Apple releases macOS 14.6 beta

Apple released macOS 14.6 beta 1 to developers on Monday. The 14.6 beta comes after Apple released the macOS 15 Sequoia beta last week at WWDC24. Public beta 14.6 is expected to arrive later this week.

It’s unclear whether the 14.6 beta has any new features. According to the developer’s release notes, beta 14.6 fixes five issues; Developer notes are different from the release notes published at the time of official release and will indicate whether any new features are included. Below are the developer release notes for the macOS 14.6 beta:

ARKit

Fixed issues

• Fixed: iPhone and iPad apps on Apple Silicon Macs close unexpectedly during initialization. ARSkeletonDefinition. (128038936)

Spotlight on the core

Fixed issues

• Fixed: iPhone and iPad apps on Apple Silicon Macs close unexpectedly when calling. -[CSSearchableItemAttributeSet setActionIdentifiers:]. (128039095)

Searcher

Fixed issues

• Fixed: Home videos unexpectedly sync as music videos on iPod nano (7th generation). (94899119)

Video Subscriber Account

Fixed issues

• Fixed: iPhone and iPad apps on Apple Silicon Macs close unexpectedly if VSOpenTVProviderSettingsURLStringis referenced. (113562872)

Video Toolkit

Fixed issues

• Fixed an issue and now on Apple Silicon, if the width or height is greater than 4096 columns or rows and the content uses 4:2:0 chroma subsampling and 8-bit depth, the hardware decoder driver will reject it and a software decoder will be automatically selected to ensure artifact-free decoding. AVC (H.264) content of level 5.2 or lower can be handled by the hardware decoder. Content that is otherwise Level 5.2 compliant but has a high frame rate (e.g. 4k at 100 or 120 fps) is labeled Level 6, 6.1, or 6.2 and is also handled by hardware. If the content is 10-bit, 4:2:2 or 4:4:4, the hardware decoder will be used. (122448862)

macOS Sonoma 14.6 Beta Release Notes

how to download macOS 14.6 beta

If you are not a real developer, you should consider waiting for the public beta to be released. (Although developers are typically those with an Apple Developer account, anyone can create an account.) If you don’t like risking the stability of your Mac, don’t run a beta at all of macOS. But if you want to run the beta version, you need to backup your Mac before installing the software. Here are the instructions to get the beta:

1. Open System settings > General > Software updates.
2. You should see two options: Automatic Updates and Beta Updates. Click the (i) next to Beta Updates.
3. You can now enable beta updates (if they weren’t already).
4. Choose the beta version you want to download.
5. If your developer account is linked to an Apple ID other than your usual one, you can change it here.
6. Click on Do.
7. Your Mac will now check for updates and optionally display the macOS 14.6 Developer Beta as an upgrade. Click on Update now.

Learn more in our macOS Sonoma superguide.