What’s New in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 9 (20A5384c)?

Today Apple released macOS Big Sur Beta 9 (20A5384c) to Developers

MacOS Big Sur 11 Beta 9 (20A5384c) was released on September 29th, 2020 only one week after Beta 8! We are starting to get weekly beta releases. MacOS Catalina had 11 beta releases including the gold master, so again we are getting very close to release. Beta 7 & 8 did not get a full installer so hopefully we get one this time around. I’m still waiting to see if any changes are listed around screen recording, I will update as soon.

UPDATE: 10/05 – softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer does not work in Big Sur Beta 9

UPDATE: 9/30 – Apple has just released a Beta 9 Full Installer!!!

UPDATE 9/29 – Items not found in Big Sur Beta 9 official patch notes

1. Beta 9 does not have a full installer available 🙁
2. We now control screen recording access for standard users with MDM! (More information available in the AppleSeed patch notes)
3. Active Directory login is still not working in Beta 9. Hopefully it’s fixed in the next release. The plugin was working fine in Beta 6 and 7.
4. Xcode command line tools are now available for 12.2 Beta 2
5. Setup assistant bug where you could not hit continue = Fixed.
6. Beta 9 seems to take longer to prepare the install (30min+)
7. QuickLook = Fixed
8. System Preferences + Security & Privacy = Quicker
9. AirPods Pro Automatic Switching = still glitchy
10. Youtube 4k Video in Safari = YES
11. Cisco IPSEC VPN issues = Now working!
12. Menu bar spacing = icons are closer together
13. Apple Watch can’t be paired use to unlock Mac = https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251803595?login=true&page=3

If you are having issues getting Beta 9 to show up in Software Update, take a look at my Big Sur Beta troubleshooting article. – mrmacintosh.com/big-sur-11-beta-not-showing-up-in-software-update-troubleshooting/

Keep an eye on my Big Sur Need to Know changes article. I will be constantly updating it as new info comes in. mrmacintosh.com/macos-big-sur-11-0-updated-index-of-need-to-know-changes-links/

macOS Big Sur Beta 9 Patch Notes Summary

• 2 – New Features
• 11 – Resolved Issues
• 10 – Standing Known Issues
• 1 – AppleSeed New Feature
• 1 – AppleSeeed Resolved Issue

AppleSeed Notes Link = appleseed.apple.com/

Developer Public Link = developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-big-sur-11-beta-release-notes

Apple DTK Mac Mini Notes = developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-big-sur-11-universal-apps-beta-release-notes

MacAdmin Patch Notes of Interest

• AppleSeed = 1 new feature and 1 resolved issue – appleseed.apple.com
• 1. Full installer = NO
• 2. Updating to macOS Big Sur 11 beta from previous versions of macOS might take significantly longer than expected. Data loss could occur if the update is interrupted. (59101197)

Previous Big Sur 11 Beta Releases

• 9. Big Sur 11 Beta 9 (20A5384c) – 09/29/20 – Current Release
• 8. Big Sur 11 Beta 8 (20A5374i) – 09/22/20 – My Release Notes
• 7. Big Sur 11 Beta 7 (20A5374g) – 09/17/20 – My Release Notes
• 6. Big Sur 11 Beta 6 (20A5364e) – 09/03/20 – My Release Notes
• 5. Big Sur 11 Beta 5 (20A5354i) – 08/19/20 – My Release Notes
• 4. Big Sur 11 Beta 4 (20A5343i) – 08/04/20
• 3. Big Sur 11 Beta 3 (20A5323l) – 07/22/20
• 2. Big Sur 11 Beta 2 (20A4300b) – 07/07/20 – My Release Notes
• 1. Big Sur 11 Beta 1 (20A4299v) – 06/22/20 – My Release Notes

macOS Big Sur 11 Installer Info

Note: Combo and Delta updates are not available as standalone downloads.

Full Installer.app

Link – developer.apple.com or installinstallmacos.py

Size = Full installer is not available for Beta 9

Big Sur Beta Delta Update

This is the update is for updating from Beta 8 > Beta 9

Size = 3.5GB

Big Sur Beta Combo Update

This is update should be for updating from Beta 1-8 > Beta 9

Size = 3.82GB

T2 BridgeOS Update

The Version of BridgeOS for your T2 Security Chip was updated.

BridgeOS version = 18.16.12390.5.1

Size = 442.2MB

Product ID = 001-51049

• 4. Previous Beta 8 = 18.16.12380 BuildVersion 3
• 3.Previous Beta 7 = 18.16.12380
• 2. Previous Beta 6 = 18.16.12370.5.1
• 1. Previous Beta 5 = 18.16.10358.5.2

New Software Update Catalog URL

https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-10.16seed-10.16-10.15-10.14-10.13-10.12-10.11-10.10-10.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog

Report Bugs NOW!

Now that macOS Big Sur 11.0 Beta is live, start testing as soon as you can! You will want to submit any bugs that you find into Apple ASAP. If you get bugs in quickly, they could be fixed in the current beta cycle instead of waiting until after the public release. If not, you could be waiting months before the fix is put into a dot release combo update.

macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 9 (20A5384c) Release Notes

Overview

The macOS 11 SDK provides support to develop apps for Macs running macOS Big Sur 11. The SDK comes bundled with Xcode 12.2 beta, available from Beta Software Downloads. For information on the compatibility requirements for Xcode 12.2, see Xcode 12.2 Beta Release Notes.

General

New Features in macOS Big Sur 11 beta 9

• A ToolbarItem attached to the content of a sheet will now display confirmationAction, cancellationAction, destructiveAction and automatic placements below the the content of the sheet. (61180502)
• A ToolbarItem Label is now automatically used when the window’s toolbar is set to Icon and Text or Text Only. (67823018)

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 beta 9

• Use of matchedGeometryEffect(id:in:properties:anchor:isSource:) no longer causes the Fruta sample app to quit unexpectedly. (68792306)
• Menu content is now lazily created once the menu is presented. (59648503)
• Section headers for InsetListStyle, PlainListStyle, and ListStyle are now styled as expected by default. (68245873)
• Rosetta 2 widgets running on Apple silicon Mac computers now correctly respect their multiline text alignment. (68164481)
• NSViewRepresentable and NSViewControllerRepresentable types no longer update on every environment update. (68599108)
• TextEditingCommands and TextFormattingCommands now appear as expected. (65896111)
• Symbol images embedded in Text now correctly appear using the text’s foreground color. (68089564)
• Drag and drop of multiple items in a List no longer causes an application to quit unexpectedly. (53385270)
• Drag-and-drop actions no longer fail when dropping on dynamic view content. (68281403)

UIKit

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 beta 9

• After using the new detectPatternsForPatterns:completionHandler: Pasteboard API, the pasteboard no longer returns empty data. (67857457)

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 beta 9

• The Command Line Tools package for Xcode 12.2 beta 2 is now available. (69012274)

Big Sur Beta 9