tvOS 11 beta 2 for Apple TV rolling out now

Zac Hall | Jun 21 2017 - 1:06 pm PT

Apple has released the second tvOS 11 beta for registered developers to test on Apple TV. The first tvOS 11 beta included new features like Home Screen Syncing, light and dark mode automatic switching, and full AirPods support. We’ll update below if any new changes are discovered in tvOS 11 beta 2.

For more on tvOS 11, check out these stories:

From the tvOS 11 beta 2 release notes:

General

New Features

• AddedAVRoutePickerViewtotheAVKitframeworkandAVRouteDetectortothe AVFoundation framework for enabling users to choose the route for playing content when multiple routes are available. Use AVRouteDetector to determine if multiple routes are available when route detection is enabled. If multiple routes are available, use AVRoutePickerView to present an interface for the user to choose the routes.

3rd Party Apps

New Issues

Signing into the Sling TV app does not work. (32829340)

When initiating video playback using the Plex app, you may need to press Play/Pause on the Apple TV Remote for the video to begin playing. (32662888)
Known Issues

• DirectTV Now may crash on launch. (29533442)

CloudKit

Known Issues

• ApplicationsthatuseCloudKit’sCKModifyRecordsOperationshouldspecifyan appropriate value for CKModifyRecordsOperation -> atomic. If your client is compiled against watchOS 4, operations enqueued against the default CKRecordZone have new behavior when atomic = YES (and this is the default value for this property): if the operation hits a “preflight” failure (most commonly, a network issue uploading a CKAsset, or a malformed CKRecord), the entire operation is canceled. (30838858)

• CloudKitdoesnotsupportunsignedlonglongnumbersasvaluesforaCKRecord, if the number’s high-order bit is set. Beginning in this seed, setting such a value throws an exception. (30567424)

Foundation

New Features

AddedaschedulingAPItoURLSessionTaskthatallowsbackgroundURLSession clients to schedule tasks in the future, enabling easy background app refresh semantics for apps, watchOS complications, and more. The API also allows developers to update requests before transmission to address cases where the request has become stale when scheduled in the future. Additions include the earliestBeginDate, countOfBytesClientExpectsToSend, and countOfBytesClientExpectsToReceive properties of URSessionTask, and the URLSession:task:willBeginDelayedRequest:completionHandler method of URLSessionTaskDelegate protocol. (27866330)

URLSessionTask adopts the ProgressReporting protocol providing a consistent mechanism for URLSession clients to track the progress of URLSessionTask using the new progress property. (30834550)

AddedanAdaptableConnectivityAPItoURLSessionthatenablestaskstoautomatically monitor and wait for satisfactory network connectivity, instead of immediately failing with an error when connectivity is unsatisfactory. Additions include the waitsForConnectivity property of URLSessionConfiguration and the URLSession:taskIsWaitingForConnectivity: method of the URLSessionTaskDelegate protocol.

Added support for HTTP brotli content encoding to URLSession. By default, HTTP requests contain a br value (in addition to gzip and deflate) for the Accept-Encoding HTTP header, informing the web server that the user agent supports brotli encoding. The web server can send an HTTP body with Content-Encoding: br in the HTTP header to indicate that the content is brotli-encoded. URLSession automatically decompresses the HTTP body data and passes the decoded data back to the client in the same way it does for Content-Encoding: gzip. For binary compatibility reasons, URLSession brotli support is enabled only for apps built using the tvOS 11 SDK. (27724985)
Home Screen

Resolved Issues

When waking your Apple TV, app icons are no longer dimmed and appear in a “Cleaning…” state. (31941875)

The first line of text in some modal system dialogs is no longer slightly clipped. (32313183)

When selecting a user-selectable app icon, you now receive a confirmation dialog before the icon is changed. (32369824)

After changing a user-selectable app icon, the Apple TV no longer needs to be restarted before the new icon appears. (32369824)

Known Issues

• Logging into a different iCloud or iTunes account on an Apple TV after enabling Home Screen Sync is not supported in this seed. (32209124)

Mobile Device Management

Resolved Issues

Setting a Home Screen Layout no longer requires restarting the Apple TV. (30984370)

When creating a folder with Home Screen layout, the folder name is no longer always set to “Folder”. (32379008)

The Settings app is always available if you restrict which apps can be used. (31965828)
Known Issues

When installing an HTTP Proxy Payload with no credentials and then entering a username and password at a later time when prompted, the correct credentials are not accepted as valid. (32360765)

When setting an AirPlay security payload to always require a passcode, the passcode is required only once. (31666818)

When setting management on an Apple TV to skip all setup panes, the TV Provider setup pane may appear. (31766460)

A device that is manually enrolled in the Device Enrollment Program or Apple School Manager may display an on-screen message “This device is provisionally enrolled in DEP. You can remove it from DEP by erasing it in Settings.” (32023738)
Workaround: To remove the device from DEP or ASM remove the device management profile in Settings > General > Profiles and Device Management.

Music app

Resolved Issues

Turning off “Show in my Profile” for a playlist no longer shows the playlist name and artwork in your profile. (32224851)

Selecting Recent Trailers or added music from the top shelf now works correctly. (32276963, 32390268)

After signing into an iTunes account, a restart of the Apple TV is no longer required for album art to appear in your library. (32112946)
Known Issues

• After selecting another audio output source, you may not be able to select the Apple TV as an audio output source until restarting the device. (32826255)

QuickTime Screen Recording

Resolved Issues

• When selecting a wirelessly available Apple TV from QuickTime, selecting AirPlay > Security > “First-Time Passcode” in Settings is no longer required. (32387521)

ReplayKit

New Issues

• Stopping a video recording may not function. (32726978)

Setup

Resolved Issues

• In Setup Assistant, Siri spelling dictation now works correctly for entering your password. (32312523)

TV App

Known Issues

• Some apps may not successfully register content playback. (32743357)

TestFlight

Known Issues

• When installing a TestFlight app, you may receive an error that the app could not be installed. When this error occurs, restart the Apple TV and attempt to install the app. (32572874, 32747482)

UIKit

Known Issues

• When an app snapshot is taken in the background, the updated snapshot does not appear in the App Switcher. (31506103)