security update 2019-004

tedfrombroad brook wrote:

I'm talking about the fix. It doesn't work.

boot into Safe mode, and then install the update

<http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1564>

This will not load any 3rd party additions, it will load some more conservative Apple drivers (may cause screen flicker), and it will clear some kernel caches (a cache is saved data in a form that can speed up a program, but is totally redundant to the original source, and thus can be safely cleared).  Booting into Safe mode is just an experiment, but can frequently eliminate any 3rd party interference, or a cached item out-of-sync with the world.  (Verify Safe mode via Applications -> Utilities -> System Information -> Software -> Boot Mode -> Safe vs Normal)

Thanks, yes, I've done that on more than one occasion and it changed nothing. However, it does start better when cooled down (although not always). Starting up from my external backup drive works better.

And, this morning an efi.check notice popped up on my screen first thing this morning.

In a nutshell, it ran an efi.check and said it detected a potential problem with my computer and provided a binary number and asked if I wanted to send this report to Apple (which I did).

Here’s what I learned about this online:

https://www.macobserver.com/news/macos-high-sierra-performs-efi-security-check/

It still leaves a mystery which maybe Apple can answer.

But, I also have that 2019-004 update notice appearing from the Apple store that I’ve updated 3 times and I’m reluctant to do it a 4th time.

Maybe armed with this info I can call Apple again and see what they say about it?

Furthermore, I found a discussion about this and learned about a free app that can run a better check:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8303249

I have not downloaded it yet but I'm considering it.

In the interim, the notice from the App Store for 2019-004 upgrade still appears on my laptop despite the fact that I have installed it previously on Sept. 1/2019. I'm not sure what to do with that--should I do the update again?

It should stay cool, but feel all Apple Laptops are marginally cooled in the best of conditions in the interest of quietness.

Of course many 3rd party Kexts & Plists may adversely affect sleep.

What all 3rd party extensions are you running?

EtreCheck is a simple little app to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac.

http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

Pastebin is a good place to paste the whole report...

https://pastebin.com/

Workable but harder for me to work with...the Note tool on the bottom of this editor's toolbar, as shown in the image, to copy and paste the output from EtreCheck.

Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode?

Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

The update to the update has prevented my 2012 Mac Pro from stating up. It gets half way through the update and hangs. I've tried installing it 3 times and have had to do time machine recovery each time. Not good Apple. I know you want to sell new computers but this is not the way to do it

Thanks for the advice but that didn't work either. I have the boot disk mounted on a PCIE card. This has never been a problem in the past but maybe a glitch with this update. I think I'll try moving the drive back onto a sled and see what happens.

I wanted to install the Securty Update 2019-004 and clicked on the Restart button at the App Store. The screen turned black and the mouse cursor stayed visible. I waited for several minutes and then turned computer off manually. After I turned it on I noticed that the software has not been updated so I clicked on the Restart button again and it again did not want to restart. I have iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010) with macOS High Sierra version 10.13.6.

I could not find any info on the security update notification dated Sept 7/2019 that I received today even though I've installed it 3 times since it was first introduced in the past months. And, that's when I began to have problems with my MacBook pro late 2011 model A1246. My visit to the Apple store and discussion with the Genius tech there was not really helpful as he blamed my graphics card even though tests showed that it was fine. His only advice was to buy a new laptop! Later I was able to start up the laptop and update it and all appeared to be normal but it was not. I still experience unexpected/unexplained crashes or inability to restart after sleep mode. Again, issues I was not having prior to update 2019-004. Recovery also works sporadically and likewise, sometimes I can restart from my HD backup drive and/or my internal SS drive but nothing is consistent. All hardware tests keep coming up with no problems found. I still feel that this is a software issue. And, if I try to disable the automatic switching between graphic cards in the Energy Saver setting, it also crashes my laptop.

Today I tried to download OSx High Sierra to save on a flash drive, hoping to be able to use it to restart when it fails to. But it tried to install and then failed. I was unable to restart after that. I then tried Recovery and it began downloading OSx Mountain Lion! That failed to install ( I had set it up to install on an untitled partition on my internal SSD). I then managed to restart using my external HD backup and that worked today (tomorrow may be different). All hardware tests pass without finding problems.

What's going on? I forgot to mention: I've been running High Sierra without problems since I upgraded to it in 2018.

Command (⌘)-R

Install the latest macOS that was installed on your Mac.

Option-⌘-R

Upgrade to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.

Shift-Option-⌘-R

Install the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available.

Same for me--things are still not working as they should--luckily I have a backup disk and I'm running off of that now as it starts easier than my internal drive and since recovery does not work all the time and is a PITA to have to do every time. My MacBook is a late 2011. I've also received a notice from the App store to update again but it only appears on my backup drive--not on the internal drive. All strange and suspicious.

Thanks but I've been through all of this and still have problems. I've been to the extreme of wiping my internal SSD twice and reinstalling High Sierra--not sure if this second attempt will resolve anything. I would have liked it better if we could download the OSx to create our own bootable drives and have managed to do that for my old 2009 white MacBook. I hope to be able to do that for my MacBook Pro 2011 now too. Hopefully it will work. Right now though, there is no way to take it back to the prior version of High Sierra other than erasing the internal drive and installing from an older OSx that I have on CD.

It would be the right thing to do--everything else appears to be geared towards pushing us to buy new computers but, as a pensioner, I don't have the extra cash to buy a new laptop. I have been able to create a bootable flash drive for El Capitan but no luck with High Sierra as it seems that I'd have to disable SIP and I don't want to mess with stuff like that--too risky and if I mess it up, (or let some malware in), I'll be worse off (I think?). Apple needs to read these posts and realize that consumers will go elsewhere in the future. I loved Apple products and was a strong supporter before. Now I feel abandoned by Apple and left to rot. When the only advice I could get from them was to buy a new computer--how would you feel?

I'm being forced out of recommending Apple products after decades.

John Lockwood Level 6 (13,119 points)

Aug 21, 2019 8:01 AM in response to ednarcoleptic

In theory you download a full High Sierra installer from the Mac App Store. It is not listed anymore because Apple are encouraging people to use Mojave instead. There is an Apple KB article which however provides a direct link to the (hidden) item on the Mac App Store.

How to upgrade to macOS High Sierra - Apple Support

Scroll down to item 4 in the above document.

Of course as others have pointed out sometimes this results in only getting a 'stub' installer which is not suitable for then creating a bootable USB drive installer.

The way that I have found that is consistently able to download full installers is to run installinstallmacos.py as per


https://github.com/munki/macadmin-scripts

Ideally you run this on the Mac model you want to install on to.

Thanks but I am not comfortable making changes to any code and the I did try to open Terminal recently two times it did not open in a proper window and I was unable to exit it and had to reboot--needless to say, when I rebooted my laptop would not restart. I have been able to startup consistently from my backup drive and I can read everything on my internal drive that way and even save or delete file to it. But when it does start up from the internal drive (which it rarely does), it behaves oddly.

e.g. yesterday when it went into sleep mode about 2 hours later it tried to start up on its own, failed, and then I was unable to restart it again. I also had turned off my wifi so that there would be no incoming messages etc. My backup drive is a regular hard drive and my internal drive is an SSD that has worked flawlessly for more than a year. It still seems to be fine but I'm now wondering why the laptop behaves so differently when run off of the backup drive vs the internal SSD? Is there a possibility that it's having difficulties that don't register during hardware tests? I've run disk repair a few times as well and all seems fine there too.

Talk about frustrating!

If you're speaking of etrecheck, it's a fantastic app for helping to figure out problems, but not really a Hardware checker.

I'd hold off on the 004 update until we figure out the base problem.

What temperatures does this App report?

This App can be used to speed up the fans, all my iMacs would be dead without it.

Never ever ever drop fan speeds below the speed that the Mac itself is calling for.

MacFansControl…

https://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control