This one is puzzling. I have my 2020 Intel iMac set to Sequoia Beta, so I don’t get the annoying Tahoe update messages. It does get the Sequoia updates. After the latest one, last week, the Apple apps are having issues using the Internet. Mail cannot contact any mail servers, icloud or gmail. On almost all web sites, Safari gets an error “There was a bad response from the server.” (INSURLErrorDomain:-1,011. YouTube and a couple of audio review sites work, no other web sites, I’ve tried, show up in Safari.
Software update cannot contact the update server, Music only shows locally stored songs, Maps and News cannot connect to the server. Messages is not up to date, but it will send and receive. The Stocks app works. My weather apps work.
If I run Firefox, it can connect and display all the the web sites Safari returns error on, including Tidbits. I can use Apple Maps in Firefox. I play an old online game called City of Heroes. It is able to update and contact the server for play. I am able to use files in my iCloud folder.
Mail passwords are not an issue, my iPad and iPhone can send and receive email from the accounts that the iMac is having issues with. They are all on the same WiFi network, connecting to the same router.
Ad-block and other extensions and anti-virus turned off.
Sounds like a bug in the 15.7.8. beta. Report it to Apple.
That’s one of the risks and responsibilities that comes with running beta software. And the reason why it’s never a good idea to use prerelease software on production systems.
About noon Eastern time July 20, my MacMini 2024 running Sequoia 15.7.7 started having weird problems with Apple Mail, Safari and Finder but no problems with the current Firefox. I tried to restart the machine after shutting down other apps, but the only thing that worked was to turn off the power manually on the switch on the bottom of the Mini. That let me get up and running with no obvious problems. Note that I did not try Sequoia 7.5.8 – I didn’t know about it and don’t try Betas.
It’s in the “release candidate” stage. It is a little unusual (and confusing) in that somewhere along the way, Apple stopped labeling it explicitly as a beta in Software Update, but it is only available through the beta channel, along with the latest Safari seed releases.
I haven’t kept count across releases, but the current build is 15.7.8’s sixth release candidate, which seems a little more than usual.
The official, non-beta version of Sequoia remains 15.7.7. That said, I’d expect the official 15.7.8 release to come out very soon.
macOS 14.8 and 15.7 are the most recent minor updates. They had pre-release beta and release candidate (RC).
Pre-release betas are to test new and updated features.
14.8.1… and 15.7.1… are bug fix updates. No feature updates to test - so no betas. And so:
All pre-release versions of bug fix updates are RCs.
Nevertheless, all pre-release versions (major, minor and bug fix) are released under the “beta” program.
Putting it bluntly, you should not join the beta program just to avoid Tahoe updates. You are laying yourself open to other problems. Remove your iMac as soon as possible unless you have a need to test the release candidates. There are other ways to avoid frequent Tahoe reminders.
I found that setting the Mac to join the Sequoia Beta program without automatically downloading updates to be a pretty trivial way of getting peace from avoiding Tahoe notifications. When a new official Sequoia release comes out, I turn Beta updates off, download and install the official release, and then toggle the Beta stream back on with automatic downloads remaining off. Different strokes for different folks, but it works for me.