macOS 13.5 Ventura Public Beta 4 is Now Out

While macOS Sonoma brought a lot of meaningful new features like widgets and better multitasking to macOS, it’s still in the early Beta stages and is coming out for the public in a couple of months. As Apple gears to handle the betas, they must keep delivering consistent updates to the latest stable macOS Ventura.

macOS Ventura 13.5’s third beta didn’t bring anything new, but it was all about optimizing the experience. With the second beta, Apple made the Stage Manager animations smoother. While there was nothing particularly new with the first beta of macOS 13.5, there were micro stutters with the animations of the Stage Manager for some people.

There’s a historic problem with Apple Silicon Macs. And it has something to do with Final Cut Pro, one of the most popular video editing software on macOS. Many people use Sony’s XAVC files on their Macs, and Final Cut keeps crashing randomly and refuses to export the file. There’s currently no proper workaround unless you convert your files into a different file type.

You can also try using other editing software, but the problem is mainly with Apple Silicon. It’s unclear whether Apple can address this with software updates. However, it’s still an issue even on the latest 4th beta of macOS 13.5.

According to the release notes, there are many minor tweaks to improve the experience. It comes with the X Code 14.3 SDK bundled in, and you’ll have to verify your system compatibility there.

There was a known issue with Startup Security Utility on the 3rd beta version of macOS 13.5. The Startup Security may not accept an administrator password after updating. If you have an Intel Mac that has the Apple T2 security chip, you’re likely to be affected by this bug.

This problem will appear if your secure boot policy is set to “No Security.” Of course, this isn’t a problem with Apple Silicon Macs. Apple mentions a workaround for this, along with the release notes. You can try booting into macOS recovery mode.

Since this is only a problem with Intel Macs, entering recovery mode is simple. To enter the recovery mode and solve the administrator problem:

1. Restart your Mac.
2. Immediately press Command+ R, Option+ Command+ R, or Option+ Shift+ Command+ R. In some cases, it might prompt you to enter your password. It’ll probably show you a lock.
3. Select the appropriate disk volume, choose an administrator account, and log in.
4. Open the Terminal tool and run the resetpassword command.
5. Once the password is successfully changed, authenticate it with the new password in Security Startup Utility.

This beta also resolves a reported issue with Swift UI. When using NSPrintOperation, the NSHostingView failed to appear; this update solves that problem. You don’t need an official developer account to download this beta.

Since it’s a public beta, anyone can download it through the Software Updates section in the System Settings app. This version has no notable features, so there’s no need to update unless you’re a developer that seriously cares about the above changes. You must get the appropriate profile if you don’t see it in Settings. Also, public betas for macOS Sonoma and iOS 17 might come out as early as July.