For the past few weeks, macOS Big Sur has suffered from a bug that could cause serious data loss. The bug was introduced in Big Sur 11.2, and it made its way into the 11.3 data.
The bug comes down to the macOS Big Sur installer not checking if the Mac has the required free space available to carry out an upgrade. The upgrade runs into problems, and if that isn’t bad enough, if the user’s Mac was encrypted using FileVault, then the user is locked out of their data.
Pretty scary stuff.
Check this out: Apple: Please stop this nonsense
The bug has been explored extensively by Mr. Macintosh, outlining the problem, some possible solutions, along with a very informative and detailed video. The bug was narrowed down to an evil Goldilocks zone, where users had more than 13GB of free space, but less than 35.5GB.
The video is truly awesome work. Thank you Mr. Macintosh for your work!
The good news is that Apple has finally released an updated macOS Big Sur 11.2.1 installer — (20D75) — that properly checks for the free space.
The fix has been confirmed by Mr. Macintosh.
macOS Big Sur 11.2.1 (20D75) full installer is now available for download.
I’ve confirmed the new installer now checks for free space properly.
This was a serious problem, and I’m glad users will no longer get caught by this issue. https://t.co/dYSuRjdd4p pic.twitter.com/ILxoKfhORn
— Mr. Macintosh (@ClassicII_MrMac) February 15, 2021
What’s the moral of this story?
Have a backup, and perhaps allow others — who are braver and more foolhardy — to go first. Also, check the system requirements and don’t rely on the installer to check everything.
Oh, also, don’t believe that whole “it just works” thing.
