Everything You Need To Know About Today’s MacOS 10.15.5 Update

The macOS 10.15.5 update is rolling out computers this week, bringing a handful of new features and settings with it—including a long-awaited feature that should help keep your MacBook’s battery healthier for longer.

Before we get to the new stuff in macOS 10.15.5, download the update by going to Apple menu > System Preferences > Software Update, and clicking “Update Now” if the new version is available. Some devices and regions may not have it quite yet. Just keep checking; it should arrive for all users soon.

With that out of the way, here’s everything new in the macOS 10.15.5 update.

Better battery health management for MacBooks

Battery health management is macOS 10.15.5’s marquee feature. When enabled, your MacBook’s software will monitor its battery usage and charging rate and adjust as necessary to maintain the chemical integrity of the battery. You may notice a lower maximum battery life when using the battery health management setting, even after fully charging your MacBook, but the short-term ding should help slow the battery’s natural deterioration and extend its lifespan. Note that this feature is only available on newer MacBooks with Thunderbolt 3.

Check our guide for the MacBook battery health management feature for more information, including how to turn it on and off, plus other tips for extending your device’s battery life.

Calibration Fine-Tuning for Pro Display XDR

You can now make granular changes to the white point and luminance calibration settings for Apple’s Pro Display XDR monitors. Odds are good that most of you don’t own one of these $7,520+ displays.

FaceTime Prominence Preference

You can now choose to maintain the tiled video layout in FaceTime group calls rather than having the app dynamically change size when someone speaks. This can be changed in the FaceTime app settings.

Bug fixes

As with all Apple OS update, macOS 10.15.5 includes a handful of smaller bug fixes. Here’s the full list, via Apple’s official patch notes:

• Fixes an issue that may prevent Reminders from sending notifications for recurring reminders

• Addresses an issue that may prevent password entry on the login screen

• Fixes an issue where System Preferences would continue to show a notification badge even after installing an update

• Resolves an issue where the built-in camera may not be detected when trying to use it after using a video conferencing app

• Addresses an issue for Mac computers with the Apple T2 Security Chip where internal speakers may not appear as a sound output device in Sound preferences

• Fixes a stability issue with uploading and downloading media files from iCloud Photo Library while your Mac is asleep

• Resolves a stability issue when transferring large amounts of data to RAID volumes

• Fixes an issue where the Reduce Motion Accessibility preference did not reduce the speed of animations in a FaceTime group call