Apple today has released the second beta of macOS Catalina for developers to test. Just after macOS Catalina was announced at WWDC 2019 about two weeks ago.
Registered developers can download macOS Catalina Beta from Apple’s developer website. Or if they already have the first beta installed, they can update it in the settings app.
macOS Catalina 10.15 Beta 2 Release Notes:
The macOS 10.15 SDK provides support for developing apps for Macs running macOS Catalina 10.15. The SDK comes bundled with Xcode 11 beta available from Beta Software Downloads. For information on the compatibility requirements for Xcode 11, see Xcode 11 Beta 2 Release Notes.
General
New Features
Installing third party kernel extensions now requires that you restart your Mac before they’re permitted to load. (50340461)
Known Issues
If you used Migration Assistant to migrate your data to a Mac running macOS Catalina beta, you might see only third-party applications when clicking the Applications shortcut in the Finder sidebar. (51651200)
Workaround: In Finder > Preferences > Sidebar, select the Applications favorite, then remove the Applications shortcut from the sidebar that displays incorrect results.
During installation of macOS 10.15 you might be prompted to enter your administrator password multiple times to allow installation to proceed. (51206649)
Some apps might not automatically relaunch after installation or updating and must be manually relaunched. (51228752)
Resolved Issues
You can install macOS 10.15 onto an encrypted volume even if it’s not already formatted as APFS. (51127640)
The Install macOS 10.15 app runs as expected on macOS 10.9. (50868081)
You don’t need to upgrade to macOS Mojave 10.14 before upgrading to macOS 10.15. (50181382)
Migration Assistant correctly migrates data from a Mac running macOS 10.15 to another Mac running macOS 10.15. (50894629)
During upgrades to macOS 10.15, files and folders stored at the root-level of a volume are no longer moved aside to /Library/SystemMigration/History/Migration-UUID/QuarantineRoot/. (45378791)
On Macs with the Apple T2 Security Chip, if you’ve used Startup Security Utility to lower Secure Boot to Medium Security or No Security, you can modify Secure Boot settings after upgrading to macOS 10.15. (51043128)
Deprecations
macOS frameworks are now thinned for the x86-64 architecture. Apps that execute i386 code now fail with the EBADARCH error code. The remaining stub frameworks are nonfunctional and exist only for compatibility purposes. (51236070)
Accessibility
Known Issues
VoiceOver feedback sounds are currently unavailable while in macOS Recovery. (48218068)
Resolved Issues
On Macs with the Apple T2 Security Chip, VoiceOver is available again while in macOS Recovery. (49870874)
App Store
Known Issues
Some apps, such as Final Cut Pro, Motion, Compressor, and iMovie can’t be found using Search. (51245576)
Workaround: If you previously purchased the apps, you can download them again from Account > Purchased.
Apple CryptoKit
Known Issues
When using the SecureEnclave API with access control set on keys, users might not be prompted to authenticate. This might cause subsequent operations requiring authentication to fail. (51279188)
Apple File System (APFS)
Resolved Issues
You can use volume replication with Fusion volumes as a source or destination. (51114645)
Apple TV
Known Issues
Support for signing in with an account from a different country is currently unavailable. (51240948)
Resolved Issues
Support for Dolby Atmos content and downloads is now available. (51050344)
Apple TV remembers the previously selected tab when you relaunch it. (50922604)
The option to show only offline downloads is now available. (50997542)
Navigating using the back button behaves as expected. (51207403)
AppleEvents
New Features
To enhance security, AppleEvents and AppleScripts that target an app on a remote system must authenticate as the same user on the remote system. An AppleEvent that targets an app running as a different user receives a procNotFound error.
To allow remote AppleEvents to target apps in any user session, run the following command in Terminal on the server:
Then disable and reenable Remote Apple Events in System Preferences > Sharing. (5353592)
Audio
New Features
You can now enable voice processing mode on AVAudioEngine. (50906329)
You can use new AVAudioNode types to wrap a user-defined block for sending or receiving data in real-time.
A new method is available for an AVAudioEngine based app to retrieve a list of all nodes attached to an AVAudioEngine instance.
A new rendering mode in AVAudioEnvironmentNode selects the best spatial audio rendering algorithm automatically based on the output device.
A new AVAudioSession property allows system sounds and haptics to play while the session is actively using audio input.
A new property, AVAudioSession.PromptStyle informs apps which style of voice prompt they should play based on other audio activity in the system.
The AVAudioSession.RouteSharingPolicy enumeration is extended to allow apps to specify route sharing policies so their audio and video is routed to the same location as AirPlay.
Audio Unit Extensions now support user presets that are available across all host apps.
Deprecations
The OpenAL framework is deprecated and remains present for compatibility purposes. Transition to AVAudioEngine for spatial audio functionality.
Inter-App audio is deprecated. Use Audio Units for this functionality.
Carbon component-based Audio Units are deprecated and support will be removed in a future release.
Legacy Core Audio HAL audio hardware plug-ins are no longer supported. Use Audio Server plug-ins for audio drivers.
AVFoundation
New Features
AVFoundation now supports encoding video with alpha channels using HEVC. Videos encoded in this manner are broadly supported in AVFoundation APIs and by Safari within web pages. Technical details of the format can be found in the Interoperability Profile specification. (8045917)
Deprecations
The previously deprecated 32-bit QuickTime framework is no longer available in macOS 10.15.
The symbols for QTKit, which relied on the QuickTime framework, are still present but the classes are non-functional.
Books
Known Issues
After migrating, audio books might not appear until you restart your Mac. (50823065)
If the ‘Restrict books with explicit content’ setting is enabled, your purchased books might be unexpectedly hidden. (51602141)
Books stored in iCloud Drive might take several minutes to appear in your Library. (51435740, 50776390)
You might be unable to import books into your library until you restart your Mac. (50962112)
After upgrading to macOS Catalina beta, locally downloaded cloud items might move back to iCloud. (51306790)
Resolved Issues
Books and PDFs imported into the Books app upload to iCloud Drive. (47124224)
Camera
Known Issues
Apps using Picture Taker must specify the NSCameraUsageDescription key to access the FaceTime camera. (47916725)
Console
Known Issues
Applying a filter to console messages might fail. (51524242)
Metal CIKernel instances now support arguments with arbitrarily structured data.
Metal CIKernel instances now support returning a group of two by two pixels.
The integer values of CIFormat symbols, such as ARGB8, have changed to a new set of values which are consistent across platforms. The former values remain supported for backward compatibility; however, you should avoid dependancies on specific numerical values.
Core Media
Known Issues
You might see unexpected results when creating 10-bit HEVC video content. (50322535)
Device Management
Known Issues
Sending a Volume Purchase Program download request to a client from a Mobile Device Management server might cause an authorization dialog to appear on the client. (49376544)
Resolved Issues
You can now log in while creating a mobile account on a server with Mobile Device Management Bootstrap Token support. (50912641)
After installing a Device Profile with PrintMACAddress=true, the user’s MAC address prints as expected. (51003427)
DriverKit
Known Issues
The Filter Packet network extension type and NWEthernetChannel API don’t currently work with network interface drivers implemented using DriverKit. (48709552)
Resolved Issues
You no longer need to unplug and reattach the accessory cable to enumerate a user space driver if that driver quits unexpectedly or you restart your Mac,. (50042397)
EndpointSecurity
Known Issues
The exec and open events are cached, however the cache entries aren’t invalidated when the file is manipulated. exec events are cached based on the executable and open events are cached as a product of the executable and the target file being opened. (45497117)
The kauth API will be removed in a future release. (50419013)
FileVault
Known Issues
Password reset for FileVault volumes from macOS Recovery doesn’t function as expected. (50455695)
Workaround: While in macOS Recovery, launch Terminal from the Utilities menu, then type resetpassword and press return. In the window which appears, select ‘My keyboard isn’t working when typing my password to log in’.
Final Cut Pro
Known Issues
You might be unable to access content from your Photos library. (51600540)
Finder
Resolved Issues
Finder no longer quits unexpectedly when you try to restore using the Time Machine interface. (49398715)
Files can be copied from and deleted on an iOS device using the Files tab in Finder. (48649759)
You can now download folders from iCloud properly. (50855741)
When iCloud Desktop is enabled, attempting to drag a volume mounted on the desktop no longer results in the volume being copied to the Desktop. (51187890)
iCloud
Known Issues
You might see multiple empty Application libraries within iCloud Drive. You can safely remove the empty folders. (51635803)
The content of folders inside an iCloud Shared Folder might not be available to other users viewing your shared folder. (51591135)
Turning off the Siri switch in iCloud settings doesn’t stop Significant Locations from syncing. To stop syncing, turn off the Significant Locations switch. (50908297)
The Cloud Files section in About This Mac > Storage > Manage might inaccurately represent the current state of files on your Mac. (50362095)
Even when Optimize Storage is switched off, iCloud Drive might fail to automatically download all files. (50667204)
Workaround: Download files individually.
Pages, Numbers, and Keynote documents in shared folders can only be opened on macOS and iOS. iWork documents in shared folders are currently inaccessible from iCloud.com. (50738067)
When creating a new Pages, Numbers, or Keynote document in a shared folder, you might see the message “Couldn’t connect to iCloud”. (50827963)
Workaround: Close and reopen the document.
Resolved Issues
Your desktop is no longer empty after upgrading to macOS 10.15 if you’re using iCloud Drive to sync Desktop & Documents folders. (50789836)
Currently, you’re unable to import AppKit and UIKit modules in the same compilation unit. If you want to import AppKit headers into an iPad App on Mac, you can import the individual AppKit header in Objective-C, or you can create a bridging header to import the individual AppKit header for Swift. (48094910)
The UIScreen class’s isCaptured API isn’t currently supported. (48360589)
When donating interactions using the INInteraction class on macOS, the completion handler is invoked with an error which can be safely ignored. (48371526)
The current property on UIDevice and the OS Product Name is currently returned as iOS rather than macOS, which can affect diagnostic logs generated by your system. (49792004)
Event handling in extension contexts may produce unexpected results, including failure to deliver trackpad pinch and zoom gestures. (50145462)
When sending Mail attachments via MessageUI, each attachment might appear as two icons when viewed by the recipient. (50369995)
Controls drawn with accent color incorrectly maintain their active color when the window is inactive. There is no need to work around this in your app. (50563638)
The UIKit module currently doesn’t import the newly added NSToolbar and NSTouchBarheaders, NSToolbar+UIKitAdditions.h and NSTouchBar+UIKitAdditions.h. You can import these headers directly in Objective-C, or you can create a bridging header to import them for Swift. Be sure to import Foundation before importing these headers. (50704322)
For iPad Apps on Mac to save to Photos Library, explicitly linking the Photos framework is required. (50781430)
Opening a CloudKit share URL might not launch an iPad App on Mac that’s present on the system. Additionally, the system might not take the user to the appropriate App Store page to download an app which isn’t present on the system. (50877241)
Action and share extensions might exhibit visual anomalies. (51005363)
The productsRequest(_:didReceive:) method from StoreKit currently returns with didFailWithError and products aren’t loaded. (51028870)
All assets at 3x scale factor are currently ignored when compiling the asset catalog for iPad Apps on Mac. Because the search begins with the universal asset, assets for a specific memory or graphics class won’t be found. For example, if you provide an image and only give a 6GB and Metal 5v1 asset, it won’t be found at runtime. It’s recommended that you provide all images as vectors to allow generation of the correct scale factors, or at minimum provide 2x versions of the assets. If you’re classifying resources based on memory and graphics families then you should provide “Any Memory” and “Any Graphics”. (51033745)
CallKit CXAction instances might return an error. (51074735)
MTKView objects might render incorrectly. This will be resolved in an upcoming beta. (51084042)
If your iPad App on Mac is launched directly into the background, a second background launch request launches the app into the foreground, making it visible to the user. If your app uses any of the supported APIs which might result in a background launch, this might cause your app to launch in the foreground without user input. (51287556)
In macOS 10.15 beta, the UIGraphicsRenderer class’s default() function returns the nonextended color range renderer format by default. To use-extended color range format for rendering, create an instance using preferred() and pass it to init(bounds:format:). (51303954)
When creating a Mac version of your iPad app, Xcode automatically generates a unique Mac bundle identifier. If you have an existing Mac bundle identifier you’d prefer to use, you can do so by using manual signing in Xcode. (51076014)
Follow these steps to configure your project, AppID, and provisioning profile:
In the Identifiers section, select your iOS app identifier to edit.
Check the UIKit for Mac capability to enable it, then click the Configure button.
Choose Use an existing macOS AppID and select the identifier you’d like to use from the popup menu. Click the Save button to finish editing your AppID.
In the Profiles section, click the + button to create a new profile, select ‘macOS App Development’, and click Continue.
Select your iOS AppID from the popup, click Continue, and complete the rest of the profile creation flow. When finished, click the Download button.
In Xcode, select your project to view the Project Editor and select your app’s target. Then select the Build Settings tab.
Set the Derive UIKit for Mac Product Bundle Identifier setting to No.
Expand the Product Bundle Identifier build setting to view its configurations. Next to the Debug configuration, click the + button to add a conditional value.
For the build setting condition, select Any macOS from the popup menu. Edit the value of the conditional build setting to match the macOS bundle identifier you want to use. Repeat this step for all configurations in your project.
In the Signing & Capabilities tab, uncheck Automatically manage signing.
For your macOS app, select Import Profile from the Provisioning Profile popup and then select the profile you downloaded earlier.
iPad Apps on Mac that use CloudKit receive push notifications properly. (51264475)
iPad Apps on Mac use the same default keychain access group as iPad apps. (50779224)
Ad-hoc app signing now allows access to the Keychain. Adding Keychain Sharing triggers mandatory signing using a profile, in turn allowing access to the Keychain. (50898387)
You can open the Services Preferences pane from the Services > Services Preferences menu item in the app menu. (49780697)
When the user quits an iPad App on Mac, the app transitions to UIKit background state and the app’s audio is stopped. AVAudioSession issues a begin interruption notification in response to the app transitioning to UIKit background state. Additionally, if an iPad App on Mac attempts to activate an AVAudioSession, start an AudioQueue, AURemoteIO, or other high-level player object while in UIKIt background state, audio input and output won’t be allowed to start and AVAudioSession won’t be allowed to activate while the app is in UIKIt background state. (51050672)
If you use UIDocumentBrowserViewController to create a new document, then cancel, the helper process presenting the document browser doesn’t quit unexpectedly. (50558637)
UILabel, UITextField, and UITextView instances with alignment set to center or right in Interface Builder have the proper alignment when designing for or running iPad Apps on Mac. (50062524)
A tooltip added to an NSToolbarItem is no longer presented as a blank window. (50957416)
You can now pass shared items from a Sharing extension back to the host through its completion handler. (50835062)
Resolved an issue where creating an NSToolbarItem with a UIBarButtonItem.SystemItem of type compose, reply, search, or camera made apps behave unexpectedly. (51253315)
Color asset variants are passed during runtime, so these colors now appear in your iPad App on Mac. (51113192)
Password AutoFill appears correctly in iPad Apps on Mac. (50992371)
SFSafariViewController opens the URL from initialization when presented, then dismisses itself. (51267323)
iWork
Known Issues
Attempting to open iWork documents in Finder will unexpectedly create a .cpgz file if the corresponding iWork app isn’t installed. (40693892)
Workaround: Install the corresponding app from the App Store before opening the document.
Game Controllers
Resolved Issues
HID reports from DualShock 4 game controllers using Bluetooth are no longer reported differently by lower level frameworks, such as IOKit, in comparison to macOS Mojave 10.14. (51163262)
Localization
Known Issues
Certain languages might exhibit clipped or misaligned layout. (51068688,50983852)
Certain languages might display unlocalized text. (47765173,51196633)
Mail
Known Issues
If your Mac contains both macOS Mojave 10.14 and macOS 10.15 volumes, you might experience issues searching in Mail. (46611310)
Workaround: While running macOS Mojave 10.14, open Terminal and execute the following command:
Reboot into macOS 10.15, open Terminal and execute the following command:
Reboot into macOS Mojave 10.14, open Terminal and execute the following command:
Depending on the size of your Mail database, it might many hours to reindex all content.
Music
Known Issues
You might be unable to log into the store unless you’re logging in from the country in which you’re currently located. (51105585)
Navigating using the back button might produce unexpected results. (51248128)
Music might take a long time to launch for some users. (51207753)
You might be unable to scroll content on shelves. (51248128)
Artwork changes might not immediately appear; playlists will be added in an upcoming beta. (51201715)
Music might not remember the previously selected tab when it’s relaunched. (50922604)
Resolved Issues
Connecting to another computer using Home Sharing shows the remote library as expected. (50921136)
Attempting to delete movies, TV shows, and music videos from Manage Storage settings works as expected. (51001458)
The visualizer appears as expected. (49952376)
Networking
New Features
All NSURLSessionTasks with a GET HTTP method which contain a body will now produce the error NSURLErrorDataLengthExceedsMaximum. (46025234)
Known Issues
An active Network Extension content filter configuration might interrupt the boot process indefinitely following a kernel panic. (50965627)
Workaround: Boot into macOS Recovery, launch Terminal, and execute the following command:
NetBoot is unavailable when a Network Extension content filter configuration is enabled. (50872052)
The NWEthernetChannel API doesn’t currently support VLAN interfaces. NEPacketTunnelProvider will see both tagged and untagged frames arriving on physical interfaces. Depending on the Ethernet driver, VLAN tags might be processed by hardware and thus stripped off the Ethernet frames thus NEPacketTunnelProvider won’t see the VLAN tag. (51275655)
Resolved Issues
The driver for Ethernet Control Model (ECM) USB-C to Ethernet adapters is now enabled in Virtual Machine instances of macOS 10.15. (50968842)
Enabling a Network Extension content filter using NEFilterManager starts the content filter. (50603957)
The DNS Proxy, Packet Tunnel, and App Proxy network extension types work as System Extensions. (51186839)
Installing a content filter configuration when the corresponding content filter system extension is inactive doesn’t interrupt all network traffic on your Mac. (51033902)
Deprecations
Support for FTP and File URL schemes for Proxy Automatic Configuration (PAC) is removed. HTTP and HTTPS are the only supported URL schemes for PAC. This affects all PAC configurations including but not limited to configurations set using Settings, System Preferences, profiles, URLSession APIs such as connectionProxyDictionary, and CFNetworkExecuteProxyAutoConfigurationURL(_:_:_:_:). (28578280)
SPDY support is removed from the URLSession and NSURLConnection APIs. Servers should use HTTP 2 or HTTP 1.1. (43391641)
The Network Kernel Extension API is now deprecated. (49284108)
NetBIOS is disabled in macOS 10.15 to speed up mounting, browsing, and connecting to SMB shares. Some older printers and file servers may require NetBIOS to connect. (51119111)
To enable NetBIOS, you can create or edit the /etc/nsmb.conf file. If your system doesn’t already have an /etc/nsmb.conf file, use the following Terminal commands while logged in as an Administrator:
To disable NetBIOS, you can safely delete the /etc/nsmb.conf file.
Photos
New Features
To improve the Photos upgrade experience, Photos is testing database upgrades using a clone of the Photo Library. This clone doesn’t include the content of each photo, but does include faces metadata and a thumbnail image of each person in your library. It also contains metadata such as the asset name and the geographic location of the photo. It is created at ~/Pictures/macOS 10.15 Pre-Upgrade Backup, and you can manually remove this backup at any time. The clone will be removed automatically before the final release of macOS 10.15. (51033690)
Podcasts
Known Issues
The sidebar might render unexpectedly until quitting and relaunching the app. (51340728)
Browse and Top Charts might not display content from the expected country. (51681853)
Deleting podcasts using About This Mac > Storage > Manage doesn’t update what’s shown in the Podcasts app until it’s relaunched. (50354510)
Setting “Automatically Download Episodes” to “Never” might not take effect. (50960777)
Writing a review isn’t currently supported. (46173722)
Manually checking for feed updates when Option-clicking the Podcasts app in the dock isn’t currently available. (50958585)
Workaround: Quit and relaunch the app.
Certain UI elements might appear unaligned on non-Retina displays. (51138730)
The first time Podcasts is launched, a migration is triggered even if there is no content to migrate. (51145044)
If Podcasts is placed in Full Screen mode, some UI elements might be obscured by the toolbar. (47125303)
Resolved Issues
User interface elements are no longer obscured by the toolbar if you place Podcasts in Full Screen mode. (47125303)
Quartz Composer
Deprecations
Starting in macOS 10.15, the Quartz Composer framework is deprecated and remains present for compatibility purposes. Transition to frameworks such as Core Image, SceneKit, or Metal. (50911608)
Screen Sharing
Known Issues
If the Mac you’re screen sharing with is running macOS 10.15 beta, you can’t drag and drop onto the screen share. (50791710)
Screen Time
Known Issues
Users can click ‘One more minute’ multiple times per day instead of only once each time they reach a limit for that app. (48773803)
Screen Time > Content & Privacy > Content > Web Content > Allowed Websites Only isn’t currently enforced in macOS 10.15 beta. (50462899)
Resolved Issues
Parental controls that predate macOS 10.15 aren’t enforced when these restrictions are set to Off in Screen Time. (48010796)
When in Downtime or after reaching an App Limit, clicking Ignore Limit no longer requires clicking in the precise location for the options to appear. (50061983)
Messages and FaceTime enforce Screen Time’s Communication Limits. (51055350, 51055448)
You can now consistently select apps in the Always Allowed pane. (51120837)
Script Editor
Resolved Issues
Script Editor doesn’t quit unexpectedly when saving or executing scripts. (50470730)
Scripting Language Runtimes
Deprecations
Scripting language runtimes such as Python, Ruby, and Perl are included in macOS for compatibility with legacy software. Future versions of macOS won’t include scripting language runtimes by default, and might require you to install additional packages. If your software depends on scripting languages, it’s recommended that you bundle the runtime within the app. (49764202)
Use of Python 2.7 isn’t recommended as this version is included in macOS for compatibility with legacy software. Future versions of macOS won’t include Python 2.7. Instead, it’s recommended that you run python3 from within Terminal. (51097165)
Siri now supports the Music and Podcasts apps. (47202947, 50790506)
Spotlight
Known Issues
Mail messages might not display previews. (35678035)
SwiftUI
Known Issues
Return types for View modifier methods include complex generic types. In a future release, these methods will return simpler types. (46140669)
The tabItemLabel(_:) modifier doesn’t accept @ViewBuilder closures.
Workaround: Wrap the views you pass to the modifier in a VStack:
Image instances don’t use resizing information configured in asset catalogs. Configure the size of an image using the resizable(capInsets:resizingMode:) modifier instead. (49114577)
A ScrollView doesn’t always size itself as expected for its content. (49204262)
Workaround: Size the view that’s inside the ScrollView by applying the frame(width:height:alignment:) modifier to the inner view. (49204262)
Resolved Issues
Tabs in TabbedView instances appear as expected when you use them with a NavigationView. (49958869)
The possible values that you can select from a Picker can now be accessed from UI automation. (50679414)
SystemExtensions
Known Issues
Upgrading system extension versions isn’t currently available. The extension can be deleted, then reinstalled which requires user reapproval. (48943883)
Approving system extensions using Mobile Device Management isn’t currently available. (50553712)
Resolved Issues
Driver extensions launch on-demand after installation. (51229724)
Voice Memos
Known Issues
Voice Memos synced from iCloud might not finish downloading. (49512619)
The File menu might be unexpectedly empty. (51475831)
Location-based naming isn’t yet available in macOS 10.15 beta. (48048663, 50743045)
Wi-Fi
Resolved Issues
Your Mac can automatically join WPA3 networks. (50605428)
The Wi-Fi menu no longer lists available Wi-Fi networks after you turn Wi-Fi off using the menu bar. (50643127)
Xcode
Known Issues
Swift interfaces for several new URLSession APIs are unavailable. (50517967)
Deprecations
Command line tool support for Subversion ”” including svn, git-svn, and related commands ”” is no longer provided by Xcode. If you need Subversion or related command line tools, install the Command Line Tools package by running xcode-select --install. (50266910)
