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Apple Seeds New Public Beta of macOS Big Sur to Public Beta Testers

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Apple today seeded a new beta of the upcoming macOS 11 Big Sur update to its public beta testing group, allowing non-developers to give the software a try ahead of its public release this fall. The third beta release for public testers comes two weeks after the second beta, and a few days after seeding the sixth beta to developers.

macOS-public-beta-3-feature-1.jpg

Beta testers who signed up for Apple's beta testing program can download the macOS Big Sur beta through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences after installing the proper profile. Though labeled as the sixth beta, this is the third beta that Apple has provided to public beta testers.

Mac users who want to be a part of Apple's beta testing program can sign up to participate on the beta website, which gives users access to iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS betas. Potential beta testers should make a full backup before installing ‌macOS Big Sur‌, and it may not be wise to install the update on a primary machine because betas can be unstable.

macOS Big Sur introduces a refined design for the macOS operating system, which is more similar to iOS but immediately familiar to Mac users with tweaks to window design, color palette, app icons, system sounds, menu bars, and sidebars.

The update brings Control Center to the Mac for the first time, providing quicker access to system controls for things like volume, keyboard brightness, screen brightness, Wi-Fi connection, and more.

An updated Notification Center includes more interactive notifications and redesigned widgets that mirror the new widgets in iOS 14. Notifications are now grouped by app, and you can customize which widgets show up.

Safari has a new customizable start page, built-in translation, and a Privacy Report feature that lets you know which trackers each website is using to follow you across the web. There's a new Mac App Store category for extensions, and you can now control the specific sites that extensions are able to work with for more privacy.

The Messages app for Mac has been overhauled to bring it more in line with the Messages app for iOS and it supports features like pinned conversations, mentions, inline replies, Messages effects, and Memoji creation and Memoji stickers. Search is also better to make it easier to find old conversations, photos, links, and more.

A redesigned Maps app in macOS Big Sur adds support for Look Around, indoor maps, Guides, and Shared ETA updates, plus it can be used to generate cycling routes and routes with charging stops for electric vehicles, which can be sent to iPhone.

There are also smaller updates for apps like Photos, Music, and Home, with a full list of everything new in macOS Big Sur available in our roundup.

Article Link: Apple Seeds New Public Beta of macOS Big Sur to Public Beta Testers
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/09/08/apple-seeds-new-macos-big-sur-public-beta/
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finally! been waiting all week for it, **** was getting way too buggy
 
For those of you who’ve been using it for a while, would you say it’s relatively stable? I had someone tell me beta 6 is a good place to put any year’s macOS beta on my device, so I was thinking about giving it a go.

It’s funny, I didn’t think twice about putting the very first public beta of iOS 14 on my iPhone, but still have doubts on public beta 3 for my Mac. They still very much are our crucial, workhorse machines, aren’t they?
 
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3,29 GB for me :)

RedTheReader said:
For those of you who’ve been using it for a while, would you say it’s relatively stable? I had someone tell me beta 6 is a good place to put any year’s macOS beta on my device, so I was thinking about giving it a go.

It’s funny, I didn’t think twice about putting the very first public beta of iOS 14 on my iPhone, but still have doubts on public beta 3 for my Mac. They still very much are our crucial, workhorse machines, aren’t they?
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Yeah, I honestly can't say anything wrong about latest beta. Everything works as expected.
 
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RedTheReader said:
For those of you who’ve been using it for a while, would you say it’s relatively stable? I had someone tell me beta 6 is a good place to put any year’s macOS beta on my device, so I was thinking about giving it a go.

It’s funny, I didn’t think twice about putting the very first public beta of iOS 14 on my iPhone, but still have doubts on public beta 3 for my Mac. They still very much are our crucial, workhorse machines, aren’t they?
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It works. Definitely still very buggy, I have some graphics glitches here and there, but nothing too dramatic. Wouldn't put it on a professional machine. I use it on my main private macbook.
[automerge]1599587618[/automerge]
Sebosz said:
3,29 GB for me :)
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Congrats for being more German than a German.
 
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Hopefully this is an incremental build that fixes the network volume mount bug.

RedTheReader said:
For those of you who’ve been using it for a while, would you say it’s relatively stable? I had someone tell me beta 6 is a good place to put any year’s macOS beta on my device, so I was thinking about giving it a go.

It’s funny, I didn’t think twice about putting the very first public beta of iOS 14 on my iPhone, but still have doubts on public beta 3 for my Mac. They still very much are our crucial, workhorse machines, aren’t they?
Click to expand...

On my Macbook pro 16 there are instances where it takes a while to get out of sleep and sometimes all the apps are restarted upon wake. It's been stable while using it though.
 
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I've been on (20A5364e) for some days now and pretty fine. Im really into power consumption, to see how real-life battery use works on this beta. So far so good, I havn't had any glitches except for not being able to connect a wired PDP Xbox One Controller. It's funny because it appears as so when I check the usb 3.0 bus, but it just wont work. Anyway... been testing since beta 1 and Im very impressed.
 
RedTheReader said:
For those of you who’ve been using it for a while, would you say it’s relatively stable? I had someone tell me beta 6 is a good place to put any year’s macOS beta on my device, so I was thinking about giving it a go.

It’s funny, I didn’t think twice about putting the very first public beta of iOS 14 on my iPhone, but still have doubts on public beta 3 for my Mac. They still very much are our crucial, workhorse machines, aren’t they?
Click to expand...
it's been really stable for awhile now. You still have to be careful if you are using third-party apps that haven't been updated. Like Google drive - no idea while google is so lazy, maybe they can't find any of your data to mine.

Id be cautious of those claiming it is buggy or as in one case "a crapshow". It definitely is not. I suspect they don't really run it, or they are not those who really should be in the beta program, or what. Of course you shouldn't be if this is your mission critical computer, and rely on third party apps. Read the instructions - they are pretty well done
 
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MauiPa said:
it's been really stable for awhile now. You still have to be careful if you are using third-party apps that haven't been updated. Like Google drive - no idea while google is so lazy, maybe they can't find any of your data to mine.

Id be cautious of those claiming it is buggy or as in one case "a crapshow". It definitely is not. I suspect they don't really run it, or they are not those who really should be in the beta program, or what. Of course you shouldn't be if this is your mission critical computer, and rely on third party apps. Read the instructions - they are pretty well done
Click to expand...

I can tell you I have been beta testing Mac OS operating systems for 25 years and this has been stable. A couple of hiccups and used the feedback assist to report it, when I found it. That what a beta program is, work out the kinks :)
 
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RedTheReader said:
For those of you who’ve been using it for a while, would you say it’s relatively stable? I had someone tell me beta 6 is a good place to put any year’s macOS beta on my device, so I was thinking about giving it a go.

It’s funny, I didn’t think twice about putting the very first public beta of iOS 14 on my iPhone, but still have doubts on public beta 3 for my Mac. They still very much are our crucial, workhorse machines, aren’t they?
Click to expand...
Not an issue for me on my daily driver.
 
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Peter Alexander said:
does anybody recommend updating my MacBook pro 2020 to this beta... its my only MacBook im really curious to try it out
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All betas pose risks. However, I would say that public beta should be much safer than dev beta, otherwise Apple will get a lot of flak for releasing buggy OS for the public to test.
 
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now i see it said:
I can't fathom why anyone would want to install these buggy public betas unless they just want to poke around to see what doesn't work. What's the rush?
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Well look at this way, lets say that you would be able to test drive a Tesla absolutely free for 9 months to help the manufacture work on the kinks in the cars hardware and software. Would you do it? Knowing also that you would be buying a new Tesla in 9 months so it would now be a better car on the road that you helped make it better.
 
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mikeboss said:
Build# is the same. beware of a broken SMB client.
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Thanks for confirming the build number. No problem with that because I do not use SMB.
[automerge]1599588419[/automerge]
jlocker said:
Well look at this way, lets say that you would be able to test drive a Tesla absolutely free for 9 months to help the manufacture work on the kinks in the cars hardware and software. Would you do it? Knowing also that you would be buying a new Tesla in 9 months so it would now be a better car on the road that you helped make be better.
Click to expand...
Good explanation there.
 
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