MacBook Air M4 users are facing an unexpected headache - and it may be Apple's fault

A new bug is now plaguing the newest MacBook Air models (with M4), and some people find themselves unable to install the latest macOS 15.4 Release Candidate.

Apple's MacBooks are famed for reliable performance and a very small amount of bugs overall. However, some people rocking the new M4 MacBook Air are now experiencing a weird issue that stops them from updating their machines. The frustrated Apple fans have taken to Reddit to look for solutions while trying to unsuccessfully install the macOS 15.4 Release Candidate.

The affected users are greeted by a not-so-eloquent error message stating: "macOS could not be downloaded. Make sure you're connected to the internet and try again, or contact Apple support for assistance."

On top of that, the problem seems to also affect the M4 Max and M3 Ultra Mac Studio users as well, who report seeing the same error message when trying to download and install the update.

Reportedly, it seems Apple is at fault for the inconvenience. Apparently, the Cupertino tech giant had not provided the appropriate decryption key for the M4 MacBook Air to be able to install the update.

Yep, Apple encrypts software updates and a server-side decryption key is required so your machine can install the new software. It seems the kew for these brand new MBAs is not available from Apple's servers at the moment and hence, the update cannot be installed.

Unfortunately, though, there is no workaround for the issue at the moment. If your new MacBook Air is running the software it came with when it arrived, you won't be able to update to the macOS Sequoia 15.4 Release Candidate. Well, you will, but first Apple needs to fix the issue on its end for you to be able to install it.

MacBook Air M4s running macOS 15.4 beta 4, however, are not affected. So, if your machine was running the beta update, you should be able to install the RC as well. Also, it seems older MacBook Air models are also not affected by the current situation.

If you're wondering how a Release Candidate (or RC) is different than a beta version, well, the RC is a near-final version of the software, expected to have fewer bugs than your general beta version. Release Candidates usually come with almost all the new features that the official update will bring. For now, though, users excited to try it out will have to wait until Cupertino fixes the bug to be able to update their MBAs.