OS X El Capitan Public Beta 5 Available for Mac Testers

Aug 18, 2015 - 16 Comments

el capitan public beta

Apple has released the fifth Public Beta release of OS X El Capitan to users participating in the Mac Public Beta testing program for OS X 10.11. The new build arrives as 15A262c and the accompanying release notes suggest it should be installed by all users who are running the public beta versions of Mac OS X.

Update 2: OS X 10.11 Public Beta 5 is back on the App Store again, now with the build 15A262e.

Update: Public Beta 5 seems to have disappeared from the App Store, curious.

Mac users who are eligible to receive the release will find it available now from the Software Update mechanism of OS X, accessible from App Store Updates tab. The latest version is officially labeled as “OS X El Capitan Public Beta 5”. The download weighs in around 2GB and requires a reboot to complete installation.

OS X El Capitan Public Beta 5

At the moment, OS X El Capitan Public Beta 5 has arrived alone, and there is not yet an accompanying updated 10.11 Developer Beta release. The two builds are usually close but separate, often released concurrently or a day apart from one another.

OS X El Capitan, officially versioned as OS X 10.11, is expected to debut to the public as a final version in the fall. The OS X system software update will focus on performance enhancements and improvements to the Mac operating system, while including several new features, a new system font, and many other refinements. Though Apple hasn’t specified a release date, it’s quite likely the launch of El Capitan will be alongside the next iPhone 6s in early September, as Apple has often used iPhone fall events to release the latest iOS and OS X versions as well.

The most recent stable release of OS X is currently Yosemite 10.10.5.

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Posted by: Paul Horowitz in Mac OS, News

16 Comments

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  1. Maurice Attenberger says:

    So I’ve installed beta 5 on my mbo 13″ retina late 2012. It’s not starting anymore!!! Any ideas?

    Thx

  2. Nikki says:

    Has anyone else encountered multiple downloads of the same update? Currently, tonight alone, I’ve downloaded the Version 5 update 5 (almost 6) times and it refuses to reboot upon completion. When I manually restart, nothing happens. When I let it run the countdown, nothing happens except it starts over.
    I’ve submitted feedback, but I haven’t found anything else online about this particular oddity.

    • Nolan says:

      I am having the same issue, I have tried multiple times to download it, and occasionally, it will cease downloading mid-way and will never finish…not sure what the issue is. Other updates have installed fine.

  3. robert says:

    where did “security configuration” go in this update to os x 10.11 public beta?

  4. Richard says:

    Could someone write up a definitive comparison between Yosemite & El Cap with particular focus on workflow differences… I’ve not bothered with the betas ( no time ), and I have only recently ( OS X 10.10.4 / 10.10.5 ) found Yosemite to be at all stable enough for a real working Mac…

    Believe it or not, OS X 10.8.5, still on the other MacPro was my main OS, rock solid! Except for the need of Adobe CC and a few other apps I wouldn’t have bothered upgrading at all, especially after my experiences with Mavericks and early Yosemite – as always I install fresh, clean upgrades on my ‘secondary’ MacPro on there own HD. I’ve even installed a clean & stable Windows 10 on its own HD in my secondary Mac. All this has the major advantage of not ‘bricking’ my working computer! ( I guess this would be an ideal setup for El Cap, but again… no time ).

    I’ll surely install El Cap onto it’s own HD in the secondary Mac when the official release comes out, but some of the changes I’ve read about that Apple is making have me worried… In the ‘old’ days of my ‘fanboyism’ I’d insist that on a Window machine, the computer tell you what you can, while on a Mac you tell the the computer what to do… this seems to be changing as Apple is gradually taking control away from users, even changing icons is a total pain these days… does anyone remember ResEdit, now that was control !!!

    • oohon says:

      OS X El Capitan is just a slightly more refined OS X Yosemite, there is not much difference. The claim is that the performance is better, but I have not experienced it. Yosemite was very buggy almost unusable up until now (as you noticed) and El Capitan betas are still very buggy. Performance is worse in both than it was in Mavericks for example. It’s difficult to recommend an upgrade because it’s often a pain, or leads to problems. If you like where you are, stay there, that’s my advice.

      With updating any Apple OS nowadays the motto is: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”

  5. Marcos says:

    …Someone will pay for that mistake… hahaha

  6. Wharf Xanadu says:

    Wonder if they’ll release the dev beta later today or all tomorrow. iOS 9 too.

  7. John B says:

    Cannot see the update… but do not know why… something wrong?!? :)

    • Michael D. says:

      I have noticed that there’s a lag between seeing announcements of public beta updates and when I can download them from the App Store. . .sometimes it’s been the next day before it would show up for me. Clearly Apple doesn’t roll out to every participant at the same time, which I guess might make sense from a server load perspective. Or maybe there’s some hidden formula to determine who can access updates first. I do send a lot of bug reports; I quite enjoy stumbling on across issues, even if at times the obvious nature of them leaves me a bit incredulous. But that is part of the process. . .can’t have crowdsourced troubleshooting without being part of the crowd.

  8. Oleh says:

    Not available anymore, seems like Apple released beta to wrong channel :)

  9. Chris Neale says:

    Unfortunately developer betas have to be downloaded via updates starting with 1 which means even more updates

  10. Jimmy Wails says:

    So OS X 10.11 Public Beta 5 is probably finally somewhat usable of El Capitan, but is there any way to download Beta 5 directly without having to start from Beta 1 and updating 6000 times from the Mac App Store? Can you just download the full OS X El Cap Beta 5 installer? Does anyone know this? I’m using Yosemite 10.10.5, really not a OS X Yosemite fan hoping the OS X 10.11 is a better update.

    • Kydro says:

      You can download OS X El Capitan Public Beta installer from the Mac App Store, then update each version from the Updates tab, each requiring a reboot. Beta 2, beta 3, beta 4, beta 5. Tedious, yes, but it works. It will take a while, so don’t expect to do much for the afternoon. Back up beforehand, El Capitan beta installers often hang (as did Yosemite). Only the developer betas can be downloaded as a full installer, as far as I know.

    • Patrick M. says:

      Wah wah wah. Seriously, you’re whining about something this minor?

      Again, it’s BETA SOFTWARE. What motivation would they have to create full installers for every single revision? Once the final 10.11.x releases come out, you can download standalone complete installers.

    • MrUltimate says:

      No. The updates are smaller and only contain the update files. You’ll have to download the entire public beta (first one they released) and update manually, going through all the iterations.

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