Apple Releases macOS 10.15.5 with New Battery Health Management Feature

By AppleVis, 27 May, 2020

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Apple has today released macOS Catalina 10.15.5 to the public.

New in macOS Catalina 10.15.5 is a battery health management feature. According to MacRumors, battery Health Management is designed to extend the overall lifespan of a Mac notebook by reducing the rate of chemical aging.

Battery Health Management analyzes the battery health of a laptop and its charging pattern, and in some cases, it will preserve battery longevity and health by not charging a MacBook to its full capacity. Keeping a MacBook charged at its full capacity at all times can reduce battery health.

When a Mac is used plugged in and the battery is kept full all the time, the Battery Health Management feature will kick in and stop short of a full charge.

Battery health management can be enabled and disabled in the Energy Saver section of System Preferences.

Our testing of macOS Catalina 10.15.5 suggests that it brings no fixes, regressions or changes specifically for blind or low vision users. However, as we always stress, we can make no claims on the completeness or accuracy of our testing. We are only a small team, and it is simply impossible for us to test all devices, configurations, applications, and use cases. Accordingly, to help us ensure that the information on this page is as complete and accurate as possible, please let us know in the comments of any fixes; enhancements; or regressions that you find in your own use of macOS Catalina 10.15.5.

Apple's full release notes for macOS 10.15.5, via Mac Rumors, are as follows:

macOS Catalina 10.15.5 introduces battery health management in the Energy Saver settings for notebooks, an option to control automatic prominence of video tiles on Group FaceTime calls, and controls to fine-tune the built-in calibration of your Pro Display XDR. The update also improves the stability, reliability, and security of your Mac.

Battery Health Management

  • Battery health management to help maximize battery lifespan for Mac notebooks
  • Energy Saver preference pane now displays battery condition and recommends if the battery needs to be serviced
  • Option to disable battery health management
  • For more information, please visit https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211094

FaceTime Prominence Preference

  • Option to control automatic prominence on Group FaceTime calls so video tiles do not change size when a participant speaks

Calibration Fine-Tuning for Pro Display XDR
-Controls to fine-tune the built-in calibration of your Pro Display XDR by adjusting the white point and luminance for a precise match to your own display calibration target

This update also includes bug fixes and other improvements.

  • 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

macOS Catalina 10.15.5 can be downloaded by going to System Preferences > Software Update.

As always, we look forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences using this update.

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