Apple Seeds First Beta of macOS High Sierra to Public Beta Testers

Thursday June 29, 2017 2:06 pm PDT by Juli Clover

Apple today seeded the first public beta of macOS High Sierra to public beta testers, allowing non-developers to download and test the update for the first time since it was introduced at the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 5. The first public beta of macOS High Sierra corresponds to the second developer beta, which was updated this morning.

Beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program will be able to download the macOS High Sierra beta through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store.

macos hs beta
Those who want to be a part of Apple's beta testing program can sign up to participate through the beta testing website, which gives users access to iOS, macOS, and tvOS betas.

Potential beta testers should make a full Time Machine backup before installing macOS High Sierra, and it should not be installed on a primary machine because betas are unstable and often have many bugs. Caution should be used with macOS High Sierra in particular because when installing it, there's an option to switch to the new Apple Filesystem (APFS), an update that takes some time.

macOS High Sierra is designed to improve and refine macOS Sierra. Along with a new, more efficient file system designed for modern storage, the update introduces Metal 2, the next-generation version of Apple's Metal graphics API with support for machine learning, external GPUs, and VR content creation.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.

High Efficiency Video Encoding (HEVC aka H.265) is coming in macOS High Sierra, and many of the existing apps are being updated. Photos features a new persistent side view and editing tools for Curves, Selective Color, and Live Photos, while Siri is gaining a more natural voice and support for more music-related commands.

Safari offers a new autoplay blocking feature for videos and Intelligent Tracking Prevention to protect your privacy, while Mail storage is being optimized to take up 35 percent less space. iMessages can now be stored in iCloud, and there are new iCloud Drive file sharing options and new iCloud storage family plans.

For a complete picture of all of the new features you can expect to see when macOS High Sierra is released in the fall, make sure to check out our full macOS High Sierra roundup.

Related Forum: macOS High Sierra

Popular Stories

Black Friday Streaming Deals Include Big Savings on Disney+, Hulu, Apple TV, and More

Monday November 24, 2025 8:03 am PST by Mitchel Broussard

We've been focusing on deals on physical products over the past few weeks, but Black Friday is also a great time of year to purchase a streaming membership. Some of the biggest services have great discounts for new and select returning members this week, including Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock, and more. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a...

• 27 comments

iOS 27 Will Reportedly Have Two Key Upgrades

Sunday November 23, 2025 8:48 am PST by Joe Rossignol

iOS 27 will reportedly have two major elements: quality improvements and new AI features. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that iOS 27 will be similar to Mac OS X Snow Leopard, in the sense that Apple is focused on improving "quality and underlying performance" over adding new features. Gurman said there is one exception to this rule, though, as he expects...

• 176 comments

Apple Black Friday Deals Available Now on AirPods, iPads, Accessories, and More

Friday November 21, 2025 8:48 am PST by Mitchel Broussard

We're only a few days away from Black Friday, which will take place on Friday, November 28 in 2025. As always, this will be the best time of the year to shop for great deals, including popular Apple products like AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. In this article, the majority of the discounts will be found on Amazon. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When...

• 4 comments

iOS 26.2 Adds These New Features to Your iPhone

Thursday November 20, 2025 10:50 am PST by Joe Rossignol

iOS 26.2 is currently in beta testing. The upcoming update includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, including a new Liquid Glass slider for the Lock Screen's clock, offline lyrics for Apple Music, and more. In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 26.2 will be released to all users in December, but it did not provide a specific release date. Keep reading...

• 27 comments

The MacRumors Show: iPhone 18 Pro Looks Like a Huge Upgrade

Friday November 21, 2025 9:10 am PST by Hartley Charlton

On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we talk through all of the new features and improvements expected to come to next year's iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max models. Subscribe to The MacRumors Show YouTube channel for more videos Apple's next-generation iPhones are less than ten months away and we already have a good idea about what to expect based on corroborated leaks, rumors,...

• 49 comments

Foldable iPhone to Debut These Three Breakthrough Features

Tuesday November 25, 2025 7:09 am PST by Tim Hardwick

Apple's first foldable iPhone is expected to launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro models in fall 2026, and it's shaping up to include three standout features that could set it apart from the competition. The book-style foldable will reportedly feature an industry-first 24-megapixel under-display camera built into the inner display, according to a recent JP Morgan equity research report. That...

• 120 comments

Apple News Loses CNN

Monday November 24, 2025 7:56 am PST by Hartley Charlton

American multinational news company CNN has abruptly pulled its content from Apple News, Semafor reports. CNN quietly removed its stories from Apple News over the weekend and there is no longer a feed from the network to subscribe to in the app. This effectively ends its distribution agreement with Apple while the two sides negotiate new terms. Discussions are apparently ongoing and CNN's...

• 135 comments

Amazon Kicks Off Black Friday Sale With Major Discounts on Apple Accessories, TVs, and More

Sunday November 23, 2025 7:12 am PST by Mitchel Broussard

Black Friday deals have begun, and Amazon is one of the best places you can find steep discounts on numerous products this week. We've already collected all of the best Apple-related deals you'll find at Amazon (and other retailers) in our Apple Black Friday Deals post, so below you'll find other discounts on devices like Anker accessories, Beats headphones, video games, TVs, and more. Note:...

• 2 comments

Apple Announces 2025 Black Friday Event, Here's What You Can Get

Thursday November 20, 2025 6:28 am PST by Joe Rossignol

Apple's annual four-day Black Friday through Cyber Monday shopping event is returning on Friday, November 28 through Monday, December 1 in many countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Thailand, and others. During the shopping event, customers can get an Apple gift card with...

• 41 comments

Top Rated Comments

Scott6666

110 months ago

boot your computer while holding down both the command key and the r key.

People who do not know what the recovery partition is should not be trying beta 1's

Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)

DocoBob

110 months ago

...The top secret way that Apple makes a fortune along with other companies is "Planned obsolescence." They just make it not work on purpose to make more money on upgrades. An operating system that breaks half of your programs is not a good one in my opinion no matter what enhancements it offers. If more people made this known, they wouldn't do it...

After working in Silicon Valley for almost 40 years, with just about all the major players there (directly and indirectly) I can tell you that they really don't have secret meeting to enforce "planed obsolescence" to make money. Its the nature of technology to need to grow it, improve it and expand its capabilities. In all the meetings I attended, from the hardware/ software design engineers, marketing gurus legal department all the way up tp the CEOs, no one ever thinks of planned obsolescence as a strategy. They do talk about focusing on specific areas they believe that consumers will want in the future. Its that constant consumer demand that causes the changes to happen. Think about it, do you still want to use a computer with an 8086 processor? or floppies? or a huge CRT that can only display 13" of viewable area? or 20MB hard disk drives that spin as fast as my washing machine? I don't and there are millions of consumers that spend billions each year to upgrade to newer, better, faster features. Its all about voting with your wallet and consumers have voted for ongoing process.

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

dogslobber

110 months ago

Downloading now. Also I live in California, so should I be high when I install High Sierra?

I'd recommend you download it, drive to the High Sierra mountain, climb it, then install High Sierra on top of High Sierra. I just hope when you're climbing you don't hit too many bugs and fall off!

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)