Apple seeds release candidate beta build of macOS Big Sur 11.2

AppleInsider

Apple on Thursday provided participants of its developer beta testing initiative the release candidate build of its upcoming macOS Big Sur 11.2 update.

Apple's betas are made available via the Apple Developer Center for participants in the Developer Beta program, though hardware already using beta software can also perform an over-the-air update. Public beta versions of the developer builds are usually issued a short time after the developer version, and can be acquired from the Apple Beta Software Program site.

The release candidate version follows the second beta, issued on January 13, while the first was provided on December 16. Version 11.1 was released to the public on December 14.

The first beta didn't seemingly introduce any notable new features, lending itself to the suggestion that Apple was using it as a performance and bug fix release. The second beta does offer a more detailed error message when users attempt to sideload an iOS or iPadOS app, which Apple has attempted to block.

Other fixes are included in the release notes:

• External displays may show a black screen when connected to a Mac mini (M1, 2020) using an HDMI to DVI converter


• Edits to Apple ProRAW photos in the Photos app may not save


• iCloud Drive could turn off after disabling the iCloud Drive Desktop & Documents Folders option


• System Preferences may not unlock when entering your administrator password


• Globe key may not display the Emoji & Symbols pane when pressed

Both AppleInsider and Apple strongly suggest users avoid installing betas on to "mission-critical" or primary devices, due to the potential for data loss or other issues. Instead, the recommendation is to install betas onto secondary or non-essential devices, and to ensure there are sufficient backups of important data before making any major changes.

Find any changes in the new betas? Reach out to us on Twitter at @AppleInsider or @Andrew_OSU, or send Andrew an email at [email protected].

Fidonet127

Says update improves Bluetooth reliability. 

prismatics

For me personally I never update to the newest version simply to be able to support my workflow, and for engineers/scientific community with lots of tools relying on ancient frameworks it is important to think extensively before upgrading. It's becoming harder and harder to find the tools that were on macOS yesterday to be supported on macOS 11 and forward.

From my understanding macOS 11 is not going to be installed on my system, maybe others have a better situation.

We're phasing out the mac from our company as well. You gain some customers, but you lose some as well I guess.

Maybe macOS 11.x can change that, although I highly doubt it.

bulk001

Good news. 11.1 is just not there yet in terms of reliability, performance and compatibility. Hopefully 11.2 takes care of much of this. One of my kids switched from their MBP that cost thousands to a $500 PC we had lying around and won’t go back now. Reminded me that I switched to a PC for a year during the last transition and may do it again. In the end the hardware no matter how good it is projected to be is only as useful as the software it supports. 

Edit: really wish this forum supported default emojis on iPhone. 

flyingdp

Either Apple servers are having issues or lots of people are downloading 11.2 because my system shows 2+ hours to download the 2.77GB update where in the past I could get that sort of size in minutes.

Fidonet127

I downloaded and installed the update last night. The download was fast as expected. No glitches noticed so far, including Bluetooth. 

fastasleep

prismatics said:

For me personally I never update to the newest version simply to be able to support my workflow, and for engineers/scientific community with lots of tools relying on ancient frameworks it is important to think extensively before upgrading. It's becoming harder and harder to find the tools that were on macOS yesterday to be supported on macOS 11 and forward.

From my understanding macOS 11 is not going to be installed on my system, maybe others have a better situation.

We're phasing out the mac from our company as well. You gain some customers, but you lose some as well I guess.

Maybe macOS 11.x can change that, although I highly doubt it.

bulk001 said:

Good news. 11.1 is just not there yet in terms of reliability, performance and compatibility. Hopefully 11.2 takes care of much of this. One of my kids switched from their MBP that cost thousands to a $500 PC we had lying around and won’t go back now. Reminded me that I switched to a PC for a year during the last transition and may do it again. In the end the hardware no matter how good it is projected to be is only as useful as the software it supports. 

Edit: really wish this forum supported default emojis on iPhone. 

You both seem to be talking about third party software that hasn't been updated to be compatible with Big Sur yet? How is that even remotely Apple's fault?

bulk001

@fastasleep  Even things like spotlight don’t work well, my input / output sound devices including internal audio disappear randomly, safari crashes several times a day, the OS itself crashes once a day. The OS is just generally sluggish overall. It has been this way for almost all their updates over the past few years and I am sure it will get better. I just updated my test machine too soon. 

Fidonet127

How are you having so many problems? Have you ever done a clean install? I don't have any Safari or audio problems. OS is stable. 

MacQuadra840av

bulk001 said:

@fastasleep  Even things like spotlight don’t work well, my input / output sound devices including internal audio disappear randomly, safari crashes several times a day, the OS itself crashes once a day. The OS is just generally sluggish overall. It has been this way for almost all their updates over the past few years and I am sure it will get better. I just updated my test machine too soon. 

Do a clean install of Big Sur.  Mojave and Catalina were both jacked up with the Safari 14 update.  Don't try to update to Big Sur from either of those versions after the Safari 14 and security updates were applied.  If you do a clean install of Big Sur and restore your data (not from Time Machine), you will have a much more stable system.  Any time Apple does a major OS release, it is always best to do a clean install of a new system and restore your files.  

MacQuadra840av

bulk001 said:

Good news. 11.1 is just not there yet in terms of reliability, performance and compatibility. Hopefully 11.2 takes care of much of this. One of my kids switched from their MBP that cost thousands to a $500 PC we had lying around and won’t go back now. Reminded me that I switched to a PC for a year during the last transition and may do it again. In the end the hardware no matter how good it is projected to be is only as useful as the software it supports. 

Edit: really wish this forum supported default emojis on iPhone. 

Your experience is not consistent with anyone else.  What model MacBook Pro are you having an issue with?  Do a clean install of Big Sur and you won't have any issues, unless you are running very outdated software that is not compatible.  Also, no one is forcing you to install Big Sur.  The cost of the MacBook compared to a cheap PC is really irrelevant to your argument when it sounds like you don't really know how to troubleshoot and fix software issues.  You will also encounter the same compatibility issues with software and drivers when Microsoft releases major Windows 10 updates.  I never ran Catalina and stuck with Mojave.  Big Sur 11.0.1 had some issues with AppleTV, but those were resolved with 11.1.  I did a clean install of 11.1 and restored my files from backup (not Time Machine) and it has been reliable, stable and just as fast as it was with Mojave.  Compatibility - the only program that I needed to upgrade was Parallels.  What does the Intel transition have anything to do with Big Sur?  Again, your arguments are irrelevant.