Apple Seeds Second Public Betas of iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS Sequoia 15.4

Apple today seeded the second public betas of upcoming iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS Sequoia 15.4 updates, allowing public beta testers to try out the new features in the software ahead of its public launch. The public betas come a day after Apple provided the beta updates to developers.

iOS 18
Public beta testers can download the updates from the Settings app on each device after opting into the beta through Apple's public beta testing website.

The new software for iPhone and iPad includes Priority Notifications, an Apple Intelligence feature designed to show you your most important notifications first, plus it adds a new Sketch style for Image Playground on all ‌Apple Intelligence‌ devices.

There is a new Apple News+ Food section for ‌Apple News‌+ subscribers that aggregates recipes, food stories, and tips for healthy eating, plus an Ambient Music feature for playing chill music from Control Center. On the ‌iPad‌ and Mac, the new updates introduce Mail Categorization, a feature that was previously limited to the ‌iPhone‌.

In beta 2, Apple added new emoji characters and debuted the Vision Pro app for ‌iPhone‌. The update also brings Visual Intelligence to the ‌iPhone‌ 15 Pro Max.

An outline of all of the new features in iOS 18.4 can be found in our iOS 18.4 features guide.

Related Forums: iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia

Popular Stories

iOS 26

iOS 26.1 Available Now With These 8 New Features

Monday November 3, 2025 5:54 am PST by
Following more than a month of beta testing, Apple released iOS 26.1 on Monday, November 3. The update includes a handful of new features and changes, including the ability to adjust the look of Liquid Glass and more. Below, we outline iOS 26.1's key new features. Liquid Glass Toggle iOS 26.1 lets you choose your preferred look for Liquid Glass. In the Settings app, under Display...
Finder Siri Feature

Apple's New Siri Will Be Powered By Google Gemini

Wednesday November 5, 2025 11:57 am PST by
The smarter, more capable version of Siri that Apple is developing will be powered by Google Gemini, reports Bloomberg. Apple will pay Google approximately $1 billion per year for a 1.2 trillion parameter artificial intelligence model that was developed by Google. For context, parameters are a measure of how a model understands and responds to queries. More parameters generally means more...
Apple Logo Spotlight

Report: Apple to Launch These New Products in 2026

Sunday November 2, 2025 5:34 am PST by
Apple is planning to launch at least 15 new products in 2026, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman outlined what to expect from Apple in 2026 in the latest edition of his "Power On" newsletter. He said the company is heading "into one of its most pivotal years in recent memory," with the rollout of major new Apple Intelligence features, intense regulatory pressure on the App Store,...
iOS 26

Apple Releases iOS 26.1 With Liquid Glass Toggle, Slide to Stop Alarm, New Apple Intelligence Languages and More

Monday November 3, 2025 1:11 pm PST by
Apple today released iOS 26.1, the first major update to the iOS 26 operating system that came out in September, iOS 26.1 comes over a month after iOS 26 launched. ‌iOS 26‌.1 is compatible with the ‌iPhone‌ 11 series and later, as well as the second-generation ‌iPhone‌ SE. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings > General >...
Early Black Friday Deals 2

The Best Early Black Friday Apple Deals

Sunday November 2, 2025 10:04 am PST by
We're officially in the month of 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 ...
2024 iPhone Boxes Feature

Apple Adjusts Trade-In Values for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and More

Thursday November 6, 2025 11:12 am PST by
Apple today updated its trade-in values for select iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models. Trade-ins can be completed on Apple's website, or at an Apple Store. The charts below provide an overview of Apple's current and previous trade-in values in the U.S., according to its website. Maximum values for most devices either decreased or saw no change, but the iPad Air received a slight bump. ...
tvOS 26 Feature

Apple Releases tvOS 26.1

Monday November 3, 2025 1:07 pm PST by
Apple today released tvOS 26.1, an update to the tvOS 26 operating system that came out in September. tvOS 26.1 is available on the Apple TV 4K and the Apple TV HD models, but Liquid Glass is only available on the second-generation Apple TV 4K or later. tvOS 26 can be downloaded using the Settings app on the ‌‌Apple TV‌‌. Open up Settings and go to System > Software Update to get the ...
apple one  cpqesecbv342 upscaled feature

Apple One Gets New Colorful Logo Following Apple TV Rebrand [Updated]

Monday November 3, 2025 3:22 pm PST by
Apple updated the logo and name for its Apple TV streaming service today, and it looks like Apple One might be next. On the revamped Apple TV website, there's a new, more colorful Apple One logo available. The logo features an Apple icon that's split into six slices, and each slice includes the color that Apple uses for one of the services included in Apple One Premium. Apple One is...

Top Rated Comments

AF_APPLETALK Avatar
9 months ago

How did you find that? And how did you solve it?
You'll need to open Activity Monitor, switch to the Disk tab, and search for "corespotlightd" and have a look at how much data's getting written by that process.

I had an absurd amount one time I checked, like 800+ GB. I also noticed that my computer would feel physically hot even when there was no reason for it to.

To disable, you have to also disable SIP. Simply unchecking all of the spotlight options, or disabling in through other means won't stop the spotlight process.

https://cleanmymac.com/faq/how-to-turn-off-spotlight-search-on-mac

Supposedly it'll probably go away if you also reinstall the OS from scratch, but I'm a developer and have signing keys all over my machine for a bunch of different projects, so that's a nightmare.


I’m also interested in this, and if it’s happening on external SSDs like the Samsung T5/T7, or on NVMes inside a Thunderbolt case.
There's a way to move the spotlight index to another volume (other than the boot), so theoretically yes. Basically this bug seems to just write and rewrite stuff to the spotlight index over and over again, as fast as it can, which is AWFUL for the life of your SSD. Especially when the storage is soldered/integrated like they are on most Macs.

I hate having SIP disabled, but I can't afford spotlight trashing the SSD in my MBP. I disabled and switched to Raycast.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nitromaxx Avatar
9 months ago

Just updated my ipad pro m4 and now my internet is broken. No lan, no wlan no hotspot is working.
Now I can’t even fall back on my backup, as it is in the cloud! ?
Yes, I have done the usual, toggle wifi on/off, turned ipad off…
Anybody?

Edit: after some searching found a post from a different update. They suggested deleting incompatible certificates and VPN profiles. In my case that was NordVPN. Deleted it and instantly the wifi-connection was restored.
But I did learn something: keep a backup on the device, not only in the cloud!
This happened to me too on my iPhone 12 PM. I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what went wrong, tried restoring with my MacBook, but since there was no internet service on the phone I couldn’t remove Activation Lock to do the restore, spent some time being mad that I was gonna have to buy a new phone because I wanted the 12 to last until Sept and the 17s, then I also found something that mentioned VPNs. Removed the NordVPN profiles and instant success. I even tried letting the app install the profiles again and it broke it again. I don’t know enough to know whether the fault lies with Apple or NordVPN, but it would be nice to have a fix.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AF_APPLETALK Avatar
9 months ago
Will 15.4 finally fix the spotlight bug that writes hundreds of gigabytes of data to my SSD every day? Seriously, I had to disable SIP to completely kill the corespotlightd process, absolutely absurd.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Dualica 01 Avatar
9 months ago
Just updated my ipad pro m4 and now my internet is broken. No lan, no wlan no hotspot is working.
Now I can’t even fall back on my backup, as it is in the cloud! ?
Yes, I have done the usual, toggle wifi on/off, turned ipad off…
Anybody?

Edit: after some searching found a post from a different update. They suggested deleting incompatible certificates and VPN profiles. In my case that was NordVPN. Deleted it and instantly the wifi-connection was restored.
But I did learn something: keep a backup on the device, not only in the cloud!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)