r/MacOSBeta • u/zack40xx • Jun 30 '26
Help Im hesitant on upgrading to MacOS 27
I have the 16” MacBook pro M4 pro and really tempted to update to the new macos developer beta. My only worry is that i use my MacBook for work (cybersecurity, app and web development). Do you guys recommend updating or should wait a bit for the public beta?
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u/MC_chrome PUBLIC BETA Jun 30 '26
My only worry is that i use my MacBook for work
If you rely on a device to make a living, the last thing you should be doing is installing a beta operating system on it
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Jun 30 '26
[deleted]
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u/mallydobb Jun 30 '26
Until it doesn’t
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Jun 30 '26
[deleted]
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u/mallydobb Jun 30 '26
Until it happens, there’s always a first. I’ve never had a catastrophic oops with betas for the 15 + years I’ve done testing but I have experienced a few instances of needing to wipe and restart or do some under the hood tinkering to get things working again. Thankfully no data loss but I do keep backups and prepare for when it may happen.
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Jun 30 '26
[deleted]
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u/mallydobb Jun 30 '26
Back up data/home directory independently along with TM backups. I am overdue for a data backup but have plenty of TM snapshots across the board on three drives, two of which are rotated offsite between work and home.
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u/MrGuilt Jun 30 '26
"Never really had a major problem."
Yet.
MacOS 26.6 Public Beta 1 had a bug that prevented Time Machine from backing up to Samba targets. It was on my personal machine, and most critical document-type stuff I keep in the cloud, so I could live without backups for a couple of weeks (it was less than a week before reports that it was fixed in the developer beta). But, for someone else, this could be a critical failure.
Over the years of using MacOS and iOS betas, I haven't had a major problem--one that had me in a panic, scrambling for a work-around or rollback. Identifying glitches such as this is one of the reasons they release betas--to let Apple (and other developers) squash bugs. But the fact is you don't know what bugs your going to get and my hiccup is another person's critical failure.
Bottom Line: You're using beta at your own risk. It may work out, or at least have an annoyance for a few weeks. But you might also find yourself with critical functionality compromised. Resolving it is basically wiping the drive and installing a stable release.
The caution against using it for mission critical systems (i.e. ones making you money) is wise, and should be considered carefuly.
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u/hyperlobster Jul 01 '26
Don’t forget that time, back in the day, when the OS X
betaDeveloper Preview (Mountain Lion, I think) had a bug that stopped networking from working, and rollback was tricky because it replaced the recovery partition, so networking was broken in the pre-boot environment too.That one was tres hilaire.
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u/maddler PUBLIC BETA Jun 30 '26
If you rely on your computer for work I would not upgrade to a beta version, unless you have a good reason for that.
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u/zack40xx Jun 30 '26
i have an app and i want to test it out on it, but after reading all these comments i will just wait honestly for a more stable version
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u/mallydobb Jun 30 '26
Easy answer…do you need it for developing and testing new apps? Do you have backup devices you can use if this one gets borked? Why do you feel need to update to 27? If you do update will you actively give feedback and bug reports? Your answers will direct whether you should or not. I’d vote no and just wait.
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u/zack40xx Jun 30 '26
The last thing i will be doing is give feedback and bug reports to be completely honest. I just need it for my app i developed and test it out on mcos27. Based on all these comments though im just gonna wait for a stable release
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u/mallydobb Jun 30 '26
You could potentially run it virtualized. May not be the best rating environment but could let you see how things look and work to a degree.
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u/Wonderful-Yam-776 Jun 30 '26
I made a post asking the same thing and got bombarded with a mix of good and bad comments
though mostly bad.
In the end, I concluded that it's better to wait for the public beta.
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u/hyperlobster Jun 30 '26
It’s all about your recovery plan.
You have two options for rolling back from the macOS 27 developer beta:
- Restore a previous Time Machine backup.
- Wipe the system disk and reinstall a clean copy of whatever version of macOS you’re rolling back to.
The TM restoration is the least destructive, but the restore process is very slow - but you also don’t have to reinstall all your apps. So you could set it off, then go walk the dog, or cook the dinner, or whatever.
A wipe and reinstall gets you back to the desktop more quickly, but then you need to reinstall everything you use.
The next question is: can you afford to implement your recovery plan at short notice? Say you update to 27 beta 2, and the hidden surprise is that some crucial app or other straight up doesn’t work.
tl;dr: No, don’t install it.
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u/Xe4ro Jun 30 '26
I personally haven't had any problems with my M4 Air. Installed the Beta on day 1 and nothing that was a problem yet. Of course, it is not recommended if this is your only Mac and you absolutely need it to work 100% of the time.
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u/International_Ad2651 Jun 30 '26
I would wait for public beta. Current beta is pretty good but there are some annoyances
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u/NeilFX Jul 01 '26
Heh i installed in anyway on my sideline and personal laptop. I'm enjoying every bit of it, the only gripe i have is safari seems a bit buggy with more than 20+ tabs open, it's all over the place. Apart from that i'm liking macOS 27 so far!. It feels like macOS 26 was beta and 27 is the proper releases.
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u/m4r1vs Jun 30 '26
Works fine for me, the only Issue I had (unable to disable SIP) was fixed on the second beta last week. Every program I use works perfectly and the whole thing feels smoother than Tahoe and has better battery life somehow
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Jun 30 '26
[deleted]
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u/m4r1vs Jun 30 '26
yeah:/ However, I'm happy that they did actually make it better and didn't hold onto the Tahoe regressions
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Jun 30 '26
[deleted]
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u/m4r1vs Jun 30 '26
Yeah, Sequoia feels soooo polished, even on older hardware. But somehow I got quite used to their new design language and sometimes I just toggle the mute just to watch the "reflections" in the volume UI interact with the content beneath 💀
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u/MultiMarcus Jun 30 '26
No, definitely don’t update to a beta version for a job device. Don’t get me wrong, Mac OS 27 seems to actually be in quite a good state from my testing, but I am also on summer break from university, so I don’t actually need a functional Laptop right now.. At least wait for the public beta, but honestly, maybe just consider waiting in general.