Apple Seeds Fourth Beta of macOS Catalina to Developers

[MacRumors]

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of macOS 10.15 Catalina for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the third macOS Catalina beta and over a month after the new Mac operating system update was first unveiled at the Worldwide Developers Conference.

The new macOS Catalina beta can be downloaded using the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences. As with all new betas, macOS Catalina should not be installed on a primary machine because it is early release software and has bugs.

macOS Catalina eliminates the iTunes app, splitting it into Music, Podcasts, and TV apps. The Apple Music and Apple Podcasts apps are available now, while the Apple TV app is coming later this year.

The three new apps offer similar functionality to iTunes, but are split up by feature. iOS device management is still available on the Mac, but it's now done through the Finder rather than iTunes.

With a new Sidecar feature, you can turn your iPad into a second display for your Mac with just the click of a button. The Apple Pencil works with Sidecar, so you can turn your iPad into a drawing tablet in apps like Photoshop and Illustrator.

Your Apple Watch can be used to approve security prompts for passwords and other info in macOS Catalina, and Macs with a T2 chip now support Activation Lock, making them more secure. There's a new Find My that brings the Find My Mac app to the Mac for the first time and even lets you track your devices when they're offline, or, in the case of notebooks, closed.

Screen Time is available on the Mac as well as iOS devices, and Project Catalyst, a new Apple initiative, will let developers easily port their iPad apps over to the Mac to increase the number of Mac apps available.

There's a new Photos interface that surfaces your best photos organized by day, month, or year, there's a new start page in Safari, Mail has new tools for muting email threads and blocking senders, and the Reminders app has been overhauled.

32-bit apps no longer work in macOS Catalina, which is something to be aware of before installing the beta.

For more details on macOS Catalina, make sure to check out our macOS Catalina roundup.

Article Link: Apple Seeds Fourth Beta of macOS Catalina to Developers

 

[cmChimera]

Please drop public as well.

 

[macintoshmac]

This is a FULL installer. 6.81GB. Even though I was coming from beta 3.

It won't download despite having beta profile. You will need to reinstall the profile, at which point it will download the full installer.

 

[cmaus]

This is a FULL installer. 6.81GB. Despite having beta 3.

It won't download despite having beta profile. You will need to reinstall the profile, at which point it will download the full installer.

Full installer? Why would you need a new profile?

I hope they fixed the desastrous iCloud Drive bug that had remained in Catalina (it has been ironed out in the last iOS/iPadOS Beta already, however it wasn’t yet perfect).

 

[Mike Haas]

Wow...6.82 GB. Another big 'un.

 

[Ricktracer]

This is a FULL installer. 6.81GB. Despite having beta 3.

It won't download despite having beta profile. You will need to reinstall the profile, at which point it will download the full installer.

I am downloading public beta. I didn't have to reinstall no profile. Downloading full installer also

 

[macintoshmac]

Full installer? Why would you need a new profile?

I hope they fixed the desastrous iCloud Drive bug that had remained in Catalina (it has been ironed out in the last iOS/iPadOS Beta already, however it wasn’t yet perfect).

Most likely fundamentals were changed enough to warrant a systemwide update/ upgrade. Something that couldn’t be done without.

 

[sniffies]

Did Apple push the wrong update to us by accident? It doesn't say beta 4, but rather Upgrade to Catalina Beta

Weird

Edit: I'm gonna wait until tomorrow just in case Apple pushes the correct beta

 

[macintoshmac]

I am downloading public beta. I didn't have to reinstall no profile. Downloading full installer also

Interesting. I had to reinstall the dev profile for it to see the update and download.

 

[ian-frs]

Maybe this will fix all of my Issues with secondary monitors and Music.

 

[carld]

You can upgrade through System Preferences as usual (though it is the full download). Also, FWIW, the Beta Access Utility pkg itself hasn't been updated since the end of May. Reinstalling the beta profile just triggers a full download of whatever the latest build is.

 

[waquzy]

6.82GB - big one.

Downloading...

 

[tywebb13]

Build number is 19A512f

 

[dsampley]

Downloading now. Wonder where the latest iOS 13 beta is at.

 

[GregJohn]

Downloading now...
wish beta 4 came out for the others too, still a very buggy

 

[tethead]

full download here as well. having some very annoying iCloud Music upload issues so hoping this fixes those. the other iCloud stuff has been annoying as well - Desktop, Documents, etc all not updating or showing as synced.

 

[PastaPrimav]

Well this is not reassuring at all.

 

[mikalh78]

Any updates for Skype for business?

 

[Gorms]

Well this is not reassuring at all.

You probably want to install that on a partition. Use disk utility to set one up.

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

They also just seeded the next Public Beta for Catalina as well! Just thought I’d beat MR to the punch. 6.82 GB

 

[cmChimera]

Maybe this will fix all of my Issues with secondary monitors and Music.

I’ve had a ton of issues with the new iTunes suite, so hopefully they’ve made some changes.

 

[djchrisallen]

Well this is not reassuring at all.

I got this too. *Ensue heart palpitations* I think I'll wait, haha.

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

I’ve had a ton of issues with the new iTunes suite, so hopefully they’ve made some changes.

I’ve noticed issues with the new music app in the past week, myself. Have you tried sending that feedback? That’s always the best way to get it resolved.
Also, I use an external monitor for work and thankfully haven’t had issues plugging into it. I’m using a 13” mid-2017 MBP with a 27” Dell USB-C monitor.

 

[Fastrip66]

This is a FULL installer. 6.81GB. Even though I was coming from beta 3.

It won't download despite having beta profile. You will need to reinstall the profile, at which point it will download the full installer.

I didn't have to I stall a new profile at all. It retained my developer beta access just fine and simply updated from beta 3

 

[redheeler]

Well this is not reassuring at all.

MacOS Catalina occupies two partitions, one for the system software that is mounted as read-only by default and one for user-generated data (users folder, installed apps, etc.) that is mounted as read-write. This message is referring to the system partition, but it really needs to be rephrased to make that more clear. The files on the data partition should be safe.