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Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming macOS Sierra 10.12.5 update to developers, one day after releasing macOS Sierra 10.12.4, which introduced Night Shift for the Mac.

macOS Sierra 10.12.5 can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center or through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store.

macbook_pro_13_15_sierra-800x329.jpg

Apple's release notes don't often provide much insight into what's included in new beta software, so we don't yet know what features it might offer. As the update follows the release of 10.12.4, which was a major update, this one may focus primarily on bug fixes and other small improvements.

The release notes accompanying the beta release say only that the "update improves the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac." Should any new features be found in macOS Sierra 10.12.5, we'll update this post.

Article Link: Apple Seeds First Beta of macOS Sierra 10.12.5 to Developers
 

nutmac

macrumors 603
Mar 30, 2004
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VMWare Fusion is borked on 10.12.4, where most of the VMs start/resume with a blank screen. Hopefully that issue is fixed.
 

MacsRgr8

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Sep 8, 2002
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The Netherlands

jefe2000

macrumors member
Jul 23, 2002
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I find that statement amusing. How do they know about any of that only a day after the release of the last update? Did they already know there were problems with "stability, compatibility and security" in 10.12.4 and yet they simply released it anyway?

Releasing software updates with known issues is super-common. Bugs are often discovered far too late in a release cycle to include fixes in that release. So, fixes are deferred to the next release (in this case, deferred to 10.12.5).
 

benface

macrumors regular
Feb 28, 2012
198
547
I find that statement amusing. How do they know about any of that only a day after the release of the last update? Did they already know there were problems with "stability, compatibility and security" in 10.12.4 and yet they simply released it anyway?
Of course. If they waited until all known issues were fixed before releasing something, they'd never release it. Any software will have bugs and areas to improve.
 

chucker23n1

macrumors G3
Dec 7, 2014
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Sure, but that's not bootable yet.

VMWare Fusion is borked on 10.12.4, where most of the VMs start/resume with a blank screen. Hopefully that issue is fixed.

Seems fine here.

I find that statement amusing. How do they know about any of that only a day after the release of the last update? Did they already know there were problems with "stability, compatibility and security" in 10.12.4 and yet they simply released it anyway?

Yes. That's how any product development works. You don't wait until it's perfect; you release when you're satisfied you've made the right compromises.

Real artists ship.
 

dogslobber

macrumors 601
Oct 19, 2014
4,670
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Apple Campus, Cupertino CA
I find that statement amusing. How do they know about any of that only a day after the release of the last update? Did they already know there were problems with "stability, compatibility and security" in 10.12.4 and yet they simply released it anyway?

10.12.4 has been pretty much complete for a few weeks now and 10.12.5 beta include all 10.12.4 in them. Just because an individual has a problem doesn't mean it's prevalent elsewhere. It's all about risk in the later beta builds and sometimes your bug isn't viewed as high enough risk to fix.
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Releasing software updates with known issues is super-common. Bugs are often discovered far too late in a release cycle to include fixes in that release. So, fixes are deferred to the next release (in this case, deferred to 10.12.5).

Or they might get pushed to 10.12.6 or 10.12.7 betas.
 
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RedTomato

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Mar 4, 2005
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When will we start seeing any info about OSX 10.13?

ISTR Apple saying they would slow down the pace of OSX revisions, so any indications 10.13 might be delayed till 2018?
 

Sedulous

macrumors 68030
Dec 10, 2002
2,530
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When will we start seeing any info about OSX 10.13?

ISTR Apple saying they would slow down the pace of OSX revisions, so any indications 10.13 might be delayed till 2018?
Oh, I sure hope so. By the time Apple starts working out the bugs they release a new OS. The yearly updates seem to increase the accumulation of bugs.
 

Rkuda

macrumors regular
May 23, 2016
190
362
When will we start seeing any info about OSX 10.13?

ISTR Apple saying they would slow down the pace of OSX revisions, so any indications 10.13 might be delayed till 2018?

We'll know more about 10.13 when WWDC comes around and the first developer seeds are available.

There is no way Apple won't release 10.13 this year. It's silly to think they would go back to a longer than 1 year release cycle from now. Nobody does that anymore, not even MS.

Also Apple isnt the type of company to give even vague roadmaps of their plans, let alone outright say that they would be slowing the frequency of updates for their software.
 
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ahlsn

macrumors member
Sep 1, 2013
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I find that statement amusing. How do they know about any of that only a day after the release of the last update? Did they already know there were problems with "stability, compatibility and security" in 10.12.4 and yet they simply released it anyway?

Absolutly! They probably stopped including new fixes in 10.12.4 several weeks ago. The problem with software development is that when you fix something you may very well break something else. To be able to deliver stable software they are postponing fixes to 10.12.5 so that they can test it for multiple weeks and make sure they haven't opened up even bigger security issues and bugs.
 
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QuadroQ

macrumors newbie
Feb 22, 2016
6
2
We'll know more about 10.13 when WWDC comes around and the first developer seeds are available.

There is no way Apple won't release 10.13 this year. It's silly to think they would go back to a longer than 1 year release cycle from now. Nobody does that anymore, not even MS.

Also Apple isnt the type of company to give even vague roadmaps of their plans, let alone outright say that they would be slowing the frequency of updates for their software.

Windows is already 1.5 yrs old.
Windows 10 29 July 2015
 
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