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Apple Releases First macOS Tahoe 26.4 Public Beta

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Apple today provided public beta testers with the first release of an upcoming macOS Tahoe 26.4 update for testing purposes. The public beta comes a day after Apple provided the beta to developers.

macOS-Tahoe-26-Thumb.jpg

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.

macOS Tahoe 26.4 includes several new features. The Compact tab layout has been reimplemented in Safari for those who missed having the option in earlier versions of macOS Tahoe, and there is a new Charge Limit feature that lets Mac users select a maximum charge level that ranges from 80 percent to 100 percent.

Apple silicon Mac users will see now see warnings about apps that are still using Rosetta 2, because Apple is phasing out Rosetta after macOS 27. macOS Tahoe is also the final version of macOS that will run on Intel-based Macs, and Apple is working to remove all lingering Intel features.

We could see additional features in upcoming versions of macOS Tahoe 26.4, such as new emoji characters. Apple is expected to test the update for the next several weeks, with a launch planned for the spring.

Article Link: Apple Releases First macOS Tahoe 26.4 Public Beta
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/02/17/macos-tahoe-26-4-public-beta-1/
  • Wow
Reactions: Z-4195
I guess this is the end of the road for Aldente on my Macbook. All I wanted was a built in charge limiter. Now it looks like I'll have it. Thank you Apple.
 
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vantelimus said:
Be careful with this public beta. The developer beta corrupted two external drives on my test system. I haven't lost data, but it made the volumes read only and unfixable by Disk Utility.
Click to expand...
yeah others have reported similar problems however it is likely there is nothing wrong with your drives. try putting into a computer that doesn’t have the tahoe beta and you may discover there is nothing wrong with them.

it appears fsck_hfs is broken in this beta
 
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tywebb13 said:
yeah others have reported similar problems however it is likely there is nothing wrong with your drives. try putting into a computer that doesn’t have the tahoe beta and you may discover there is nothing wrong with them.

it appears fsck_hfs is broken in this beta
Click to expand...

I accept these sorts of risks for my development machine. It seems an unreasonable bug for Apple to release as a public beta.
 
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tywebb13 said:
yeah others have reported similar problems however it is likely there is nothing wrong with your drives. try putting into a computer that doesn’t have the tahoe beta and you may discover there is nothing wrong with them.

it appears fsck_hfs is broken in this beta
Click to expand...

Btw, my further analysis of the problem is that you are right; it is not a corruption. It looks like a bug with a daemon holding the volume open and not letting the system unmount it to do an integrity check with fsck. Since the integrity can't be checked, the volume gets mounted read-only as a precautionary measure. Sucks for me for a week or two. But it is better than losing data.
 
vantelimus said:
Btw, my further analysis of the problem is that you are right; it is not a corruption. It looks like a bug with a daemon holding the volume open and not letting the system unmount it to do an integrity check with fsck. Since the integrity can't be checked, the volume gets mounted read-only as a precautionary measure. Sucks for me for a week or two. But it is better than losing data.
Click to expand...
Worse than that, fsck_hfs is broken in this beta. If you even try running it from the command line it will produce a nasty error.
 
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Now that Compact Tabs is back as an option in Safari, I tried it, having not tried it the last time it was available.

It seems pointless: it just moves all the horizontally-aligned tabs into the URL field, which of course obscures the URL field, and arranges them horizontally in essentially the same manner as with the "Separate Tabs" option. It essentially turns the tabs into a URL field that has siblings.

The only advantage I see is that it frees up about 25-30 vertical pixels. That’s not minor on a 13-inch Macbook, but at the cost of destroying the URL field’s utility.

Why can’t Apple swallow their pride and adopt an approach to tabs similar to how it’s done in Chrome, which is to have a “Tabs” entry in the menu bar that lists a window’s tabs? Easy peasy.
 
Anyone who has one or more drives (including flash drives, etc.) formatted to HFS+, BE CAREFUL !

The first 26.4 developer beta makes all HFS+ drives READ ONLY.
You can't write to them.

I don't know if this carries over to the "public" beta, I haven't installed that yet.
Perhaps someone who does install the public beta will test this.

I sense that this may be Apple's "first step" towards total deprecation of the HFS+ file system.

They did something similar with the original HFS (no "plus") file system years back -- at first, made HFS drives "read only". And then, removed the capability of the Mac OS to "see" them at all...
 
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tywebb13 said:
yeah others have reported similar problems however it is likely there is nothing wrong with your drives. try putting into a computer that doesn’t have the tahoe beta and you may discover there is nothing wrong with them.

it appears fsck_hfs is broken in this beta
Click to expand...
That was NOT my experience. When I hooked my newly corrupted “read-only” drive to a second Mac that was no updated beta, the problem was still there (along with the spinning “fetching” wheel in disk info permissions.
 
vantelimus said:
Be careful with this public beta. The developer beta corrupted two external drives on my test system. I haven't lost data, but it made the volumes read only and unfixable by Disk Utility.
Click to expand...
Yeah I got this error for one of my external HD’s…on top of that, my bluetooth is not working. Can’t use my trackpad or bluetooth keyboard. Very frustrating.
 
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