Apple quickly releases a location settings fix for macOS Ventura

At home with 15-inch MacBook Air, on a mosaic balcony table and on a wooden floor.

Apple released macOS Ventura 13.5.1 this week (August 17), which fixes an issue for location services.

The 13.5 update was brought out on July 24 and included a collection of bug fixes. But users started to complain about an issue where permissions for location services were grayed out. This meant that any apps that needed to use your location were stuck, making some unusable.

While this didn’t affect all users on 13.5, it’s been quickly fixed by Apple with a 13.5.1 update, rolling out to compatible Macs. If you’ve updated, go to System Settings > Privacy and Security > Location Services and you should be able to give permission to apps as usual again.

Location Approved - iMore’s Take

If you’re still on Ventura 13.5, checking for the new update is simple. Head to System Settings > General > Software Update and 13.5.1 should appear, ready to download and install.

I use my MacBook Pro every day, but thankfully I wasn’t beset with this issue after I updated to 13.5. I haven’t installed new apps since the update which may have required me to approve their permission to use my location. So luckily I wasn’t affected but plenty of Apple users were.

Regardless, it’s strange that an issue for location services was seemingly missed before 13.5 was released in July as a lot of apps depend on this feature in order to be used - from Maps to Calendar. Beta testing should prevent issues like this from ever reaching the majority of users, but in this instance, it must’ve passed under the radar.

While this saga has quickly come to an end, perhaps there’s a discussion to be had as to how this bug was missed during Apple’s testing of 13.5, and if more strenuous procedures should be put in place to avoid a similar issue in the future.