Apple Seeds First Beta of macOS Sierra 10.12.5 to Developers

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming macOS Sierra 10.12.5 update to developers, one day after releasing macOS Sierra 10.12.4, which introduced Night Shift for the Mac.

macOS Sierra 10.12.5 can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center or through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store.

macbook pro 13 15 sierra
Apple's release notes don't often provide much insight into what's included in new beta software, so we don't yet know what features it might offer. As the update follows the release of 10.12.4, which was a major update, this one may focus primarily on bug fixes and other small improvements.

The release notes accompanying the beta release say only that the "update improves the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac." Should any new features be found in macOS Sierra 10.12.5, we'll update this post.

Related Forum: macOS Sierra

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
iphone 16 apple intelligence

Apple Drops Plans for iPhone Hardware Subscription Service

Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
blackmagic vision pro

Blackmagic Debuts $30K 3D Camera for Capturing Video for Vision Pro

Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro. The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
mac pro creativity

Apple Launched the Controversial 'Trashcan' Mac Pro 11 Years Ago Today

Thursday December 19, 2024 7:00 pm PST by
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup. The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature Single Camera 2 Redux

Top 5 Apple Products to Look Forward to in 2025

Friday December 20, 2024 2:22 pm PST by
It's looking like 2025 is going to be an important year for Apple, with the company planning to revamp the iPhone, push further into smart home products, and improve Apple Intelligence. There are tons of new products rumored for 2025, including new iPhones, M4 Macs, a smart home command center, and much more. We've highlighted the top five Apple products that will have the biggest impact in...
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

New Apple TV Rumored to Launch Next Year With These Features

Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year. Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Rumored to Stick With 'Triangular' Camera Design

Wednesday December 18, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
elevation lab airtag battery

Your AirTag's Battery Will Last for Up to 10 Years With Elevation Lab's New TimeCapsule Enclosure

Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag. Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...

Top Rated Comments

jayducharme Avatar
101 months ago
the "update improves the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac."
I find that statement amusing. How do they know about any of that only a day after the release of the last update? Did they already know there were problems with "stability, compatibility and security" in 10.12.4 and yet they simply released it anyway?
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
benface Avatar
101 months ago
I find that statement amusing. How do they know about any of that only a day after the release of the last update? Did they already know there were problems with "stability, compatibility and security" in 10.12.4 and yet they simply released it anyway?
Of course. If they waited until all known issues were fixed before releasing something, they'd never release it. Any software will have bugs and areas to improve.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jefe2000 Avatar
101 months ago
I find that statement amusing. How do they know about any of that only a day after the release of the last update? Did they already know there were problems with "stability, compatibility and security" in 10.12.4 and yet they simply released it anyway?
Releasing software updates with known issues is super-common. Bugs are often discovered far too late in a release cycle to include fixes in that release. So, fixes are deferred to the next release (in this case, deferred to 10.12.5).
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chucker23n1 Avatar
101 months ago
You can sniff around APFS for some time in macOS Sierra:
https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/FileManagement/Conceptual/APFS_Guide/Introduction/Introduction.html
Sure, but that's not bootable yet.

VMWare Fusion is borked on 10.12.4, where most of the VMs start/resume with a blank screen. Hopefully that issue is fixed.
Seems fine here.

I find that statement amusing. How do they know about any of that only a day after the release of the last update? Did they already know there were problems with "stability, compatibility and security" in 10.12.4 and yet they simply released it anyway?
Yes. That's how any product development works. You don't wait until it's perfect; you release when you're satisfied you've made the right compromises.

Real artists ship.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
xgman Avatar
101 months ago
10.13...wow.. here we go again.. back to the beginning of an unstable platform...just because they can.. and then once it becomes stable, rinse and repeat.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Nunyabinez Avatar
101 months ago
"As the update follows the release of 10.12.4, which was a major update" Did I miss some new functionality? If adding Night Mode is a major update, then we have wrung all the innovation out of OSes.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)