Update: The OS X El Capitan beta is now available via Apple’s website. Instructions on how to enroll your device in the program and update can be found here.
Apple’s public beta of OS X El Capitan will be released today, according to Apple’s website. The build is meant to be tested by users wanting to preview the upcoming version of the operating system, which will be released for free this fall. Users can sign up to be an OS X Beta Program member on Apple’s site here.
In the past, OS X public betas have been updated less often than the builds released via the OS X Developer Program. Yesterday, Apple released the third developer beta of OS X 10.11 El Capitan and will likely continue to release builds every two weeks until this fall.
The public beta of El Capitan will allow users to easily submit feedback for issues with the latest OS X build prior to its stable launch this fall. Users of the public beta will be able to install the final version of El Capitan over the beta version when it is released this fall.
Apple announced at WWDC last month that it would be releasing public betas of both OS X El Capitan and iOS 9. Also last month, we broke down the new features in each operating system and what Apple could do to improve them before the final release this fall.
If you’re curious as to how to go about preparing your device for the public beta and what risks installing it entails, view our guide here.
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Woohoo! Taking this one for a spin, on a spare HDD in my Mac. And I won’t be migrating Notes to the new format, as I rely on a working version across all my devices.
Come on Apple, push the button it’s almost 7pm here in the UK
Can anyone in the know warn me about some critical bugs of this build? (e.g.: excessive CPU usage, built in app instability etc.)
Apple generally posts a list of “known issues” when the beta goes live, so stay tuned for that. Otherwise, expect bugs and crashes here and there, as it is a beta.
Beta 3 of the Developer Preview is pretty stable. I am using it as a daily driver. The public beta should be nearly identical to DP Beta 3.
Is there a way I can install the public beta over the developer beta?
Why? We get the developers beta updates more often than public beta like last year. Plus there isn’t much difference between the builds.
I hope they have solved the Photos crash glitches when changing from Aperture. I had to go back to Yosemite 10.10.2. I am optimistic….
Bring On EL CAPITAN ! You are awaited !!!!
Yay, now I can finally get rid of that hideous beach ball.
I don’t see any update available in my Mac App Store !? What’s wrong? :'(
You have to enrol your machine for El Capitan. I just had to do the same :D
I had the same problem as above. I tried several times. After hitting the download button for 10 times it suddenly worked.
You didn’t read.
21 minutes left. I love new os’s. Very exciting!
On my 2014 rMBP, El Capitan throws a kernel panic immediately after logging in, even if I try a different ID. My computer is DOA. :(
Try booting is safe mode and see if that works.
Thanks. Tried, didn’t seem to have any impact. I even went into recovery mode and did a re-install. No change. :(
I have the same problem on my Mac Pro 5,1 (2010) – it appears to be a common problem for many Mac users.
I had to restore from backup disk.
I’d leave it until the full version is available – at least there will be free support then to resolved any problems.
I’d stay away, issues with security certificate at lest for me…had to restore from backup.
This Public Beta is more stable than any version of Yosemite I have downloaded. I almost don’t want to risk an upgrade.
Everything finally works!!!
So far El Cap has killed Sophos Anti Virus; has disabled the FitBit app’s ability to see its Bluetooth Dongle, and shows all my Google accounts as “Inactive” in Internet Accounts. Beta indeed! I have verified that the first two problems mentioned here are acknowledged by their respective creators (both say this is Beta software and by the time Apple releases the finished product, they will be there with them.) No answer yet on why the Google accounts are inactive (they work just fine on my other devices including iOS9 on my phone.)
Question? If I’ve redeemed a code but the download crashed and I have to restart the download but when I try it says the redeem code has been used already. How do i get around this?
open the App Store and go to Purchases, look on the list for “OS X El capitan …” and press Download.
When I tried to download the el capital public beta it just stopped at 1.6gb of 6gb and when i clicked the download icon in launchpad it just disappeared. Now, when i try to download it again, it says i already used that code in the App Store. So now i can’t download it… Someone know what you can do??
:)