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Apple Addresses 10.6.8 Problems

A few weeks ago, in “Mac OS X 10.6.8 Suffers Printing and Audio Problems” (1 July 2011), I noted that people upgrading to Mac OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard had been experiencing a number of problems, most notably related to printing and audio. (For details about what was supposed to change in 10.6.8, see “Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Preps for Lion,” 24 June 2011.)

Apple has now released a number of updates to address these problems, depending on what version of Mac OS X you’re running. For those who have already upgraded to 10.6.8, the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Supplemental Update (10.19 MB) says that it fixes problems with network printers pausing print jobs and failing to complete, plus system audio failing when using HDMI or optical audio out. In addition, the update says that it also solves problems transferring data from a Snow Leopard Mac to a new Mac running 10.7 Lion; the implication is that the Migration Assistant Update for Mac OS X Snow Leopard has been rolled in. Apple also released Mac OS X 10.6.8 Server Supplemental Update, which presumably fixes the same problems and also improves server-side performance when using Server Monitor.

If you were cautious and haven’t yet updated to 10.6.8, Apple has now released Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update v1.1, presumably (though they don’t actually say so) to address the same problems addressed by the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Supplemental Update. So, assuming that these problems have indeed been addressed and no others introduced, it’s probably safer to upgrade to 10.6.8 now. That said, if you have no pressing need to upgrade from a previous version of Snow Leopard, I still recommend waiting a week or two to make sure no new problems crop up. For instance, although it’s unclear how widespread these issues are, I’m still receiving anecdotal complaints about Wi-Fi dropouts and sending messages in Mail. And, of course, there’s no
significant need to update to 10.6.8 at all, if you’re happy with 10.6.7 and not planning on updating to Lion any time soon.

As usual, Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update v1.1 comes in four different versions; delta updates from 10.6.7 and combo updates that will work on any version of 10.6, for both the desktop and server versions of Snow Leopard.

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