Apple Releases First macOS Tahoe 26.3 Public Beta

[MacRumors]

Apple today provided public beta testers with the first release of an upcoming macOS Tahoe 26.3 update for testing purposes. The public beta comes two days after Apple provided the beta to developers.

After signing up for beta testing on Apple's beta site, public beta testers can download the updates using the Software Update section in the System Settings app.

We don't know about any new features in macOS Tahoe 26.3 as of yet, but Apple might introduce new capabilities in later beta releases.

The beta is limited to developers and public beta testers at the current time, but we are expecting Apple to release the update at the end of January.

Article Link: Apple Releases First macOS Tahoe 26.3 Public Beta

 

[zahuh]

I don't know if anyone at Apple will read this but my good please fix Safari. Since Tahoe it every day will freeze up trying to load two websites at once. I constantly have to force quit and then reopen and it loads. It seems to happen often when YouTube, chess.com are open especially if I have a YouTube webpage in the dock. Please try to repo this it's an awful experience and never happened before Tahoe.

 

[bigandtasty]

even though this has been a dumpster fire, at least they continue to work on rolling out updates. Hopefully they'll eventually get it. Happy to still be on Sequoia until they do get their ducks back in a row. Thanks to those testing it and please let us know how stable/unstable this first 26.3 beta is.

 

[rotvaldi]

The State of Tahoe is not for consumer. Not even install it.

 

[impaler]

I don't know if anyone at Apple will read this but my good please fix Safari. Since Tahoe it every day will freeze up trying to load two websites at once. I constantly have to force quit and then reopen and it loads. It seems to happen often when YouTube, chess.com are open especially if I have a YouTube webpage in the dock. Please try to repo this it's an awful experience and never happened before Tahoe.

Huh. I don't have that issue at all on 26.2. Wondering what is going on with your setup.

 

[kingjames1970]

First time I haven’t upgraded Mac OS by the .1 update. All the comments are still holding me back - is it really that bad?!

 

[impaler]

First time I haven’t upgraded Mac OS by the .1 update. All the comments are still holding me back - is it really that bad?!

Not for me - been rock solid.

 

[jz0309]

I don't know if anyone at Apple will read this but my good please fix Safari. Since Tahoe it every day will freeze up trying to load two websites at once. I constantly have to force quit and then reopen and it loads. It seems to happen often when YouTube, chess.com are open especially if I have a YouTube webpage in the dock. Please try to repo this it's an awful experience and never happened before Tahoe.

Hmmh, don't know what's going on with your system - which Mac?
I've updated my M1Max Studio when 26 was released and my system is running just as before, no freezes or anything, on the latest public release

 

[impaler]

Hmmh, don't know what's going on with your system - which Mac?
I've updated my M1Max Studio when 26 was released and my system is running just as before, no freezes or anything

Agreed. It's been awesome on my Mac Studio M2 Max and MacBook Air M3.

I love how people think it's Apple's fault and everyone is experiencing things that is unique to them. As if posting in Apple Forums will get them to go, "Oh, so and so told us to fix Safari, we'd better get on that." Love it.

 

[zahuh]

Agreed. It's been awesome on my Mac Studio M2 Max and MacBook Air M3.

I love how people think it's Apple's fault and everyone is experiencing things that is unique to them. As if posting in Apple Forums will get them to go, "Oh, so and so told us to fix Safari, we'd better get on that." Love it.

Hmmh, don't know what's going on with your system - which Mac?
I've updated my M1Max Studio when 26 was released and my system is running just as before, no freezes or anything, on the latest public release

M2 Max MacBook Pro 16 32gb 2tb. I never install beta software. I don't have any extensions. Just immediately started after updating to Tahoe.

Impaler not sure why you chose a rude and harsh tone but wish you all the best. I think you'd be very very surprised how many Apple engineers read macrumors. They have many times posted about some bug or volubility and Apple fixed it. Anyway, I agree it's a long shot. I tried other standard methods none of worked. Not trying to convince you but wanted you to be aware that we are all people and you have a choice to be kind. Hopefully you will choose different next time. Wish you the best!

 

[impaler]

M2 Max MacBook Pro 16 32gb 2tb. I never install beta software. I don't have any extensions. Just immediately started after updating to Tahoe.

Impaler not sure why you chose a rude and harsh tone but wish you all the best. I think you'd be very very surprised how many Apple engineers read macrumors. They have many times posted about some bug or volubility and Apple fixed it. Anyway, I agree it's a long shot. I tried other standard methods none of worked. Not trying to convince you but wanted you to be aware that we are all people and you have a choice to be kind. Hopefully you will choose different next time. Wish you the best!

It wouldn't surprise me but I think you're an outlier.

 

[jz0309]

M2 Max MacBook Pro 16 32gb 2tb. I never install beta software. I don't have any extensions. Just immediately started after updating to Tahoe.

I have observed that sometimes websites are the cause for crashes, another forum I visit once or twice daily stopped working on iOS, worked fine on iPadOS and on Tahoe, didn't start with any particular update, this was like a month or 2 ago and it lasted for several weeks. then I noticed the site was down for a half day or so, and voila, problem fixed.
Not saying that applies to your case, hope you get your solved soon

 

[poematik13]

Tahoe is by far the worst macos since Lion and Big Sur lol

Complete trashfire in the OS dept at apple, like its to the point that the new mac hardware isnt appealing because it doesnt let you use an OS released before it

 

[orange_galoshes]

They still haven't fixed the constant CPU drain and fan noise and fairly routine tasks.

I understand that Liquid Glass uses a lot more resources (which is a total waste for no UX improvement) but I'm talking about things like running Time Machine, or simply selecting a large number of files to delete. What the heck is causing the huge drain and fan noise? This used to run with no effort and now it's like I'm running a large language model locally.

This has to be some poor programming.

And something changed in Time Machine because it used to show a small number of file changes if you run a subsequent update shortly after, and now, even if you run 5 minutes later, it shows more than 100 to 200 thousand file changes!?!

 

[JFLY]

No issues here, happy camper

 

[zahuh]

It wouldn't surprise me but I think you're an outlier.

I sure hope so : )

 

[CarAnalogy]

First time I haven’t upgraded Mac OS by the .1 update. All the comments are still holding me back - is it really that bad?!

Check your applications for compatibility but that’s not really the problem.

If you held off because Liquid Glass is ugly and pointless, that’s not going to change for at least a year or two.

It’s not that it’s terribly unstable or anything.

Edit: I had almost forgotten about the lovely drive by downvoters who apparently have nothing to express except displeasure. Anyone care so say which part of that they disagree with? I thought it was entirely factual and simple.

Someone wants to tell me Liquid Glass is beautiful and useful and a great addition to macOS? Because they would be the first.

 

[headlessmike]

First time I haven’t upgraded Mac OS by the .1 update. All the comments are still holding me back - is it really that bad?!

I did a test install of the .0 release on an external ssd. It was the first version of macOS in over a decade that didn’t have any issues that prevented me from getting my work done in the initial release. So, I’ve been running Tahoe my Macs since a few days after release and it’s been great.

 

[Palindrom]

You know I have been reading here for a while and based on that and some seeings I did not decide to update to iOS 26 for a while. Did the jump on the weekend to 26.2 with my 15pm. What shall I say, everything is so smooth, animations are fluid, that phone feels like new again. Battery life is not worse than before possibly even slightly better. Was a good decision to try it out for my self.

 

[vvvvvv]

First time I haven’t upgraded Mac OS by the .1 update. All the comments are still holding me back - is it really that bad?!

I'm grateful for being able to roll back to Sequoia. With the same usual workflow on my M2 MBP, my battery was dead within 3 hours. On 15.7.3, it's still lasting me 6-7 hours on average before needing to even consider finding a charger.

After a week of trying to deal with Tahoe, rolling back to Sequoia was a breath of fresh air. The Fisher Price UX isn't at all conducive to a professional work environment.

 

[tomtad]

We all love Tahoe. Just can we have less round window corners please

 

[kingjames1970]

Thanks for the comments folks. As it’s a bit quiet, on balance I’m going to dive in and install then. Every year I clear all the junk out and freshen up the Mac with a new install. The OS upgrade is an excuse. Never had an issue before and just keeps things running nicely.

 

[Wieslawo]

even though this has been a dumpster fire, at least they continue to work on rolling out updates. Hopefully they'll eventually get it. Happy to still be on Sequoia until they do get their ducks back in a row. Thanks to those testing it and please let us know how stable/unstable this first 26.3 beta is.

Ugly, but smooth and with a much better battery.

 

[Adora]

Full Installer:

https://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/32/16/089-61660-A_XE5J7Q1U76/ld6q5kjky8i0v9hiiav4360ono1967to1l/InstallAssistant.pkg

Same build number as Developer Beta.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Safari 26.2 repeatedly freezes on pages left alone for several hours. Its retain/release structure has been modified and let's hope not with Swift and they keep it Cocoa/AppKit. The fact Swift is over fifteen years old and considered a work in progress would leave me to designate it as a research language. Roll back features into ObjC 3.0 and keep working on both languages. Most of Safari is C++ just as much of Pro Apps are C/C++ with ObjC/ObjC++.