MacOS Sequoia 15.4.1 Extremely Buggy

[Tenarrows]

My iMac has been extremely buggy and I believe these issues might have started with the latest OS update.

(1) iPhone Mirroring fails to connect most of the time. I receive an error message instead. I tried closing and reopening the app.
(2) Messages app which I leave open but minimized closes on its own in the background.
(3) Mail App in doc stopped showing the number of new emails.
(4) iMac has crashed at least one time.

There maybe other issues but those are the ones that come to mind. Ive tried restarting the computer, scan disc and first aide and neither has resolved these issues. Are these known bugs with the latest OS and are there any fixes?

My specs as listed in the subject line are MacOS Sequoia 15.4.1.

Thanks in advance.

 

[TonyAguila]

My iMac has been extremely buggy and I believe these issues might have started with the latest OS update.

(1) iPhone Mirroring fails to connect most of the time. I receive an error message instead. I tried closing and reopening the app.
(2) Messages app which I leave open but minimized closes on its own in the background.
(3) Mail App in doc stopped showing the number of new emails.
(4) iMac has crashed at least one time.

There maybe other issues but those are the ones that come to mind. Ive tried restarting the computer, scan disc and first aide and neither has resolved these issues. Are these known bugs with the latest OS and are there any fixes?

My specs as listed in the subject line are MacOS Sequoia 15.4.1.

Thanks in advance.

What method did you use to perform the update? I experience none of the issues you listed above, and I’m running macOS 15.4.1 (24E263) on my Mac16,9. #1 to #3 on your list are working flawlessly and #4, I haven’t experienced a single crash since I started running it almost two weeks ago. I’m so pleased at how it’s working right now that I’m tempted to install the latest beta version of Sequoia, macOS 15.5 beta 4 (24F5068b) … but maybe not yet. In a couple of weeks, perhaps.

You may want to reinstall Sequoia, and you may have to do it through Recovery because I don’t know yet of any place where you can download the installer app by itself. … But I just checked on Terminal and it looks like macOS Sequoia, Version: 15.4.1 is now available for download. For all you know, a reinstall might be all you need to fix your issues. Good luck.

 

[Lufbrarunner]

I updated to Sequoia 15.4.1 as soon as it was available and have had no problems at all.
As Tony suggests a reinstall may well solve your problems.

 

[TonyAguila]

By the way, Terminal.app shows 15.4.1 on the “available for download” list. However, when invoking the download command, it reports that the file is not available. Recovery might be your only recourse for reinstalling Sequoia.

 

[Tenarrows]

Thanks for the responses. Good to know others are not having the same issues and this also helps isolate the issue with my computer. Not sure I want to do a full reinstall for a few buggy issues as annoying as they are.

But if I choose to do a reinstall how do I go about doing that and does it wipe away my prefs and settings?

 

[TonyAguila]

Thanks for the responses. Good to know others are not having the same issues and this also helps isolate the issue with my computer. Not sure I want to do a full reinstall for a few buggy issues as annoying as they are.

But if I choose to do a reinstall how do I go about doing that and does it wipe away my prefs and settings?

I guarantee you that those few buggy issues will prove to be not merely annoying but can lead to even more bugs and even catastrophe. macOS consists of thousands of files that are constantly running, being read, saved, rewritten, etc., so much so that it’s practically impossible to guarantee that none of them will be saved or written over perfectly 100% of the time. Over time, errors, mostly impossible to detect, will start to accumulate until they start to show up as part of those “issues” you are experiencing. Whenever unexpected quits/crashes happen, I immediately send the crash report to Apple (if you are registered as a Developer or Public beta tester), and if the crash persists, or feels major enough, I will usually opt to reinstall macOS. If you are able to download a copy of your present system’s installer file, you should always keep a copy of it for situations such as this. If the download is not yet available, as macOS 15.4.1 (24E263) is presently, the only recourse is to reboot into Recovery and reinstall from there.

I would not allow these “issues” to persist because they can only start to get worse until you get to a place when you can’t even start your Mac in order to perform any kind of repair. In my experience, and without new updates available, I probably do a macOS reinstall about once a month, not out of experiencing crashes or anything of the sort, but simply for routine maintenance. Of course, backing up is always vital. I have three Time Machine drives regularly backing up every hour, and in addition, regular clones of all my data using Carbon Copy Cloner. I used to be an Apple Authorized AppleCare tech and the great majority of the work involved having to reinstall data, assuming there was no hardware problem, and the majority of the time, no sufficient backup was available and the owner would be left with a “brand new” macOS system with no backup to retrieve from. Sad…

And with this method, i.e. migration, all your “prefs and settings” will be restored completely. Hence, the name “Recovery.”

If you were to make it a routine—reinstalling macOS regularly, I’m sure you will begin to enjoy the experience—not only from learning new tricks, but also from the peace of mind it will bring. If you’re not quite ready to perform it, you should at least get the hang of booting into Recovery, familiarizing yourself with the various utilities (Disk Utility, Safari in Recovery, macOS reinstall, etc.) before actually performing it. Don’t forget Time Machine backups beforehand, and a backup copy of your present system to migrate your data from.

 

[John Sankey]

My iMac has been extremely buggy and I believe these issues might have started with the latest OS update.

(1) iPhone Mirroring fails to connect most of the time. I receive an error message instead. I tried closing and reopening the app.
(2) Messages app which I leave open but minimized closes on its own in the background.
(3) Mail App in doc stopped showing the number of new emails.
(4) iMac has crashed at least one time.

There maybe other issues but those are the ones that come to mind. Ive tried restarting the computer, scan disc and first aide and neither has resolved these issues. Are these known bugs with the latest OS and are there any fixes?

My specs as listed in the subject line are MacOS Sequoia 15.4.1.

Thanks in advance.

I'm getting a lot of bugs too with 15.4.1
TextEdit has done wierd repositions starting a month ago when I click on a place I want to edit, and recently notifications are vanishing by sliding off the screen to the right within a second after they've been posted. All settings are what they are supposed to be in Setting/Notifications. I've even tried a Malwarebytes scan - it came up emptyhanded. I'm going to try updating to the next version in hopes that I get some relief from problems like this.

 

[John Sankey]

I'm getting a lot of bugs too with 15.4.1
TextEdit has done wierd repositions starting a month ago when I click on a place I want to edit, and recently notifications are vanishing by sliding off the screen to the right within a second after they've been posted. All settings are what they are supposed to be in Setting/Notifications. I've even tried a Malwarebytes scan - it came up emptyhanded. I'm going to try updating to the next version in hopes that I get some relief from problems like this.

Well, I've upgraded to 15.7.1 and the upgrade says everything went fine. The problem with notifications not appearing has not been solved. And, now my TimeMachine disc is not being recognized (not mounting) when I plug it in as I always have before.

 

[TonyAguila]

Well, I've upgraded to 15.7.1 and the upgrade says everything went fine. The problem with notifications not appearing has not been solved. And, now my TimeMachine disc is not being recognized (not mounting) when I plug it in as I always have before.

What is the model of your Mac and you mentioned updating to 15.7.1. What version of macOS were you running before the update? And what method did you use to install the update?

 

[TonyAguila]

I updated to Sequoia 15.4.1 as soon as it was available and have had no problems at all.
As Tony suggests a reinstall may well solve your problems.

I’m glad somebody agrees with me, finally! Just kidding. By the way, macOS 15.7.1, build 24G231, was just announced today. Not a beta version, so this should be very stable. The only caveat is if you have older versions of 3rd-party apps that have not been updated for 15.7.1.

Also announced today is an update for XProtectPlistConfigData, Version: 5317, which may not be automatically updated with macOS 15.7.1, depending on the method used for the update. XProtect is a vital feature of macOS and should stay up-to-date.

 

[John Sankey]

What is the model of your Mac and you mentioned updating to 15.7.1. What version of macOS were you running before the update? And what method did you use to install the update?

15.4.1 (this thread). iMac 24" M1 2021 Downloaded .pkg from Apple site, ran it. All other peripherals (cameras etc.) seem to be connecting fine, it's just my backup disk that is being ignored. And, all notifications are still missing.
Addendum: Time Machine works even though no disc mount is visible. OK, so how do I dismount the disc to keep it safe for the next month? Before, I clicked on the disc image and hit Command/E, but now there's no image to click on...

 

[TonyAguila]

15.4.1 (this thread). iMac 24" M1 2021 Downloaded .pkg from Apple site, ran it. All other peripherals (cameras etc.) seem to be connecting fine, it's just my backup disk that is being ignored. And, all notifications are still missing.

Okay, Mactracker reports that your iMac model identifier is either iMac21,2 (2-ports), or iMac21,1 (4-ports), and that the maximum OS is the “Latest release of macOS,” which I take to mean version 15.7.1. It’s difficult to ascertain where the conflict is coming from if your version is not up-to-date. If you want to try updating, I suggest doing it from Recovery, or at least from Safe Mode.

If you just want to know which version you can run, you can also do it from Terminal (located in /Applications/Utilities/). Start Terminal.app and at the prompt enter this command:

softwareupdate -l --include-config-data

That’s a single dash before the lower case L and two dashes before “include.” Press return and it should list the updates available to you. If it looks right, you can do the update directly from Terminal with this command:

sudo softwareupdate -i -a -R

Press return, type in your admin password, press return and the installation should start. If you’re not comfortable with this method, you can cancel and quit and do the update from System Settings. The point is, if you are not running the newest version of macOS, it will be difficult to pinpoint the source of the problems. Updating from Terminal is very powerful. This morning I learned of an update to XProtect but System Settings did not find it, but Terminal did. As the saying goes, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.”

By the way, if MacTracker is correct regarding your iMac being able to run the latest version of macOS, you might even be able to install macOS Tahoe. I’m running macOS 26.0.1 (25A362) and no bugs to report… yet.

 

[John Sankey]

Okay, Mactracker reports that your iMac model identifier is either iMac21,2 (2-ports), or iMac21,1 (4-ports), and that the maximum OS is the “Latest release of macOS,” which I take to mean version 15.7.1. It’s difficult to ascertain where the conflict is coming from if your version is not up-to-date. If you want to try updating, I suggest doing it from Recovery, or at least from Safe Mode.

If you just want to know which version you can run, you can also do it from Terminal (located in /Applications/Utilities/). Start Terminal.app and at the prompt enter this command:

softwareupdate -l --include-config-data

That’s a single dash before the lower case L and two dashes before “include.” Press return and it should list the updates available to you. If it looks right, you can do the update directly from Terminal with this command:

sudo softwareupdate -i -a -R

Press return, type in your admin password, press return and the installation should start. If you’re not comfortable with this method, you can cancel and quit and do the update from System Settings. The point is, if you are not running the newest version of macOS, it will be difficult to pinpoint the source of the problems. Updating from Terminal is very powerful. This morning I learned of an update to XProtect but System Settings did not find it, but Terminal did. As the saying goes, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.”

By the way, if MacTracker is correct regarding your iMac being able to run the latest version of macOS, you might even be able to install macOS Tahoe. I’m running macOS 26.0.1 (25A362) and no bugs to report… yet.

Where is this Recovery option that you and others are talking about? I can't find it.
And, in About This Mac, there is no mention of number of ports on my machine...
I also can't find any setting that would make all notifications pop on the top right of the screen then within a second slide off the screen to the right, which is why I've been assuming it's a bug introduced by a virus

 

[TonyAguila]

Where is this Recovery option that you and others are talking about? I can't find it.
And, in About This Mac, there is no mention of number of ports on my machine...
I also can't find any setting that would make all notifications pop on the top right of the screen then within a second slide off the screen to the right, which is why I've been assuming it's a bug introduced by a virus

It has been over a decade since I last worked on iMacs before I gave up my Authorized AppleCare Service Provider status, so I’m not 100% sure about the controls and ports. But I would think that booting into Recovery would still be the same, in general, for all Macs. Try it yourself. Shut down completely, with the iMac connected to power, keyboard, mouse (or trackpad) and internet, press and hold on the power button. Keep holding until the screen comes to life and you should see the icon for your drive (probably “Macintosh HD,” and other connected drives, and finally the icon for Options. Click on Options and you should go into Recovery. You will be shown choices including Disk Utility and (not sure of the label) the choice to reinstall macOS. At this point, make sure your Wi-Fi and keyboard icons are also active on the upper right corner. Check your connection and enter your password in case it does not connect by default.

Go into the option to reinstall macOS. You should be able to easily go through the steps. If everything goes well, you should end up restarting and rebooting to your updated installation of macOS.

If you choose to reboot into Safe Mode instead, then from the initial startup screen, click on your internal drive (Macintosh HD, probably), press shift to change it to Safe Mode, continue until you end up with your startup screen but with no startup items. This will make it easier to install macOS, be it from a saved installer file, or from other means. The main purpose of Safe Mode is to disable all other unnecessary processes from running so you can install the system update without conflicts.

You may want to try these alternatives just to familiarize yourself with the steps so you can decide on how to proceed in what you feel most comfortable with. The most important thing is BACKUP. More than one TM backup is good insurance. I maintain three, along with Carbon Copy Clones of all my internal and external drives/volumes. Good lock, and have fun!

 

[John Sankey]

It has been over a decade since I last worked on iMacs before I gave up my Authorized AppleCare Service Provider status, so I’m not 100% sure about the controls and ports. But I would think that booting into Recovery would still be the same, in general, for all Macs. Try it yourself. Shut down completely, with the iMac connected to power, keyboard, mouse (or trackpad) and internet, press and hold on the power button. Keep holding until the screen comes to life and you should see the icon for your drive (probably “Macintosh HD,” and other connected drives, and finally the icon for Options. Click on Options and you should go into Recovery. You will be shown choices including Disk Utility and (not sure of the label) the choice to reinstall macOS. At this point, make sure your Wi-Fi and keyboard icons are also active on the upper right corner. Check your connection and enter your password in case it does not connect by default.

Go into the option to reinstall macOS. You should be able to easily go through the steps. If everything goes well, you should end up restarting and rebooting to your updated installation of macOS.

If you choose to reboot into Safe Mode instead, then from the initial startup screen, click on your internal drive (Macintosh HD, probably), press shift to change it to Safe Mode, continue until you end up with your startup screen but with no startup items. This will make it easier to install macOS, be it from a saved installer file, or from other means. The main purpose of Safe Mode is to disable all other unnecessary processes from running so you can install the system update without conflicts.

You may want to try these alternatives just to familiarize yourself with the steps so you can decide on how to proceed in what you feel most comfortable with. The most important thing is BACKUP. More than one TM backup is good insurance. I maintain three, along with Carbon Copy Clones of all my internal and external drives/volumes. Good lock, and have fun!

Tony, I tried Recovery, first time without Safe Mode, the second time with it. Both times it failed after half an hour with "PKDownload Error 8." Since I have a good copy of the 15.7.1 .pkg on my disc, I'll try to find out how I can use it in Safe Mode instead of the online download SafeMode insisted on going into.

I keep a USB stick copy of my user directory in addition to TM; but all of these of course are from 15.4.1 not the new version...

 

[TonyAguila]

Tony, I tried Recovery, first time without Safe Mode, the second time with it. Both times it failed after half an hour with "PKDownload Error 8." Since I have a good copy of the 15.7.1 .pkg on my disc, I'll try to find out how I can use it in Safe Mode instead of the online download SafeMode insisted on going into.

I keep a USB stick copy of my user directory in addition to TM; but all of these of course are from 15.4.1 not the new version...

It’s starting to look like this could be a hardware problem and it could get worse the more times you try to get it to work. You should look for an AASP (Apple Authorized Service Provider) near you, or an Apple Store. As long as you have reliable backup, they can completely wipe the iMac and restore it in “brand new” state so that you can restore your data yourself afterwards. I can only wish you good luck since when I had my 2018 Mini repaired by them, the first time I picked it up it was missing screws inside (I noticed the rattling as I was carrying it to the car). Of course they had (silly) excuses, like they said they were waiting for new screws to come in. They were really stupid enough to think that I would be even more stupid to believe them. At the Genius Bar! Again, good luck.

 

[John Sankey]

It’s starting to look like this could be a hardware problem and it could get worse the more times you try to get it to work. You should look for an AASP (Apple Authorized Service Provider) near you, or an Apple Store. As long as you have reliable backup, they can completely wipe the iMac and restore it in “brand new” state so that you can restore your data yourself afterwards. I can only wish you good luck since when I had my 2018 Mini repaired by them, the first time I picked it up it was missing screws inside (I noticed the rattling as I was carrying it to the car). Of course they had (silly) excuses, like they said they were waiting for new screws to come in. They were really stupid enough to think that I would be even more stupid to believe them. At the Genius Bar! Again, good luck.

Many thanks, Tony. I began by making a backup of my user directory to a 2TB USB stick. Instead of two hours, it took 23, with the disk chattering like a chipmunk the whole time. (I've often heard un-defragged Windows disks chattering like that, but never before any of my iMacs.) Obviously a hardware problem somewhere, so off I go to the local Apple Support Center. When/if it gets fixed, I'll let you know here.

 

[TonyAguila]

Many thanks, Tony. I began by making a backup of my user directory to a 2TB USB stick. Instead of two hours, it took 23, with the disk chattering like a chipmunk the whole time. (I've often heard un-defragged Windows disks chattering like that, but never before any of my iMacs.) Obviously a hardware problem somewhere, so off I go to the local Apple Support Center. When/if it gets fixed, I'll let you know here.

Depending on what your Mac is capable of running, the latest non-beta version of Sequoia is Sequoia 15.7 (24G222), or maybe better if your Mac is upgradeable, macOS Tahoe 26.0.1 (25A362). For me, a number of apps that didn’t quite work in Sequoia are now working better in Tahoe. One instance is Creative Cloud, for months or maybe year(s), could not not sync its libraries without manual intervention. I depend a lot on Adobe products so it was a major concern. But with Tahoe, the issue resolved itself like it never happened. macOS 26.0.1 was so stable that I tried the latest beta version, macOS 26.1 beta 2, and it works even better! As always, your mileage may vary.

 

[John Sankey]

Depending on what your Mac is capable of running, the latest non-beta version of Sequoia is Sequoia 15.7 (24G222), or maybe better if your Mac is upgradeable, macOS Tahoe 26.0.1 (25A362). For me, a number of apps that didn’t quite work in Sequoia are now working better in Tahoe. One instance is Creative Cloud, for months or maybe year(s), could not not sync its libraries without manual intervention. I depend a lot on Adobe products so it was a major concern. But with Tahoe, the issue resolved itself like it never happened. macOS 26.0.1 was so stable that I tried the latest beta version, macOS 26.1 beta 2, and it works even better! As always, your mileage may vary.

I went to our local Apple "Genius Bar". They found zero hardware problems but a lot of stuff in memory outside of that used by apps. They zero'd memory, then reinstalled 15.7.1 It's all worked (whew!) and I'm back up, with no apparent errors (fingers crossed).