Malcolm Owen
Apple has issued a supplemental update for macOS Mojave 10.14.5 for users of the 15-inch MacBook Pro, a recommended download that fixes a problem associated with the built-in T2 Security Chip.
Posted to its support pages on Wednesday, the macOS Mojave 10.14.5 Supplemental Update for MacBook Pro is described as addressing a "firmware issue" that specifically affects versions of the 15-inch MacBook Pro equipped with the T2 Security Chip. This effectively covers all MacBook Pro models introduced since 2018.
The size of the supplemental update is 952.9 megabytes, and is downloadable from the support page directly rather than as a standard system update. Information about the actual contents of the update is unavailable at this time, as the Apple security updates page has yet to be updated.
It is unclear what exact issue the update fixes, but the T2 chip has been blamed for a number of problems since its introduction. The T2 chip has been found to block some third-party Mac repairs from being performed, may have caused errors for some MacBook Pro users installing macOS Mojave, kernel panics, and is also reportedly interfering with some professional audio interfaces.
The T2 chip handles a number of functions on behalf of the rest of macOS, including boot and security functions, faster disk encryption to the onboard flash storage, regulating fan speeds, managing the speakers, securing the built-in microphones, managing the image quality of the FaceTime camera, and powers the "Hey Siri" vocal prompts for Apple's digital assistant.
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12 Comments
It was 1.27Gb and I installed it via Settings/Software Update. I didn't have any issue that I was aware of before on my 2018 MBP and couldn't see any difference after the install.
Sometimes issues you'll never see even though there is an issue. Its all on the backend sometimes.
Hmm... since 10.14.5 my 2018 Mac mini has frozen up 4 times now (or maybe 5, I'm starting to lose count... it just happened a couple of hours ago, again).
It only issued a crash-log once, which I sent to Apple. The other times I just had to hold the power button, and it booted back up w/o a message (or seemingly any data-loss).
I wonder if such an issue with the T2 is broader than the MBP, but they just haven't gotten to it yet?
Since update to 10.14.5 my iMac frozen few times on login - never ever before. After long hold power button re-logged each time without visible problem. Something is not right there.