How stable is the macOS Sierra Public Beta?

[DavidNelsonNM]

The beta has been extremely stable on my 2010 iMac. The only thing giving me issues is the App Store, which seems to be acting like it was hit in the head with a baseball bat. I could do the Epson printer update & the Evernote app update, but the iTunes 12.5 & macOS Recovery Update just sit spinning saying "Calculating".

Also, previously installed apps are there but show under the Purchased tab an "Install" status. If you click Install the app quickly reinstalls and shows as Installed, but exit and relaunch App Store and the app in question goes back to an Install status. But the apps are there and work.

I've deleted the C & T hidden folder areas, all App Store folders, but no dice. Also of note that at least for me the ShowDebugMenu option you can run in Terminal does not reveal the App Store Debug menu anymore.

 

[tywebb13]

The itunes and recovery update issues have already been solved via direct links. You can find them in apple's developer forums. I won't put the links here though so that I won't get into trouble by moderators. (I've done it before and got into trouble).

 

[mildocjr]

Then no, don't even upgrade when 10.12's properly released, until a .2 update

Ehh, yes and no, for one it's not a Microsoft operating system, second, most if not all of the big companies will have updates out that are fully compatible with MacOS Sierra by the GM. It's just the small third party companies that will have difficulties catching up; most of which will have a compatible update around the .1 update. Only very small underfunded companies will have a hard time catching up.

As to the OP, public betas are a version of the OS that are used by the general public to help Apple find bugs, if you aren't up for contributing then you should wait. If you are only interested in using Mac OS with the "latest and greatest features," you should know that they are not all completely implemented and some applications may not function as desired, e.g. calling the file picker (to upload a file) in chrome causes a beachball for a few seconds (on a quad-core i7 cpu). Note this is a third party application, but little things like that should be expected when using beta software.

Even though I did have my little excerpt above towards keys, know that keys is absolutely correct in his/her post.

TL;DR - keys is right and if you aren't going to submit bugs on broken features, wait until GM.

 

[grahamperrin]

… if you aren't going to submit bugs on broken features, wait until GM.

Whilst I agree with that sentiment, there's rarely any harm from discussion of bugs by people who are disinclined (or unable) to use Feedback Assistant.

For example: someone who uses the Assistant might read a report from me, methodically reproduce a bug and feed a BR to Apple. And so on …

 

[mildocjr]

Whilst I agree with that sentiment, there's rarely any harm from discussion of bugs by people who are disinclined (or unable) to use Feedback Assistant.

For example: someone who uses the Assistant might read a report from me, methodically reproduce a bug and feed a BR to Apple. And so on …

I'm talking about sending a bug to Apple in any way, not necessarily solely through Feedback Assistant.

 

[DavidNelsonNM]

The itunes and recovery update issues have already been solved via direct links. You can find them in apple's developer forums. I won't put the links here though so that I won't get into trouble by moderators. (I've done it before and got into trouble).

Thanks, I found the links elsewhere and got them installed. (I wrote a thank you but forgot to send it.) I installed the beta first day, then was out of town till today so I had some catching up to do thread-wise. The macOS Recovery install made me laugh though. 470MB download and the install says it's going to use 100KB on my disk. Now THAT'S a funny bug.

My App Store is still wacky but I'll be submitting something on it. I didn't find anyone else with the same issue on my quick search, but oh well. If I pick a new app from the store it shows in the Purchased tab on the button Open, as it should. The previous apps all say Install. Install them, button changes to Installed but never goes to Open. Switch pages and it goes back to Install. Not critical since the apps are there and work, just puzzling.

 

[grahamperrin]

I'm talking about sending a bug to Apple in any way, not necessarily solely through Feedback Assistant.

Understood, thanks – http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html, https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/, https://twitter.com/AppleSupport and so on – although I should not expect any tweet about pre-release software to result in feedback that will be useful to engineering.

I can probably use Apple Bug Reporter (I became an Online member of ADC in the 1990s) but I'm no longer inclined to do so. Presumably as a legacy of that free membership, I can still post to Apple Developer Forums for (at least) betas of macOS although since pre-release Yosemite, I rarely take Mac OS X seriously. https://forums.developer.apple.com/message/154579#154579 for example, a hint for people who could not, or can not boot in safe mode, hints such as that are relatively effortless. Nowadays I rarely go to greater effort for broad or in-depth stuff. I periodically drop in and out of MacRumors Forums, and if something that I post here leads to a BR BUG or ER from someone else to Apple, that's good

 

[zer0ed]

The public beta has been working really well for me on my Late 2009 27" Quad Core iMac. Everything I've thrown at has worked including DAW's for recording music, and yes, Siri seems to be working fine also.