MacOS Catalina Public Beta 4 Released

Aug 1, 2019 - 6 Comments

MacOS Catalina beta

Apple has issued the fourth public beta version of MacOS Catalina 10.15 for Mac users who are enrolled in the public beta testing program for system software.


As usual, MacOS Catalina Public Beta 4 matches the build of MacOS Catalina developer beta 5.

Users who are currently running MacOS Catalina public beta can find public beta 4 available to download now from the Software Update system preference panel.

Catalina public beta update

MacOS Catalina features some interesting new capabilities and changes, including a feature called Sidecar that allows an iPad to serve as a secondary display to a Mac, a new screen saver, the dissolution of iTunes into three separate media apps, notable updates to built-in apps including Photos, Reminders, and Notes, abandoning of 32-bit app support, stricter security measures for apps and the system software itself, and more.

Any Mac user can decide to participate in the public beta testing programs and install MacOS Catalina public beta onto a MacOS Catalina compatible Mac, but this is generally only recommended for advanced Mac users because beta system software is notoriously prone to bugs and problems compared to final builds.

Aside from the Mac, iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 public beta 4 are also available as updates, and similarly to the Mac public beta program any interested advanced iOS or iPadOS user can install iPadOS 13 public beta or install iOS 13 public beta on iPhone. And if you want to beta test software for Apple TV you can do that too by installing tvOS 13 public beta.

While no precise release date is known, Apple has said that MacOS Catalina, iOS 13, iPadOS 13, tvOS 13, and watchOS 6 will all be released this fall.

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Posted by: Paul Horowitz in News

6 Comments

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  1. zimbay says:

    “com.oracle.JavaInstallHelper” can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software.
    how to solve>?

    • Paul says:

      Are you trying to install Java on MacOS Catalina? Is the Java installer directly from Oracle?

      You can usually install java on a Mac by going to the command line and typing simply “java” or by going to the Oracle website and manually downloading a Java installer.

      You may have to explicitly allow it through GateKeeper (check in the Security system preference) or even temporarily disable Gatekeeper to install Java for now until they release a new version, I have not tried this yet on Catalina.

      Hope that helps

  2. Mack says:

    I want mac os catalina will compatible to my metatrader4. Im still waiting.

  3. JohnGregory Turner says:

    Major issues as I see it. If you convert a drive running Mojave to Catalina all of your folders and most of the apps you previously installed will be put into a SECURITY FOLDER in the Mac’s Library. These folders ie. one that you may have created on your drive to store the artwork you have created or one to store DMGs that you have downloaded etc CANNOT be placed in the directory where the Applications, Library, System etc folders are traditionally located. There is no capability to authorize that as the Administrator. When installing it is the wish of the installer (Apple’s) that you store all of your work in the iCloud. You don’t have to but thinly alternative I could find was either folders on the Desktop or possibly in the Documents folder in the Library. The Documents folder presents issues because many apps. say that they cannot write to it because the SSD is READ ONLY. You can move your extra folders from your other Mac or partition by Drag and Drop, but you will not be able to save anything to them because it the OS says that area is READ ONLY. If you create Folders on the Desktop to store work and not use the iCloud which I am reluctant to do, Time Machine will not backup your work as we all know it ignores the desktop. One last curious item, if you like to add your own custom icons to you HDDs or SSDs you will discover some impediment. You cannot apply one directly to the Main drive even with Administrator privileges. However if you start from another partition using say Mojave and you let the Finder display the 1st drive you can attach the custom icon on the Main Drive and it will stick when you restart in Catalina. I have also found Notifications in Mail to be undependable. Frequently Banners will not show and Sound Notifications frequently won’t work. All this being said…SideCar is very, very, interesting. It is lots of fun and potentially very valuable! I think that Catalina might be fine sooner or later but the control over where I store my work is a bit discomforting. Maybe Time Machine could be altered to Backup the Desktop too, that would solve that problem for me.

    • GG Germaine says:

      The iCloud storage thing should be an option during setup. Personally I don’t use “iCloud Desktop & Documents” (nor would I recommend it to anyone else it is way too confusing) so that all my files stay on my computer. I don’t have endless bandwidth unlike the engineer in Silicon Valley bubble who came up with the idea to store all data in the cloud, they must be sitting all on some fiber connections but the rest of us are on diddly 3mbs or 10mbs connections that are 1/100th their speed so it won’t cut the mustard. If you turn off that feature then the Desktop is back-up to Time Machine in the user folder just like it normally would be.

      Mac Catalina is MUCH more locked down than any prior Mac release, the system is on a separate volume that is locked, and the Catalina OS is constantly requests permission access for doing anything. Some of this is a good thing but some of it is annoying and ends up feeling like Windows, constantly clicking approve, yes, ok, allow, etc, you start to tune out what is being asked and why.

      I agree that Sidecar looks interesting, but not interesting enough to tolerate the rest of the experience. I will try Catalina when the kinks are worked out, maybe around 10.15.3 as it’s usually the third update release where the deal breaker bugs are resolved in my experience.

      Lack of 32 bit app support is a big downer though, some of my favorite old apps and games are 32 bit and work fine on Mojave.

      Really I am not sure where Apple is taking the Mac but it feels like they want it to be an iPad, that is locked down and limited.

      • Daniel says:

        I have been able to give myself Read-Write Privileges on Catalina. Its a little tricky, but if you mount Catalina Partitions on Mojave, you can give yourself R/W access and then re-boot into Catalina.

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