Last week, the Cupertino tech juggernaut Apple rolled out the macOS Catalina supplemental update for MacBooks. Based on its release notes, the update is designed to enhance the reliability, stability, and security of Macs while introducing several specific fixes for the issues caused by the 10.15.4 update, which was released in the latter part of Mar. 2020. However, several users are now complaining about the supplemental update with some right now dealing with major issues like crashing and bricking MacBooks.
MacOS 10.15.4 Supplemental Update
On Apple's discussion forums, one user claimed that MacOS Catalina 10.15.4 supplemental update brought down his system for a few hours. On Macrumors' forum, one user claimed that the recently launched supplemental update bricked his 2018 13-inch MacBook. Another one claimed that the nasty update bricked his 2019 MacBook Pro.
The MacBook pro owner also shared that he already tried resetting the SMC, but it would not accept it. Several other users aired their concerns about MacOS Catalina 10.15.4 on the App Store, claiming that the download link is not working. The new supplemental update was meant to solve problems caused by the 10.15.4 update, which was rolled out late last month.
Among the issues created by the previous update include system crashing when transferring large files. USB-C ports are unresponsive, kernel panics, random restarts, and inability to wake up when set in sleep mode. While the macOS 10.15.4 supplemental update may have fixed those issues, based on various users' complaints, it looks like it is making much worse issues.
What Should You Do?
For users who have not yet downloaded and installed the macOS Catalina 10.15.4, it is better not to install the latest update until Apple resolves the issues. One MacBook owner claimed that "I went to Recovery Mode, ran the Disk Utilities First Aid and then rebooted again," tim01 posted. "My screen came up, and I was able to sign in." But, if you are one of those users who have already installed the update and had your system stuck, Apple's discussion forums have a workaround for various issues courtesy of one user.
Sham_Robot_123 shares that "if you have the same problem as above, and want to install the latest version of Catalina. You can install it through the macOS Recovery mode. Simply follow the instructions on this help page: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204904. To install Catalina (the latest version), use the combination Option-⌘-R on your keyboard immediately after turning on your Mac. Then follow the rest of the instructions on the support page. Catalina was installed seamlessly on my machine using this method. The download only took around 1 hour with my average internet connection, and I had no problem.
