MacOS Tahoe 26 Beta 4 Download Available Now for Mac
Apple has issued macOS Tahoe 26 beta 4 to users enrolled in the Apple Developer beta testing program for system software. The public beta is not yet available, but it’s said that an accompanying public beta for Tahoe 26 will arrive soon.
MacOS Tahoe 26 features a redesigned user interface appearance called Liquid Glass that makes everything look more shiny and transparent, while including features like icon and folder customizations in Finder, a clipboard manager in Spotlight along with other Spotlight changes and features, the removal of LaunchPad, Live Activites from iPhone on Mac, the inclusion of Phone app, Journal app arrives on Mac, and other various small features and improvements.
Beta system software is aimed at advanced users, but any curious adventurous Mac user can install MacOS Tahoe 26 beta right now if they want to onto a compatible Mac. If you’d like a safer way to test out the beta, you can run MacOS Tahoe 26 beta in a virtual machine with UTM, tart, or your virtualization app of choice, which allows you to run Tahoe beta as a sandboxed app without impacting your primary stable MacOS operating system. Whether you wish to run the Tahoe beta as your primary OS or as a virtual machine, you’ll still need to meet the system requirements for Tahoe, which generally speaking run best on any Apple Silicon Mac, though a few Intel machines are still supported.
Aside from MacOS Tahoe beta 4, you can also find iOS 26 beta 4, ipadOS 26 beta 4, watchOS 26 beta 4, tvOS 26 beta 4, and visionOS 26 beta 4.
How to Download & Instal MacOS Tahoe 26 Beta 4 Update
Be sure to backup your Mac with Time Machine before starting any system software update, beta or otherwise.
- Pull down the Apple menu and select “System Settings”
- Head over to “General” and then go to “Software Update”
- Choose to “Update Now” for MacOS Tahoe 26 beta 4 to install the latest avaliable beta update on the Mac
The Mac must reboot to complete installation.
Optionally, users can choose to download the full package installer or Tahoe beta 4 IPSW file directly from Apple.
macOS Tahoe 26 Developer Beta 4 Installer & IPSW Direct Download Links
Tahoe beta 4 IPSW and full installer links are below, pointing to Apple CDN servers:
- MacOS Tahoe 26 Developer Beta 4 InstallAssistant.pkg
- MacOS Tahoe 26 developer beta 4 IPSW (UniversalMac_26.0_25A5316i_Restore.ipsw)
These are useful for quickly setting up virtual machines, restoring Macs to the latest beta build, updating multiple Macs at once, creating a bootable install drive, archival purposes, and much more.
You can also refer to our our handy resource list of all available MacOS installers as well as an continuously updated list of MacOS Tahoe 26 IPSW files and installer packages.
The final version of MacOS Tahoe 26 will arrive this fall, according to Apple.
Is anyone else unable to get any Tahoe beta updates through Mac OS System Settings Software Update? I have to create a new virtual machine every time with the latest Tahoe beta IPSW file, but I should be able to update directly through System Settings yet they never show up.
Just wondering if I am the only one experiencing this. I can reproduce it on every Tahoe virtual machine and in any VM app (UTM, Parallels, VirtualBuddy).