First macOS Tahoe 26.4 Beta Now Available for Developers - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

First macOS Tahoe 26.4 Beta Now Available for Developers

by

Apple today provided the first beta of an upcoming macOS Tahoe 26.4 update to developers for testing purposes, with the update coming just a few days after Apple launched ‌macOS Tahoe‌ 26.3.

macOS Tahoe 26 Thumb 2
Developers can download the ‌macOS Tahoe‌ 26.4 update by opening up the System Settings app, selecting the General category, and then choosing Software Update. Beta Updates will need to be enabled, and a free developer account is required.

‌macOS Tahoe‌ 26.4 could introduce some new Siri features, though at least some of the capabilities that we were expecting have been delayed. The update is also expected to introduce new emoji characters.

The beta is available to developers right now, but a public beta is expected in the next week or two.

Related Roundup: macOS Tahoe
Related Forum: macOS Tahoe

Popular Stories

iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...
Read Full Article • 78 comments
ios 26 4 yellow

Here Are Apple's Release Notes for iOS 26.4

Wednesday March 18, 2026 11:56 am PDT by
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4, which means we're going to see a public launch as soon as next week. The RC versions of the software include Apple's official release notes, giving us final details on what's included in the update. Apple Music - Playlist Playground (beta) generates a playlist from your...
Read Full Article • 102 comments
Apple Logo Sketch Feature

Apple Has Now Unveiled Eight New Products This Month

Tuesday March 17, 2026 9:25 am PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping eight new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, and now the AirPods Max 2 this week. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as the iPhone...
Read Full Article

Top Rated Comments

E
ericfroemling
5 weeks ago
Compact tabs is back :)

Attachment Image
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
T
tywebb13
5 weeks ago
build number is 25E5207k

others:

macOS 15.7.5 RC 1 (24G607)
macOS 14.8.5 RC 1 (23J407)
iOS 26.4 beta 1 (23E5207q)
iPadOS 26.4 beta 1 (23E5207q)
tvOS 26.4 beta 1 (23L5208m)
audioOS 26.4 beta 1 (23L5208m)
visionOS 26.4 beta 1 (23O5209m)
watchOS 26.4 beta 1 (23T5209m)
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
T
tywebb13
5 weeks ago

Same here! :-( My external drives work fine on another Mac not running this beta, of course.
maybe disable fsck_hfs before attaching drives?


* Kill the Process (Temporary Solution): If fsck_hfs is blocking access to a drive, use Activity Monitor or the Terminal command sudo killall fsck_hfs.
* Disable SIP and Rename fsck_hfs (System-wide):
[LIST=1]
* Boot into Recovery Mode (Command+R) and run csrutil disable in Terminal to disable System Integrity Protection.
* Restart the system.
* Rename the utility: sudo mv /sbin/fsck_hfs /sbin/fsck_hfs.disabled.

* Use fsck_hfs -n (No Repair): Run fsck_hfs with the -n flag, which forces it to never attempt to repair any damage found
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
johnsawyercjs Avatar
johnsawyercjs
5 weeks ago

Checked file vault settings, but they were turned off, I thought Tahoe by default enabled encryption of home folder? :rolleyes:
I don't think Apple has ever enabled FileVault by default, since the user needs to know if their drive is encrypted, and select settings that work for them. A full setup requires the user to establish a "backup" unlock method in case you forget your macOS password. You can choose to use your Apple ID to reset your Mac's password to unlock your drive, or use a local recovery key (a long string of random letters and numbers).

Also, FileVault has encrypted the entire drive for years. You might be remembering "Legacy FileVault," which encrypted only the Home folder, but Apple moved away from that years ago (around Mac OS X Lion) since it was prone to errors and didn't protect system files or temporary data stored outside the Home folder. Modern FileVault uses XTS-AES-128 encryption with a 256-bit key to secure the entire volume.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
auslad88 Avatar
auslad88
5 weeks ago
I updated, but instant issues with external drives. I have a few RAID volumes formatted as macOS Journaled - all of these are readable but not writable - prompts to run disk utility in recovery mode - did that and still no joy. Even a Samsung T7 that is formatted macOS Journaled has the same error. I formatted as APFS and it works fine, but formatting back to Journaled throws the same error. so for some reason my upgrade does not like Journaled anymore :/.. I had also updated another Mac to 26.4 and has the same issue :)
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
L
Larsen2k4
5 weeks ago

FINALLY.

I'll slow down on my complaining about Tahoe now lol
HOORAY!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments
Related Apple News: News | South Africa | Politics | Opinion | Education