Apple Seeds First Beta of macOS Sonoma 14.6 to Developers

Apple released the first beta of macOS Sonoma 14.6 to developers last month, following the public release of macOS Sonoma 14.5; here’s how you can install it. If you want to see how it is different from the upcoming macOS 15 Sequoia, here is a comparison post.

The beta is currently only available to registered developers through the Software Update section of the System Settings app. An Apple ID associated with an Apple Developer account is required to access the beta program.

The macOS Sonoma 14.6 beta’s new features are unclear. The developer release notes state that it resolves five issues and may include new features.

ARKit

Resolved Issues

• Fixed: iPhone and iPad apps on Apple Silicon Macs quit unexpectedly when initializing ARSkeletonDefinition. (128038936)

Core Spotlight

Resolved Issues

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

Finder

Resolved Issues

• Fixed: Home Videos unexpectedly sync as Music Videos to iPod nano (7th generation). (94899119)

Video Subscriber Account

Resolved Issues

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

Video Toolbox

Resolved Issues

• Fixed an issue and now on Apple Silicon, if width or height is greater than 4096 columns or rows and 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 at level 5.2 or lower can be handled by the hardware decoder. Content that otherwise conforms to level 5.2 but is high frame rate (e.g. 4k at 100 or 120 fps) is labelled level 6, 6.1 or 6.2 and is also handled by hardware. If content is 10-bit, 4:2:2 or 4:4:4, the hardware decoder will be used. (122448862)

To access the beta, follow these steps:

1. Go to System Settings > General > Software Updates.
2. Click the (i) next to Beta Updates and enable Beta Updates if necessary.
3. Choose the beta you want to download.
4. If your developer account is linked to a different Apple ID, you can make the change here.
5. Click Done.
6. Your Mac will then check for updates and eventually display the macOS 14.6 Developer Beta. Click on Upgrade Now to install.

It is recommended not to download the developer’s beta.

Not just macOS, Apple has also released iOS 17.6, iPadOS17.6 and visionOS 1.3 for developers.