Apple Seeds Second Beta of macOS High Sierra to Public Beta Testers

by

Apple today seeded the second public beta of an upcoming macOS High Sierra update to public beta testers, two weeks after releasing the first public beta. The second public beta of macOS High Sierra corresponds with the third developer beta, provided to developers earlier this week.

Beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program are able to download the second macOS High Sierra beta through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store after the proper profile has been installed.

macos hs beta
Those who want to be a part of Apple's beta testing program can sign up to participate through the beta testing website, which gives users access to iOS, macOS, and tvOS betas. For instructions on how to install the public beta, check out our how to, and make sure to make a backup before giving the software a try. Don't install the beta on a main machine, as betas are notoriously unstable. High Sierra runs on all machines that support Sierra.

The macOS High Sierra update is designed to improve and refine the existing macOS Sierra operating system. Along with a new, more efficient file system (APFS) designed for modern storage, the update introduces Metal 2, the next-generation version of Apple's Metal graphics API with support for machine learning, external GPUs, and VR content creation.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.

High Efficiency Video Encoding (HEVC aka H.265) is coming in High Sierra, and many of the existing apps are being updated. Photos features a new persistent side view and editing tools for Curves, Selective Color, and Live Photos, while Siri is gaining a more natural voice and support for more music-related commands.

Safari offers a new autoplay blocking feature for videos and Intelligent Tracking Prevention to protect your privacy, while Mail storage is being optimized to take up 35 percent less space. iMessages can now be stored in iCloud, and there are new iCloud Drive file sharing options and new iCloud storage family plans.

For a full overview of the new features you can expect to see when macOS High Sierra is released in the fall, make sure to check out our full macOS High Sierra roundup.

Related Forum: macOS High Sierra

Popular Stories

iOS 19 Mock WWDC25 Feature

iOS 19 Expected to Run on These iPhones

Monday March 31, 2025 5:28 pm PDT by
iOS 19 will not be available on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or the iPhone XS Max, according a private account on social media site X that has accurately provided information on device compatibility in the past. The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max all have an A12 Bionic chip, so it looks like iOS 19 will discontinue support for that chip. All other iPhones that run iOS 18 are expected...
Read Full Article • 130 comments
maxresdefault

Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:03 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
Read Full Article • 88 comments
watchOS 11 Thumb 2 1

Apple Releases watchOS 11.4 With Sleep Alarm Update

Tuesday April 1, 2025 10:34 am PDT by
Apple today released watchOS 11.4, the fourth major update to the operating system that runs on the Apple Watch. watchOS 11.4 is compatible with the Apple Watch Series 6 and later, all Apple Watch Ultra models, and the Apple Watch SE 2. watchOS 11.4 can be downloaded on a connected iPhone by opening up the Apple Watch app and going to General > Software Update. To install the new software,...
Read Full Article • 69 comments
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4

Monday March 31, 2025 11:27 am PDT by
Apple today released new firmware updates for all AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 models. The new firmware is version 7E93, up from the 7B21 firmware that was installed on the AirPods Pro 2 and the 7B20 firmware available on the AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC. It is not immediately clear what new features or changes are included in the new firmware, but we'll update this article should we find ...
Read Full Article • 30 comments
macOS Sequoia Feature

Apple Releases macOS Sequoia 15.4 With Mail Categorization and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:04 am PDT by
Apple today released macOS Sequoia 15.4, the fourth major update to the macOS Sequoia operating system that launched in September. macOS Sequoia 15.4 comes two months after the launch of macOS Sequoia 15.3. Mac users can download the ‌‌macOS Sequoia‌‌ update through the Software Update section of System Settings. It is available for free on all Macs able to run macOS 15. With...
Read Full Article • 188 comments
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
Read Full Article • 247 comments
Apple Card iPhone 16 Pro Feature

Visa and American Express Vying to Win Apple Card Deal in 'Fierce' Fight

Tuesday April 1, 2025 1:50 pm PDT by
Visa wants to pay Apple approximately $100 million to be the new payment network for the Apple Card, reports The Wall Street Journal. As of right now, the Apple Card is on the Mastercard payment network, but that is set to change because Apple is ending its partnership with Goldman Sachs. Both American Express and Visa are vying to replace Mastercard as Apple's card services provider, while...
Read Full Article • 169 comments

Top Rated Comments

0092284 Avatar
0092284
101 months ago
Tons of issues with the first PB, hope this improves functionality / performance. It needs it.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Icaras Avatar
Icaras
101 months ago
Does anyone know if its safe to upgrade to APFS on a 1TB Apple-made fusion drive in this PB?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PBG4 Dude Avatar
PBG4 Dude
101 months ago
Reading some of these posts it sounds like people are running High Sierra on their main partition vs secondary partition or external drive. Why would one need to run a Time Machine backup on a partition with just High Sierra and whatever one is testing?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fisherking Avatar
fisherking
101 months ago
BY FAR the WORST BUILD EVER
The first public beta build was workable, 10.13 Beta (17A306f) is plagued with bugs. If you are thinking about public beta testing - skip this version. I can't keep up with all the bug reporting.
Some issues I'm having is Fan running all the time (iMac 27-inch, Late 2012) 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7 32 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2 GB)
Bubbles appear while completing forms on safari
Flickering Safar preferences
copy and paste not always working ctrl C
computer becomes unresponsive for seconds
Try it if you'd like, but I would recommend skipping this version.
[doublepost=1499892145][/doublepost]
Yes, and airdrop isn't working properly.
So many more bugs. I've already sent in 4 and haven't sent in photos not importing from iPhone.
[doublepost=1499892213][/doublepost]
M is last weeks. F is today's. Don't do it, it is a big fail and you'll never get any work done.
not having any of those problems; PB2 is running much better here than PB1 in most respects. try re-installing the beta...
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jason.childs Avatar
Jason.childs
101 months ago
Yea I downloaded the entire thing from beta.apple.com. No luck.



I did everything you did. Quit all apps, disconnected all peripherals, and even tried installing it from safe mode. Same result, every time. This sucks.
Add one more to the pile! I even did a clean install of Sierra, and it still won't install it.

If anyone figures this out, please share!

I've looked all over the webs for a possible answer, and no luck...anyone else?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rbgaynor Avatar
rbgaynor
101 months ago
Hope it fixes the sleep issue...
Installed the developer beta yesterday, I'm still seeing sleep problems. That said, lot's of things are better, time machine is working again...
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments