Apple Releases First Beta of macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 to Public Beta Testers

Thursday May 31, 2018 11:08 AM PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today released the first beta of an upcoming macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 update to public beta testers, one day after releasing the 10.13.6 update for developers. macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 comes as macOS High Sierra 10.13.5 remains in beta testing.

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


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.

No notable features or changes were discovered in the first beta of macOS 10.13.6 provided to developers, suggesting the new software focuses on bug fixes and other under-the-hood updates.

macOS 10.13.6 is likely to be one of the last updates to macOS High Sierra, as Apple is transitioning to macOS 10.14. macOS 10.14 will be unveiled next week at the Worldwide Developers Conference.

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mattburley7
8 months ago
yet still no 10.13.5 release o_O
Rating: 17 Votes
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mithion
8 months ago
Not sure what the hold up is on 10.13.5. Rumors are swirling they are holding it untill wwdc because it contains support for new hardware that will be announced on Monday. With that said, it's strange nobody has picked up new hardware references in the beta build so it's anybody's guess... :rolleyes:
Rating: 8 Votes
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techno96
8 months ago

Current macOS .4 release works fine with iOS enabled messages in the cloud. There is literally no difference in the user experience. Messages appear across all devices exactly the same. When iMessage in the Cloud is enabled whenever .5 is released. It wil free up some space on your Mac. That’s it. It will still to all intents and purposes be the the same experience. You get a text. It appears on all devices.


Yeah, except the one thing that has always been missing - syncing deletion. That's what we've all been waiting for, but yes, besides that it will be largely the same.
Rating: 5 Votes
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archvile
8 months ago

Not sure what the hold up is on 10.13.5. Rumors are swirling they are holding it untill wwdc because it contains support for new hardware that will be announced on Monday. With that said, it's strange nobody has picked up new hardware references in the beta build so it's anybody's guess... :rolleyes:


Wouldn’t that “support for new hardware” also be in 10.13.6? Which is in public beta now?
Rating: 3 Votes
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CaTOAGU
8 months ago

I think it's clear Apple have held 10.13.5 due to a significant bug or as others have suggested, waiting till new Macs have been announced at WWDC next week.


It’s also possible they’re staging the iCloud messaging release across iOS and macOS to avoid excessive strain on their servers.
Rating: 3 Votes
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CyberVisitor
8 months ago

According to another user, the documentation is here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208532

However, I see no reference to the Mac. Strange...

I can confirm that the documentation on this link has been changed today by Apple. I looked at it yesterday and it then had instructions for macOS as well.

There’s something strange going on.

Could it be that Apple—in last minute—decided that the different settings between iOS and macOS for Messages in iCloud is confusing and needs to be changed in macOS before it can be released?

The confusion between the settings were obvoius in yesteday’s documentation and people might by default go the the iCloud settings in macOS to try to enable Messages in iCloud from there—just to find out that the settings are elsewhere.
Rating: 3 Votes
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Babygotfont
8 months ago

yet still no 10.13.5 release o_O


... it could be the failing macbook pro keyboards key "5" broke for the developers ... just saying ...
Rating: 3 Votes
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ignatius345
8 months ago

Cached copy of the site with the macOS documentation

https://web.archive.org/web/20180531013209/https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208532

Just wondering, there's no reference/option for Messages in the iCloud settings of macOS 10.13.5 beta? Or was it just not shown in the documentation. If so, that is pretty strange.

I'd guess there's some challenging back-end stuff involved in Messages in the Cloud, given that it also got postponed for quite a while on the iOS side as well. I would imagine that its release would have a pretty big potential impact on iCloud infrastructure, with millions of users potentially uploading (possibly) upward of a few GB each in iMessage attachments.

Just anecdotally, I've got several years' worth of accumulated iMessages on my primary Mac, and it's going to be a very substantial sync process when it happens and my archive gets merged with what's been uploaded from my phone. I have to imagine there are others like me out there.
Rating: 3 Votes
Avatar
CyberVisitor
8 months ago

I hope that hiding new Macs isn't the reason why it's delayed. That would be really stupid because Apple already has public documentation on how to use iMessages in iCloud on macOS. That would cause a lot of confusion among everyday users and I don't think Apple would risk that just to keep Macs under wraps.

But who knows...

Apple probably found a substantial bug and decided to stall the release.
Rating: 3 Votes
Avatar
alllexx
8 months ago

I can confirm that the documentation on this link has been changed today by Apple. I looked at it yesterday and it then had instructions for macOS as well.

There’s something strange going on.

Could it be that Apple—in last minute—decided that the different settings between iOS and macOS for Messages in iCloud is confusing and needs to be changed in macOS before it can be released?

The confusion between the settings were obvoius in yesteday’s documentation and people might by default go the the iCloud settings in macOS to try to enable Messages in iCloud from there—just to find out that the settings are elsewhere.


This person is correct https://web.archive.org/web/20180531013209/https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208532
[doublepost=1527793660][/doublepost]

Cached copy of the site with the macOS documentation

https://web.archive.org/web/20180531013209/https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208532

Just wondering, there's no reference/option for Messages in the iCloud settings of macOS 10.13.5 beta? Or was it just not shown in the documentation. If so, that is pretty strange.

Whoops, you beat me to it!
[doublepost=1527793699][/doublepost]

I'd guess there's some challenging back-end stuff involved in Messages in the Cloud, given that it also got postponed for quite a while on the iOS side as well. I would imagine that its release would have a pretty big potential impact on iCloud infrastructure, with millions of users potentially uploading (possibly) upward of a few GB each in iMessage attachments.

Just anecdotally, I've got several years' worth of accumulated iMessages on my primary Mac, and it's going to be a very substantial sync process when it happens and my archive gets merged with what's been uploaded from my phone. I have to imagine there are others like me out there.

I’m in the same boat.
Rating: 2 Votes
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