Apple Releases macOS Catalina 10.15.2 Update With Apple News Improvements, iPhone Remote Control Support for Music and TV Apps

Tuesday December 10, 2019 10:17 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released macOS Catalina 10.15.2, the second update to the ‌macOS Catalina‌ operating system that was originally released in October. ‌macOS Catalina‌ 10.15.2 comes over a month after the release of macOS Catalina 10.15.1.

‌‌macOS Catalina‌‌ can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for free using the Update feature in the System Preferences app, and it is available to anyone who has a compatible Mac.


There were no major new features found in ‌macOS Catalina‌ 10.15.2 during the beta testing period, but according to Apple's release notes, the update includes a new layout for Apple News+ new stories, introduces Stocks improvements, includes Music bug fixes, adds support for using an iPhone to remotely control the Music and TV apps on a Mac, includes Photos and Mail bug fixes, and more.

The ‌macOS Catalina‌ 10.15.2 update improves the stability, reliability and performance of your Mac and is recommended for all users. This update adds the following features:

‌Apple News‌
- New layout for ‌Apple News‌+ stories from The Wall Street Journal and other leading newspapers

Stocks
- Get links to related stories or more stories from the same publication at the end of an article
- “Breaking” and “Developing” labels for Top Stories
- Stories from ‌Apple News‌ are now available in Canada in English and French
- This update also includes the following bug fixes and improvements:

Music
- Restores the column browser view for managing the music library
- Resolves an issue that may prevent album artwork from appearing
- Fixes an issue that may reset music equalizer settings during playback

iTunes Remote
- Adds support for using an ‌iPhone‌ or iPad to remotely control the Music and TV apps on a Mac

‌Photos‌
- Resolves an issue that may cause some .AVI and .MP4 files to appear as unsupported
- Fixes an issue that prevents newly created folders from appearing in Albums view
- Addresses an issue where manually sorted images in an album may be printed or exported out of order
- Fixes an issue that prevents the zoom-to-crop tool from working in a print preview

Mail
- Addresses an issue that may cause Mail Preferences to open with a blank window
- Resolves an issue that may prevent using undo from retrieving deleted mail

Other
- Improves the reliability of syncing books and audiobooks to your ‌iPad‌ or ‌iPhone‌ through Finder
- Fixes an issue where reminders may be out of order in the Today smart list in the Reminders app
- Resolves an issue that may cause slow typing performance in the Notes app
For more on everything that's new in ‌macOS Catalina‌, make sure to check out our dedicated macOS Catalina roundup.

Related Roundup: macOS Catalina
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DinkThifferent
6 weeks ago
Battery life on my iMac is still terrible after this update
Rating: 15 Votes
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lunarworks
6 weeks ago


Music
- Restores the column browser view for managing the music library


THANK YOU
Rating: 14 Votes
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fhall1
6 weeks ago


Battery life on my iMac is still terrible after this update

You have a battery powered iMac???
Rating: 10 Votes
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chasemac
6 weeks ago
Restores column browser for managing music library!! Nice! Thank you!!
Rating: 10 Votes
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JimmyBanks6
6 weeks ago


I don't know if there has ever been a more useless app than the TV App on the Mac.

The only real purpose of it any more is the Up Next feature (since the entire rest of the app was turned into an advertising platform)...and that feature is worthless on the Mac since none of the connected services that exist on iOS are on the Mac.

You know what really bugs me?

TV App on Apple TV doesn't display a "Continue" or "Recently Played" section. It takes forever to find what you were last watching.

Whoever designed that app clearly never uses it.
Rating: 9 Votes
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sugargliderdude
6 weeks ago
going to be a few more releases before i touch Catalina
Rating: 8 Votes
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bigandtasty
6 weeks ago
Any idea if this addresses the popping in the 16" MBP speakers?
Rating: 5 Votes
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otternonsense
6 weeks ago
Haven't installed Catalina and most likely I won't until 10.15.4 is out
Rating: 5 Votes
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capekim
6 weeks ago


I got bit by the dreaded "empty email" bug last Friday in Mail. Any box with > 500 message or so listed all the messages, but none had actual contents. Spent about 15 hours restoring from backups. Time Machine was of no use as it doesn't seem to be working with Catalina Mail (and still doesn't -- most bizarre and reported to an Apple tech on a call).

So far, moving hundreds of emails between boxes isn't causing them to go AWOL, and that's really the only thing I can test for. So maybe it's fixed. Maybe. A least I have everything backed up in two archiving programs.

The undo-delete is back working, which is nice.

Still can't completely delete a mailbox -- message are nuked, but the box remains in the left-hand column.

Smart mailboxes still get jacked up with message counts. My Unread box is empty but says I have 100 unread messages. Trying to get ride of that # by rebuilding the index is what triggered my meltdown last week. Good times. Good times.


This is why I am waiting on Catalina. Nothing seems to be acknowledged regarding Mail fixes in these updates outside of the undo fix.
Rating: 4 Votes
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tywebb13
6 weeks ago
Here are some other updates:

Security Update 2019-007 for High Sierra: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2026?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Security Update 2019-002 for Mojave: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2027?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Safari 13.0.4 for High Sierra: http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/40/20/061-49180-A_EZBQLGXSKE/vkg8b7z2yzvgmyo9sagaa9gejq7jp6525t/Safari13.0.4HighSierraAuto.pkg

Safari 13.0.4 for Mojave: http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/34/21/061-49175-A_H5579HY5LH/caq4203cu2klp24wpiw6n8fkjdqv1dxkl3/Safari13.0.4MojaveAuto.pkg

I have also found out that there is indeed a 10.15.2 combo - but not as a standalone download yet. The only way to get it so far is to go from 10.15 to 10.15.2 via the Software Update preference pane (thereby circumventing 10.15.1). If you have 10.15.1 or 10.15.2 betas you will only get the 10.15.2 delta, not the combo.

The standalone combo should be available soon however.

If you want the full installer for 10.15.2 you can get it here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-catalina/id1466841314?mt=12

You may then proceed to make a bootable usb of 10.15.2 using instruction I posted at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/bootable-catalina-usb-installer.2183859/
Rating: 4 Votes

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