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

I always do an install on an external SSD & I'm glad I did. The public beta totally borked on my 2019 15" MBP. I was updating from Ventura, and now it hangs when booting. I'll wipe the drive and try again with a more mature beta, rather spend my time outdoors for now.
 
MacRumors said:


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.

macos-sonoma-feature-green-brown.jpg

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
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Worked fine on my 14” MacBook Pro and M2 Pro Mac mini. No issues.
 
Every year I always intend to install the betas but when push comes to shove I ultimately never have the nerve to go through with it. This year I decided to risk the public betas but avoided going whole hog with the developer betas. Seems like a hit the sweet spot. I've no problem with weird, disruptive bugs that still leave the system intact - say, Safari suddenly rendering web pages upside down or something. I'd just laugh it off and focus on projects that don't need whatever functionality has gone loopy until the next build fixes it, or do it on my Windows tower PC for the time being if I really have to. No big deal. Problems that break updating are fundamentally different, so I'm happy to be where I am.

Of course it remains to be seen if they actually notice and fix this issue in Public Beta 2. Ohh the excitement!
 
I have the dev betas on all my main devices. Wish Apple made rolling back eaiser or even possible on the Watch. I'm not having many issues but it would be nice to go from 17 Dev to the latest public 16 and back to watchOS 9 if someone wanted to
 
Y‘all a so annoying, I am sure everyone is aware what a beta is. Doesn’t mean it can’t be annoying and in fact I find it useful when people point out these flaws cuz they stop me from updating.

It’s like breaking your leg after skiing and then being told you can’t complain about being in the hospital if you dare to go skiing
 
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This happened to me today on MBP M1 Max. Boots to lock screen and after password entry would get stuck into a black display. I reseted several times but no fix. So I did a recovery reinstall (doesn't erase data) and it put me back to Beta 3.
 
Mr. Dee said:
The point is, its still a beta and it should not be installed on a production computer, especially one that would be mission critical. Jason gives the impression that Apple betas have become harmless these days that anyone can install them because they are not like the rough and tumble days of Rhapsody and OS X betas. Sure, if you have a spare Mac, have it, but this is a reminder, don't rush to install, dev or public betas on your one and only machine.
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The last two paragraphs in the article are about being safe and him only installing the beta because he has another Mac to fall back on.
But I agree for the most part - the article on the whole sounds very "betas are cool, guys, go get'em".

While certainly undesirable, though, this sort of stuff can happen with a beta. There should be some personal responsibility in play there. It boggles my mind that people would install a beta of an OS on their only computer or one that is critical to their work (unless they're in IT and it's their job to evaluate stuff).
 
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Of course, this issue will be different for different people.
Of course, this is beta version and such things are likely to happen.
Of course, i will share my case: MacBook Air M2, macOS Sonoma beta 4 > works like a charm!
..in fact it solved 2 bugs that i had previously: 1) Systems Settings was showing that i need to update one of my accounts and 2) some of the widgets were not working as expected.
I am still not able to test FaceTime on AppleTV. Continuity camera is not working/starting.
 
jambon said:
Widgets got issues for sure. Even after reboots and adding/removing them. Reminds me of iOS 15 beta.
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MBP M1Pro here. Native widgets perform finally correctly after eliminating them and putting them back from scratch. “iOS” widget on the other hand don’t work (blank) for the time being.
 
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MBP M1Pro here too, went on fine here; this was the fastest install of an update yet I think.

Widgets are working correctly here, macOS and iOS widgets.
 
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