Apple Seeds Second Beta of macOS Sequoia 15.4 With Mail Categorization

[MacRumors]

Apple today provided developers with the second beta of an upcoming macOS Sequoia 15.4 update for testing purposes. The new beta is available two weeks after Apple released the first beta.

Registered developers can opt-in to the macOS Sequoia beta through the Software Update section of the System Settings app. An Apple ID associated with an Apple Developer account is required to get the beta.

macOS Sequoia 15.4 brings Mail Categorization to the Mac for the first time, reorganizing the Mail app into dedicated categories like transactions, updates, promotions, and primary, a category that surfaces the most important emails first.

For Apple News+ subscribers, there is a dedicated News+ Food section with recipes, articles about restaurants, and other related content. There's a new Sketch style in Image Playground, the option to create Memory Movies in the Photos app, and Apple Intelligence is expanding to new languages.

Apple plans to release macOS Sequoia 15.4 in early April.

Article Link: Apple Seeds Second Beta of macOS Sequoia 15.4 With Mail Categorization

 

[tywebb13]

build number is 24E5222f

other stuff released with new builds:

iOS 18.4 beta 2 (22E5216h)

iPadOS 18.4 beta 2 (22E5216h)

tvOS 18.4 beta 2 (22L5234e)

visionOS 2.4 beta 2 (22O5215f)

watchOS 11.4 beta 2 (22T5228e)

as per the webpage https://developer.apple.com/news/releases/

probably the sonoma, ventura and audioos new builds coming too, but they don't go on that page.

i'll update this later when i find out

but the audioos 18.4 beta 2 is probably the same as the tvOS one, 22L5234e, but still need to confirm

EDIT: there is indeed a sonoma 14.7.5 rc 2 build 23H515 and ventura 13.7.5 rc 2 build 22H515

EDIT 2: audioos 18.4 beta 2 build is indeed 22L5234e

 

[Martyimac]

Nothing here yet.

 

[artjart]

I wanted to wait for the first responders to tell if there's anything wrong - but my impatience won. I'm installing NOW

EDIT: Now I'm the first responder and the beta 2 was installed without any issues.

 

[1337group]

This appears to have fixed the M4 virtualization crash.

 

[thefrost]

Not sure who would use the Mail Categorisation feature.

 

[brockb961]

Not sure who would use the Mail Categorisation feature.

I see it as no use. Turned it off as soon as I loaded the beta.

 

[tywebb13]

there is a ipsw for the beta 2, just as there was for beta 1 - but no full installer came for the beta 1.

let's hope they do a full installer for the beta 2.

one theory for there being no full installer thus far for the 15.4 betas is that it may contain info about the m4 mba, so they withhold it till the m4 mba is released.

 

[thefrost]

I see it as no use. Turned it off as soon as I loaded the beta.

I agree. It's useless.

 

[artjart]

there is a ipsw for the beta 2, just as there was for beta 1 - but no full installer came for the beta 1.

let's hope they do a full installer for the beta 2.

one theory for there being no full installer thus far for the 15.4 betas is that it may contain info about the m4 mba, so they withhold it till the m4 mba is released.

What do you mean by full installer? For me the first 15.4 beta was like 15GB - isn't that a full installer or am I missing something?

 

[tywebb13]

What do you mean by full installer? For me the first 15.4 beta was like 15GB - isn't that a full installer or am I missing something?

beta 1 ota update was as large as a full installer, yes.

but there was no InstallAssistant.pkg associated with it from which you could make a bootable usb - something we have come to expect from an actual full installer

 

[artjart]

beta 1 ota update was as large as a full installer, yes.

but there was no InstallAssistant.pkg associated with it from which you could make a bootable usb - something we have come to expect from an actual full installer

what does a full installer do, and what if it's not included - what changes?

 

[tywebb13]

what does a full installer do, and what if it's not included - what changes?

as i said before you can make a bootable usb - if the full installer is available

you can also do a clean install from a full installer

this contrasts with an ota update - you have to already have an earlier build in order to update to new build via ota

 

[tarunc]

Parallels 20.x works again....phew......

 

[Ramsteiner]

Parallels works but ScanSnap doesn’t on M4 Mac mini pro.

 

[ddtmm]

I turned off Categories on my iPhone pretty fast. I missed too many important emails at first and quickly figured out how to turn it off. I can think of a lot of other features they could incorporate instead, like handling calendar invites properly, eM Client or Outlook.

 

[Ilde]

Not sure who would use the Mail Categorisation feature.

I disable it years ago on Gmail, therefore I did the same just installed beta 1. Useless for me, as e-gen-me-x-mojis from hell.

 

[thefrost]

I disable it years ago on Gmail, therefore I did the same just installed beta 1. Useless for me, as e-gen-me-x-mojis from hell.

That's good to know.

 

[tywebb13]

i added this to post #2 : there is indeed a sonoma 14.7.5 rc 2 build 23H515 and ventura 13.7.5 rc 2 build 22H515

 

[tahuru]

if you are a musician, ILOK doesnt seem to work for me with either with beta1 or beta2. "ofc on my test system" not production

 

[Truben]

Is someone else experiencing issues with Logic Pro due to this update? Unfortunately, my plugins aren’t working because iLok and UA Connect are crashing.

 

[Truben]

if you are a musician, ILOK doesnt seem to work for me with either with beta1 or beta2. "ofc on my test system" not production

Same here.

 

[Corefile]

A new macOS beta is why we are alive.

 

[librarianscott]

I couldn't find the new News+ food section anywhere. The Puzzles are still there, and still easy to locate.

 

[Pączki]

Guys, it's okay not to be excited about the categorization feature, but some of us are psyched about it. Posts that proudly proclaim you've turned the feature off is a waste of everyone's time.

How about some ideas on how to make it better? Or some other tips on how to manage your inboxes?