MacOS Catalina 10.15.6 Released, & Security Update 2020-004 for Mojave & High Sierra
Apple has released macOS Catalina 10.15.6, along with Security Update 2020-004 Mojave, and Security Update 2020-004 High Sierra.
MacOS Catalina 10.15.6 includes several bug fixes and security patches, and the Security Update 2020-004 for Mojave and High Sierra both include important security fixes for Mac users running macOS Mojave and macOS High Sierra.
Separately, Apple also released updates of iOS 13.6 for iPhone and iPadOS 13.6 for iPad, along with small updates to watchOS and tvOS.
How to Download & Install MacOS Catalina 10.15.6 Update
Be sure to backup the Mac with Time Machine before installing any updates to Mac system software.
- Go to the Apple menu, then select “System Preferences”
- Choose the “Software Update” preference panel
- Select to update to MacOS Catalina 10.15.6 update
The Mac will require sufficient free disk space to install the software update, and the computer will also need to reboot to complete the installation.
For Macs running MacOS Mojave and High Sierra, you’ll find Security Update 2020-004 available to download instead. Updating security updates is the same using Software Update in MacOS System Preferences.
MacOS Catalina 10.15.6 & Security Update 2020-004 Download Links
Aside from the Software Update mechanism, Mac users can also choose to install MacOS 10.15.6 or the security updates manually by a href=”http://osxdaily.com/2016/03/22/how-use-combo-update-mac-os-x/”>using a package or combo update with Mac OS, which is a pretty straightforward process.
- MacOS Catalina 10.15.6 Standard Update
- MacOS Catalina 10.15.6 Combo Update
- Security Update 2020-004 for High Sierra
- Security Update 2020-004 for MacOS Mojave
If you use the package installers, the Mac will still need to reboot to complete installation.
MacOS Catalina 10.15.6 Release Notes
Release notes included with MacOS Catalina 10.15.6 are as follows:
macOS Catalina 10.15.6 introduces local news in your Today feed in Apple News and improves the security and reliability of your Mac.
Apple News
Local news in your Today feed provides extensive coverage of San Francisco, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Houston, and New York City
More stories available from local news providers with a subscription to Apple News+
Your daily newsletter from Apple News can now be personalized with stories that reflect your interestsThis update also includes bug fixes and other improvements.
– Adds a new option to optimize video streaming on HDR-compatible Mac notebooks for improved battery life
– Fixes an issue where the computer name may change after installing a software update
– Resolves an issue where certain USB mouse and trackpads may lose connectionSome features may not be available for all regions, or on all Apple devices.
For detailed information about the security content of this update, please visit: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222
Aside from the Mac, Apple also released iOS 13.6 update for iPhone and iPadOS 13.6 update for iPad, along with watchOS 6.2.8 for Apple Watch and tvOS 13.4.8 for Apple TV.
It’s not completely fixed. Catalina 10.15.6 still has USB issues though less frequently. It still freezes on me several times a week and I have to reboot.
Forgive my double posting if the first one comes through…
I received a batch of 16″ MBPs. Their default install has 10.15.4. I’m having great difficulty updating them to 10.15.6.
I tried the Software Update mechanism, but it fails on 4 MBPs so far.
To avoid (company) network flooding issues, I downloaded the 10.15.6 combo update once to apply to all new MBPs. However, that fails too. Note that while running the updater pkg, I see similar network activity in Activity Monitor. So I guess the installer still goes out to fetch a fresh download from Apple. It also fails immediately if I shut off all network connections. What’s the use of an offline combo updater then? Or anyone knows how to prevent re-download using the combo updater?
I received a batch of 16″ MBPs. Their default install has 10.15.4. I’m having great difficulty updating them to 10.15.6.
I tried the Software Update mechanism, but it fails on 4 MBPs so far.
To avoid (company) network flooding issues, I downloaded the 10.15.6 combo update once to apply to all new MBPs. However, that fails too. Note that while running the updater pkg, I see similar network activity in Activity Monitor. So I guess the installer still goes out to fetch a fresh download from Apple. What’s the use of an offline combo updater then? Or anyone knows how to prevent re-download using the combo updater?
It appears all software updates require internet access nowadays, maybe it’s to verify the installers, who knows.
Apple develops all of their software and products in Cupertino California which has world-class amazing high-speed broadband internet access that is always on. Because of this, they seem to assume that everyone else is in the same situation, and thus almost everything on an Apple device requires high internet access now – iCloud, iCloud Photos, software updates, iCloud Desktop, iCloud Documents, etc etc etc – which is obviously frustrating to those of us who either have slow internet connections, unreliable internet connections, or want to use things offline.
Unfortunately you’ll probably just need to be online when you use the combo update on those Macs.
It appears my download problem boiled down to my Firewall inspecting the download too aggressively. Turned the feature off and now works like a charm.
Since updating to Catalina 10.15.6 I’ve had nothing but freezes every 30 minutes or so. I’ve found others having the same issue. Haven’t tried the combo install. Losing confidence in how these updates keep introducing issues.
Everything was fine with Catalina, made a backup before updating to 10.15.6, installed and now Apple Mail, Notes, Music and Microsoft Remote Desktop no longer launch. Removed plists, preferences, ran memory checks, scanned disk, reset pram, cleared cahe, cleared kexts etc… First time seeing something like this since OSX Lion =(
Any thoughts?
Hmm, that’s frustrating and you’ve already gone through a pretty good troubleshooting list. You could also try resetting SMC but that’s unlikely to help software issues with apps, but I sometimes do it for good measure when ruling out difficulties. What model and year is the Mac? Are you seeing any particular error messages? What does Console say or is it displaying any repeating errors or failures in system logs?
Some other things to try:
– Try rebooting into Safe Mode (hold SHIFT on boot) and see if the apps work from there
– Try creating a new user account and see if those apps open from that new user account, if so it suggests there’s something going on with the other user account or what’s loaded at boot/start/login for that user.
– Try reinstalling the macOS 10.15.6 update using the 10.15.6 Combo Update atop the existing installation, sometimes using a combo update over a funky update can fix it (sounds weird, I know).
– The final option is to rollback to the backup made before installing 10.15.6, but that’s obviously not ideal.
Good luck, let us know what you end up doing and if you find a resolution.
I tried it but had so many problems with it I’m back on High Serria.
ExpoBill
Me too; so many problems. I went back to Sierra.
So far Catalina has not been a favorite release. Sort of sad that were closing in on a Big Sur release and Catalina is just now feeling pretty stable.
For me it has worked great on both of my Macs. I have had no issues, and I’m what can be called a “power user”. I’m a systems engineer who specializes in Apple tech.
Catalina remains unstable for poweruse. Finder crashes irrevocably if a volume disconnects without unmounting; it is easy, too, to trigger a kernel panic by fiddling with AFP network shares; VoiceOver is buggier than ever, The kernel leaks memory, etc. The quality is going down by the release.