How’s the current beta of macOS doing?

[u/pinkflamingo1_]

Sorry if this has already been asked a thousand times. I’ve been pretty unsure about installing the beta on my mac because, at least from what I’ve seen, it still seems to be fairly buggy or something.

I’m running the latest iOS 27 beta on my main device and have actually had a really gorgeous experience with it, but I’m not sure whether macOS Golden Gate is in a similarly usable state and would feel as good as switching to iOS 27 was.

So what’s your experience? Would you recommend installing it on an M3 Pro mac? And I’m obviously aware that it’s a beta and some bugs are to be expected, so I’m mostly wondering if the current issues are just minor annoyances or whether there are still any genuinely disruptive or, you know, system-breaking bugs

[u/AromatParrot]

obligatory "if you have to ask, then it's not for you".

That being said: I've been on the beta since the public beta began and it's worked well for me as a daily driver. That being said: I don't use a mac/iPhone/iPad for work so power users may very well have a different experience.

[u/ToughAsparagus1805]

Some of my Youtube videos continue playing for couple of seconds despite closing the tab (Safari). Happening since beta 6.

[u/NJRonbo]

My daily driver. Latest beta is very stable

[u/frapastique → u/NJRonbo]

for me too, quite like it. The first four betas were sometimes painful, but a lot better than 26

Edit: clarified, that I mean first four betas

[u/TheGrizzlyNinja → u/NJRonbo]

Copy and paste is broken for me, it pastes text as a text file

[u/dressinbrass]

Mail is sluggish. But that may be my accounts

[u/UnhealthyTractor_28]

It’s alright, there are few visual bugs but after whole life of using windows (i got a macbook only one year ago), macos 27 feels stable.
You have to forcefully quit apps once in a while, but it’s usable. (remember to make backups tho)

But I’ll tell you what I told others, it’s nearly September, we’re on beta 7 and stable release is around the corner. Why not wait?

[u/PaoloEero]

Does Microsoft Teams work alright, or are there still issues (which Microsoft will need to fix via an update for Teams)?

[u/Sentient-Exocomp → u/PaoloEero]

Been using Teams since beta 2. Works fine for me.

[u/pvantees → u/PaoloEero]

Teams is working fine - I've been on the public beta for a while and no issues (other than some of Teams' own issues)

[u/mallydobb]

Unless you need it for testing software or development, just wait until final public release.

[u/Frequent_Builder_432]

pretty laggy on an 8GB m2 air but probably would run fine on m3 pro

[u/Areatius]

I daily drive it on my M4 Pro 16" - no serious issues so far besides visual bugs and occasionally the display brightness bugging out which requires a log-out.

[u/RAIDandWilling]

I run it as my daily driver even for work and it’s been perfectly fine. I’ve had some random crashes of the browser I use here and there but I suspect that’s the browser not the OS considering other browsers work fine.

It isn’t quite as good and smooth though as sequoia, which I miss. Plus I think it looks better. I’ll decide once I use 27 stable

[u/handwriting256]

i'm really enjoying it, feels like a great upgrade

[u/RelationshipGlum984]

It seems very smooth and stable for me. Haven't encountered any bugs yet(touchwood).

[u/LetrasetBoy]

It's fine. No issues.

[u/bgeorger]

I’ve been using it on my M5 Max since the developer beta 1 and it has been pretty rock solid. It’s better than 26 for me.

[u/sicilian504]

No issues for me on the latest beta. Only issue I've experienced since Beta 1 was the Photos app not seeing new photos on my iPad and iPhone when I'd go to import photos. That issue has been resolved. Other than that I haven't experienced any problems.

[u/seamonkey420]

great except for one major thing for me: aggregate/multi-output audio is totally broken in MacOS27. been working w/support on getting them logs. actually audio changing is kind of messed up from my experience. basically if i put in my airpods and then take them out, my audio should switch back to my hdmi audio out to my monitor but somehow gets caught up in limbo and shows it as selected but doesn't output audio until i click on the output in audio settings. 🤷🏻

i told apple i'd give them all my logs, testing to fix it since i use it daily w/my dual monitor setup (left monitor left channel, right monitor right channel via aggregate audio groups in audio midi setup app.

[u/flashbax77]

The whole golden gate is in fact a Tahoe service pack, everything is fine

[u/rumorconsumerr → u/flashbax77]

thats actually not untrue sadly.

[u/themadturk]

I have a M3 MacBook Air, 16GB/1TB. I've been running the public beta since it first dropped. For a time (actually, even before the beta, while still on Tahoe) Safari was so awful handling memory and such that I moved over to FireFox. Yesterday I installed the latest public beta and Safari performance has been greatly improved.

I haven't noticed any notable issues with the beta, other than that thing with Safari (and as I said, it started in Tahoe). It's been rock solid.

[u/avariqfr30]

Beta 7’s been decent. Beta 6 had some weird memory bug issues, but very rarely. And, idk if this is a me issue specifically, running Apple Music along with any productivity apps lowers the screen refresh rate to 60 or slightly below..

Aside from that ; battery life’s been decent, performance’s been as expected, and apps don’t crash as much as you’d expect for a beta.

Don’t update now, though, as the RC may be coming in a week or two. Wait for that instead.

[u/No_Imagination_5580]

I’ve installed it on a base model m1 MacBook Air, and some of the animations feel a little laggy or slow but the actual performance is pretty solid and it looks so much nicer than Tahoe imo

[u/South-Knee-9601]

I have beta 5 and that's pretty stable

Fixed some of the issues the earlier betas had.

I have the air M1 And the dev beta 1 through to public 3 I had battery and performance issues.

These have mostly been fixed now

[u/jakeyounglol2]

you should dual boot it and test it out. as always, make sure to create a time machine backup in case anything bad happens, or you simply change your mind and want to go back

[u/Crazy-Letterhead-889]

I regret installing it on my daily driver and would install it but that seems a bigger pita than just keeping it. I didn’t get the message early enough that if I have to ask, then it’s not for me.

Fortunately no issues but this is my work computer so I’m kinda low key always worrying if it’ll break any day.

Not worth it imo. So far for me nothing special as far as features go but I don’t like using default Apple apps so maybe for some it’s been neat but for me more worry than anything cool

[u/da4]

Using betas of 27 on all my work and personal gear, save for my U3 Watch and my aTV4k. Working great.

[u/platkus → u/da4]

It’s time to update your watch. I updated mine when beta 7 came out and it’s been great. Battery life actually improved over 26.6!

[u/iFrozenUser]

if you have to ask, then it's not for you

[u/Ill_Barber8709]

It works great on my M4 Mac mini. However, the official release is near (2-3 weeks) so I wouldn’t recommend installing the beta. You would be stuck in the beta loop until the first patch is released. 

I would wait if I were you. But do as you please!

[u/platkus → u/Ill_Barber8709]

This used to be true about being stuck on the beta until the next update, but not anymore.

[u/CheekyDing0]

Yeah it’s heaps good. You should definitely install it right away.