Apple Seeds Sixth OS X 10.10.4 Yosemite Beta to Developers and Public Beta Testers

os_x_yosemite_round_iconApple today seeded the sixth beta of OS X 10.10.4 to developers and public beta testers, approximately one week after releasing the fifth OS X 10.10.4 beta and nearly two months after releasing the first OS X 10.10.4 beta. OS X 10.10.4 has been in testing since mid-April, following the early April release of OS X 10.10.3, which included the new Photos for OS X app.

The new beta, build 14E36b, can downloaded through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store or through the Mac Developer Center.

OS X 10.10.3 brought several consumer-facing changes including the new Photos for OS X app, a redesigned emoji picker, and diversified emoji, but OS X 10.10.4 appears to be an under-the-hood update that brings performance enhancements and bug fixes.

Thus far, OS X 10.10.4 betas have not included outward facing design changes or feature additions, but the fourth beta introduced a significant behind-the-scenes update that may improve networking performance for users who have experienced issues with OS X Yosemite.

Discoveryd, a somewhat problematic networking process that has been linked to multiple bugs in OS X 10.10, was removed in favor of the older bug-free mDNSresponder.

It is not clear when Apple plans to release OS X 10.10.4 to the public, but the fact that we've now received six betas suggests we may be nearing the end of the beta testing period. It's possible we could see the public release of OS X 10.10.4 on June 30, the same day Apple plans to release iOS 8.4 with the new Music app and Apple Music service.

Related Forum: OS X Yosemite

Popular Stories

iPhone SE 4 Vertical Camera Feature

iPhone SE 4 Production Will Reportedly Begin Ramping Up in October

Tuesday July 23, 2024 2:00 pm PDT by
Following nearly two years of rumors about a fourth-generation iPhone SE, The Information today reported that Apple suppliers are finally planning to begin ramping up mass production of the device in October of this year. If accurate, that timeframe would mean that the next iPhone SE would not be announced alongside the iPhone 16 series in September, as expected. Instead, the report...
iPhone 17 Plus Feature

iPhone 17 Lineup Specs Detail Display Upgrade and New High-End Model

Monday July 22, 2024 4:33 am PDT by
Key details about the overall specifications of the iPhone 17 lineup have been shared by the leaker known as "Ice Universe," clarifying several important aspects of next year's devices. Reports in recent months have converged in agreement that Apple will discontinue the "Plus" iPhone model in 2025 while introducing an all-new iPhone 17 "Slim" model as an even more high-end option sitting...
Generic iPhone 17 Feature With Full Width Dynamic Island

Kuo: Ultra-Thin iPhone 17 to Feature A19 Chip, Single Rear Camera, Semi-Titanium Frame, and More

Wednesday July 24, 2024 9:06 am PDT by
Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today shared alleged specifications for a new ultra-thin iPhone 17 model rumored to launch next year. Kuo expects the device to be equipped with a 6.6-inch display with a current-size Dynamic Island, a standard A19 chip rather than an A19 Pro chip, a single rear camera, and an Apple-designed 5G chip. He also expects the device to have a...
iPhone 16 Pro Sizes Feature

iPhone 16 Series Is Less Than Two Months Away: Everything We Know

Thursday July 25, 2024 5:43 am PDT by
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
icloud private relay outage

iCloud Private Relay Experiencing Outage

Thursday July 25, 2024 3:18 pm PDT by
Apple’s iCloud Private Relay service is down for some users, according to Apple’s System Status page. Apple says that the iCloud Private Relay service may be slow or unavailable. The outage started at 2:34 p.m. Eastern Time, but it does not appear to be affecting all iCloud users. Some impacted users are unable to browse the web without turning iCloud Private Relay off, while others are...
iPhone 17 Plus Feature Purple

iPhone 17 Rumored to Feature Mechanical Aperture

Tuesday July 23, 2024 9:32 am PDT by
Apple is planning to release at least one iPhone 17 model next year with mechanical aperture, according to a report published today by The Information. The mechanical system would allow users to adjust the size of the iPhone 17's aperture, which refers to the opening of the camera lens through which light enters. All existing iPhone camera lenses have fixed apertures, but some Android...

Top Rated Comments

sniffies Avatar
119 months ago
Yosemite is history.

Give us El Capitan beta 2, Apple Music, and Apple News.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TMRJIJ Avatar
119 months ago
OS X Yosemite? What is this nonsense? El Capitan is where it's at. I barely remember Yosemite. What version was that . . OS X 10.3? I'm pretty this came before Tiger right? hmmm . . . . .
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MikhailT Avatar
119 months ago
How many more betas are there gonna be of 10.10.4? Damn. It's been in testing for 2 months!
As many as it takes to get the quality of the update to be as bug-less as possible, especially as this may the last update to Yosemite before they shift to El Cap completely. Complex software like an OS update takes months to test, validate, and finish.

The whole reason Yosemite was buggy as heck was because they didn't take their time to do it right.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AZhappyjack Avatar
119 months ago
So.. We get yet another Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10.4 BETA just one week after the last one, but still no iOS 9 BETA2 to fix the battery drain? :(
iOS beta releases have not come more frequently than about 2 week intervals, historically. OS X dev previews have pretty much followed suit in terms of release schedule, at least for the .0 releases.

Your patience will be rewarded.

This chart is iOS beta releases, and is included for reference:



Attachment Image
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mw360 Avatar
119 months ago

3 - Insane battery drain. I was getting 20+ hours under iOS 8 two weeks ago. Now I'm getting 4-6 hours with iOS 9 beta 1. This is easily the highest priority bug to fix - it impacts me every day and renders my iPhone for the later part of the day. This isn't a small problem that requires a bit of tweaking - this seems like a massive issue that needs to be fixed immediately. It may be a small issue code wise... maybe just a busy loop somewhere wasting power in the background... but it has a huge impact on user experience
Nothing is a massive issue in beta 1. Even if the OS crashed every 30 seconds beta testers aren't supposed to go around getting their knickers in a twist about it. You would submit a bug report, and advise you are unable to test further and wait for beta 2. You don't demand a beta 2 'immediately.'

If your user experience is being impacted every day then you shouldn't have installed a developers' beta 1 OS on your phone. If this were a release candidate, you might have a point, but there are months ahead where the beta process will take its usual course. You may find the battery drain is actually a very low priority bug right now, depending on how much Apple know about the causes, and how much work would be involved to fix it.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
star-affinity Avatar
119 months ago
The whole reason Yosemite was buggy as heck was because they didn't take their time to do it right.
I wouldn't call it ”buggy as heck”. Yosemite is and has been working very well for me overall.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)