Apple Releases First Public Beta of macOS Monterey 12.4

[MacRumors]

Apple today provided the first beta of an upcoming macOS Monterey 12.4 update to its public beta testing group, with the update coming one day after Apple provided the beta to developers.

Public beta testers can download the macOS Monterey 12.4 Monterey update from the Software Update section of the System Preferences app after installing the proper profile from Apple's beta software website.

According to Apple's release notes, ‌Universal Control‌ in the new iPadOS 15.5 and ‌macOS Monterey‌ 12.4 updates is not compatible with machines running macOS 12.3 or iPadOS 15.4, so Apple suggests that as a workaround, users should update their ‌Universal Control‌ devices to the new betas.

No new features have been found in the macOS Monterey 12.4 beta at this time.

Article Link: Apple Releases First Public Beta of macOS Monterey 12.4

 

[Realityck]

It been running better for me, but some people were running Plex server and that caused issues where it needed to be removed. This uses Safari 15.5 builds now.

 

[vagos]

I don't care about Universal Control much. I just want those bugs fixed. Peace.

 

[w5jck]

I couldn't care less about UC either. Not something I will use. But they need to kill a lot bugs. And they need to fix the iCloud syncing with Safari, which is totally broken across all devices and OSes.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Universal control is awesome for using my best keyboard and trackpad on all my devices. I didn’t think I would be a fan but it’s actually very useful and awesome since my main computer is a laptop but sometimes I would rather use the desktop and still have easy access to everything on the laptop.

However, I second the other comments in that Apple needs to slow down on the features and pick up on the bug fixing. I don’t know how to incentivize developers to fix things rather than work on the shiny new stuff, and apparently neither does any company.

 

[JippaLippa]

I don't care about Universal Control much. I just want those bugs fixed. Peace.

I think pretty much like 99% of the userbase

 

[forrie]

Anyone know, yet, whether this beta addresses the Intel-based Mac high CPU and heat issues?

 

[kingtj1971]

Universal control is awesome for using my best keyboard and trackpad on all my devices. I didn’t think I would be a fan but it’s actually very useful and awesome since my main computer is a laptop but sometimes I would rather use the desktop and still have easy access to everything on the laptop.

However, I second the other comments in that Apple needs to slow down on the features and pick up on the bug fixing. I don’t know how to incentivize developers to fix things rather than work on the shiny new stuff, and apparently neither does any company.

Yeah .... I can see the value of Universal control but for my personal situation, it's not so exciting. Really, I think Apple needs to put more developer effort towards MacOS improvements -- BOTH bug fixes/stability AND new features. The last 3 or 4 releases just felt to me like they were desperately scraping the bottom of the "ideal barrel" for new features that would make it upgrade-worthy. And meanwhile, not squashing enough bugs either.

While I'm not a software developer myself, I work along-side them every day and know what a big task it must be writing and maintaining an operating system. Still, there's also a huge amount of money and resources a company the size of Apple can focus on this, IF they wish. They've been distracted a lot by the interest in making variations of iOS for devices like the Apple TV and watch, not to mention the iPad. And then they keep trying to merge some of that with MacOS. None of that really excites anyone I know who has a primary interest in using a Mac computer.

At the end of the day, Apple gave us "too little, too late" with useful 3D graphics acceleration abilities in the OS. (They never kept current with Open GL support, when that was the primary way any game developer interacted with the GPU on a Mac. And they took too long to roll out "Metal" APIs, so everyone relevant lost interest in even trying to code for it by the time it was ready.) Things like that tell me they needed more developer resources for MacOS long before now.

 

[cwwilson]

Guys this beta is really good on my M1 Air. Soooo much smoother and snappier than 12.3 it really makes a huge difference. I don't know what Apple did to fix things under the hood but I hope whatever it was that it stays like this in the coming betas on up until full release because it is amazing right now.

 

[mattopotamus]

I couldn't care less about UC either. Not something I will use. But they need to kill a lot bugs. And they need to fix the iCloud syncing with Safari, which is totally broken across all devices and OSes.

Absolute disasters. The reloads are insane.

 

[tmoerel]

Anyone know, yet, whether this beta addresses the Intel-based Mac high CPU and heat issues?

That has nothing to do with software and all to do with crappy Intel hardware!

 

[dorsal]

Maybe they will incorporate high-tech features like remembering window sizes when reopening a window. Or not having Photos keep reimporting the same photos from my iPhone over and over again. It's called "Duplicate checking".

 

[Juuro]

Guys this beta is really good on my M1 Air. Soooo much smoother and snappier than 12.3 it really makes a huge difference. I don't know what Apple did to fix things under the hood but I hope whatever it was that it stays like this in the coming betas on up until full release because it is amazing right now.

Was it not smooth before? In which scenarios? My M1 Air is almost always very smoooth. I don't really know where it could be smoother.

 

[stonerdt]

Just updated to this 12.4 beta. Now my Keyboard Input Source language flags have disappeared and I just get the two letter abbreviation, like US for the United States, on the menu bar. I did not change anything. Any way to get the flags back?

 

[cwwilson]

Was it not smooth before? In which scenarios? My M1 Air is almost always very smoooth. I don't really know where it could be smoother.

It's hard to explain but but I was seeing a lot of little lags here and there and the scrolling responsiveness was not as crisp and fast as I'm used to but that appears to have been fixed in this beta. When I bought my Air, it came with Big Sur installed and it was a dream to use so I was hesitant to upgrade to Monterey but when 12.3 was released I thought I'd give it a try but something changed for the worse after I did and I was never truly happy with it until now. The frame rate seems stable now too, like it used to be on Big Sur.

Like one thing that was really bugging me in particular was that on this site, the MacRumors Forums would always have to load every little image every time I would refresh a page or enter another forum or thread like it would never cache anything but even that has been fixed to the point that browsing this site is right up there with how it would be on iOS or iPadOS. The scrolling is also just as smooth as iOS where as before (on 12.3) I would scroll up or down ever so slightly and I would see jutters. But that's gone now. Animations are also running at the proper speed when opening and minimizing windows and such, where I would notice just a tiny bit of lag before.

Everything just feels and looks great now, right where it needs to be.

 

[VictorTango777]

In Touch ID settings on iPhone, you can place your finger on the sensor and if that finger is already registered, it will highlight the corresponding "Finger 1", "Finger 2", etc. Why doesn't Touch ID on MacOS have this feature? Apparently, MacOS engineers never bothered to test the user interface with more than one finger added.

 

[nfl46]

I couldn't care less about UC either. Not something I will use. But they need to kill a lot bugs. And they need to fix the iCloud syncing with Safari, which is totally broken across all devices and OSes.

Exactly! Thank you!

 

[Morod]

Anyone know if this fixes the "eject external drives when put to sleep" bug?

 

[VictorTango777]

In Preview, when you select a single image and click File > Export:
The dialog shows the file options visible.
When selecting JPEG format, the file is saved with a .jpg extension.

When you select multiple images and then click File > Export:
The dialog shows the file options hidden and you have to click the Options button.
When selecting JPEG format, the files are saved with a .jpeg extension.

Why the inconsistent behavior in this application? Was the Preview application worked on by multiple engineers who don't talk to each other or by one engineer who takes no pride in his work?

 

[VictorTango777]

In System Preferences > Apple ID, the list of applications does not indicate that it is scrollable, even when System Preferences is set to to Always show scroll bars. There is no indication that there are more applications available, even the system is set to Always show scroll bars.. I wish Apple would stop assuming that everyone uses mouse scroll wheels or multitouch trackpad gestures. And I especially wish that Apple's own Mac applications would honor the settings that are set by the user.

Also notice the inconsistency with scroll bar visibility, where iCloud Drive Options list has a scroll bar but the Apple ID list does not. In the list of applications under Apple ID and iCloud Drive options, the applications are listed randomly, in no logical order. This makes it difficult to find specific applications.

Why are lists of applications not displayed in alphabetical order or with adjustable sorting options? The same thing happens on iPhone and iPad. Apparently, Apple engineers never bothered to test user interfaces with more than one item in a list.

 

[darthaddie]

It's hard to explain but but I was seeing a lot of little lags here and there and the scrolling responsiveness was not as crisp and fast as I'm used to but that appears to have been fixed in this beta. When I bought my Air, it came with Big Sur installed and it was a dream to use so I was hesitant to upgrade to Monterey but when 12.3 was released I thought I'd give it a try but something changed for the worse after I did and I was never truly happy with it until now. The frame rate seems stable now too, like it used to be on Big Sur.

Like one thing that was really bugging me in particular was that on this site, the MacRumors Forums would always have to load every little image every time I would refresh a page or enter another forum or thread like it would never cache anything but even that has been fixed to the point that browsing this site is right up there with how it would be on iOS or iPadOS. The scrolling is also just as smooth as iOS where as before (on 12.3) I would scroll up or down ever so slightly and I would see jutters. But that's gone now. Animations are also running at the proper speed when opening and minimizing windows and such, where I would notice just a tiny bit of lag before.

Everything just feels and looks great now, right where it needs to be.

I can confirm, I also feel the same thing on my M1 Air. After upgrading to Monterey there was a stickiness to the entire experience. Not smooth at all. With 12.4 it's where it needs to be. Smooth sailing all the way. Hope it sticks to the final versions.

 

[Juuro]

It's hard to explain but but I was seeing a lot of little lags here and there and the scrolling responsiveness was not as crisp and fast as I'm used to but that appears to have been fixed in this beta. When I bought my Air, it came with Big Sur installed and it was a dream to use so I was hesitant to upgrade to Monterey but when 12.3 was released I thought I'd give it a try but something changed for the worse after I did and I was never truly happy with it until now. The frame rate seems stable now too, like it used to be on Big Sur.

Like one thing that was really bugging me in particular was that on this site, the MacRumors Forums would always have to load every little image every time I would refresh a page or enter another forum or thread like it would never cache anything but even that has been fixed to the point that browsing this site is right up there with how it would be on iOS or iPadOS. The scrolling is also just as smooth as iOS where as before (on 12.3) I would scroll up or down ever so slightly and I would see jutters. But that's gone now. Animations are also running at the proper speed when opening and minimizing windows and such, where I would notice just a tiny bit of lag before.

Everything just feels and looks great now, right where it needs to be.

I can confirm, I also feel the same thing on my M1 Air. After upgrading to Monterey there was a stickiness to the entire experience. Not smooth at all. With 12.4 it's where it needs to be. Smooth sailing all the way. Hope it sticks to the final versions.

My Air came with Monterey already and I think I never had what you describe. During normal use it is on par with the Mac Studios I will return tomorrow. ?

 

[J InTech82]

I posted this question on AppleInsider but does anyone know if this fixes the Quick Look bug? I often have to relaunch the finder because Quick Look is generally broken.

 

[JippaLippa]

My Air came with Monterey already and I think I never had what you describe. During normal use it is on par with the Mac Studios I will return tomorrow. ?

Got one of those pesky "noisy" units? ?
Mine's a little noisy too...but with 10-12 weeks of waiting...
I'll rather get accustomed to the faint high-pich sound.

 

[darthaddie]

My Air came with Monterey already and I think I never had what you describe. During normal use it is on par with the Mac Studios I will return tomorrow. ?

Maybe it’s because of the upgrade from Big Sur. But anyways it works great with 12.4. My Mac studio ultra does have stupid issues like mostly safari getting stuck half way loading pages with 12.3.1. I can’t test a beta on that since it’s my production machine. Hope fully 12.4 fixes that.