Originally published at: iOS 15.4.1, iPadOS 15.4.1, macOS 12.3.1 Monterey, and Siblings Fix Bugs and Security Vulnerabilities - TidBITS
Apple has updated all its operating systems to fix bugs and block security vulnerabilities that are actively being exploited in the wild.
iOS 15.4.1, iPadOS 15.4.1, macOS 12.3.1 Monterey, and Siblings Fix Bugs and Security Vulnerabilities
My iPhone 8+ had begun burning up its battery much faster, and I attributed it to a reprise of a problem battery I needed replaced less than a year ago. I was glad to see that this download will also correct a battery problem.
Still no update past 11.6.5 that I can see, for those of us still on Big Sur. I wish they would just release these things all at once.
They almost always do, which leads me to believe that there wonât be an update for Catalina and Big Sur this time, either because the vulnerabilities identified in Monterey were only present in Monterey or they just didnât feel they had the time to provide it to prior macOSs. Iâm leaning toward the first guess on this one.
Has anyone with an Apple silicon (M1) based Mac experienced problems with launching Intel-only apps like Microsoft Teams, Amazon Kindle, or Logitech Options after the macOS 12.3.1 Monterey update? All of the above immediately crashed on launch for me, with the crash report indicating a Rosetta error of âattachment of code signature supplement failed: 1â.
Searching the web for this error yielded the suggestion to reinstall Rosetta via the terminal command âsoftwareupdate --install-rosetta
â and rebooting, but this did not fix it for me. However, reinstalling these apps individually did fix the problem.
Itâs a miracle, itâs a miracle - Apple issuing an update to address a Homekit bug with HomepodOS!
So there is actually a section (person?) within Apple working on Homekit. I just have to hope that this update does not break something else - so far so good.
It has bugged me for years that Apple Discussions doesnât have a thread for Homekit so users can try to resolve issues. We mostly have to use the Homepod thread.
On a related matter I recently replaced some old Wemo power outlets with Cygnett ones. They donât need a bridge (I found I needed to reboot the Wemo bridge regularly) and are very simple to install from the Home app - just scan the QR code on the side of the device and they join Homekit. No need to use the Cygnett app other than to use its power consumption monitoring feature.
My HomePod (4 years old) was bricked by the latest software update. I contacted Apple support, and after an hour of trouble shooting, and escalating one level up, there was no fix. I tried doing a factory reset, but the red light kept going around and around, and nothing happened. The support person was also stumped. The said it was out of warranty, and the repair cost would be $329 (!), more than the original cost! He also said three he knew of three other HomePods that had been bricked in the past week. I said I felt this was due to faulty software, and charging such a huge amount for fix was not reasonable (if they still sold them, Iâd just get a new one, since I love the audio quality). He said heâd check whether they could do something better for me, and will get back to me. Havenât heard back yet, but he did say it would be a few days.
Ouch! That sucks, and do let us know how Apple resolves it.
Escalate, escalate, escalate. I find that Apple will do the right thing, almost always, when asked, though that often means repeatedly. I recently had a refurb MBAir go awol, as in never arrive after weeks post-delivery date. I had to ask repeatedly but eventually they offered $100 discount, an Incase shell and then, when it STILL didnât arrive, they sent a new one. (non-refurb, not that it matters.)
Absolutely, please report back on how they resolve.
A few very lucky people report that their bricked Homepods came back to life after being unplugged for days or months:
BTW the update went OK for my three OG Homepods.
Iâve yet to upgrade from Apple network devices. Airport Extreme and Airport Expresses. The later are set up both wired and wireless, depending upon the device and its location.
For the later, I have them connected to three tuner/amps so as to be able to stream music around the house.
There are a couple of music web streams I like, HotelCostes.com and RadioactiveFM.gr.
Prior to the 15.4.1 upgrade on an 8+, I was able to stream music from either of these two sites, using either Chrome or Safari, to the tuner/amp-connected AirPort Expresses.
After the 15.4.1 upgrade, the streaming wonât work.
It also wonât work from iPads running the latest iOS upgrade.
I have an iPhone 6+ running iOS 12.5.5. That set up streams perfectly to the two devices the upgraded 8+ is unable to stream to.
It appears that Apple âbrokeâ the ability to stream. I suspect this might be to steer customers to Apple Music, which will stream, as will Spotify.
In Apple Discussions there are reports of Airplay problems after recent iOS updates. The unacceptable âsolutionâ is that the app developers need to update their apps - Apple wonât fix it.
Since downloading 15.4.1 on the day it appeared, my iPhone battery has never been worse.
I have an older phone, an SE 2016, but its battery health is still 91%.
From 100% charge it fell to 1% overnight. Itâs never been this bad.
I searched the Internet for conformation of this performance and found the following article:
Just taking one photo dropped my battery by 4%!
I bought an iPhone 13 mini today and while in the Apple store had an engineer check out my old iPhone SE. He confirmed there was nothing wrong with it (using an adjacent iPad to check it) and I had a green pass on every item . So I said to him âThen it was the 15.4.1 download that did it.â He demurred.
Itâs impossible for us to diagnose a problem like this in a discussion thread, but I read reports similar to yours after every iOS update. It never affects everybody, but there is always someone who reports severe battery problems after an update.
Iâve never gotten a good answer about why, but my working theory is that it is one or both of:
- A new update sets off some power-hungry activity in the phone. This causes bad battery drain for a few days, but usually returns to normal after that.
- An older phone may have a battery close to the end of its usable life and the update pushes it over the edge.
In your case, your phone is 6 years old. If you have never had the battery replaced, then I suspect youâve hit the second of my cases. I think youâve been running on borrowed time long before this update if youâve got a 6 year old battery. I would ignore the 91% health indicator - that number doesnât seem to mean anything useful.
If you plan on continuing to use this phone (I donât know about that, since you said you just got a new 13 mini), then I would recommend paying Apple for a battery replacement. An out-of-warranty battery replacement for an SE costs $50, which I consider to be quite reasonable.
Looks like macOS 12.3.1 also fixes a bug related to two monitors not appearing on a MacBook Pro:
Yes, thankfully. I suspected as much.
This article from Intego talks about how these vulnerabilities have still not been patched for Big Sur.
âHe demurredâ. They demur like nobodyâs business, right? Whenever you (rarely) encounter an Appleoid who allows that something may have been done in less than ideal fashion, itâs always refreshing.
12 Pro, also 91% health (!?) and was at 100% at 6:49 AM, 6 hours, 20 minutes later. down to 80% with a full cell signal and wifi, maybe 30 minutes screen time, tops. Not great, right?
How low does battery health have to go before replacement under AppleCare?
and Catalina and iOS 14 for one of them plus a history of many other vulnerabilities that apparently never got patched in OSs that were still eligible.
Apple says that batteries in iPhones are designed to have 80% battery health within 500 full charge cycles, and generally will not do a replacement under warranty (e.g., for no cost) until maximum capacity is below 80%, but thatâs not always true - if you have obvious physical damage (swelling) or the battery fails their diagnostics, theyâll replace it, even if reported battery health is above 80%.
You can always pay them to do a battery replacement though.