Security Update 2020-002

Thanks for you fine reply, Roger!!

You said: As a fresh Mojave install did not fix the issue for one user over at a german Mac forum, this seems an indication that the BridgeOS/T2 firmware is written directly into the chip and is not being replaced with a "simple" reinstallation of macOS.

What I plan to do is to take my SuperDuper! full 16 March 2020* backup and copy that to my Mac Mini Internal SSD after erasing the internal SSD totally. I've done that before (when I travel I use my MBP-2016 model and when I return home I completely copy the MBP to the Mac Mini in this fashion)(Of course I'm not traveling much these days!) *Prior to doing this I will make a copy of all files in /User so that I can then drag-and-drop them onto the Mac Mini and replace the files that were only up-to-date as of 16 March 2020.

(My Macs have most of my life on them since 1990. I also have every single eMail that I've ever sent or received since 5 March 1996 and can retrieve them in a few minutes-- or even in a few seconds… And yes, I have lots of backups: SugarSync, Time Machine but most important: 5 external drives with my full Mac bootable BackUp and 6 HD's with all my photos from 1 March 2004 - in addition to the Time Machine and other older drives - yes, 14 external drives and 26,000 gb of backups)(OK 26 tb) (and when I think that in 1991 my entire company of 20 people shared a common Hard Drive -- it had 500 mb of storage, yes mega-bit!) (At that time my MacSE had a huge 40 mb internal HD. Still have that MacSE - running MacOS 6.0.4 but I need to get the CRT repaired!)

But for the next 3-6 days I am going to just wait-- while this is not a good situation, I can say that other than numerous restarts during the day it does not seem to be causing any other issues with my Mac. If there is no new update from Apple by let's say next Monday 13 April then I will telephone Apple - I have my extended warrantee until November 2022 - although this is not really an issue with my Mac Mini… But I need to get some assistance here and I do believe it is directly related to this Security UpDate 2020-002.

Thanks again and I am hoping that if there are other people out there with this kernel panic issue that they will find this discussion and post here with what they are experiencing.

Best regards,

Steve Schulte

Tuesday 7 April 2020

Hello Stephen,

as I stated, I’m not completely sure whether the BridgeOS is written into a ROM-area of the T2. It seems logic to me but I still have to verify this idea.

But if it would be the case, I would still doubt that even a complete swap of the data from a backup to the erased internal SSD would exchange any data on the T2 chip. I would assume that this could only be done by an installer, most likely signed by Apple.

(If it would be that easy to exchange software on/for a Security chip, I’d had reservations about the provided security).

The user over at the german forum seems to have installed that SecUpd again after the fresh Mojave installation, so there is no exact information if the Mojave installation reverted BridgeOS to the earlier version. (Still waiting for a confirmation about this).

Even the actual situation doesn’t inspire confidence, it does not seem to have further and more severe effects, so I will also wait and see what Apple will come up with in the nearer future. I’m at least still convinced that it is one or more software issues that now need to get fixed to bring everything back to normal.

Hello Stephen,

just send my bug report to Apple, maybe the macOS-team gets back to me for further infos.

Still no response at the german forum, but I'm keeping an eye on it and surely will come back here, as soon as I find something interesting.

One user wrote he had run Onyx and his Mac seems to react normal now, but he "only" had sporadic problems to shut Mac down, which resulted in an endless spinning beachball. He confirmed that the issue came with the Security Update 2020-002 for Mojave. (Waiting for more info here too).

While I wait for a possible reaction of the macOS-team, I'm trying to find some more info about T2 and especially BridgeOS in spare time.

Yours sincerely,

Roger Simon

Well it sounds like there are a number of issues here. How can I contact Apple? I sent an eMail to Apple and I wrote to this address, but just got an automatic reply, nothing else: AppleSupport@email.apple.com What/where is the "bug report" address or telephone number?

I do not have an External Graphics Processing Unit but it is a logical thing to get for a Mac Mini-- again seems like a number of issues that need addressing here!

Yesterday I used the Mac about 4 hours without this issue at all, then stopped using it and twice within a few hours it restarted on its own.

I shut down the Mac Mini at night -- when I restart in the morning the little message box is there telling me that the Mac shutdown - see attached. Hope this gets addressed soon - feel rather helpless to do anything here!

Best regards,

Steve Schulte

Wednesday 8 April 2020

Thanks, Roger!

I sent as detailed a report on the MacOS site as possible… But the reply after hitting SEND was this:

Thank you for your feedback on macOS.

We cannot respond to you personally, but please know that your message has been received and will be reviewed by the macOS Team. If we need to follow up with you on your ideas for improving macOS, we will contact you directly.

We appreciate your assistance in making macOS better.

macOS Team

Apple

So let's see but I am surprised they have not at least acknowledged this issue!!

Every time I stop using my Mac and I come back to it an hour or two later, it has shut-down and the sign-in screen is there and after I sign-in the little apple shut-down notice is there. I send a report each time -- I've done that 15 times now in the past 3 days… No sign of life from Apple. I will keep pushing this because I have my life since 1990 on my Macs!!

Best regards,

Steve Schulte

Wednesday 8 April 2020

Roger,

I agree with you 100% that it is likely just the service technician who is not familiar with this. And I doubt that he will push this up to management but who knows-- I had a service guy who helped me 2 years ago when an Apple Watch 4 that I was having sent to my daughter's to surprise my wife (long story…) somehow got lost and this guy worked and worked and got a replacement watch shipped from China prior to her birthday -- a real miracle worker that guy! So let's see---

My Mac has shut down (it doesn't actually shut down, it restarts – so I put the password-required-at-startup feature back on so that I know when it restarts) -- once only today; but if I do a shutdown (a regular, normal shutdown) then when I start up a minute later or 12 hours later-- the little notification is there saying my Mac has a problem!

The Mac does not seem to shut down when I working on it-- like now when I'm typing this. Only when I leave it for more than 30 minutes--- but then, not always! It just went 2 hours in sleep mode and then when I woke it up -- it had not shut down.

So this is a bit weird…

Thanks for staying on top of this and I'll try to push other discussion groups to find a solution (or we'll just inundate Apple with requests!)

Also: I like to run TotalFinder and I have a Terminal command to have the startup sound on my Mini. I've been re-assured that neither of these features (TotalFinder requires turning off SIP) would cause this issue-- but I've removed TotalFinder and removed the startup sound for now.

Which makes me ask (off topic…) Why can't we have color sidebars in the Apple Finder? iOS uses color everywhere-- just go to the health app and take a look after a 20 km bike ride--- there are more colors in there than a rainbow! But Mac's sidebar, without TotalFinder, is this horrible boring grey…… And what is it with DARK MODE --- white letters on a black background, man, we had dark mode 30+ years ago-- it was called: DOS!

OK stay healthy!

Best regards,

Steve Schulte

Wednesday 8 April 2020

OK my Mac still shutting down (restarting) 2x to 4x per day. I shut it off nights now…

Let's see - there is a Catalina 10.15.4 update out there but no reference to security nor Mojave 10.14.6………

I love color! Hey, why not give us a choice?? iOS is FULL of color! Mac has become so drab. (Not even any color possible in these discussion comments!) That's why I like TotalFinder. One can always turn off the color if they offered it like they offer standard or "dark" mode. Yes, this point is fully subjective but what a step back - feel like I'm on my Mac SE from 1989 running Mac OS 6.0.4 (which I do occasionally…)

Really hoping for a fix for my Mac Mini with this security update 2020-002 issue… A bit incredible really.

A friend of mine in Vermont who is a 3rd party type Apple Service guy wrote this: I think Apple has outsmarted itself with the T2 chip and probably needs new blood in it’s OSX development department. Part of their approach is to make it harder and harder for third party providers to repair Apple product.

With this coronavirus, his small business is essentially shut-down……

OK back to the main topic: Anyone hearing anything about a fix here-- appreciate hearing anything!

Best regards,

Steve Schulte

Thursday 9 April 2020

Thank you so much for posting this!! I have immediately gone to the ENERGY SAVER systems preferences panel and set my Mac Mini just like you indicated. Let's see!

I now have my screensaver starting after 5 minutes and the display turning-off after 30 minutes. But as you indicated I checked to prevent my Mac Mini from going to sleep.

I'll report back later today or tomorrow on this.

Still have heard nothing back from Apple -- but again, they could be working on this and not be informing each individual who has contacted them.

It would also be interesting to hear from anyone who is running Catalina -- whether they've had this issue and whether the new update to Catalina solves this issue if they've had it.

Thanks again!

Best regards,

Steve Schulte

Thursday 9 April 2020

Same here for me also, 2018 Macmini (Mojave 10.14.6) has been running flawlessly for almost 2 years now.I put it to sleep overnight almost every night and do a hard shutdown every few days or so..

But after that Security update 2020-002/ Safari 13.1 update I cannot put the computer to sleep any more, it restarts itself each time and that error message appears.

After reading how many people are having this issue I hope Apple can release a fix as we al don't need this kind of problem now.

…just a side question out of curiosity:

Since the Catalina 10.15.4 Supplemental Update came out, I notice that Software Update does not longer show the red Update flag for the Catalina Upgrade. When I do a manual search, Software Update comes up with a somewhat strange "macOS Catalina - (null) - 8,23 GB" result. Anyone else?

(Mac mini 2018 - Mojave 10.14.6)

Has anyone heard anything more about this? It is nearly 1 month since Apple released the Apple Security UpDate 2020-002 which is causing restarts / kernel panics with many Macs -- including my Mac Mini running Mojave 10.14.6 -- I have written repeatedly -- will try to telephone later this week but I've seen nothing in the press or anywhere except here and the MacRumors discussion site about this issue.

Looking forward to an UpDate from Roger or Luca or any others.

Thanks very much!

Steve on Tuesday 21 April 2020 12:41

Roger,

Thanks for the reply & UpDate! One thing that has helped me is not restarting / shutting-down my Mac Mini nor letting it go into SLEEP mode. If I do those 2 things then no Kernel Panics and no little "we've got a problem" notes. But that is not a long-term solution-- I'll try to telephone Apple today or tomorrow.

Anything I hear I will post here!

Have a safe week and hopefully a solution from Apple soon… It's been over 4 weeks - rather strange that this has not been at least "mentioned" a few places.

Best regards,

Steve Schulte

Wednesday 22 April 2020

Hello Stephen,

you're welcome!

My decision so far was to switch to Firefox to circumvent the sleep and shut down Kernel Panics. (Don't want to have the computer "always on"). Nevertheless, I need to have the eGPU "always on" or need to shut it down before I'm booting the computer to avoid macOS crashes while disconnecting.

There are various threads in various places that discuss the issues, but I doubt we will ever see a statement by Apple. Only an update that fixes the problems will most likely have some "indicators" in the Update-ReadMe, that let us users know that there have been some "issues".

All the best for you,

cheers,

Roger

hi all.

I have had issues after updating my iMac 12.1 to, 2020-002, with random shutdown, no bluetooth, mouse not detected even though its plugged directly into the iMac. I have wiped the hard drive and changed the hard drive from a 512gb ssd to a 256gb ssd and the problem seems to be fixed to the firmware and not the hard drive.

all drives from the iMac work on my Mac Pro 5.1 without issue (which has not been updated to 2020-002), so I can only conclude this update has caused an issue with the iMac firmware.

The iMac doesn't stay on long enough to download any fresh updates, if they where available, so I am stuck with a very big paper weight. any help would be much appreciated.

yours.

One very unhappy Mac user.

Roger,

GREAT NEWS!! How did you hear about this? Where? I've been looking but found nothing so far… I was planning to contact Apple Support, but now will wait a few more days as my "fix" of not putting my Mac Mini with 10.14.6 into SLEEP mode seems to be working fine.

Stay in touch and if I learn anything I'll post it here immediately!

Have a safe weekend coming-up!

Steve

Friday 15 May 2020