Apple Seeds Sixth Beta of macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 to Developers and Public Beta Testers [Updated]

Apple today seeded the sixth beta of an upcoming macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 update to developers, just a few days after seeding the fifth beta and more than a month after releasing macOS High Sierra 10.13.2, the second major update to the macOS High Sierra operating system.

The new macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 beta can be downloaded from the Apple Developer Center or through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store with the proper profile installed.

It's not yet clear what improvements the macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 update will bring, but it's likely to include bug fixes and performance improvements for issues that weren't addressed in macOS High Sierra 10.13.2.

It does offer additional fixes for the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities that were discovered and publicized in early January and fixed initially in macOS High Sierra 10.13.2.

The update also fixes a bug that allows the App Store menu in the System Preferences to be unlocked with any password.

The previous macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 update focused solely on security fixes and performance improvements, with no new features introduced, and a supplemental update introduced a fix for the Spectre vulnerability.

Update: Apple appears to have temporarily pulled the macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 update, and it is no longer available for download from the developer site.

Update 2: The macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 update is once again available to download.

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Jaekae

13 months ago

The last update likely bricked my iMac 2011... grey screen of death for everything even Time Machine... I have possibly lost years of data despite backups (hardware check all clear no issues) and Apple will lose a customer.

Why install a beta on your main machine with years of data on it, sounds not so smart

Rating: 10 Votes

krakman

13 months ago

It is beta software, it specifically says do not run it on a production machine. You agreed to the terms and conditions when enrolling in the beta program.

https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/faq

"Install the beta software only on non-production devices that are not business critical. We strongly recommend installing on a secondary system or device, or on a secondary partition on your Mac."

Rating: 4 Votes

krakman

13 months ago

Not this bata, the last approved update that was issued bricked it. I don’t know how to fix it
[doublepost=1516450329][/doublepost]
I never installed bata??? It’s the last update that did this ... are you suggesting I ended up with a bata version because I am not enrolled in any program.

You are commenting in the thread for beta software release, hence everyone assumes you are running a beta version of the operating system on a production machine, which is why you are not getting any sympathy.

Have you tried any of the following:

SMC reset: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201295

NVRAM reset: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204063

try to start in Safe mode: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201262

Disconnect all external devices such as hard drives, DVD drives, card readers, even USB keyboard and mouse and then try to start the machine. this test is to eliminate the possibility of a faulty device preventing the computer from booting.

Use another mac to install a fresh copy of Sierra onto an external USB hard drive. Connect this hard drive to your Mac press and hold OPTION key during boot to bring up the start up manager https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202796, then boot from the USB disk and use disk utility to try to repair your internal disk.

Rating: 4 Votes

redpandadev

13 months ago

Thanks for responding

To clarify some posters in here I did not update with this beta version - I was referencing the last public version that bricked my Mac and grumbling about it. I guess I shouldn’t have posted in this thread.

Nearest Mac store is 3 hours away. I haven’t tried boot off external yet. None of my friends own Macs to download the installer (should I try High Sierra or downgrade to Sierra) time machine loads but gives me grey screen too.

There is a Apple certified repair store in my small town - my last resort I guess.

My biggest fear is the thousands of photos on my Mac backed up on iCloud. But if I wipe that drive, I lose my iCloud connection and photos too?

If your photos are on iCloud via iCloud Photo Library then they are safe regardless of anything that would happen to your Mac or it’s drives.

I suggest you try booting to internet recovery (hold command+option+r). This will boot your Mac to a recovery partition that is downloaded from Apple servers rather than the one that is locally available on your Mac. If internet recovery does not successfully get you booted up, it is likely at that point that you have a firmware issue or a hardware issue - if that’s the case you will certainly need Apple or an authorized service center to get you back up. The chances of your Mac being permanently broken, especially as the result of a software update, is next to zero. PM me if you want any more help.

Rating: 2 Votes

BaltimoreMediaBlog

13 months ago

I reminisce about the days of my Mac Pro not being re-booted for 6 months.

Or when there were not 6 versions of the same beta. What are they? Monkeys throwing paint at a wall?

Why doesn't Apple realize it's lost not only its edge, but also its biggest marketing thing about why Macs are/were better.

I cringe every time I see this image. It usually means screwing with my MAIL server settings and bad news.

Hey Timmy! My Mac was SET UP with the FIRST High Sierra release. How many times do you want to screw it up?

Another note: Command-B still lights up in "Format" when you click on it, but it still only works half the time when writing a message. I've been reporting this since Sierra, but apparently no one takes it seriously. I cannot think of any reason why this would affect me and not other since I've tried different keyboards and clearly Command-B works here. :D

Rating: 2 Votes

BaltimoreMediaBlog

13 months ago

Six betas is pretty typical for Apple. And not just recently. If you Google "mac os x sixth beta" you'll see many news articles of beta sixes over the years. Even betas eight (10.6.7), and nine (10.9.3 which was in beta for two months compared to this beta lasting only about six weeks so far). I'm not saying your conclusion is wrong, but the number of betas has little to do with it.

You obviously missed my point. Six versions of the SAME beta did not used to be common. You released a new beta number, not screwed up versions of the same one over and over and over.

The appearance of releasing the same beta over and over and over is simply that you do not know what the hell you are doing! And that's what I'm starting to wonder.

Rating: 2 Votes

C DM

13 months ago

No, you obviously are too young to remember how the beta process was. :D

Simply further confirmation of the observation I made.

Rating: 2 Votes

squirrelist

13 months ago

Yes, six versions of the same BETA are beyond ridiculous. It's like they have no clue what they're doing as far as fixes, let alone thinking about improvements. :(

Rating: 2 Votes

chrfr

13 months ago

I reminisce about the days of my Mac Pro not being re-booted for 6 months.

Or when there were not 6 versions of the same beta.

If you don't want to reboot your computer every week, don't install the betas. Seems pretty simple to me.
As others have said, this number of betas is, and has been, common for OS X/macOS for many years, even back when Steve Jobs was still alive and in charge.

Rating: 2 Votes

chrfr

13 months ago

No, you obviously are too young to remember how the beta process was. :D

No, you utterly misunderstand how the beta process works. Perhaps beta builds were not always publicly available, but Apple certainly has not ever just written up one or two versions of a system update and released it.

Rating: 2 Votes

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