OS X 10.10.3 Beta 4 Released for Testing

Mar 16, 2015 - 28 Comments

OS X Yosemite

Apple has released the fourth beta of OS X 10.10.3 Yosemite for testing. The new beta build arrives as 14D105g and includes updates to the OS X 10.10.3 system software and seems to continue focus on the new Photos app for Mac. Additionally, the new beta build apparently fixes a bug that impacts newly released Mac hardware.


Mac developers and Mac users participating in the OS X Public Beta programs can find the new version available to them through the Software Update mechanism of OS X, accessible from the  Apple menu > App Store > Updates. The download itself is labeled as “Pre-release OS X Update Seed 10.10.3” and is around 1GB in size, requiring a reboot to complete installation of.

OS X 10.10.3 beta 4

OS X 10.10.3 is said to include various bug fixes, feature enhancements, but perhaps most notable is the inclusion of the new Photos app. Photos for OS X resembles Photos for iOS in many ways, and will be familiar to use for those coming to and from an iPhone or iPad, the app will replace iPhoto moving forward.

While anyone can sign up to participate in the OS X Yosemite Public Beta program (and a similar program for iOS betas), it’s generally not recommended to run beta software on a primary Mac, instead it would be more appropriate to run beta operating system software on a secondary machine that is not particularly mission critical or containing any important data. Always back up your Mac before updating, and always back up before running beta software.

There is no known final release date scheduled for OS X 10.10.3, but the pace of beta releases is picking up, perhaps indicating that a widespread release is nearing.

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Posted by: Paul Horowitz in Mac OS, News

28 Comments

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  1. Macbiz says:

    My late 2008 with 2GB memory has a beach ball almost all the time with Yosemite haha

  2. OSXKing says:

    Since OS X 10.10.3 I need to wait about three (!!!) minutes until Mail.app has synced my Yahoo!-Account.

    If I try to delete or move mails, I need to keep the app around five minutes longer open, otherwise, when reopening, the mails are at the old place….

    I didn’t think, they could make Yosemite Mail even worse :(

  3. Matthew says:

    What about the UI lag with transparency turned on?

    I can barley use my brand new 2015 macbook with transparency on. Turning it off made me not sell it.
    Same issue with any other retina I’ve tried at apple store
    or best buy.

    Hopefully they are working on this as well…

    • Ndo says:

      Don’t count on an improvement. UI lag continues in all versions of OS X Yosemite, I have not seen a single Mac anywhere – regardless of specs, Mac Pro, Retina iMac, MacBook Pro, you name it – that does not suffer from UI lag with Transparency enabled. This is observable by using an FPS monitor and then performing simple animations like resizing a window or minimizing or tasks as simple as moving a window or doing day to day work, just watch how FPS drops to abysmal levels with it on. Yes it is faster with it off (still slower than OS X Mavericks, OS X Yosemite is thatbad). This is an incredibly poorly optimized operating system, they didn’t even try. I think Jony Ive wanted transparent white washed everything, so that is what they did.

      That said, OS X 10.10.3 is the most usable version so far, it should have been the 10.10 release, and they should have worked forward from here. It’s too bad new Macs ship with Yosemite preinstalled, I would not recommend it to anyone but the new Macs are good hardware they just need a good operating system. Maybe OS X 10.11.5 will be good?

  4. I’m tired of waiting. I have already installed 10.10.3 and Wi-Fi issues remain. At this point I’m downloading the Mavericks. This weekend does not pass. #DowngradeToMavericks

  5. Jeff says:

    Actually OS X does a great job of managing all these bloated applications. Always cracks me up when people say Photoshop takes 5GB, the browser takes 1 GB, etc etc and then they blame the OS. If you don’t have applications crashing, the OS is doing its job perfectly.

    If you want to tame your applications, the tools are provided. The default is unlimited in most cases, but you can reign in those applications if you choose.

    $ ulimit -a
    core file size (blocks, -c) 0
    data seg size (kbytes, -d) unlimited
    file size (blocks, -f) unlimited
    max locked memory (kbytes, -l) unlimited
    max memory size (kbytes, -m) unlimited
    open files (-n) 2560
    pipe size (512 bytes, -p) 1
    stack size (kbytes, -s) 8192
    cpu time (seconds, -t) unlimited
    max user processes (-u) 709
    virtual memory (kbytes, -v) unlimited

    If you can’t handle the tuning effort, well adding memory is the only answer. Give the OS some resources to work with.

    • bquo says:

      I’m not sure if manually intervening and setting a hard limit on resource usage with ulimit per pid is a good idea, never seen anyone recommend that for ‘tuning’ anything outside of some wonky poorly configured Apache server. How are you using this and to what result?

      • Jeff says:

        We did this kind of thing for dedicated applications, pretty old school. No I haven’t modified ulimits in years. Just trying to make a point.

  6. Josh says:

    I’ve noticed big temperature changes with 10.10.3 beta, and with nothing running its holding large amounts of ram and cpu load.

    • Wollagong says:

      OS X is really poor at memory management and it seems to get worse with each version. OS X Yosemite is especially bad with RAM and CPU, be it OS X 10.10.3b4 or whatever other beta version, it made a 4GB RAM Mac almost totally useless for anything beyond very simple one-at-a-time iOS-like tasks.

      Despite the memory woes I have work to do, so I just ordered a new MacBook Pro Retina with 16GB of RAM which is probably the bare minimum of usable now that my 8GB RAM MacBook Pro is crawling at a snails pace with 20GB+ of swap at all times. Fans ablazing too. Kernel_task alone eats up 3GB of real memory, and each browser window or tab is about 400MB. Xcode is 1.5GB. Photoshop is 1GB minimum easily up to 5GB+. No wonder so much swap is used.

      With memory management in OS X, 32GB of RAM is probably preferable, 64GB would be ideal to perform quite well but I don’t think anything beyond the Mac Pro can do it. It’s embarrassing that Apple is shipping Macs with anything less than 16GB and OS X Yosemite if you were to ask me. An SSD compensates for some of it, but still. I should clarify that it wouldn’t matter much if they had higher limits offered with reasonable expense, and they weren’t gouging $200+ for another 8GB of RAM which costs like $20 on the bulk market.

      • RobertX says:

        32GB of RAM? I have 8GB and don’t have any issues. lol

        • GreasyCheetoKeys says:

          I have 8GB and generate huge virtual memory too, really slows down. I think if I was just using a single Safari window or Pages app and nothing productive, it would be fine too.

          I think you are like most users though, 8GB is just fine if you just do Word processing and a browser here and there. Standard internet and computer stuff.

      • Larry says:

        OS X handles memory well, I have 4GB and 8GB machines running Yosemite without issues. You either loaded a bunch of garbage on your machine or are an idiot. I am inclined to think you are a bit of both.

        • Moi says:

          Rude answer.

        • Bernard says:

          People report problems. They vary from person to person, computer to computer.

          Saying someone is stupid is not productive.

        • Hurricane says:

          If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all!

        • Josh says:

          larry – you are a tool! plain and simple. You ask no questions on anyones setup but yet fire off pig headed comments like that..
          I think your full of garbage and are and idiot.

        • Clive says:

          The most inane iSheep response this week. Well done.

        • Bernard says:

          my system was perfect till OS 10.10.2 upgrade..since then every time i restart o start my mac mini there is a booting going on for about a 1 or so and than you can log in.

          Mac mini (Late 2012) (Technical Specifications)
          Mac mini – model: Macmini6,1
          1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core
          4 GB RAM Upgradeable
          BANK 0/DIMM0
          2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
          BANK 1/DIMM0
          2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
          Bluetooth: Good – Handoff/Airdrop2 supported
          Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

          Video Information: ℹ️
          Intel HD Graphics 4000
          Philips 220CW 1680 x 1050 @ 60 Hz

          System Software: ℹ️
          OS X 10.10.2 (14C1514) – Time since boot: 5:30:23

          Disk Information: ℹ️
          APPLE HDD HTS545050A7E362 disk0 : (500.11 GB)
          EFI (disk0s1) : 210 MB
          Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 499.25 GB (332.07 GB free)
          Recovery HD (disk0s3) [Recovery]: 650 MB

          USB Information: ℹ️
          Apple, Inc. IR Receiver
          Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
          Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
          Propellerhead Balance
          WIBU-SYSTEMS AG CodeMeter-Stick

          Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️
          Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

          Gatekeeper: ℹ️
          Mac App Store and identified developers

          Kernel Extensions: ℹ️
          /Applications/DAEMON Tools/DAEMON Tools.app
          [loaded] com.disc-soft.DAEMONTools.VirtualSCSIBus (1.0.2 – SDK 10.8) [Click for support]

          /Library/Application Support/MacKeeper/AntiVirus.app
          [loaded] net.kromtech.kext.AVKauth (2.3.7 – SDK 10.9) [Click for support]
          [loaded] net.kromtech.kext.Firewall (2.3.7 – SDK 10.9) [Click for support]

          /Library/Extensions
          [not loaded] com.wibu.codemeter.CmUSBMassStorage (1.0.7) [Click for support]

          Launch Daemons: ℹ️
          [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Click for support]
          [running] com.disc-soft.DAEMONTools.PrivilegedHelper.plist [Click for support]
          [running] com.mackeeper.AntiVirus.plist [Click for support]
          [running] com.mackeeper.MacKeeper.plugin.AntiTheft.daemon.plist [Click for support]
          [running] com.wibu.CodeMeter.Server.plist [Click for support]

          User Launch Agents: ℹ️
          [running] com.disc-soft.DAEMONTools.DAEMONToolsAgent.plist [Click for support]
          [failed] com.jdibackup.JustCloud.autostart.plist [Click for support] [Click for details]
          [failed] com.jdibackup.JustCloud.notify.plist [Click for support] [Click for details]
          [running] com.mackeeper.MacKeeper.Helper.plist [Click for support]

          User Login Items: ℹ️
          iTunesHelper Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

          Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
          FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 17.0.0.169 – SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
          Flash Player: Version: 17.0.0.169 – SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
          QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
          Default Browser: Version: 600 – SDK 10.10

          3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
          CodeMeter [Click for support]
          Flash Player [Click for support]

          Time Machine: ℹ️
          Time Machine not configured!

          Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
          192% MacKeeper Helper
          3% WindowServer
          2% Reason
          2% coreaudiod
          0% AntiVirus

          Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
          352 MB Reason
          159 MB AntiVirus
          112 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
          107 MB Safari
          99 MB softwareupdated

          Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
          113 MB Free RAM
          1.54 GB Active RAM
          1.45 GB Inactive RAM
          934 MB Wired RAM
          2.35 GB Page-ins
          5 MB Page-outs

          Diagnostics Information: ℹ️
          Apr 14, 2015, 01:38:20 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/MacKeeper Helper_2015-04-14-133820_[redacted].cpu_resource.diag [Click for details]
          Apr 14, 2015, 01:34:03 PM Self test – passed

          … that update IOJWANLKJGKLJLAJ me up !! help

          • Bernard says:

            …and everything is extremely slow .

          • riangy says:

            You have MacKeeper installed, eating up 200% of your CPU. That is your problem.

            Remove “MacKeeper Helper”, and don’t install it again if it’s not compatible with your OS X. I don’t even know what MacKeeper is but I would not install any software that is not from the App Store.

            And why are you using a beta of OS X? The final version is out.

      • Ionut says:

        You might want to try a clean install. My understanding of the OS X is that it uses the memory if you have it just because it’s faster than the physical disk. Photoshop demands 2 to 8 GB of RAM, but my guess is there should be serious graphic manipulations to get to that. If you need that, my guess is 16 GB of RAM should be more than enough for Photoshop and your daily stuff simultaneous.

        If you don’t have SSD check your HDD, and then get an SSD.

  7. forkboy1965 says:

    Does 10.10.3 do anything further about wi-fi issues?

    And can anyone tell me if the new Photos app still has the ability to add descriptions and keywords to photos like iPhoto does?

    • Jim Tan says:

      I haven’t noticed any networking changes in OS X 10.10.3 at all

    • Ionut says:

      No update will do anything further about wi-fi issues because they don’t exist. The only problem is the interference with other wi-fi connected devices and bluetooth. This is not just an Apple problem and it can’t be fixed by OS. This problem existed in Mavericks too.

      I have experienced better wi-fi with Yosemite, the connection seems stable and waking up takes less time to connect to the network.

      • OS X 10.10.3 Wi-Fi says:

        That’s incorrect, most of the Wi-Fi issues with OS X Yosemite did not occur on the exact same Macs running OS X Mavericks or prior versions. Additionally, many wi-fi issues with Yosemite began AFTER updating to something like OS X 10.10.2.

        https://osxdaily.com/2015/01/30/os-x-10-10-2-yosemite-wi-fi-problems/

        The new network stack is seriously flawed, and who and what wifi networks it impacts is completely random. Glad to hear yours works fine, but many others don’t.

        • forkboy1965 says:

          Yeah… I never had wi-fi issues on Leopard or Snow Leopard, but I have them regularly with Mavericks. Slow on wake up or doesn’t come back at all.

          Sometimes doesn’t come on with boot-up. And I’ve been on the phone with Apple about the issue twice.

          I know not everyone has trouble with their wi-fi on Yosemite, but I already feel wary enough with Mavericks, which didn’t seem to be reported as having any particularly bad issues with wi-fi.

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