Apple Releases macOS Big Sur 11.5 With Podcast App Updates and Bug Fixes

Wednesday July 21, 2021 10:15 am PDT by Juli Clover

Apple today released macOS Big Sur 11.5, the fifth major update to the macOS Big Sur operating system that launched in November 2020. macOS Big Sur 11.5 comes two months after the release of macOS Big Sur 11.4.

macOS Big Sur Feature Orange
The new ‌‌‌‌‌macOS Big Sur‌‌‌‌ 11.5 update can be downloaded for free on all eligible Macs using the Software Update section of System Preferences.

macOS Big Sur is a minor update focusing on small changes and bug fixes. According to Apple's release notes, the update improves the Podcasts app by allowing the Podcasts Library tab to be adjusted to show all shows or only followed shows.

It also addresses an issue that could cause Apple Music not to update play count or the last played date in the library, and it fixes a bug that caused smart cards not to work when logging into M1 Macs.

macOS Big Sur 11.5 is likely to be one of the final updates to the macOS Big Sur operating system as Apple shifts its attention to macOS Monterey, which is set to be released this fall.

Related Forum: macOS Big Sur

Popular Stories

Apple Released Yet Another New Product Today

Friday March 20, 2026 2:39 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol

Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as...

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...

• 80 comments

iOS 26.4: Top 10 New Features Coming to Your iPhone

Friday March 20, 2026 2:44 pm PDT by Juli Clover

iOS 26.4 isn't the major update with new Siri features that we hoped for, but there are some useful quality of life improvements, and a little bit of fun with an AI playlist generator and new emoji characters. Playlist Playground - Apple Music has a Playlist Playground option that lets you generate playlists from text-based descriptions. You can include moods, feelings, activities, or...

• 45 comments

Top Rated Comments

Soba

61 months ago

I'm excited for it! (And as always, I remain convinced that this update fixes more bugs than the 3-4 small things they mention... I haven't noticed the size before starting the update, but it's usually above 1 Gb.)

Indeed! I’ll reiterate my usual complaint that Apple provides totally deficient documentation for these updates.

I don’t expect an exhaustive set of release notes detailing every single fix, but the docs they release these days are almost nonexistent. There must be dozens or even hundreds of bug fixes in these point releases and they don’t document any of them.

Why is everything just a black box?

Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)

greenbreadmmm

61 months ago

Call me crazy but I miss the days of the tick tock for major OS releases. One to introduce new features then one to improve performance and security but introduce less. I’d like that approach more than major features every year for the sake of having something for marketing to float about every year.

Let's go a step further and not force a yearly release of a major OS.

It clearly hasn't been working for apple

My gosh IOS is on .7 already?!

I remember when .3 meant it was perfect and done till next year.

Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)

CheesePuff

61 months ago

"‌macOS Big Sur‌ is a minor update focusing on small changes and bug fixes."

Editor really needs to proof read these posts before publishing

Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)

nwcs

61 months ago

Call me crazy but I miss the days of the tick tock for major OS releases. One to introduce new features then one to improve performance and security but introduce less. I’d like that approach more than major features every year for the sake of having something for marketing to float about every year.

Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)