Apple Seeds Fifth Beta of macOS Mojave 10.14.5 Update to Developers [Update: Public Beta Available]

[MacRumors]

Apple today seeded the fifth beta of an upcoming macOS Mojave 10.14.5 update to developers for testing purposes, one week after releasing the fourth beta and more than a month after the launch of macOS Mojave 10.14.4.

The macOS Mojave 10.14.5 beta can be downloaded through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences after the proper profile has been installed from Apple's Developer Center.

It's not yet clear if there are new features in macOS Mojave 10.14.5, but it likely includes bug fixes and performance improvements to address issues that weren't able to be fixed in the macOS Mojave 10.14.4 update.

This update will make macOS more secure because after macOS 10.14.5, new Mac apps released outside of the Mac App Store that want to have Apple's seal of approval will need to go through Apple's notarization security process.

The prior update, macOS Mojave 10.14.4, brought the Apple News+ subscription service, expanded Apple News to Canada, and introduced a new automatic Safari Dark Mode feature for websites.

Article Link: Apple Seeds Fifth Beta of macOS Mojave 10.14.5 Update to Developers [Update: Public Beta Available]

 

[tywebb13]

Build number is 18F131a.

 

[ouimetnick]

Hate to be that guy, but do these betas fix the issue with Gmail & Apple's Mail app? Not sure why they broke it and haven't issued a supplemental update to correct it yet?

 

[TehBetaTester]

Hate to be that guy, but do these betas fix the issue with Gmail & Apple's Mail app? Not sure why they broke it and haven't issued a supplemental update to correct it yet?

This issue has been resolved. Would you mind also trying something for me? press one of the menus in the menu bar and leave it open and then switch desktops while the menu is open.

 

[AnonMac50]

This issue has been resolved. Would you mind also trying something for me? press one of the menus in the menu bar and leave it open and then switch desktops while the menu is open.

Does it need to be on Mojave? I can test it out on Mojave later when I'm back in front of my iMac, but right now I'm in front of my MacBook Pro with El Capitan, and the menus go away once you switch (be it with the keyboard or with the trackpad). All menus do that (the app menus on the left, the system menus on the very right, and the extra menu applets on the left of the right side of the menu).

 

[ElectricPotato]

Not sure why they broke it and haven't issued a supplemental update to correct it yet?

It is a mystery. They have a working version. They have a broken version. It is a major application using a major service. So far, silence from Apple.

This issue has been resolved.

I really want this to be the case. I've seen so many people incorrectly declare it "fixed" (if you just jump through ineffective hoops x, y, or z) that I'm skeptical. Have you seen anything from a credible source that indicates Apple even acknowledges the problem? Or, were you personally experiencing the problem and see it corrected in the beta?

 

[lec0rsaire]

Hate to be that guy, but do these betas fix the issue with Gmail & Apple's Mail app? Not sure why they broke it and haven't issued a supplemental update to correct it yet?

Gmail works. Open Mail, go to preferences, remove your account. Then add it again. It will bring up a Safari pop up window where you’ll have to log in. It will ask you to approve macOS and that’s it. Apple certainly changed something but there’s nothing to fix. I went through this process right after I updated my Mac to 10.14.4.

 

[ElectricPotato]

Gmail works... It will ask you to approve macOS and that’s it.

This has been stated multiple times on multiple threads about this issue. Many people, including myself, have been through this and other attempts to fix the problem without success. It is good you are not experiencing the problem. Others are not as lucky. 10.14.3 mail works. 10.14.4 mail has the problem. A few hearty souls have gone through gymnastics to install 10.14.3 mail on 10.14.4 and that fixes it but is not a long term solution.

The problem as commonly reported is that mail takes the gmail account(s) offline after some period, roughly an hour to a few hours. It won't work again until you quit mail and then restart it, after which the cycle repeats.

 

[SDC_1998]

macOS 10.14.4 broke Football Manger 2019... (3D match engine performance became very laggy after this update) does anyone know if 10.14.5 would fix it?

 

[lostinlodos]

The problem as commonly reported is that mail takes the gmail account(s) offline after some period, roughly an hour to a few hours. It won't work again until you quit mail and then restart it, after which the cycle repeats.

Wait. Am I reading this correctly that you leave mail open all the time? That may explain why the ‘majority’, myself included, were so perplexed. It’s the minority that keep any app open indefinitely. Not saying there’s anything wrong with running an app forever; just it’s not the norm.
[br]This is the first I heard the email issues tied to having the app running which is probably why I’m having trouble replicating it. Which may also be big A is having little luck with this.
I’ll test this out tonight on .5 and if I can get gmail to give me trouble on my primary I will load it up under parallels with a debugger running and see if I can capture a fault at some Point, which may help Apple figure it out.

 

[ElectricPotato]

Am I reading this correctly that you leave mail open all the time? That may explain why the ‘majority’, myself included, were so perplexed. It’s the minority that keep any app open indefinitely. Not saying there’s anything wrong with running an app forever; just it’s not the norm.

You are correct. The problem in its current state does not occur if you start and immediately quit the mail app each time you check for new mail. That is a workaround used for the problem. I find that approach cumbersome and prefer the mail app feature of automatically checking for new mail and indicating new mail with a badge or notification.

Originally, 10.14.4 mail completely killed gmail for me and others, but not everyone. Then something changed requiring new authentication of the client through Safari, after which mail would work for a while (roughly one to a few hours) then stop working (taking gmail accounts offline), requiring a restart.

Those affected tried many suggested fixes, including removing and recreating accounts, deleting keychain entries, fiddling with gmail settings, etc. The only effective fix is reverting to 10.14.3 mail by transplanting 10.14.3 mail onto macOS 10.14.4 or reverting to macOS 10.14.3 entirely (or using a different mail client).

 

[lostinlodos]

You are correct. The problem in its current state does not occur if you start and immediately quit the mail app each time you check for new mail.

Always having my phone I only use desktop mail to open links on the big screen. I’ve been following this in a few subs at Reddit as well.
Definitely can reproduce it by leaving mail open. Looks to be around 90 minutes for me.
Interesting thing is it doesn’t reproduce under parallels. So my guess is an issue with WebKit. But I’m outside my comfort zone on this.
I did file a bug with feedback for it. And full steps to reproduce.
Load mail. Close to dock. Ignore mail for 90 minutes + etc...
thanks for posting More thoroughly. This really was the first time I saw someone say they left it open.
My suggestion to all here is anyone running the beta report a bug and clearly state how LONG mail was open.
Bet guess from me is something to do with a dormant port tripping an error or security setting, either on the user end (mail) or at gmail. But I simply don’t know enough on my own.

 

[ElectricPotato]

Definitely can reproduce it by leaving mail open.

Ouch. I had hoped 10.14.5 would fix it. Since running 10.14.3 mail on 10.14.4 macOS works, it appears the problem is local to the mail app and not an OS dependency.

I hope Apple eventually reverts the change that broke it or alters the change to not break it. Otherwise, mail app is essentially dead for some gmail users.

Thanks for confirming the problem still exists with 10.14.5.

 

[Nathaniel_Wu]

People on this thread may have found a workaround by enabling calendar/contacts sync. Don't know if it actually works.

 

[ElectricPotato]

People on this thread may have found a workaround by enabling calendar/contacts sync. Don't know if it actually works.

I would not consider that requirement a fix even if it prevented the problem. I do not want my calendar and contacts synced with Google.

A couple of posts (from Jose Amich) on that thread did reveal something interesting though:

"I have observed and tested that if once the Mail application is opened and I do not "close" or minimize it with the X of the corner and minimize it with a double click in the top bar of mail, the application does not fail me. At least they have passed 12 hours without appearing to me the famous circles of connection failure. I will continue testing it and I will inform you"

"I confirm you that if once the Mail application is opened and I do not "close" it with the X of the corner and minimize it with a double click in the top bar of mail, the application does not fail me. Five days without appearing to me the famous circles of connection failure."

This indicates the problem is in how mail handles the app state, as if Apple added code to use fewer resources in specific states and that is interfering with the gmail connections. I'm going to try leaving the mail window open and not sleeping the system to see how long it lasts.

 

[ElectricPotato]

I'm going to try leaving the mail window open and not sleeping the system to see how long it lasts.

Finally, a suggestion that actually affects the bug behavior! After 3 and a half hours, it is still working. This is by far the longest it has gone for me. I'll continue the test but I think Jose Amich stumbled upon the key feature of this bug: it is related to closing/minimizing windows. How obscure is that? Window behavior affecting connections to a mail server (and only for gmail)? I would not have guessed that in a million years.

Thanks to Nathaniel_Wu for linking to the thread with Jose's observations. It's not a fix, but it is the best clue so far.

Edit: Now 8.5 hours and still working. It sounds crazy, but if you are experiencing the 10.14.4 mail/gmail connection failures run mail without minimizing/hiding/closing. I have not tried Jose's workaround of minimizing by double clicking the title bar yet.

 

[Nathaniel_Wu]

Thanks to Nathaniel_Wu for linking to the thread with Jose's observations. It's not a fix, but it is the best clue so far.

No problem. I don't want to sync my calendar/contacts to google either, so I've been testing leaving-window-on trick myself. I left it on a separate desktop, 12 hours now and everything is still online. This must be it.

 

[ElectricPotato]

I left it on a separate desktop, 12 hours now and everything is still online. This must be it.

I tried the title bar double-click to minimize workaround Jose identified. That required making a change to the title bar double-click behavior in the dock settings. He was right. I've gone all day without a connection failure that required restarting mail. Before that always happened in one to two hours. I previously used Cmd-H to hide mail when not in use.

I have seen a couple of "offline" symbols, but clicking the get new mail button always takes it back online and gets the mail. I have been sleeping the machine with mail running too. It's beyond me why Jose's workaround changes the mail app behavior with regard to gmail connections but it does.

Now mail is tolerable to use again. Whatever change Apple made to 10.14.4 mail had an inscrutable side effect that continues to plague a significant number of gmail users. Given these weird symptoms it must be very difficult for Apple to identify.

 

[lec0rsaire]

This has been stated multiple times on multiple threads about this issue. Many people, including myself, have been through this and other attempts to fix the problem without success. It is good you are not experiencing the problem. Others are not as lucky. 10.14.3 mail works. 10.14.4 mail has the problem. A few hearty souls have gone through gymnastics to install 10.14.3 mail on 10.14.4 and that fixes it but is not a long term solution.

The problem as commonly reported is that mail takes the gmail account(s) offline after some period, roughly an hour to a few hours. It won't work again until you quit mail and then restart it, after which the cycle repeats.

I suggest you try again and again. I didn’t do anything special. I had to log in a couple of times since I was logged out of Gmail after clearing my Safari history & cache the first time I did it. The second time it stuck.

Please remove your account and set it up again. It will work.

 

[Mainyehc]

Finally, a suggestion that actually affects the bug behavior! After 3 and a half hours, it is still working. This is by far the longest it has gone for me. I'll continue the test but I think Jose Amich stumbled upon the key feature of this bug: it is related to closing/minimizing windows. How obscure is that? Window behavior affecting connections to a mail server (and only for gmail)? I would not have guessed that in a million years.

Thanks to Nathaniel_Wu for linking to the thread with Jose's observations. It's not a fix, but it is the best clue so far.

Edit: Now 8.5 hours and still working. It sounds crazy, but if you are experiencing the 10.14.4 mail/gmail connection failures run mail without minimizing/hiding/closing. I have not tried Jose's workaround of minimizing by double clicking the title bar yet.

Thank you guys for testing this. Had I known of this workaround, I would’ve installed 10.14.4 already. I find it strange why someone *wouldn’t* always keep Mail.app open at all times, but maybe that’s because I work from home on an iMac and also worked at an event company where e-mail was the prime source of communication, even with colleagues sitting back to back.

But the thing is: I got so used to it that I basically keep Mail.app always open in fullscreen; checking or answering e-mail is basically one click or swipe away, with zero waiting time (having 40 GB of RAM also helps, I guess; with that much memory to spare, why would I want to close the app?). And with such a dependency on Mail.app for my work, having it bork itself after 90 minutes would be a big no-no, but if in the worst case scenario I only have to relaunch it every time I wake my Mac(s) from sleep – because I keep it on a desktop of its own, either on my external monitor on the iMac or on the integrated one on my MacBook Pro when I’m on the go –, I’m totally fine with that. I always prefer having to deal with some nuisances but knowing that I have the latest security patches properly installed.