Apple Releases Second OS X 10.11.1 El Capitan Public Beta - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Apple Releases Second OS X 10.11.1 El Capitan Public Beta

Apple today seeded the second beta of OS X 10.11.1 El Capitan to public beta testers, just days after releasing the second beta to developers and a week and a half after seeding the first public beta. Today's second beta comes just after the public launch of OS X El Capitan.

The beta is available to those who are participating in Apple's Beta Testing program and can be downloaded through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store.

os_x_el_capitan_roundup
The first beta of OS X 10.11.1 introduced support for Unicode 8 and new emoji like taco, burrito, cheese wedge, hot dog, middle finger, and unicorn head. The emoji are also included in iOS 9.1, which is also in testing.

Beyond new emoji, there have been no other outward-facing changes discovered, suggesting OS X 10.11.1 is a minor update that will bring bug fixes and performance enhancements. According to Apple's release notes, OS X 10.11.1 offers stability, compatibility, and security improvements.

Related Forum: OS X El Capitan

Popular Stories

imac video apple feature

Apple Released Yet Another New Product Today

Friday March 20, 2026 2:39 pm PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as...
iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...
ios 26 4 pastel

iOS 26.4: Top 10 New Features Coming to Your iPhone

Friday March 20, 2026 2:44 pm PDT by
iOS 26.4 isn't the major update with new Siri features that we hoped for, but there are some useful quality of life improvements, and a little bit of fun with an AI playlist generator and new emoji characters. Playlist Playground - Apple Music has a Playlist Playground option that lets you generate playlists from text-based descriptions. You can include moods, feelings, activities, or...

Top Rated Comments

Old Muley Avatar
137 months ago
The middle finger emoji will come in handy.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BornAgainMac Avatar
137 months ago
The only problem I have seen is connecting to Exchange. I hope in the next couple of updates, it gets fixed. Focus on getting that middle finger emoji tested in beta and getting that released. Outlook 2016 as a workaround for now.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
inkswamp Avatar
137 months ago
The middle finger emoji will come in handy.
Yeah, and I'll have lots of time to use it since El Capitan's SMB implementation is still ridiculously sluggish. Listing a freakin' directory takes 1-2 minutes when browsing on a Windows file share. Older Macs and Windows PCs list it in a matter of seconds.

I am so thoroughly disgusted with Apple right now that they wasted time on frivolous stuff like emojis and yet didn't have time to fix their STILL broken file browsing. Really having a serious debate with myself whether Apple is worth continuing to support. They don't seem to have rational priorities for OS X anymore.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BittenApple Avatar
137 months ago
I don't understand this. El Captian GM was released yesterday to the public. Why is Apple sending updates to the Beta testers still? Why aren't these beta testers using the GM street version?
its 11.1.1
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
furi0usbee Avatar
137 months ago
Installed El Capitan on my original 2012 retina MBP and it's running super. Did a clean install and am very impressed at the speed.

Also, here is my rMBP overview. I'm surprised that these specs still look pretty good to me compared to what's out there now. I've never hit any limitations with this computer and it's the longest I've ever owned a MacBook Pro, and I don't think I'll get rid of it anytime soon as it has everything I need.

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
lysingur Avatar
137 months ago
Just to get my two cents in (warning: long post):
I held off upgrading to Yosemite till .5 and right away experienced a massive Bluetooth outage but which was fixed after several days of trial and error by restricting my AirPort to only 802.11a/n at 5 GHz. I actually love Mavericks but was annoyed that I could no longer send directions from Maps to iOS 8 and that the Mission Control transition was not fluid.

So I stayed with Yosemite for a month which was probably my best Mac experience so far. No crashes. "Legacy" applications like Photoshop CS6 and Microsoft Office 2011 still work great. Path Finder finally is bug-free and Civilization IV runs. The only gripe I had was Safari still feels slow, especially when opening Facebook and Wikipedia pages.

I was hesitant to upgrade when El Capitan came out but the 200 plus five-star reviews on App Store vs. 11 one stars convinced me that this is finally the Mac OS X that I've been waiting for. Well, more or less. The San Francisco font is great and the slow Mission Control transition that has dogged OS X since 2012 is gone but Notifications Center still has some bugs like when the Reminders module is turned on and one of your to-dos is longer than two lines, part of it will get covered up. Safari is the snappiest since I first bought my MBPR and Maps now talk between OS X and iOS but then iTunes is very unstable in a two-screen setup. Also, Preview rendering now looks too dark and blurry on any non-Retina screen that I've tested.

IMHO, an annual release schedule for the Mac OS X is a mistake because OS X is much more complex than the iOS. I think a 15-month cycle is more reasonable on condition that Apple keep the number of engineers working on both systems roughly the same. I reflected on why Snow Leopard received so much praise. One reason is perhaps that it received EIGHT point updates in the span of two years. Apple is very eager in coming out with new features but doesn't dedicate enough resources, which they have in plenty, to refining their products.

The adage used to be that you should never plunge head in into any first generation Apple products, including their OS, but now I think people should really wait till .3 releases before installing or buying anything from them.

Judging from my experience of the past three years, Mac OS X is gradually playing the second fiddle to iOS, which is a worrying trend since a lot of us still use our desktops/laptops for serious work.

I will most likely stop upgrading any of my Apple devices beyond iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan and ride them out for as long as I can and enjoy a little peace and stability. For all the new features that Apple has introduced since Mac OS 9 I and probably many others can do without a lot more than the ones that we do take advantage of. Most users today on the many forums that I've read still yearn for a better Finder experience (cut and paste, anyone?), a faster Safari (on par with other browsers on daily use with multiple tabs open), a better thought-out iTunes and an image/video organiser at least half as good as Picasa (Photos only advantage being HDPI support). Seriously now. It's almost cruel to keep Mac users in a constant state of trepidation by bundling most security updates with feature updates and to force those who already upgraded to want to upgrade further by breaking some existing features (like slow SMB and shoddy AirDrop implementations in El Capitan). People are fed up with having to go through this every 12 month.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)