Second macOS Tahoe 26.4 Beta Now Available for Developers

[MacRumors]

Apple today provided the second beta of an upcoming macOS Tahoe 26.4 update to developers for testing purposes, with the update coming a week after Apple seeded the first beta.

Developers can download the macOS Tahoe 26.4 update by opening up the System Settings app, selecting the General category, and then choosing Software Update. Beta Updates will need to be enabled, and a free developer account is required.

macOS Tahoe 26.4 adds a new Charge Limit feature so Mac users can select a maximum charge level that ranges from 80 to 100 percent. Apple also brought back the Compact tab layout in Safari for those who missed the option in earlier versions of macOS Tahoe.

Apple silicon Macs who are running apps that still rely on Rosetta will see warnings about the upcoming end of support for Rosetta. After macOS Tahoe 27, Apple will phase out Rosetta support, and all apps will need to be updated before that time.

macOS Tahoe 26.4 will be released to the public in the spring after several weeks of beta testing.

Article Link: Second macOS Tahoe 26.4 Beta Now Available for Developers

 

[jtfolden]

Does this fix the known issue with HFS+ partitions?

 

[XMI]

I'm not able to download it yet (California, USA) and I also don't see an update to the release notes inside Feedback.app. Will try to be patient 😎

 

[Silberbogen]

I hope the update fixes the problem with all the defective Apple certificates on Tahoe, otherwise I'll probably go back to 26.3 via USB stick right away.

 

[winxmac]

Releases:
iOS 26.4 beta 2 (23E5218e)
iPadOS 26.4 beta 2 (23E5218e)
macOS 26.4 beta 2 (25E5218f)
tvOS 26.4 beta 2 (23L5219e)
visionOS 26.4 beta 2 (23O5220e)
watchOS 26.4 beta 2 (23T5221e)

Source

 

[diggy33]

Downloading now to my M1 Pro test system; 4.9GB.

 

[jwm]

I'm able to download, but it fails verification. It's happening on all my Macs.

 

[diggy33]

I'm able to download, but it fails verification. It's happening on all my Macs.

Yep, appears to be an issue. This has been the most troublesome beta release for me yet.

 

[tcphoto1]

Does this fix the known issue with HFS+ partitions?

Yes, I've been on the Public Beta and 26.4 killed my backing up to external drives. I tried all kinds of workarounds but none worked. I installed the 26.4 Developer Beta and am backing up the external drives as we speak.

 

[kingtj1971]

Is it just me, or is it kind of disappointing Rosetta is scheduled to go away with the next major OS release? I feel like that's essentially just decreasing compatibility with existing apps and doesn't really benefit anyone except Apple's own devs having less code to maintain?

We've seen it before where Apple tries to force everything to move forward, and what end-users really get is a shortage of working programs. (EG. I bought the "Metro Exodus" video game a while back because it was one of the few titles at the time that performed well on an M series Mac. But pretty sure it relies on Rosetta to run and the small developer who made it isn't going to do a full rewrite to keep it working. No money in it for them.)

 

[jtfolden]

Is it just me, or is it kind of disappointing Rosetta is scheduled to go away with the next major OS release? I feel like that's essentially just decreasing compatibility with existing apps and doesn't really benefit anyone except Apple's own devs having less code to maintain?

We've seen it before where Apple tries to force everything to move forward, and what end-users really get is a shortage of working programs. (EG. I bought the "Metro Exodus" video game a while back because it was one of the few titles at the time that performed well on an M series Mac. But pretty sure it relies on Rosetta to run and the small developer who made it isn't going to do a full rewrite to keep it working. No money in it for them.)

I avoid apps that require Rosetta like the plague. Honestly, it's been over 5 years, and I think macOS will run better if they can jettison support for obsolete hardware and software. This has happened before with old PPC apps too, etc... Maintaining old code is a distraction from fixing more current pressing issues too.

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

I avoid apps that require Rosetta like the plague. Honestly, it's been over 5 years, and I think macOS will run better if they can jettison support for obsolete hardware and software. This has happened before with old PPC apps too, etc... Maintaining old code is a distraction from fixing more current pressing issues too.

Some essential applications I use still are Intel-coded. It's not as simple as that. I think there is a large number of Intel applications, probably even larger than PPC applications, due to the popularity and length of Intel on the Mac.

 

[kozz]

This one has seemed to have broken Safari for me. Nothing will load.

 

[XMI]

macOS Tahoe 26.4 Beta 2 Release Notes

Spoiler: macOS Tahoe 26.4 Beta 2 Release Notes

AppKit​

Resolved Issues​

• Fixed: Window resize pointer does not follow the window's corner shape. (149726089)

Background Assets​

New Features​

• You can now check the status of an asset pack while offline by calling local<wbr>Status(of<wbr>Asset<wbr>Pack<wbr>With<wbr>ID🙂 or asset<wbr>Pack<wbr>Is<wbr>Available<wbr>Locally(with<wbr>ID🙂 on the shared asset pack manager. The former method returns all available status information. The latter returns only a Boolean value but can be called synchronously. Not all status information is available offline. (164498466)
• You can make the latest version of an asset pack available locally by calling ensure<wbr>Local<wbr>Availability(of:<wbr>require<wbr>Latest<wbr>Version🙂 on the shared asset pack manager and passing true to the should<wbr>Update parameter. (166237389)

Known Issues​

• Setting a URL override could break apps from the App Store that use Apple-Hosted Background Assets. (169558509)
  
  Workaround: Remove any URL override that you previously set before installing or using an app from the App Store.
• Apps might crash when downloading asset packs. (169648111)
  
  Workaround: If an app crashes due to this issue, then relaunch it. The app should then have local access to the asset pack that it was downloading when it crashed.

CoreMIDI​

New Features​

• Audio MIDI Setup now supports Network MIDI 2.0 sessions in the redesigned MIDI Network Setup panel. You can create MIDI 2.0 connections over your local network using UDP transport for Universal MIDI Packets, enabling both Legacy MIDI and MIDI 2.0 protocol communication. Network MIDI 2.0 sessions appear alongside existing RTP MIDI sessions and support automatic device discovery through mDNS and data integrity features for reliable wireless performance. (118728162)

External Boot​

Known Issues​

• When installing an external disk, some configurations of M1 Apple Silicon Macs might panic at boot. (170263142)
  
  Workaround: Install to a secondary volume in APFS container instead of external disk to validate secondary boot sequences.

External Media​

Known Issues​

• HFS external media might fail to mount automatically. (168672160)
  
  Workaround: For macOS only, use CLI tool diskutil mount to attach the relevant disk device.

Internet Accounts​

Known Issues​

• Exchange syncing for Calendar, Reminders and Notes might fail. (168082477)
  
  Workaround: To continue syncing Calendar and Reminders, disable Notes syncing in Internet Accounts.

Login​

Known Issues​

• Touch ID might not be available to unlock the screen of a standard user account after updating to this release. This occurs when FileVault is enabled and a standard user account is logged in prior to any administrator logging in following the update. (169743642)
  
  Workaround: An administrator user should sign in to the Mac before any standard users.

macOS Recovery​

Known Issues​

• When deleting a boot volume from the Activation Lock window in macOS Recovery, full erase functionality might not work. (170280070)
  
  Workaround: Use the "Erase All Content and Settings" functionality from the booted OS instead of triggering from recovery.

Networking​

Resolved Issues​

• Fixed: Multiple processes leak CFRun<wbr>Loop<wbr>Source objects when Automatic proxy configuration (PAC) or Auto proxy discovery are configured.
  
  For clients of the CFNetwork<wbr>Execute<wbr>Proxy<wbr>Auto<wbr>Configuration<wbr>URL and CFNetwork<wbr>Execute<wbr>Proxy<wbr>Auto<wbr>Configuration<wbr>Script API, please check to make sure your process is not working around the leak by overreleasing the CFRun<wbr>Loop<wbr>Source<wbr>Ref returned by those functions or the CFArray<wbr>Ref and CFError<wbr>Refpassed to the completion. (166839810) (FB21376045)

Resource fork​

Resolved Issues​

• On macOS 26.4 and later, file systems that do not natively support extended attributes restrict partial writes to the first 286 bytes of the resource fork extended attribute (com.apple.ResourceFork).
  
  To modify the resource fork, replace the entire 286-byte range, or write beyond the 286-byte offset. (156896699)

Rosetta​

Deprecations​

• As announced at WWDC in 2025, macOS Tahoe 26 is the last release to support Intel based Macs. Additionally, Rosetta support for apps will end after macOS 27. Starting in macOS Tahoe 26.4, users will be notified when they launch apps that use Rosetta of the upcoming incompatibility.
  
  During the beta period, the cadence of notifications will be accelerated, enabling Apple and developers to address any issues that might occur.
  
  There will continue to be support for older, unmaintained gaming titles leveraging Rosetta along with software running Intel binaries in Linux VMs.
  
  Organizations using a device management service can control the notification experience with the allow<wbr>Rosetta<wbr>Usage<wbr>Awareness key. (169228455)

StoreKit​

New Features​

• New fields revocation<wbr>Type and revocation<wbr>Percentage have been added to Transaction . (148858551)

Resolved Issues​

• Fixed: Purchase Intents might not be emitted from the intents sequence when the app is launched from the background. (168958783) (FB21767675)

SwiftUI​

Resolved Issues​

• Fixed: SwiftUI does not surface the latest .user<wbr>Activity as the current user activity. (163136831)
• Fixed: On macOS, a non-opaque window that hosts glass content will correctly update the backdrop content behind the glass even if the window is inactive. (166828089) (FB21375029)

Known Issues​

• Multiple implicit SwiftUI animations (triggered by Reality<wbr>View<wbr>Content<wbr>.animateor Entity<wbr>.animate) that modify a RealityKit component's properties, are combined only when the implicit animations target the same set of component properties.
  
  For example, if you initiate an implicit animation on Transform.scale and then initiate an implicit animation on Transform.scale and Transform.translation then the animations affecting the scale property will be independent of each other, and will not combine. In this case, the most recently initiated animation will overwrite the scale property. (169723142)
  
  Workaround: Ensure the same component properties are animated by subsequent implicit animations when possible.

Virtualization​

Resolved Issues​

• Fixed: On certain hardware configurations, new macOS Tahoe virtual machine installations may boot to a black screen. (169654019)

I notice the HFS+ bug is still listed as a Known Issue.

 

[jtfolden]

Some essential applications I use still are Intel-coded. It's not as simple as that. I think there is a large number of Intel applications, probably even larger than PPC applications, due to the popularity and length of Intel on the Mac.

It's unfortunate but it is that simple. It's not as if you are losing support tomorrow, either. macOS 27 will still offer Rosetta support and that will be maintained for a few more years. You don't have to immediately update to the latest release of macOS either. macOS shouldn't be hamstrung to support abandoned software that the original authors won't update themselves after numerous years.

 

[Zafira]

macOS Tahoe 26.4 Beta 2 Release Notes


I notice the HFS+ bug is still listed as a Known Issue.

It appears they did not bother updating the release notes. 🤷‍♀️

 

[jtfolden]

Yes, I've been on the Public Beta and 26.4 killed my backing up to external drives. I tried all kinds of workarounds but none worked. I installed the 26.4 Developer Beta and am backing up the external drives as we speak.

To be clear, you're talking about HFS+ drives specifically, not APFS or ExFAT formatted drives correct?

 

[kingtj1971]

Some essential applications I use still are Intel-coded. It's not as simple as that. I think there is a large number of Intel applications, probably even larger than PPC applications, due to the popularity and length of Intel on the Mac.

Exactly! It's easy to say from purely a technical standpoint that the "old code needs to go". But reality is, Apple is still only selling computers to a pretty small percentage of the computer-buying public. They don't have enough influence to force the hand of developers who aren't motivated to rewrite their existing programs.

Not everything is a well-known, mainstream application like Adobe's suite or Microsoft Office. Some of the music creation/editing type software out there gets written by a one or two person team and may only sell a small number of copies. If it's, say, a patch librarian tool for a music synthesizer or workstation? The users don't really mind or care if it receives an update. As long as it keeps doing the job it always did, it's useful to them. A new Mac OS breaking such a program just means the upgrade to Mac OS hurt them as much as it helped anything. That developer is likely to not have any motivation to rewrite the whole application. They may have only sold 500 copies of the first one.

Over time, what this REALLY does is drives more people over to the Windows platform where applications DO get regular updates, just because the sheer number of users ensures it's worth it, financially, for even small devs to maintain their programs.

 

[kingtj1971]

It's unfortunate but it is that simple. It's not as if you are losing support tomorrow, either. macOS 27 will still offer Rosetta support and that will be maintained for a few more years. You don't have to immediately update to the latest release of macOS either. macOS shouldn't be hamstrung to support abandoned software that the original authors won't update themselves after numerous years.

But why is the OS "hamstrung" by keeping Rosetta support for Intel in there? The Rosetta code doesn't even run if only native apps are used. It's just there in the background as an option, the same way someone might install an emulator like Parallels so if and when they want to run Windows on their Mac, they can do it.

I think some people might be surprised how many old/obsolete computers are kept up and running JUST because of the need to keep using abandoned software applications. And at some point, you've got to ask yourself how that's sensible - because these obsolete machines still use as much or more electricity to run as the new models. You're literally getting far less processor power for the kilowatt hours of electricity consumed.

 

[BrodieQ]

I'm able to download, but it fails verification. It's happening on all my Macs.

I'm having the same issue on both of my Macs. Restarting hasn't helped.

 

[Tranel]

Oh, my M1 Mac froze already 4 times. Never had this before. And AdGuard stops working all the time due to a crash. Seems this beta is not really reliable on my Mac.

 

[headlessmike]

Can confirm that my HFS+ drives are working like normal again in 26.4 beta 2 on my M1 mini.

 

[jtfolden]

But why is the OS "hamstrung" by keeping Rosetta support for Intel in there? The Rosetta code doesn't even run if only native apps are used. It's just there in the background as an option, the same way someone might install an emulator like Parallels so if and when they want to run Windows on their Mac, they can do it.

It sits there as an option on the end users system but takes up continued development resources to maintain it. You mentioned Parallels which receives frequent updates, compatibility checks, and fixes / improvements for every new release of macOS. The version of Parallels from 2020 is not the same release being provided today and you'd run into issues trying to run that release on later releases of macOS. In fact, they have a release specifically designed to run on Tahoe, for example. So Apple not only has to maintain Rosetta itself but also maintain compatibility within macOS itself to support Rosetta.

I think some people might be surprised how many old/obsolete computers are kept up and running JUST because of the need to keep using abandoned software applications. And at some point, you've got to ask yourself how that's sensible - because these obsolete machines still use as much or more electricity to run as the new models. You're literally getting far less processor power for the kilowatt hours of electricity consumed.

I've worked in the computer industry since 1992. Yes, there are a measurable number niche cases where some end users, but mostly businesses, need to keep specific secondary computer(s) running older software... and that's fine. That's what they should do if they need older apps.

Apple Silicon computers were introduced in June 2020 via the developer transition kit. Intel apps will be officially supported through MacOS 27 (and a subset of Rosetta will still function in macOS 28 to support some Intel-based games). So developers will have had 7 years to update their apps. End users will likely get a good 8+ years of support for Intel apps (longer if they don't need the absolute latest release of macOS, of course). That seems more than generous. Rosetta for PowerPC applications was supported for approx 5 years.

If there was a big enough market for backward support of Intel apps, perhaps Apple should charge for it.

 

[jtfolden]

Can confirm that my HFS+ drives are working like normal again in 26.4 beta 2 on my M1 mini.

Same here! I'm glad they didn't wait 2 weeks to release the next beta.

 

[headlessmike]

I've worked in the computer industry since 1992. Yes, there are a measurable number niche cases where some end users, but mostly businesses, need to keep specific secondary computer(s) running older software... and that's fine. That's what they should do if they need older apps.

I work in a research lab where we use a laser that is dependent on software that hasn't been updated since 1986! In addition to the 80's PC that runs it we also have a Pentium 4 desktop running Windows XP with software needed to extract the data from the measurement PC and its 5.25" disks. I have a USB floppy drive for my 14" M1 MacBook Pro running Tahoe that I also keep around for accessing some of the data. Talk about a house of cards!