1. 10.15.1 Catalina Update Fail. I had 14.5gb free when I went to update this afternoon but got sent into an update loop after the install failed because I didnt have enough space. Just got off the phone after 2hrs with support. We tried the recovery mode first aid, tried reverting to 10.15 and tried clearing space with terminal but nothing worked.
2. MacOS Catalina 10.15.5 introduces battery health management in the Energy Saver settings for notebooks, a new option to disable automatic prominence in Group FaceTime calls, and controls to fine-tune the built-in calibration of your Pro Display XDR. The update also improves the stability, reliability, and security of your Mac.

If you're using one of these computers with OS X Mavericks or later, you can install macOS Catalina. Your Mac also needs at least 4GB of memory and 12.5GB of available storage space, or up to 18.5GB of storage space when upgrading from OS X Yosemite or earlier. Learn how to upgrade to macOS Catalina.

The update to Big Sur from Catalina completely failed mid-cycle and bricked my MacBook Pro that originally had Sierra on it. I tried to get into recovery OS but couldn't even unlock the FileVault using my Apple ID correctly because of corruption.

MacBook Pro

• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2018, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016)

• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
• MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
• MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)
• MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)
• MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014)
• MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)
• MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)
• MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013)
• MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2013)
• MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012)
• MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)

MacBook Air

• MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2020)
• MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2019)
• MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2018)
• MacBook Air (13-inch, 2017)
• MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2015)
• MacBook Air (11-inch, Early 2015)

• MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014)
• MacBook Air (11-inch, Early 2014)
• MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2013)
• MacBook Air (11-inch, Mid 2013)
• MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2012)
• MacBook Air (11-inch, Mid 2012)

MacBook

• MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, 2017)
• MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2016)

Os X Catalina Update Failed

iMac Pro

iMac

• iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020)
• iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2019)
• iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2019)
• iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017)
• iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2017)
• iMac (21.5-inch, 2017)
• iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)
• iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, Late 2015)
• iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2015)

• iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Mid 2015)
• iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014)
• iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2014)
• iMac (27-inch, Late 2013)
• iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013)
• iMac (27-inch, Late 2012)
• iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2012)

Mac mini

Mac Pro

11 May 2021 Update: I have discovered that an easy fix for this was replacing the RAM. I had bought non APPLE ram for my Mac Mini and although the RAM was working fine, I believe during the update process, Apple checks hardware and the RAM was causing issues. This has been confirmed by my local Apple Store and I have since replaced the RAM with another set from a different third party and everything is working smoothly.

On June 22, Apple introduced macOS Big Sur and till this very date I have mixed feelings on this recent release. However, I noticed that my beloved 2012 Mac mini is no longer supported. This means macOS Catalina will be the last Mac operating system to support my Mac mini. What was surprising to me, I had not updated my Mac mini from Mojave to Catalina. So, I updated it, and this happened:

There are several solutions that were recommended, but none I found convincing. I did not want to lose any data, and I did not want to start from scratch on this Mac as It has been running for years and does all kinds of things and workflows that will be too time consuming to re-setup.

My solution

You will need:

• Another Mac other than the one that has this issue (in my case 2016 MacBook Pro)
• External drive (I used my Samsung T5 SSD) formatted in APFS
• SuperDuper : best macOS backup app

Solution: Use another Mac to update from Mojave to Catalina. The entire process took 3 hours.

Catalina Update Failed Without

The following worked for me:

Step One: Make a SuperDuper backup of the Mac mini on the Samsung T5. Now your Samsung T5 is the replica of macOS that was running on your Mac mini.

Step Two:Connect the Samsung T5 to MacBook Pro. The Samsung T5 will show up as external hard drive on the MacBook Pro.

Step Three:Download the macOS Catalina on the MacBook Pro. It's an 8gb file so grab a drink or watch your favourite TV show.

Step Four: Run the Catalina installer on the MacBook Pro. When the installer asks which hard drive to install in, select the Samsung T5 external hard drive. The installation will take some time and your MacBook will restart many times. Once the installation has been successful, shutdown your MacBook and remove the Samsung T5.

Step Five: Boot Mac mini from the external drive by using Startup Disk option. The idea is to use the external drive to boot your Mac mini to confirm that the Catalina update is working on the Mac mini.

Step Six:Use SuperDuper to transfer from Samsung T5 to the Mac mini hard drive. You do this by backing up the Samsung T5 to the existing hard drive on the Mac mini.

Step Seven:Once the above SuperDuper process is complete, boot your Mac mini from your Mac mini hard drive using Startup Disk option

Step Eight:Enjoy Catalina without losing any data or reinstalling anything.

This method worked for me. Should you require any clarification, please contact me on @MereCivilian or email me: [email protected]