As suggested previously, Apple today released the public beta of its upcoming OS X Yosemite operating system, and people who previously signed up should now be able to download and install it. However, a few who have jumped on board have found a few problems when setting up Yosemite on their systems. If you plan on grabbing the beta, then as with any test software, do so with caution and be prepared to run into these and other problems.
Partition your drive before installing Yosemite
If you plan on installing Yosemite to a secondary partition, then consider partitioning your drive in Mavericks and not using Disk Utility in the Yosemite Beta installer. This will ensure that the partitioning is done from a more stable and tested environment.
Download code already redeemed
Some people may find when attempting to redeem their download codes, that they get a message stating the code has already been used. If this happens, quitting and reloading the App Store should fix the issue. You can also try signing out of the App Store, quitting the application, and then re-open it and try again.
As always, with beta software comes a slew of odd inconsistencies and small problems that might be frustrating to deal with, which include regular crash reports as programs and background services exit unexpectedly, inability to maintain connections with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices, and periodic slow-downs.
Also note that even though Apple has touted features like Handoff and Continuity with iOS devices, these features will require you have iOS 8.
Unfortunately, for the most part these problems will have to be dealt with until Apple releases a fix for the particular issue, but you will be able to help identify them by submitting regular bug reports to Apple using the included Feedback Assistant application. Welcome to beta testing!
Despite these issues, you may still wish to install the 10.10 beta and grab updates as they are released to watch the progression of stability and implementation of features in the OS as Apple works on it, though consider initially installing the beta in a safe environment on your Mac to help protect your data as you try it out.
Are you going to install the Yosemite public beta? Post your experiences in the comments below.
After I finish this project and have more time I hope to install and play
I registered for the beta as soon as the link to the sign-up page was published – I thought. But I received no response from Apple. I signed up for the first beta release a few weeks ago but got no answer then, either. It makes me wonder if Apple has a black list. I might be on it because I have ventured to criticize the company on a number of occasions. Apparently buying a new 27″ iMac a few months ago doesn’t make any difference. I know this sounds paranoid but since Apple doesn’t bother to notify those who didn’t make the cut, I have no way of knowing why I was not accepted. Apparently sending even an automated response is too much of an effort. At a minimum it’s discourteous to leave people in limbo. I guess this is the new Apple, same as the old Apple.
Just received my notification today after radio silence since signing up the first day.
Will be doing a little trouble-shooting today, maybe even a re-download. My first attempt was ‘killed’ after the ‘progress’ indicator stopped moving after 2.5+ hours. Restarted and it automatically resumed the install and progressed to the approximate point of the first one in about 20 minutes. However, it didn’t move from that point while I left the Mac running over night.
BTW, the install is being attempted on a repartitioned external drive. The other partition has a bootable Mavericks install. The Yosemite partition (~500GB) is/was completely empty. It now has an “ia.log” that might have some info. Most other files are .plists, I’ll be inspecting what may be in these files before the next attempt and will probably wipe the partition after that inspection.
It’s not easy to enable TRIM support for third-party (non-Apple) SSDs. If you use Trim Enabler or ChameleonSSDOptimizer, your system will crash on reboot, requiring a re-install. Yosemite sets a flag that prevents loading kernel extensions that have been modified. Workarounds are possible if you are comfortable using Terminal. See http://www.cindori.org for details.
Downloaded and installed onto a partition on my 2011 iMac HD and a copy of the installer onto my 2013 MacBook Air
Updated easily with no problems, and has taken all my settings. All works fine except SpamSieve so far. Printing OK and all Internet and Mail including Markup working well. Interface is a bit wishy washy and indefinite like iOS7 was but that’s a personal call. Feels a little faster launching APPs. I don’t see a quantum leap in Safari page loading as claimed. Most hidden features can be reactivated from menus. FaceTime has lost it’s Favourites feature and every address has to be entered. Calendar seems unaltered as does Contacts. Overall a little disappointing but I’ll keep playing! So far sent 8 comments to Apple. Enjoying the beta testing! I now like I have some personal input into my next OS and maybe won’t have to wait till the 10.10.3 update to get some features back, as with Lion!
Here’s been my experience downloading and installing the beta. I had no problem getting the redemption code and downloading the installer. The install seemed to go quite easily . But when it came time for the final reboot, the system would throw a kernel panic very early in the boot process. First I used the Disk Utility from an Mavericks Recovery Partition. It found no issues with the disk or the volume. I thought before I wiped the disk and started over again I’d try resetting the PRAM, not really thinking that would do much. But low and behold after the reset the machine boots very quickly and easily.
Installed onto a clean partition on my iMac 27″ with no problem. Encountered a few cosmetic glitches but nothing show-stopping so far. I am underwhelmed! I hope that they have the sense to make the window transparency switch-offable like the menubar. I don’t see the point in compromising clarity with this feature.
Transparency can be reduced in System Preferences > Accessibility. There is also an option for “Increased Contrast”, which puts lines round UI items.
Installed over Mavericks 10.9.4 on an external partition with only one issue, posted about elsewhere. Could not mount graphics or .dmg files. A reboot solved that problem. If I boot to another partition, then access StartupDisk pref, all reference to 10.10 is gone; in its place is a strange disk icon with 10.7 shown as the installed OS. Restart with option key brings up the correct drive icon.
Mavericks was installed on one of the three main partitions in the Mac, so I made another clone of it, then tried using SuperDuper! to erase and install the 10.10 partition on the internal partition. Almost a gig of data showed as being “up to date” and not replaced. (I had selected full erase and copy.) After completion and booting to the 10.10 internal partition, the features that did not work under Mavericks (primarily the control panel for MagicMouse) still would not work. A full erase using Disk Util, then a full install using the original boot partition worked. The external drive has now become the backup.
Have tested eDoc and MagicPrefs and a few other programs, including the latest release of TinkerTool, and everything is still fine. There was an issue with fonts in Word and Excel, but cleaning the cache with Extensis and rebooting cleared up font issues (so far). Return of the window shade effect works just fine with a program named WindowMizer. No freezes. No crashes.
Sorry that Joe G. is underwhelmed. I found 10.7, 10.8 and 10.9 to be pretty doggy but look forward to the release version of 10.10.