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Apple Seeds macOS Big Sur 11.6.1 Beta to Developers With Security Fixes

Apple today seeded a macOS Big Sur 11.6.1 beta to developers for testing purposes, with the update coming two weeks after the launch of macOS Big Sur 11.6.

macOS Big Sur Feature Orange
Registered developers can download the beta through the Apple Developer Center and once the appropriate profile is installed, betas will be available through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences.

According to Apple's release notes, the update "improves the security of macOS." It's not clear why it's being released as a beta rather than to all users, but there's also a developer beta of a security update available for macOS Catalina as well.

Related Forum: macOS Big Sur

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Top Rated Comments

58 months ago

What is going on isn’t 12 coming soon, what’s the point this in beta
Also not all macs can run Monterey. Despite hater’s assertions, Apple still supports older macs
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️ Avatar
58 months ago

What is going on isn’t 12 coming soon, what’s the point this in beta
Probably a security update.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Hombre53 Avatar
58 months ago
Apple still supports Big Sur and Catalina.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
RGPphotog Avatar
58 months ago
FWIW, it was a heavy duty update, requiring a long install & restart process.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
58 months ago

Is it actually available to "download through the Apple Developer Center" or is this blindly copy-pasted from older articles?
It's not on the Apple Developer Center as a full installer or ipsw.

The beta configuration utility is there though and once installed, it will show up in the software update preference pane in big sur (not in monterey). I think you will need 11.6 in order for 11.6.1 to show up because it is a delta not a combo.



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Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Realityck Avatar
58 months ago

What is going on isn’t 12 coming soon, what’s the point this in beta
Monterey is Nov, this is a minor update to Big Sur 11.6 release.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)