Apple Seeds Fourth OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta to Developers

Apple today released the fourth beta of OS X 10.11 El Capitan to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after releasing the third El Capitan beta and more than a month after unveiling the new operating system at its 2015 Worldwide Developers Conference.

The update is available through the software update mechanism in the Mac App Store and through the Apple Developer Center.

It is not clear what today's update adds to the operating system, but we will add any new features and bug fixes to this post as they're discovered. Previous betas have featured primarily under-the-hood fixes to improve performance and reliability.


OS X El Capitan builds on the features introduced with OS X Yosemite, focusing on improving performance and user experience. Behind-the-scenes improvements in El Capitan have made a number of apps and processes on the Mac much faster, and the introduction of Metal makes system-level graphics rendering 40 percent more efficient.

Along with a new systemwide font, El Capitan includes a revamped Mission Control feature, a new Split View feature for using two full-screen apps at once, deeper functionality for Spotlight, and several new features for Safari, including Pinned Sites for housing frequently visited websites and a universal mute button that quiets all tabs.

OS X 10.11 El Capitan is available to both registered developers and public beta testers. After testing is completed, Apple will release El Capitan to the public in the fall.

Related Forum: OS X El Capitan

Popular Stories

iphone 16 display

iPhone 17's Scratch Resistant Anti-Reflective Display Coating Canceled

Monday April 28, 2025 12:48 pm PDT by
Apple may have canceled the super scratch resistant anti-reflective display coating that it planned to use for the iPhone 17 Pro models, according to a source with reliable information that spoke to MacRumors. Last spring, Weibo leaker Instant Digital suggested Apple was working on a new anti-reflective display layer that was more scratch resistant than the Ceramic Shield. We haven't heard...
apple watch ultra yellow

What's Next for the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Apple Watch SE 3

Friday April 25, 2025 2:44 pm PDT by
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch, which launched on April 24, 2015. Yesterday, we recapped features rumored for the Apple Watch Series 11, but since 2015, the Apple Watch has also branched out into the Apple Watch Ultra and the Apple Watch SE, so we thought we'd take a look at what's next for those product lines, too. 2025 Apple Watch Ultra 3 Apple didn't update the...
iPhone 17 Air Pastel Feature

iPhone 17 Reaches Key Milestone Ahead of Mass Production

Monday April 28, 2025 8:44 am PDT by
Apple has completed Engineering Validation Testing (EVT) for at least one iPhone 17 model, according to a paywalled preview of an upcoming DigiTimes report. iPhone 17 Air mockup based on rumored design The EVT stage involves Apple testing iPhone 17 prototypes to ensure the hardware works as expected. There are still DVT (Design Validation Test) and PVT (Production Validation Test) stages to...
Beyond iPhone 13 Better Blue

20th Anniversary iPhone Likely to Be Made in China Due to 'Extraordinarily Complex' Design

Monday April 28, 2025 4:29 am PDT by
Apple will likely manufacture its 20th anniversary iPhone models in China, despite broader efforts to shift production to India, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In 2027, Apple is planning a "major shake-up" for the iPhone lineup to mark two decades since the original model launched. Gurman's previous reporting indicates the company will introduce a foldable iPhone alongside a "bold"...
iPhone 17 Air Pastel Feature

iPhone 17 Air Launching Later This Year With These 16 New Features

Thursday April 24, 2025 8:24 am PDT by
While the so-called "iPhone 17 Air" is not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the ultra-thin device. Overall, the iPhone 17 Air sounds like a mixed bag. While the device is expected to have an impressively thin and light design, rumors indicate it will have some compromises compared to iPhone 17 Pro models, including only a single rear camera, a...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 13 New Features

Wednesday April 23, 2025 8:31 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iphone 17 air iphone 16 pro

iPhone 17 Air USB-C Port May Have This Unusual Design Quirk

Wednesday April 30, 2025 3:59 am PDT by
Apple is preparing to launch a dramatically thinner iPhone this September, and if recent leaks are anything to go by, the so-called iPhone 17 Air could boast one of the most radical design shifts in recent years. iPhone 17 Air dummy model alongside iPhone 16 Pro (credit: AppleTrack) At just 5.5mm thick (excluding a slightly raised camera bump), the 6.6-inch iPhone 17 Air is expected to become ...

Top Rated Comments

TMRJIJ Avatar
128 months ago
Downloading now . . . .
EDIT: ugh It 2.18 GB. That's like 8 minutes of my life gone.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WardC Avatar
128 months ago
Hope Apple has given us a way to opt-out of the "Massive Size Pointer" feature that seems super-annoying with inability to disable...doesn't seem like you can turn it off in Mouse, Trackpad, or Accessibility Control Panels. or in Finder Prefs either!!
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ahlsn Avatar
128 months ago
Downloading now . . . .
EDIT: ugh It 2.18 GB. That's like 8 minutes of my life gone.
You should get faster internet.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tywebb13 Avatar
128 months ago
This comment on Macrumors story is misleading:

"OS X 10.11 El Capitan is available to both registered developers and public beta testers."

BE SPECIFIC.

DP1, DP2, DP3, DP4 are available to developers. ONLY PB1 IS AVAILABLE TO PUBLIC BETA TESTERS. NOT DP4. THERE IS NO PB2 YET.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
spaghettieater Avatar
128 months ago
I'm back using Yosemite, and will stay here. I don't like that cursor zoom at all, it is super-annoying! I barely shake my mouse and it looks like my cursor is doing Super Mario mushrooms. It's so bad I can't use the OS. Total flop. i will pass for now (unless somebody has a fix to disable the feature, which would be awesome!!)
ahahaha, everytime theres a new os people diss it until they realise how much they love and would never go back

some people just dont deal with evolution 2 well,

that being said yeah that cursor thing is bad
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Dilster3k Avatar
128 months ago
Hope Apple has given us a way to opt-out of the "Massive Size Pointer" feature that seems super-annoying with inability to disable...doesn't seem like you can turn it off in Mouse, Trackpad, or Accessibility Control Panels. or in Finder Prefs either!!
Ditto. Playing games with this is a nightmare.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)