Apple Seeds Second Public Beta of macOS Big Sur 11.3

[itrends]

I think it's hilarious that Apple is adding calendar awareness to charging of all things, when they've totally broken the calendar awareness of things like Do Not Disturb (no more "… until the end of this event"), and have broken the options for snoozing notifications as well (no more options for how an alert gets snoozed… the only option is "snooze" which is 9 minutes, no more "until it's time to leave," "until X minutes before start time" or anything… just… snooze). Considering they've been trying to make macOS more iPhone-like, this is one area where they have fallen down badly.

And another thing, while I'm here…

I just plugged in an external display for the first time since upgrading to Big Sur, and holy crap, have they ever turned display spanning into a hot mess.

You get a menu bar on every display now, not just your Primary display. This was confusing to me at first, but I can see how it might come in handy.

Auto-show/hide of the dock on spanned displays is also now a complete mess. The dock no longer automatically shows when the cursor is touched to the bottom of the primary display. You have to put the cursor there and click for the dock to appear. Again, unexpected and undocumented behaviour. I can see where it might be handy, but it's weird and feels broken. There is also no longer a keyboard shortcut (command+option+D) to manually show/hide the dock.

Also, the little "displays" widget we used to get in the menu bar? It's only there for "mirroring" now. If you're spanning your display, you get nothing in the menu bar or the Control Center. Apparently display spanners are second-class citizens compared to mirroring now.

I think you may be mistaken

- there was almost always a menu on all screens
- putting my cursor at the bottom and waiting a moment does show the dock (no clicking)
- CMD OPTION + D is hiding and showing my dock
- the display item from the menu bar is moved into the control centre but you can drag it out of there back up on to the menu if you want

I am on 11.3 beta 2

 

[hybrid_x]

I think you may be mistaken

- there was almost always a menu on all screens
- putting my cursor at the bottom and waiting a moment does show the dock (no clicking)
- CMD OPTION + D is hiding and showing my dock
- the display item from the menu bar is moved into the control centre but you can drag it out of there back up on to the menu if you want

View attachment 1731976

I am on 11.3 beta 2

Interesting. I just had my MacBook Pro (13" TouchBar) hooked up to a KVM switch in my office, and did NOT get the Screen Mirroring widget in my menu bar. But I'm upstairs in my media room with my laptop plugged into my TV (using a USB-C to HDMI dock), and the widget did not initially appear on my main display, but WAS there on the TV display's menu bar. As soon as I clicked it on the secondary screen, it appeared on the primary display's menu bar. Buggy.

To be honest, I haven't spanned displays much in recent years, so my precise memory of it might be older. I recall that years ago, there was only ever a menu bar on the Primary screen, and in the Displays control panel, you designate a display as Primary by dragging the menu bar to it.

command+option+D is absolutely not functioning to show/hide my dock, even though it is shown as a keyboard shortcut in my Keyboard control panel. I don't know if some other app has taken over that shortcut, but it's definitely not working on my machine.

And bizarrely, the dock IS now automatically appearing with my cursor at the bottom of the screen. I'm not sure if the KVM switch was messing with things, but it was definitely not working as expected on my office setup.

Another weird thing: The app switcher (command+Tab) appears only on the display the Dock last appeared on. That's goddamn bizarre.

I'm running 11.2. I don't do beta software on the machine I rely on for work.

 

[itrends]

Interesting. I just had my MacBook Pro (13" TouchBar) hooked up to a KVM switch in my office, and did NOT get the Screen Mirroring widget in my menu bar. But I'm upstairs in my media room with my laptop plugged into my TV (using a USB-C to HDMI dock), and the widget did not initially appear on my main display, but WAS there on the TV display's menu bar. As soon as I clicked it on the secondary screen, it appeared on the primary display's menu bar. Buggy.

To be honest, I haven't spanned displays much in recent years, so my precise memory of it might be older. I recall that years ago, there was only ever a menu bar on the Primary screen, and in the Displays control panel, you designate a display as Primary by dragging the menu bar to it.

command+option+D is absolutely not functioning to show/hide my dock, even though it is shown as a keyboard shortcut in my Keyboard control panel. I don't know if some other app has taken over that shortcut, but it's definitely not working on my machine.

And bizarrely, the dock IS now automatically appearing with my cursor at the bottom of the screen. I'm not sure if the KVM switch was messing with things, but it was definitely not working as expected on my office setup.

Another weird thing: The app switcher (command+Tab) appears only on the display the Dock last appeared on. That's goddamn bizarre.

I'm running 11.2. I don't do beta software on the machine I rely on for work.

Just so I am super clear - I wasn't trying to talk down to you or doubt your issues. I appreciate my intro sentence could have been better.

I hope everything gets fixed as needed.

With regard to the mirroring icon - make sure you go into the control centre (next to the siri/clock part) and then click/drag the screen mirroring section up into the top menubar. This will then have it always show. Otherwise, yes, it is conditional.

 

[Unsupported]

and yet mine works fine. I have been trying to duplicate the problems on posts like this - all to no avail. so what gives? Is there something else going on on your computer that is triggering it?

Many of the bugs being reported here haven't effected me either.

The bug in Mail notifications and sounds that I was talking about may effect some machines, and not others but I'm not alone. YMMV.

I and others have posted on several threads here, and there are others talking about it on Apple Support Discussions:

Still no fix in macOS 11.2 for new Mail n… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Since 2015:

Anyone else not receiving notifications o… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

 

[yukari]

Not having any issues with this at all. Maybe you can be more specific instead of making such a generic complaint. I don't know, computer, display mode, application where it is occurring, what is it doing?

You are kidding, right?

OSX Big Sur 11.1 reverts size of open/save windows [Annoying!]

When using the open/save function (opening a window) I resize it to reflect my needs. A sidebar with sufficient width to read my folder names and a larger window at all to be able to navigate through folders. In previous versions of all OSX-versions if I recall it correctly, including Big Sur...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[JohnnyWalker]

Big Sur has been fast and stable on my 2019 iMac. The worst thing about it is the dogsh*t ugly icons that litter the damn thing. It's actually really pretty apart from them. It's the only area that Apple are failing at. Just bring back Scott Forstall and put him on icon duty.

 

[steve333]

Not one word of whether Apple even acknowledges that Safari is messed up in Big Sur. Spinning Beach ball when clicking on Bookmark Menu, some websites just hanging and not connecting.
Come on, Apple, your monopoly on software and hardware is supposed to prevent this from happening

 

[Realityck]

Not one word of whether Apple even acknowledges that Safari is messed up in Big Sur. Spinning Beach ball when clicking on Bookmark Menu, some websites just hanging and not connecting.
Come on, Apple, your monopoly on software and hardware is supposed to prevent this from happening

Have you compared accessing the same sites within 11.3 beta with Safari 14.1 vs Firefox 85.0.2 as one example? I do like to use multiple browsers. How about comparing this to another OS setup where the browser acts as a desktop? (not iOS)

 

[osplo]

You get a menu bar on every display now, not just your Primary display. This was confusing to me at first, but I can see how it might come in handy.

The menu bar in every display is not new, it's there since Steve died... he was opposing it and when he passed they finally implemented it; I love it. (But I would obviously trade Steve's life for this stupid thing any time).

 

[Phantom-fa]

A fair warning to all of you considering to jump onto the BETA-train. My Apple M1 Mac mini is next to useless with 11.3 BETA2. kernel_task and spindump is using 80+% CPU all the time and my Mac mini is lagging like crazy. Basically useless.

Luckily I always have Time Machine Backups at hand so I did a revert and it got back to normal. But this BETA seems to be horrible for Apple M1 users.

I have M1 Mini and beta 2 is working just fine with system sitting at >90% idle most of the time, so maybe you have something installed on your system causing the problem.

Processes: 514 total, 2 running, 512 sleeping, 1906 threads 11:29:32
Load Avg: 1.12, 1.37, 1.33 CPU usage: 2.3% user, 1.67% sys, 96.29% idle
SharedLibs: 576M resident, 111M data, 225M linkedit.

 

[steve333]

Have you compared accessing the same sites within 11.3 beta with Safari 14.1 vs Firefox 85.0.2 as one example? I do like to use multiple browsers. How about comparing this to another OS setup where the browser acts as a desktop? (not iOS)

When Safari screws up I switch to Firefox. It used to be once in a blue moon, now it's every day. It makes my 2 year old Mini feel like it's 10 years old. Apple Support is worthless

 

[Phantom-fa]

When Safari screws up I switch to Firefox. It used to be once in a blue moon, now it's every day. It makes my 2 year old Mini feel like it's 10 years old. Apple Support is worthless

Have you considered the possibility that having other apps like Firefox might be part of the problem. I am running Safari (only) on 11.2 on a 2017 iMac and 11.3 Beta on an M1 Mini and not seeing any problems at all.

 

[steve333]

Have you considered the possibility that having other apps like Firefox might be part of the problem. I am running Safari (only) on 11.2 on a 2017 iMac and 11.3 Beta on an M1 Mini and not seeing any problems at all.

No, Firefox is off until I need it and there was zero issue until I updated to Big Sur

 

[Phantom iCloud tabs]

No, Firefox is off until I need it and there was zero issue until I updated to Big Sur

Safari was running super slow for me when I upgraded to Big Sur from Catalina. I did a fresh install (not from backup) and that generally fixed the speed issue, FWIW. There are issues with Safari still, though, and the iCloud tabs bug I mentioned earlier in this thread is just one example.

 

[steve333]

Safari was running super slow for me when I upgraded to Big Sur from Catalina. I did a fresh install (not from backup) and that generally fixed the speed issue, FWIW. There are issues with Safari still, though, and the iCloud tabs bug I mentioned earlier in this thread is just one example.

And I don't see Apple ackowledging it at all which is shocking

 

[Ningj]

A fair warning to all of you considering to jump onto the BETA-train. My Apple M1 Mac mini is next to useless with 11.3 BETA2. kernel_task and spindump is using 80+% CPU all the time and my Mac mini is lagging like crazy. Basically useless.

Luckily I always have Time Machine Backups at hand so I did a revert and it got back to normal. But this BETA seems to be horrible for Apple M1 users.

Thats disappointing. 11.3 Beta2 has been running fine for me however (Office, music/guitar apps, audio interface). If anything it "feels" more responsive than Beta1. Spindump is behaving and isn't looping or running continually. I've installed all public Big Sur beta's and thought I would give it a rest for awhile and stick with 11.2 GA... got bored and reenroled

 

[Unsupported]

Is there something else going on on your computer that is triggering it?

It is not all the hard, and if you are having issues that are not universal, it is worth considering.

and btw, if you don't prefer to use Mail, don't.

I used Eudora For Mac since 1995 until it wouldn't run on the then latest OSX (10.6?) and so migrated to Mail.

While I miss the many options and features of Eudora, like many people I use email less in these days of social media and messaging. I've learned to live with Mail's shortcomings, until now, and I'd prefer to run only Apple apps. There's nothing I've read about alternative mail clients that tempt me to try one.

My setup is as basic as one can get; MacBook Pro 13" 2019 running the latest Big Sur release, not betas.

The only non Apple app I use regularly is Firefox, always updated.

Other than FF the only other apps I normally have launched are Safari, TextEdit, Preview and Time Machine making automatic backups to my external SamsungT5 1 TD external SSD.

I've tried numerous reboots, NVRAM and SMC resets. The problem persists even after only launching Mail after a reboot - no other apps running, not even in the background, still no Notifications of new mail, and no sounds either.

FYI it's Mail Version 14.0 (3654.60.0.2.21)

Constructive suggestions welcome, but I'm pretty sure the problem is a bug in Mail and possibly System Preferences - Notifications - Mail. There's no option for sound for Mail notifications - perhaps the problem is the two not playing nicely together?

 

[Phantom iCloud tabs]

I used Eudora For Mac since 1995 until it wouldn't run on the then latest OSX (10.6?) and so migrated to Mail.

While I miss the many options and features of Eudora, like many people I use email less in these days of social media and messaging. I've learned to live with Mail's shortcomings, until now, and I'd prefer to run only Apple apps. There's nothing I've read about alternative mail clients that tempt me to try one.

My setup is as basic as one can get; MacBook Pro 13" 2019 running the latest Big Sur release, not betas.

The only non Apple app I use regularly is Firefox, always updated.

Other than FF the only other apps I normally have launched are Safari, TextEdit, Preview and Time Machine making automatic backups to my external SamsungT5 1 TD external SSD.

I've tried numerous reboots, NVRAM and SMC resets. The problem persists even after only launching Mail after a reboot - no other apps running, not even in the background, still no Notifications of new mail, and no sounds either.

FYI it's Mail Version 14.0 (3654.60.0.2.21)

Constructive suggestions welcome, but I'm pretty sure the problem is a bug in Mail and possibly System Preferences - Notifications - Mail. There's no option for sound for Mail notifications - perhaps the problem is the two not playing nicely together?

The setting for mail notification sound is in the mail app, under the preferences menu. Dumb question, but have you tried adjusting it and seeing if that helps?

 

[Unsupported]

The setting for mail notification sound is in the mail app, under the preferences menu. Dumb question, but have you tried adjusting it and seeing if that helps?

Yes, it is a dumb question, with all due respect. I've explained in my previous posts, here and on other threads, the various combinations of settings I've tried.

Using that setting in Mail itself to turn on all sounds I only hear the "swoosh" of mail being sent - no new mail sound and no sounds of the many I have configured in "Rules", each for different senders.

With sounds on in Mail's prefs it appears that banners and alerts set in System Preferences - Notifications don't appear.

With sounds off in Mail's prefs the banners and alerts sometimes appear.

With sounds on in Mail's prefs but with System Preferences - Notifications for Mail off there's still no sound.

This is what led me to note the fact that there is no "sounds" option in System prefs for mail notifications, and the possibility there's a conflict or a glitch between the two sets of settings.

 

[Phantom iCloud tabs]

Yes, it is a dumb question, with all due respect. I've explained in my previous posts, here and on other threads, the various combinations of settings I've tried.

Using that setting in Mail itself to turn on all sounds I only hear the "swoosh" of mail being sent - no new mail sound and no sounds of the many I have configured in "Rules", each for different senders.

With sounds on in Mail's prefs it appears that banners and alerts set in System Preferences - Notifications don't appear.

With sounds off in Mail's prefs the banners and alerts sometimes appear.

With sounds on in Mail's prefs but with System Preferences - Notifications for Mail off there's still no sound.

This is what led me to note the fact that there is no "sounds" option in System prefs for mail notifications, and the possibility there's a conflict or a glitch between the two sets of settings.

More dumb questions: have you tried doing a fresh install WITHOUT using time machine or installing from iCloud backup? I find that Apple's engineering team seem to test in only limited ways to see how their layer upon layer of updates affects older systems/software configs that have been bounced around from version to version.

Do you own more than one Mac? Have you had this issue on all your machines?

I ask because (and I know it's always annoying to hear this, so please pardon me) I have two Macs, and neither one of them has ever had this issue.

 

[Unsupported]

More dumb questions: have you tried doing a fresh install WITHOUT using time machine or installing from iCloud backup?

Do you own more than one Mac? Have you had this issue on all your machines?

I ask because (and I know it's always annoying to hear this, so please pardon me) I have two Macs, and neither one of them has ever had this issue.

No, I haven't tried a fresh install and I don't think I will. I'd be scared to lose too much stuff I've had for too many years.

This is the only Mac I have running macOS Big Sur, the others are too old.

I know that not everyone has experienced this problem, but people are also posting about issues I haven't come across.

 

[Phantom iCloud tabs]

No, I haven't tried a fresh install and I don't think I will. I'd be scared to lose too much stuff I've had for too many years.

This is the only Mac I have running macOS Big Sur, the others are too old.

I know that not everyone has experienced this problem, but people are also posting about issues I haven't come across.

It's impossible to be certain until you try it, but I'm fairly confident that such a fresh install would resolve this issue for you. Maybe if the bug bothers you that much you can shift your files over to iCloud? With Apple, I've noticed it's a best practice to do a fresh install every major version upgrade, anyway.

 

[mi7chy]

Hopefully it fixes the broken palm rejection. Shameful that Windows devices at a 1/3 of the cost has properly working palm rejection.

 

[Unsupported]

It's impossible to be certain until you try it, but I'm fairly confident that such a fresh install would resolve this issue for you. Maybe if the bug bothers you that much you can shift your files over to iCloud? With Apple, I've noticed it's a best practice to do a fresh install every major version upgrade, anyway.

Do you mean a fresh install by downloading a fresh copy of the latest Big Sur, downloaded from the App Store?

Or do you really mean a fresh install using Recovery Mode?

 

[Phantom iCloud tabs]

Do you mean a fresh install by downloading a fresh copy of the latest Big Sur, downloaded from the App Store?

Or do you really mean a fresh install using Recovery Mode?

I mean (after backing up on an external drive or cloud drive) booting into internet recovery, deleting your Mac partition, and doing a reinstall of the entire OS. When prompted during the initial setup process, this would mean NOT opting to "restore from iCloud" or any other device -- though you would sign into your iCloud account.