Apple Seeds First Public Beta of macOS 14.5

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming macOS Sonoma 14.5 update to public beta testers, allowing non-developers to test the software ahead of its launch. The public beta comes a day after Apple released the developer beta.

macos sonoma 4
Beta testers can opt-in through the Software Update section of the System Settings app. Under Beta updates, simply toggle on the Sonoma Public Beta. Note that you must sign up to participate on Apple's beta testing website.

There were no new features found in the macOS Sonoma 14.5 developer beta, and Apple listed no additions in its release notes. It is likely that the update focuses on bug fixes and other small under-the-hood improvements.

Related Forum: macOS Sonoma

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Top Rated Comments

vegetassj4 Avatar
20 months ago
And the name of the lead programmer that initiated the seed is Johnny



Thank you, I'll be here all week.[Click to view video attachment]
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mac mini power user Avatar
20 months ago
I'm running the developer beta, and it seems to be running smoother on my M1 Pro MBP than the stable releases of either 14.4 or 14.4.1. Safari in particular is snappier, and struggles less with YouTube videos (yes, for once the meme is true).
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fhall1 Avatar
20 months ago

14.6 should start security updates mode.
I wouldn't be surprised if we get 14.7 before the security-updates-only start.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PsykX Avatar
20 months ago
At this point, 14.4 seemed like a real disaster for many people ('https://www.macrumors.com/2024/03/18/do-not-update-macos-sonoma-14-4/').
For those who have it, is it better to beta test 14.5 already, or to wait until it's released to public, or to just never install it?

When I joined the Mac community back in 2006, I used to never ever have these questions floating in my head.
I would buy (yes, buy) and install whatever new OS Apple would release and it would basically just work.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fhall1 Avatar
20 months ago

14.5 is very solid, so I would install the Developer of Public Beta, and then switch back to the release version once 14.5 is out. This will probably be the last major version of Sonoma anyways, so switching already makes sense.
I would bet money that 14.5 will not be the last major version of Sonoma.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Realityck Avatar
20 months ago
It's been running ok the last two days.
Not much on SDK notes as this is a continuation of optimizing/fixing issues.

Comparison of 14.5 beta to previous releases

macOS 14.5 beta (23F5049f)

* Safari Version 17.5 (19618.2.4.11.2)
* System Firmware Version: 10151.120.115.0.4 (M1 based Macs)
* Darwin Kernel Version 23.5.0: Tue Mar 26 20:56:58 PDT 2024; root:xnu-10063.120.88.501.3~2/RELEASE_ARM64_T8103 arm64

macOS 14.4.1 (23E224)

* Safari Version 17.4.1 (19618.1.15.11.14)
* System Firmware Version: 10151.101.3 (M1 based Macs)
* Darwin Kernel Version 23.4.0: Fri Mar 15 00:12:41 PDT 2024; root:xnu-10063.101.17~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T8103 arm64

macOS 14.4 (23E214)

* Safari Version 17.4 (19618.1.15.11.12)
* System Firmware Version: 10151.101.3 (M1 based Macs)
* Darwin Kernel Version 23.4.0: Wed Feb 21 21:44:06 PST 2024; root:xnu-10063.101.15~2/RELEASE_ARM64_T8103 arm64

Apple Music/TV is now 1.4.5.25 from 1.4.4.48
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)