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Catalina 10.15.4 Supplemental Update Has Issues

The 8 April 2020 Supplemental Update for Catalina 10.15.4 brought the system down for a few hours. Since the screen only showed a white apple on the screen for the whole time I shut it down and restarted it. I got a thick white circle with a thick white line through it in the middle of the screen, the same size as the apple usually is. Repeated shut downs did nothing. Could not go to safe mode without the circle and line so I went to Recovery Mode, ran the Disk Utilities First Aid and then rebooted again. My screen came up and I was able to sign in. I had a notice that the update was available for installation. I am not going to do that since it appears it is not going to work on my iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017). Is this a temporary issue or should I ignore all further updates?

iMac 27" 5K, 10.15

Posted on Apr 8, 2020 7:42 PM

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Posted on Apr 10, 2020 10:18 AM

I have the exact same model iMac as you, and the supplemental update was also a problem for me. Had the black boot screen with white Apple logo up for an hour and a half (no progress bar) before I shut it down by holding in the power button and pulled the plug from the back. After a minute, plugged it back in and powered it up. This time got an Apple logo with a progress bar that eventually showed 30 minutes estimated, quickly followed by a 15 minute estimate, and right around that time the installation completed and I could log in. And every Catalina update gives me that Relocated Items folder, even though I delete the alias and the actual folder.


Catalina has been the first macOS that has been a problem for me, but a spotty problem. The first installation was a nightmare, but the other updates all went as expected, up until this supplemental update.

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Apr 10, 2020 10:18 AM in response to tim01

I have the exact same model iMac as you, and the supplemental update was also a problem for me. Had the black boot screen with white Apple logo up for an hour and a half (no progress bar) before I shut it down by holding in the power button and pulled the plug from the back. After a minute, plugged it back in and powered it up. This time got an Apple logo with a progress bar that eventually showed 30 minutes estimated, quickly followed by a 15 minute estimate, and right around that time the installation completed and I could log in. And every Catalina update gives me that Relocated Items folder, even though I delete the alias and the actual folder.


Catalina has been the first macOS that has been a problem for me, but a spotty problem. The first installation was a nightmare, but the other updates all went as expected, up until this supplemental update.

Apr 10, 2020 11:02 AM in response to David Bisi

If I decide to try the update again I'll pull the plug, too. But right now I am happy that I have the iMac back up and running and can pay bills and do all those other things I have to do with the iMac. I was even looking at refurbished ones today thinking I may have to find a backup since I am worried that my 2017 iMac is not functioning correctly. I never deleted the Relocated items folder. Your note got me to do some more research on the Relocated Files issue. Found a thread here that added some additional information about Catalina Issues, https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251165043. Thanks for the additional info.

Apr 11, 2020 8:27 AM in response to Jurgenbrune

Solved the problem:

10.15.4 Supplemental Update was not working.  Mac Mini 2018 went through the motions but after restart, the upgrade was not done and the OS flagged to do the same update again.


Performed a T2 Firmware revive/restore with Configurator2, as described here:

https://support.apple.com/guide/apple-configurator-2/revive-or-restore-mac-firmware-apdebea5be51/mac


Configurator terminated with an error „cannot restore... timed out“, yet it apparently updated the firmware from 1037.100.359.0.0 (iBridge: 17.16.14263.0.0,0) to 1037.100.362.0.0 (iBridge: 17.16.14281.0.0,0). This appears to be the latest and is identical to what I have on my 2019 MBP 16 in.


After that, 10.15.4 Supplemental Update went fine. “Your Mac is up to date”

Apr 13, 2020 8:03 AM in response to bo6340

**Update**


Revived the MPB 2018 15" using the "Revive the firmware on the Apple T2 Chip" with the Apple Configurator 2 which can be downloaded from the App store. The method I used was: connect the bricked MBP to an iMac via USB-C cable and followed the instructions on the link below under the section, "Revive the firmware on the Apple T2 Chip".


https://support.apple.com/guide/apple-configurator-2/revive-or-restore-mac-firmware-apdebea5be51/mac

May 5, 2020 9:07 AM in response to tim01

I have pretty much an identical problem - with iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014) - since upgrading to 10.15.4 Supplemental Update. In my case the system boots up and then after sometime (hour or so) crashes back to the Prohibited (No Entry) Sign Screen - like the following


https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT210901


From Recovery Mode I have run Disk Utility (Disk is Clean, SMART status is verified), Have re-installed MacOS (at first thought this had fixed it) but it always drops back to the same screen. Today ran Etrecheck and that indicates that I could have a failing disk - but given the number of people with same problem I suspect the update is the root cause...


This was the discussion I opened


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251334078

May 12, 2020 8:11 AM in response to WynneChang

ps. my MAC was bought in 2018. How long will be fixed those bug?

I have a 2018 Mac that doesn't display any of those problems.

The "bug" in your Mac will be fixed when you figure out what you have installed that is causing the problems.


For power issues, do an SMC reset.

I don't know what might cause Preview to crash. Try running it while booted into Safe Mode, and also in another user account (Guest is sufficient).


Apr 15, 2020 11:23 AM in response to IkechukwuNwanze

Quick update:


  1. Was able to restore my bricked 2018 MBP 13 using Apple Configurator 2 using a lot of trial and error. Lots of failed attempts! This unfortunately meant wiping the unit though.
  2. You can do this, provided you have another Mac that is running Catalina and follow the correct steps as people have been posting. Be aware - this wipes everything!
  3. Apple actually reached out to me to discuss the issue in detail, so while their presence may not be felt on here, they're definitely taking this one serious.


Good luck everyone! Not a good experience.

Apr 8, 2020 9:06 PM in response to Gubi

So after waiting a while I forced a power cycle. Got the normal password login screen, but about halfway through the boot process after sign in it kicked over to "Reinstall MacOS" mode. Went through the reinstall process and is now booting normally.


I can't tell if the supplemental update is installed but it's not showing any available updates. This was all on a 2012 iMac, my wife's 2020 MacBook Air handled the update without issue.

Apr 8, 2020 9:22 PM in response to Gubi

From your description it seems the update didn't go well, at least initially. That's always a possibility, and all the more reason for having a backup. If something is going to fail (even hardware) there is a greater likelihood of it happening during an update or upgrade, and always at the worst possible time.

Apr 8, 2020 11:04 PM in response to tim01

I too had got this issue, after restart.

There was the white screen with mouse brick. But i forcefully restarted it.


Ran through the update installation which took more than half an hour. But alas, it is successful .


The only issue i got after update, while charging laptop, both of the mouse trackpad side gets vibration on & off coming as intermediately with regular intervals though. Raised this issue with CC though.

Apr 9, 2020 5:21 AM in response to Gubi

I see by the responses that some people had the same or similar issue and some had no issues at all. I did do a Time Machine backup prior to attempting the update. I was going to do the "Reinstall MacOS" if the Utilities First Aid didn't fix it, but after the First Aid and reboot, the system came back up. I will wait until later today to attempt the that update again.


Thanks again for all the responses

Catalina 10.15.4 Supplemental Update Has Issues

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