley: .

On a brighter note, Apple TV with stereo Homepods works fine after the 15.1 update BUT the ATV could not connect to the Homepods until they had also been updated to 15.1.
I am holding out on iOS & ipadOS to see if the homepage icons rearrangement issue is resolved.

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Howard Oakley has a useful article that summarizes graphically which Monterey features are available on which Macs.

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A post was merged into an existing topic: Safari 15.1

Thanks for link! I did a google on Monterey and Aura Pro, I just saw this and STOPPED my install of Monterey (it downloaded and was ready to install) on a MacbookPro I have an OWC AuraPro SSD running Big Sur.
Best Advice: Do NOT discard/sell/trade or misplace your original OEM SSD from Apple. Which is annoying as this is the exact issue that frustrates on how Apple still controls self-repair and upgrading.
PITA now to find my SSD (Big thanks to Matthias in WI) and do the swap, update, swap back and hope no issues.

This brings to mind an interesting question. I wonder what happens if your system is booted from an external SSD, with the original Apple one still installed internally.

Will you be able to upgrade the OS on the external SSD to Monterey without first upgrading the internal one? If anybody is running a system in this configuration and wants to run a test, please let us know the results.

That’s been a known issue with upgrading and third party SSDs…but depending on when the last time you updated the EFI you get different results. In my case…the 1TB Aura Pro 2 in my 2015 rMBP failed…while I waited on the replacement I reinstalled the original SSD and updated to 11.6.1 then cloned that to the new Aura Pro before installing it. Monterey then installed just fine…and lockrattler says the EFI is up to date…so maybe the update came along with 11.6.1.

This seems to be the observation. The required firmware update arrived earlier, but it won’t install if you are booted from a third-party internal SSD. And since the system doesn’t inform you that there is an update it can’t install, you never find out until you go to install Monterey, which appears to require it.

Maybe so…but at least in my case the firmware update didn’t come along with Monterey…it was with Big Sur somewhere along the line…so when I installed the original SSD back in the MBP while waiting on OWC to send me the replacement one (did the install via Recovery) it was installed then so Monterey didn’t complain.

1 TB drive
2.3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5
8 GB 2133 MHz DDR4
2 Memory slots with 4GB in each

It is slow to launch apps. I do not use any apps that require processing grunt so probably upgrading RAM is pointless.