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Apple releases OS X 10.8.5 Mountain Lion maintenance update, fixes Mail and file transfers

Apple on Thursday released the latest 10.8.5 maintenance update for its current Mountain Lion operating system, bringing a host of bug fixes and performance improvements including a fix for Mail.

After months of beta testing, Apple has finally released the latest OS X 10.8.5 maintenance update, bringing fixes to Mail, file transfers over 802.11ac Wi-Fi and other minor bugs. Performance enhancements are also included for large file transfers over Ethernet and improvements that were first rolled out with the MacBook Air Software Update 1.0 in July.

From the release notes:

About the update

The OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.5 Update is recommended for all OS X Mountain Lion users. It improves the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac. This update:

  • Fixes an issue that may prevent Mail from displaying messages
  • Improves AFP file transfer performance over 802.11ac Wi-Fi
  • Resolves an issue that may prevent a screen saver from starting automatically
  • Improves Xsan reliability
  • Improves reliability when transferring large files over Ethernet
  • Improves performance when authenticating to an Open Directory server
  • Addresses an issue that prevented a smart card from unlocking preference panes in System Preferences
  • Contains the improvements included in MacBook Air (Mid 2013) Software Update 1.0

Further details regarding the changes can be found on Apple's Support Website, while security notes can be found here.

The update is recommended for all users and can be downloaded via Software Update.

Alongside the Mountain Lion update, Apple released security updates for OS S 10.6 Snow Leopard and 10.7 Lion, as well as RAW camera file support for a few new cameras such as the Leica M and Canon EOS 70D. The new software is also available for download via Software Update.