macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3 Release Notes

Notes and Known Issues

General

Known Issues

Important: Updating to macOS Big Sur 11 beta from previous versions of macOS might take significantly longer than expected. Data loss could occur if the update is interrupted. (59101197)

• The system ProductVersion is reported as 11.0 only on the Developer Transition Kit at this time. Existing Mac systems will temporarily report the value as 10.16.

Accessibility

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• VoiceOver is now available while installing macOS Big Sur 11 beta 3. (63025357)

App Store

New Features

• SKStoreProductViewController and SKProductStorePromotionController APIs are now available for both macOS and Mac Catalyst apps. (56300909)

Known Issues

• You might be unable to open apps after they’ve been updated. (65816991)
  • Workaround: Don’t update your apps until this issue is marked as resolved. Disable Automatic Updates in App Store > Preferences to prevent inadvertent updates.

AppKit

• See AppKit Release Notes for macOS Big Sur 11 .

Auto Unlock

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• You can now set up Auto Unlock. (64120075)

Calendar

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• Maps will now lanch as expected when you click the Directions button on a calendar notification. (63697152)
• You can now edit Calendar widgets. (63984003)
• Accounts are now visible in Preferences. (64117985)

Continuity

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• Continuity Handoff is now available in macOS Big Sur 11 beta 3. (64140413)

Core ML

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• When setting isSynchronizationEnabled to true on a MLModelCollection , the initial download no longer has a significant delay before starting. (64131243)

Deprecations

• The default initializer on the auto-generated model interface has been deprecated in favor of init(configuration:). Please use init(configuration:) or the newly introduced .load() method and handle model load errors as appropriate. (64432588)

Desktop Picture

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• The desktop picture now updates correctly after updating to macOS Big Sur 11 beta 3. (64390185)

EndpointSecurity

Known Issues

• Auth type events such as ES_EVENT_TYPE_AUTH_EXEC leak kernel memory which will eventually cause your system to become unresponsive. (65750498)
  • Workaround: Don’t subscribe to auth type events.

Final Cut Pro and iMovie

Known Issues

• You’re currently unable to capture video using either the built-in camera or external devices. (63528489)
• The application might unexpectedly quit when using the Import Media window. (65543216)
  • Workaround: Drag media from Finder to import it.

Installer and Software Update

Known Issues

• You might be unable to update macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3, if Secure Boot is set to No Security. (63434409)
• Your Mac might restart but isn’t updated to a newer version of macOS Big Sur 11 Beta. (65298753)
  • Workaround: Create a bootable installer using the createinstallmedia command.
• When updating to macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3, you might be offered an unexpectedly large download rather than an incremental software update. (65753086)
  • Workaround: Under the “Another update is available” text, click the “More info…” link. This will reveal the incremental update where you can click the Install Now button.
• You might need to adjust Energy Saver settings so your Mac doesn’t go to sleep while preparing to install macOS Big Sur 11 beta. (63166401)
• APFS containers with non-default allocation block sizes aren’t currently supported for installation. (64312561)
• If macOS Big Sur 11 beta is installed into the same APFS container as previous versions of macOS Catalina 10.15, system software updates can no longer be installed on the previous versions of macOS. (64411484)
  • Workaround: Update the previous version of macOS Catalina to 10.15.6.

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• Installations no longer pause on Macs that don’t have input devices connected. (64348347)
• You can now install macOS Big Sur 11 beta 3 onto additional volumes. (63677460, 64445236)
• Software Update now correctly indicates that your Mac is enrolled in the Apple Beta Software Program. (64407436)
• It’s no longer necessary to update to an intermediate macOS release before installing macOS Big Sur 11 beta 3. (64314272)
• If you updated to macOS Big Sur 11 beta from a previous version of macOS, Software Update now works as expected. (63158434)
• Installation on Core Storage Fusion volumes with FileVault encryption enabled is now supported. (64472080)

Kernel

New Features

• The kern.argmax limit has been increased, allowing programs to receive longer argument lists. (48661669)
• Darwin kevent now allows non-parent processes to register for NOTE_EXITSTATUS, which delivers the same values as the wait() family of functions in the event data. Refer to the wait4() man page for more information. This event is subject to the following security checks:
  • The requesting process is allowed to send signals by sandbox restrictions.
  • The requesting process and the target process are running as the same user or the requesting process has root privileges. (58134463)

Known Issues

• Installing a new kernel extension requires signing in as an Admin user. You must also restart your Mac to load the extension. Kernel extensions using certain deprecated KPIs won’t be loaded. For more information, see Deprecated Kernel Extensions and System Extension Alternatives . (55068348)
  • Workaround: During development, you can temporarily disable System Integrity Protection to allow these deprecated kernel extensions to load.
• Remote panic dumps aren’t currently available. (57915324)
• New in macOS Big Sur 11 beta, the system ships with a built-in dynamic linker cache of all system-provided libraries. As part of this change, copies of dynamic libraries are no longer present on the filesystem. Code that attempts to check for dynamic library presence by looking for a file at a path or enumerating a directory will fail. Instead, check for library presence by attempting to dlopen() the path, which will correctly check for the library in the cache. (62986286)
• kmutil install might fail to build a development kextcache. (63772702)
  • Workaround: Copy the release .elides to the locations of the development .elides: sudo cp /path/to/livemount/System/Library/KernelCollections/BootKernelExtensions.kc.elides /path/to/livemount/System/Library/KernelCollections/BootKernelExtensions.kc.development.elides sudo cp /path/to/livemount/System/Library/KernelCollections/BootKernelExtensions.kc.elides /path/to/livemount/System/Library/KernelCollections/BootKernelExtensions.kc.kasan.elides sudo cp /path/to/livemount/System/Library/KernelCollections/BootKernelExtensions.kc.elides /path/to/livemount/System/Library/KernelCollections/BootKernelExtensions.kc.debug.elides sudo cp /path/to/livemount/System/Library/KernelCollections/SystemKernelExtensions.kc.elides /path/to/livemount/System/Library/KernelCollections/SystemKernelExtensions.kc.development.elides sudo cp /path/to/livemount/System/Library/KernelCollections/SystemKernelExtensions.kc.elides /path/to/livemount/System/Library/KernelCollections/SystemKernelExtensions.kc.kasan.elides sudo cp /path/to/livemount/System/Library/KernelCollections/SystemKernelExtensions.kc.elides /path/to/livemount/System/Library/KernelCollections/SystemKernelExtensions.kc.debug.elides
• Use only absolute paths with the --volume-root option of kmutil, and don’t use a trailing /. (63773848)
• Symbols exported by both xnu and Apple kernel extensions will change. Recompile your kernel extension with each update to macOS Big Sur 11 beta to ensure compatibility. (64262563)
• Moving a kernel extension bundle out of /Library/Extensions might not completely uninstall it. (64331929)
  • Workaround:
    1. Remove the extension from /Library/Extensions.
    2. Boot to macOS Recovery.
    3. Run Terminal.
    4. Enter the command kmutil trigger-panic-medic --volume-root /Volumes/<YourVolumeName>.
    5. Restart your Mac.

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• No System Extension Updated alerts for third-party kernel extensions which are included in macOS should appear. (64337113)
• After removing a DriverKit extension, a restart is no longer required. (63995046)
• Adhoc signed kernel extensions now display the developer name in update dialogs and in Security preferences. (64215260)

Deprecations

• Kernel extensions using certain deprecated KPIs no longer load. Refer to the support page . While macOS Big Sur remains in development, you can temporarily disable System Integrity Protection to allow these deprecated extensions to load. (55068348)

Localization

Known Issues

• Certain languages might exhibit clipped or misaligned layout. (63105445)
• Certain languages might display unlocalized text. (63105674, 64040564, 64045718)
• Some keyboard shortcuts might not work when running macOS Big Sur 11 beta in a language other than English. (63834383)

Location

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• In Swift, the authorizationStatus() property of CLLocationManager is incorrectly exposed as a method instead of a property. (62853845)
• Widgets only have access to location information if the NSWidgetWantsLocation key is in their Info.plist. (61953645)

Logging

New Features

• New APIs are available for using os_log from Swift as part of the os framework:
  • A new type Logger can be instantiated using a subsystem and category and provides methods for logging at different levels ( debug(_:) , error(_:) , fault(_:) ).
  • The Logger APIs support specifying most formatting and privacy options supported by legacy os_log APIs.
  • The new APIs provide significant performance improvements over the legacy APIs.
  • You can now pass Swift string interpolation to the os_log function.
    • Note: The new APIs can’t be back deployed; however, the existing os_log API remains available for back deployment. (22539144)

Mac Catalyst

Known Issues

• Content Extensions require a temporary workaround. (57442394)
  • Workaround: Add the following key/value pair to the NSExtension dictionary in the Info.plist: "NSExtensionContainingViewControllerClass" = "_UNNotificationContentExtensionViewController".

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• The new PHPickerViewController API no longer produces unexpected results. (63631906)

Markup

Known Issues

• Edits made using Markup aren’t currently saved. (64908822)

Messages

Known Issues

• Keyboard navigation to move focus between controls isn’t currently available. (63987810)

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• You can now type in the photo picker search field when attaching a photo. (60011306)
• If Messages is launched immediately after logging into iCloud, a login window is no longer displayed. (56309057)
• Messages Preferences are now accessible. (64122975)
• Autocomplete fields and conversation titles are now visible while Messages is in full-screen mode. (64134303)
• You no longer receive an alert that indicates the maximum number of pinned conversations has been reached. (62919406)
• The first and last name fields in Messages Preferences are now aligned. (64346872)
• Message outlines are no longer missing when printing or exporting a conversation as a PDF. (64181169)

Metal

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• The logs property is now available from Swift while using Shader Validation. (64055248)

Migration Assistant

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• You no longer need to reset the password for a Standard account after migration. (63878129)

Motion

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• The user interface now looks correct when running Motion on macOS Big Sur 11 beta 3. (62531765)

Music

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• Music no longer quits unexpectedly while using the search field. (64183834)

Networking

New Features

• Experimental HTTP/3 support can be enabled in Safari via Experimental Features in the Developer menu, and enabled system-wide using the Terminal command defaults write -g CFNetworkHTTP3Override -int 3. (62969220)

Known Issues

• HTTP/3 Draft 29 isn’t yet supported. (63524866)

Phone and FaceTime

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• Regular and emergency Wi-Fi Calling using iPadOS 14 beta, macOS Big Sur 11 beta, and watchOS 7 beta are now available for T-Mobile USA customers. (63078572)

Quartz

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• Importing Quartz or PDFKit frameworks in the macOS SDK no longer results in errors. (63886438)

RealityKit

New Features in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• The new DebugModelComponent struct has been renamed to ModelDebugOptionsComponent , and its shaderDebugMode property has been renamed to shaderDebugMode . (64275817)

Safari and Webkit

New Features

• Support for Web Extensions is now available. Existing Chrome and Firefox extensions can be converted for Safari using xcrun safari-web-extension-converter and distributed through the App Store for use in Safari 14. (55707949)
• Webpage Translation is now available in the U.S. and Canada. Supported languages include English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, French, German, Russian, and Brazilian Portuguese. Safari will automatically detect if translation is available based on your Preferred Languages list. (64437861)

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• Safari no longer quits unexpectedly when opening the Start Page if Frequently Visited Sites are visible as thumbnails. (63945984)

Setup Assistant

Known Issues

• If you enter an incorrect password when joining a Wi-Fi network, the Continue and Back buttons become disabled. (65630352)
  • Workaround: Restart your Mac to run Setup Assistant again.

Spotlight

Known Issues

• If you can’t find an application using Spotlight, launch the application at least once using Finder. (64463806)

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• Typing quickly in a search query in Spotlight no longer causes the result from a previous search to appear. (64428836)

SwiftUI

New Features in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• SceneStorage is now supported. (63190637)
• NavigationView panes are now automatically resizable and no longer require an explicit frame. (63941018)
• userActivity(_:isActive:_:) , onContinueUserActivity(_:perform:) , onURL are now supported. (64513929)
• List may now be used with ScrollViewReader . (35471164)
• Text gains a new initializer accepting a Formatter . (63641785)
• body is now implicitly a ViewBuilder and body is now implicitly a SceneBuilder . (63606493)
• A new redaction reason API for applying placeholder Text treatment is now available. (63288447)

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• DatePicker no longer resets focus on edits. (60077006)
• onAppear(perform:) callbacks work reliably in all layouts. (63031598)
• Using ContainerRelativeShape works inside the clipShape modifier. (64325583)
• The SceneStorage property wrapper is now supported. (64414712)
• A Label used with a symbol image is now aligned correctly. (60193698)
• Nested disclosure groups generated by OutlineGroup no longer produce unexpected results. (64097731)
• Disclosure groups in Form no longer produce unexpected results. (64079102)

Touch ID

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• Touch ID now stays enabled on Macs with a T2 Security Chip after installing multiple operating systems. (62608379)

Third-Party Apps

Known Issues

• Some third-party scripts might produce unexpected results due to the change in macOS version from 10.x to 11. (62477208)
  • Workaround: Set SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT=1 in the calling environment, for example: $ SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT=1 legacy_script.pl
• Thumbnail images in certain applications might display unexpected visual artifacts. (65173969)

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• CMake now installs and runs as expected. (62905973)

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• Unsigned apps and app extensions no longer receive nil from calls to containerURLForSecurityApplicationGroupIdentifier: when a URL was received with earlier versions of macOS. (64290206)

Time Machine

New Features in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• APFS-formatted backup volumes are now supported for faster, more compact, and more reliable backups. New local and network Time Machine backup destinations are formatted as APFS by default. Time Machine will continue backing up to existing HFS backup volumes. (65155545)

Users & Groups

Known Issues

• The home folder isn’t deleted when removing a user, even if you select the option to delete it. (65558783)

Virtualization

New Features in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• The Hypervisor framework now requires the com.apple.security.hypervisor entitlement. (63960391)
• A new Virtualization framework provides high-level APIs to run Linux in a virtual machine. (64492914)

Wallet

New Features in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• Apple Pay support is now available to Mac Catalyst apps. Two methods have been added to existing delegate protocols. No changes are required for iPad apps, but one or both of these methods must be implemented when building for Catalyst. (64187739)
  • The first method is an addition to the PKPaymentAuthorizationControllerDelegate protocol: presentationWindowForPaymentAuthorizationController: . This method is required for Catalyst when using PKPaymentAuthorizationController , because PKPaymentAuthorizationController, unlike PKPaymentAuthorizationViewController , doesn’t have knowledge of the window requesting presentation of the payment sheet. Pass back the UIWindow instance displaying the UI requesting the payment, for example, MyViewController.view.window. This method is marked as required when building for Catalyst, but is otherwise optional.
  • The second method depends on whether you’re using PKPaymentAuthorizationController or PKPaymentAuthorizationViewController. For PKPaymentAuthorizationControllerDelegate, use paymentAuthorizationController(_:didRequestMerchantSessionUpdate:) . For PKPaymentAuthorizationViewControllerDelegate, use paymentAuthorizationViewController(_:didRequestMerchantSessionUpdate:) .
• This method must be implemented to request a merchant session via your server, and return it via the handler. This mirrors the security model used in WebKit, and replaces listing merchant IDs in the app’s Apple Pay entitlements. This method in turn uses the following class to send back results: API_AVAILABLE(macos(10.16), ios(14.0), watchos(7.0)) @interface PKPaymentRequestMerchantSessionUpdate : NSObject - (instancetype)initWithStatus:(PKPaymentAuthorizationStatus)status merchantSession:(nullable PKPaymentMerchantSession *)session; @property (nonatomic, assign) PKPaymentAuthorizationStatus status; @property (nullable, nonatomic, strong) PKPaymentMerchantSession *session; @end

Known Issues

• isPassLibraryAvailable() doesn’t ensure uniform availability of pass library functionality between platforms and devices. (60697880)
  • Workaround: Call a more specific API to check available functionality, such as canAddPasses() .

WebKit

Known Issues

• Applications that present modal UI in UIWebView delegate callbacks or that use JavaScript alert , confirm , and prompt might experience crashes under _WebThreadLock(). (64239727)

Widgets

Known Issues

• When indicating a significant change in temperature for the next day, the Weather widget might display temperatures in Celsius instead of Fahrenheit. (65061840)
• When set to My Location, the Weather widget might display weather for a different location. (65161176)

Xcode

Known Issues

• Legacy Xcode versions prior to 11.5 might unexpectedly quit when launched. (59991056)
  • Workaround: Run the following command in Terminal: defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode DVTDisableMainThreadChecker 1 Then deselect Main Thread Checker in the Diagnostic tab of the Run and Test actions for each scheme in your project.

Deprecations

• The function hv_vcpu_run(_:) is deprecated.

Vision

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 3

• The NSSecureCoding implementation of VNRecognizedPointsObservation no longer causes initWithCoder: to fail. (63681919)

Deprecations

• The VNIdentifiedPointsObservation class is deprecated. Use VNRecognizedPointsObservation instances instead. (63690311)

Weather

Known Issues

• The Weather widget may unexpectedly display weather for Cupertino instead of your current location. (64118168)

Updates in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta

Security

New Features in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta

• macOS Big Sur 11 beta improves system security by requiring an administrator password when a certificate trust settings change is made in the admin trust domain. Running as the root user alone is no longer sufficient to modify certificate trust. User trust domain settings continue to require confirmation by entering the password for the user’s account. This change may affect you if one of the following is true:
  • You have written scripts which call /usr/bin/security add-trusted-cert -d ... as root.
  • Your process runs as root and calls the SecTrustSettingsSetTrustSettings function to trust a certificate.
• Workflows that add trust settings in the admin trust domain, such as for an enterprise root certificate, may require modification if the user can’t authenticate as an administrator at the time settings are changed. (21855995)
  • Workaround: Use Apple Configurator 2 to create and install a configuration profile containing your root certificate.

Xcode

New Features in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta

• hv_vcpu_run_until(_:_:) now supports the deadline HV_DEADLINE_FOREVER . (57025216)
• The new hv_vcpu_enable_managed_msr(_:_:_:) and hv_vcpu_set_msr_access(_:_:_:) enable direct MSR access from a guest. (50291076)

Xcode Previews

Resolved in macOS Big Sur 11 Beta

• Rebuilding against the iOS 14, macOS 11, watchOS 7, and tvOS 14 SDKs changes uses of GeometryReader to reliably top-leading align the views inside the GeometryReader . This was the previous behavior, except when it wasn’t possible to detect a single static view inside the GeometryReader . (59722992) (FB7597816)