PSA: macOS 14 Sonoma Beta 4 Not Installing Properly for Some Users

[MacRumors]

Apple today released the fourth beta of macOS 14 Sonoma, but it might be wise to hold off on installing the new software right now due to issues that some Mac users have reported.

A handful of people have downloaded and installed the beta only to be greeted with an entirely black screen and a non-functional device. The mouse pointer is visible, but nothing shows up on the display. Affected Macs include an M2 14-inch MacBook Pro, an M1 MacBook Air, and an M1 Max MacBook Pro, but not all users are having installation troubles.

There are multiple reports from people who have had no issues installing the beta, so it is not clear where the problem lies. On Reddit, one user was able to fix the issue by going into recovery mode and reinstalling the beta, and another had luck with multiple reboots, but that does not seem to solve the problem for everyone.

On the MacRumors forums, there are also reports of issues with widgets not showing up properly and the Music app not opening, which were fixed by restarting. Given the number of problems with the software, those who are using macOS Sonoma on a main machine might want to wait to upgrade to the fourth beta.

Article Link: PSA: macOS 14 Sonoma Beta 4 Not Installing Properly for Some Users

 

[Aaronp613]

I’m having this issue

 

[Wildkraut]

Apple’s Beta is equally others Alpha! 🤣
They could try naming it Rapid Device Destroyer Version.

Edit: Shame on me, Rapid Device Destroyer Version is already taken by Apples Final Release.

 

[dantracht]

Thus, beta.

 

[minik]

I was successfully updated to beta 4 from beta 3 on an Intel-based MacBook Pro. However it shutdown once I plugged it into power. I got it to boot on battery mode, but not with power adapter.

Edit: Sophos Endpoint Anti-virus software may be causing it.

 

[jdclifford]

All good here. M1 MBA, M1 iMac, M2 MBA and M1 14"MBP 🤞

 

[Zshrc]

I hit this on my 16" MacBook Pro in Beta 3. A restart should fix it.

 

[jha]

Location services are broken in 13.5 as well

 

[contacos]

PHEW thank god I was too lazy earlier cuz I was like „we are on beta 4, might be the time to give it a go“. Glad I didn’t

 

[jha]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/13-5-location-privacy-broken.2396788/

 

[BalutFX]

Installed B4 successfully on M1 MacBook Pro 14. Also, the problem with unable to establish a hotspot internet connection via my iPhone appears to have been fixed.

 

[MauiPa]

No problems here. Is this another issue with some weird or deprecated software installed on those Macs? Did a clean install for beta 3. It is interesting when this happens, none of the impacted users ever do any troubleshooting to even speculate what crap they have on their systems. I totally agree macOS ought to install. That is why I do a clean install for each major upgrade. The only problem I ever had was that weird Safari crashing bug a few years ago. did a clean install, and fixed it

 

[Steve01234]

these updates aren't just straight OS installs. they seem to be doing firmware updates as well, so 2-4 boot cycles may happen as the updates get applied. I suspect these people are just panicking because it's not a single cycle update. just let the machine finish doing whatever it's doing. of course it would help if apple would be slightly more transparent about what's going on too -

 

[BornAgainMac]

Even knowing this, I'll still probably download and install on day 1. I like new OS upgrades but at the same time like to play with old stuff with OS 9 and Solaris 10 with the ancient open look interface. It either has to be really old or really new. Not Lion, Mavericks, El Capitan, or Sierra. Those are not old enough. The oldest Mac OS X would be Panther, Tiger, and Snow Leopard if I had an old Intel Mac.

 

[jambon]

Widgets got issues for sure. Even after reboots and adding/removing them. Reminds me of iOS 15 beta.

 

[zorinlynx]

Oh damn I feel like I dodged a bullet. 2021 M1 Macbook Pro, no issues so far.

Hope ya'll who are affected can restore easily.

I wonder if Apple is going to regret making it so easy to install betas. Their support channels are going to get swamped with people having issues.

 

[tywebb13]

Maybe apple could pull the beta and later re-release it with a better build.

 

[Mr. Dee]

Jason Snell, I don't think this aged well:

WHY YOU SHOULD INSTALL APPLE’S PUBLIC BETAS​

 

[tywebb13]

Jason Snell, I don't think this aged well:

WHY YOU SHOULD INSTALL APPLE’S PUBLIC BETAS​

That article is dangerous. It is encouraging people who would otherwise not install betas to install them. This could lead to more disasters.

I just hope apple DON'T release this build of beta 4 to public beta testers too.

They can fix the issues first and then re-release a better beta 4.

 

[Larsen2k4]

Update went fine here (MBP M1) - but yep: Weather widget still defunct (since Beta3), trying to reenable location services fails, because admin pw is not accepted.
And the "App X is recording your screen" menu bar message for almost any utility using an outdated API is still persistent (why can't this be deactivated?! I manually told the OS that recording is okay for these apps.)
Still some work to be done on Sonoma 😅

 

[nutmac]

Jason Snell, I don't think this aged well:

WHY YOU SHOULD INSTALL APPLE’S PUBLIC BETAS​

To be fair, Jason was talking about the public betas, which tend to be released a day or two after developer beta. While public betas are far from very stable, they tend to at least not cause the device to brick nor have major issues.

 

[jz0309]

so if the PB gets released tomorrow, then apple must feel comfortable with this build, if not ,,,
let's see what happens tomorrow

 

[posguy99]

Zero sympathy. You don't install beta software on production devices.

 

[Mr. Dee]

To be fair, Jason was talking about the public betas, which tend to be released a day or two after developer beta. While public betas are far from very stable, they tend to at least not cause the device to brick nor have major issues.

Public betas are based on the developer betas.

 

[Nugget]

Public betas are based on the developer betas.

I'm not sure I understand your point here. As the other commenter said, the public betas "tend to be released a day or two after developer beta" so that the public beta users aren't exposed to issues like today's.

I mean, this article is about the dev beta release, right? Not the public beta release which will be "based on" today's dev beta release once this issue is understood and resolved.