What’s New in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 5 (20A5354i)

Today Apple released macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 5 (20A5354i) to Developers

MacOS Big Sur 11 Beta 5 (20A5354i) was released on Wednesday August 19th, 2020. During the Big Sur beta release cycle, only the current beta patch notes are available. When a new beta is released the previous patch notes are overwritten. I compare both sets of release notes so I find the changes.

If you are having issues getting Beta 5 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 11.0 Patch Notes Summary

• 2 – New Important Notes
• 5 – New Features
• 19 – New Known Issues
• 14 – Resolved Issues

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

• 1. macOS Big Sur 11 beta 5 is not currently supported for iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020). If you encounter an installation issue on iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020), you need to reinstall macOS Catalina. Hold down the power button to force restart, and then press Command-R immediately after turning on your Mac. Then, follow instructions to reinstall macOS Catalina from Recovery.
• 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)
• 3. macOS Big Sur 11 beta 5 is designated as qualifying for the 50% Apple Security Bounty bonus payment for issues that are unknown to Apple or reintroduced in this release. See Apple Security Bounty for more information.

Previous Big Sur 11 Beta Releases

• 5. Big Sur 11 Beta 5 (20A5354i) – 08/19/20 – Current Release
• 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

Full Installer.app

Link – developer.apple.com

Size = 12.14GB

Product ID = 001-36806

T2 BridgeOS Update

BridgeOS version was updated.

Size = 447.4 MB

Product ID = 001-36812

BridgeOS Update Version = 18.16.10358.5.2

Previous = 18.16.10310.5.15 Build Version 3

Previous = 18.16.10310.5.15 Build Version 1

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 5 (20A5354i) 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 beta 5, available from Beta Software Downloads. For information on the compatibility requirements for Xcode 12 beta 5, see Xcode 12 Beta 5 Release Notes.

General

Known Issues

Important

macOS Big Sur 11 beta 5 is not currently supported for iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020). If you encounter an installation issue on iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020), you need to reinstall macOS Catalina. Hold down the power button to force restart, and then press Command-R immediately after turning on your Mac. Then, follow instructions to reinstall macOS Catalina from Recovery.

Important

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)

AirDrop

Known Issues

• You might be unable to use AirDrop if System Integrity Protection is enabled. (67033173)

App Store

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 beta 5

• StoreKit symbols are now accessible when importing StoreKit and SwiftUI in the same file. (66337479)

AppKit

• See AppKit Release Notes for macOS Big Sur 11.

Apple Security Bounty

• macOS Big Sur 11 beta 5 is designated as qualifying for the 50% Apple Security Bounty bonus payment for issues that are unknown to Apple or reintroduced in this release. See Apple Security Bounty for more information.

EndpointSecurity

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 beta 5

• Auth type events such as an ES_EVENT_TYPE_AUTH_EXEC leak kernel memory no longer cause your system to become unresponsive. (65750498)

Final Cut Pro and iMovie

Known Issues

• You’re currently unable to capture video using either the built-in camera or external devices. (63528489)
• The application might unexpectedly quit when using the Import Media window. (65543216)Workaround: Drag media from Finder to import it.

Installer and Software Update

Known Issues

• You might be unable to update macOS Big Sur 11 beta 5, if Secure Boot is set to No Security. (63434409)
• When updating from macOS Big Sur 11 beta 2 to macOS Big Sur 11 beta 3 or later, you might be offered an unexpectedly large download rather than an incremental software update. (65753086)Workaround: Under the “Another update is available” text, click the “More info…” link. This will reveal the incremental update where you can click the Install Now button.
• You might need to adjust Energy Saver settings so your Mac doesn’t go to sleep while preparing to install macOS Big Sur 11 beta. (63166401)
• If macOS Big Sur 11 beta is installed into the same APFS container as previous versions of macOS Catalina 10.15, system software updates can no longer be installed on the previous versions of macOS. (64411484)Workaround: Update the previous version of macOS Catalina to 10.15.6.

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 beta 5

• APFS containers with non-default allocation block sizes are now supported for installation. (64312561)

Kernel

Known Issues

• The command kmutil inspect returns an error on Apple silicon Mac computers. (65804541)Workaround: Use kmutil dumpstate or pass explicit paths to collections using kmutil inspect -A /Library/KernelCollections/AuxiliaryKernelCollections.kc.development

Key-Value Observing

New Features in macOS Big Sur 11 beta 5

• Key-Value Observation removal facilities now employ deterministic bookkeeping methods. Cases that would have produced hard-to-diagnose crashes, especially those where KVO signals problems accessing deallocated observer pointers or observers associated with incorrect objects, now produce an exception pinpointing which observed object needs a missed removeObserver(_:) call, and by which observers. This exception was previously thrown as ‘best effort’ when KVO could detect the problem; the new deterministic bookkeeping allows it to be thrown for all cases where removeObserver(_:) is needed.The improved determinism also allows improved Swift API handling. Instances of NSKeyValueObservation, produced by the Swift NSObject.observe(_:changeHandler:) method, take advantage of integration with this bookkeeping so they now invalidate automatically when the observed object is released, regardless of how the object implements its KVO behavior. This applies to all usage of this API in macOS 11 Big Sur beta, including on processes built with previous versions of the SDK, and eliminates certain classes of crashes that sometimes required using the legacy API instead. (65051563)

Markup

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 beta 5

• Edits made using Markup are now saved. (64908822)

Messages

Known Issues

• Keyboard navigation to move focus between controls isn’t currently available. (63987810)

Safari and Webkit

Known Issues

• Applications that present modal UI in UIWebView delegate callbacks or that use JavaScript alert, confirm, and prompt might experience crashes under _WebThreadLock(). (64239727)

Spotlight

Known Issues

• If you can’t find an application using Spotlight, launch the application at least once using Finder. (64463806)

SwiftUI

Known Issues

• ProgressView generic type signature has changed, adding the currentValueLabel generic parameter. This change does not require any source changes, but will cause apps compiled using an earlier beta SDK to quit unexpectedly. (63580200)Workaround: Re-compile apps for macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 5 or later to resolve this issue.

New Features in macOS Big Sur 11 beta 5

• Color can be converted to and from CGColor. The ColorPicker can also now be configured with a binding to a CGColor. (56939085)
• Introduced ToolbarItemGroup as a convenient way to place multiple items in a specific location of non-customizable toolbars. (64178863)
• ProgressView now supports adding a secondary “current value label” that describes the current progress level of the task. Use the label to describe the overall task, and the currentValueLabel to provide more specific details about the progress of the task. (63580200)
• FileDocument and have updated protocol requirements:
  • Their initializer requirement now has a single FileDocumentReadConfiguration parameter that the fileWrapper and contentType can be read from.
  • Their write() functions that were expected to write to an inout FileWrapper parameter are now fileWrapper() functions that return a FileWrapper instead.
  • The Document-based app templates in Xcode have been updated to reflect this change in API.
  • Source compatibility with the previous requirements will eventually be removed. (65146043)

Resolved Issues in macOS Big Sur 11 beta 5

• Images that contain multicolor symbols will now adapt to color appearance. (63726389)
• Text(_ style:) no longer truncates. Text now has flexible width inside a widget. (60588299)
• Placeholder-style redacted Text that has a lineLimit(1) modifier applied now appears as expected. (66346107)
• SwitchToggleStyle and LinearProgressViewStyle can now be tinted on macOS. (62906674)
• NavigationLink and NavigationView behave more consistently on macOS: NavigationLink’s selection isn’t incorrectly reset to nil due to selection changes; programmatic selection and deselection of a NavigationLink appears as expected. (63791979)
• Applying a fixedSize() modifier to a TextEditor will now fix its size to the size of its content. (64855179)
• Placeholder-style redacted Text that has a minimumScaleFactor modifier applied now appears as expected. (66242496)

Third-Party Apps

Known Issues

• Some third-party scripts might produce unexpected results due to the change in macOS version from 10.x to 11. (62477208)Workaround: Set SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT=1 in the calling environment, for example: $ SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT=1 legacy_script.pl

Users & Groups

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 beta 5

• If you select the option to delete it, the home folder is now deleted when removing a user. (65558783)

Wallet

Known Issues

• isPassLibraryAvailable() doesn’t ensure uniform availability of pass library functionality between platforms and devices. (60697880)Workaround: Call a more specific API to check available functionality, such as canAddPasses().

Widgets

Known Issues

• When set to My Location, the Weather widget might display weather for a different location. (66338250)

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 beta 5

• When indicating a significant change in temperature for the next day, the Weather widget now correctly displays temperatures in Fahrenheit. (65061840)
• The weather widget now displays data in a timely manner. (66014597)

Xcode

Known Issues

• Legacy Xcode versions prior to 11.5 might unexpectedly quit when launched. (59991056)Workaround: Run the following command in Terminal: defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode DVTDisableMainThreadChecker 1, then deselect Main Thread Checker in the Diagnostic tab of the Run and Test actions for each scheme in your project.