Apple Seeds First Beta of Upcoming macOS Big Sur 11.1 Update to Public Beta Testers

Apple todays seeded the first beta of an upcoming macOS Big Sur 11.1 update to public beta testers, with the beta coming a day after the developer release and two weeks after the launch of macOS Big Sur 11.0.1, the release version of the software.

First Look Big Sur Feature2
Beta testers who signed up for Apple's beta testing program can download the macOS Big Sur beta through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences after installing the proper profile.

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

There's no word yet on what's included in macOS Big Sur 11.1, but it likely includes performance improvements, security updates, and fixes for bugs that weren't able to be addressed in the release version of macOS Big Sur. No significant new feature changes were discovered in the first developer beta.

Related Forum: macOS Big Sur

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Top Rated Comments

interval28 Avatar
59 months ago
Please tell me they brought back quick reply in messages notifications! It's so annoying to have to click 3 times to open the reply field. Not to be overly dramatic, but the loss of this feature spoils the entire OS for me
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
socialwill Avatar
59 months ago
Interesting, they are going with 11.1. So next year we would expect them to move to macOS 12?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chfilm Avatar
59 months ago

So wouldn’t the .1 release be equivalent to the yearly macOS releases of previous years? I would think all Big Sur-related fixes/features updates would be .0.x ...and that an 11.1 release would be analogous to a new California location release. Otherwise, going to 12.0 would imply drastic changes again only a year later. Thoughts?
any infos about amd 6000x series drivers?
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kylo83 Avatar
59 months ago
does this fix the AirPods automatic switching it didnt work on Big Sur
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chucker23n1 Avatar
59 months ago
It's a bummer that Apple still frequently does betas without explaining what to test.


So wouldn’t the .1 release be equivalent to the yearly macOS releases of previous years?
Probably not.

Mac OS X had this odd thing where major releases like 10.4 Tiger and 10.15 Catalina actually had the minor version bumped up.

This was different in the Mac OS Classic days, and has always been different on iOS.

This 11.1.0 release is presumably equivalent to an iOS 14.1: it will add some minor features and fix a lot of bugs.

We've also already had a 11.0.1 point release: whereas the Apple Silicon Macs shipped with 11.0.0, Intel Macs got 11.0.1 as the first final release.


I would think all Big Sur-related fixes/features updates would be .0.x
Bug fixes: .x.y

Features: .x.0


...and that an 11.1 release would be analogous to a new California location release. Otherwise, going to 12.0 would imply drastic changes again only a year later. Thoughts?
Right. We'll likely see 12.0 at WWDC 2021.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chucker23n1 Avatar
59 months ago

No, different, one for me one for my partner..
Then that’s not gonna work. Handoff works with devices from the same account.

(It might work with family sharing?)
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)