Experience New macOS Beta Software with Confidence: Dual Boot macOS and run beta software along side the latest public release of macOS

In this episode, Levi Gobin demonstrates how to prepare your Mac for beta testing by creating a second volume on your Mac's internal disk to install and run beta versions of the operating system. This way, you can run the beta when you want, but continue to use your Mac with the current shipping version of macOS. To create a volume to install macOS betas on:

1. Open Disk Utility (located in the Utilities folder).
2. Select your startup disk (usually called Macintosh HD) in the table, and choose “Add APFS volume” from the context menu (accessed by pressing VO-Shift-M).
3. Name the volume (it can be any name) and if you want to specify a minimum and maximum amount of storage space for it, click size options, define your parameters, and click OK. Otherwise, click Add to create the volume, which will share space with your startup disk.

Once the volume has been created, download the current shipping version of macOS from the App Store, and follow the onscreen instructions to install it, a process that is demonstrated in the episode. At the point where the installer confirms that macOS will be installed on your current startup disk, click show all disks, and select your newly created volume. Once the installation completes, your new copy of macOS will start as if the Mac was new from the factory; follow the onscreen instructions in the Setup Assistant, a process that is also demonstrated.

To obtain a macOS beta, if you haven't already, sign up for either the developer or public beta program. Once you've signed up, an option will appear in System Settings > General > Software update to install updates from that channel. Once a beta is seeded, you should be able to install it like any other update.

To switch between the two volumes, you can either go to System Settings > General > Startup disk to select a default volume that the Mac will start from each time it is restarted or turned on, or select a different volume as your Mac starts. To do this, shut your Mac down, press and hold the Power button until the startup options dialog appears, interact with the volume you want to start up from, and click Continue.

If you no longer want to run the beta on your Mac, you can remove the volume by starting up from your primary volume, opening Disk Utility, selecting your secondary volume in the table, and choosing “Delete APFS volume” from the context menu (accessed by pressing VO-Shift-M).

Transcript

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by AI Note Taker – VoicePen, an AI-powered transcription app. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.

Levi: Hello, everyone. In today's recording, I'm going to show you how to dual boot macOS. This might be useful for when you want to beta test a new version, such as macOS 16, which is coming out here in June 2025. I'm going to show you how to dual boot macOS and how you can test the new beta without messing up your current operating system. So first, what we need to do is create an APFS volume.

Levi: And the way we do that is by going to Disk Utility. Disk Utility is located in your Applications folder, then under Utilities, Disk Utility. But an easier way to get there is by pressing Command-Shift-U when you're in Finder, which I will show you now. Finder. Finder. Now I'm going to press Command-Shift-U. Now in slash Applications slash Utilities, List View.

Levi: And I'm in the Utilities folder. Now I'm going to interact with the ListView table and start typing Disk Utility. And now I can open it with either Command Down Arrow or Command O, which is what I'm going to use.

VoiceOver: Open. Disk Utility. Disk Utility. Disk Selection Table. Row 6 of 15. Macintosh HD Snapshot. Selected as Keyboard Focus.

Levi: Okay. Yours might say a different number of things in the table because I've made some APFS volumes of my own. So first what we need to do is interact with this table and make sure that Show All Devices is checked, and you can do that by pressing Command 2. Show All Devices checked. Row 4 expanded. Row 5 expanded. You might get that, but let me just show you. So by default, it might be on... Show only volumes. Check. Show only volumes. And I'll show you what the table looks like so you know if it's on that.

Levi/VoiceOver: Disk selection table. And I hit Command-1 to get to show only volumes. Disk selection table. Macintosh 8 internal.

Levi/VoiceOver: Expanded. On top of this table, if you look at the volumes only. Internal. Macintosh HD volumes. HDR image. Expanded. Macintosh HD. Expand. Macintosh HD snapshot. Macintosh HD. Data. Left files. Level 1. And that's an APFS volume I created.

Levi/VoiceOver: You won't see that. Disc images. Expanded. And then there's disc images. I'm going to hit Command 2 to open all devices. Go for Expanded. It didn't say because it was on the table, but you can hit command 2 again. And it will say show all devices checked. Now what we're going to do is go to the top of the table, and we're going to look for something that says container disk 3. That is what it says on my Mac, and I believe that's what it says for all Apple Silicon Macs, but it might be different.

Levi: I did control option function up there to go to the top. Now I'm going to go VO right arrow, or you can also do VO down arrow.

VoiceOver: Apple SSD, AP0512Q, media, expanded.

Levi/VoiceOver: If it's something like that, that's how you know you have Shaw devices checked. Container disk 3, box image, expanded. You want to hear that. It might say container disk 2 or 4. I don't know if it does, and the number might be slightly different. So now what we can do is press Control-Option-Shift-M. Menu, 8 items. And type add. Add APFS volume ellipsis. to get to add APFS volume. I want to enter on this. Untitled.

Levi/VoiceOver: Content selected. Edit text. So this is what you want to name your APFS volume. So since I am going to be using this for beta testing new releases such as Mac OS 16, I'm going to call this beta testing. Selection replaced. B. OK, I've typed that in. Now I'm going to stop interacting with the text fields.

Levi/VoiceOver: format format apps pop-up button that's APFS you want to leave it at that other options menu check my APFS encrypted APFS case sensitive encrypted APFS 8 8 8 check mark APFS check mark APFS you want to leave it at APFS closing menu size options button size options let's go in here None added text. Reserve size, none. None added text, blank.

Levi: The reserve size, so the thing about APFS volumes is unlike a partition to a drive, they can share the disk space, meaning if your main, let's say in my case, Mac OS 15 is using 100 gigabytes of space, and my Mac OS 16 is using 300 gigabytes of space, I'm going to have 200 gigabytes available, but if I delete

Levi: 100 gigabytes, if I delete 100 gigabytes of stuff that Mac OS 16 is using, that number of available space in all volumes is going to go down because it's shared equally. So you're not like dividing it into two separate sections, you're allowing it to share it evenly. So... The reserve size is sort of like...

Levi: A size you want the volume to have available to it at all times. Meaning if you fill up your main macOS volume, your other volume will be fine because it has this much space and will be able to function properly. I'm going to give mine 30 gigabytes. That should be more than enough. Alright, maybe I'll do 40 to be safe. 40 gigabytes.

Levi/VoiceOver: And you can change this. KB, that's kilobytes. MB, that's megabytes. GB, that's gigabytes. That's terabytes. That's petabytes.

Levi: I don't know what that is. But yeah, you can change it to a lot of different options, which is pretty cool. The quota size, I'm going to not enter a value. What this would do is limit the available space that the volume can use. If you set a quota size of, let's just say, for simplicity's sake, you have a...

Levi: internal hard drive of 500 gigs and you set an APFS volume with a quota size of 30 gigs, you can only add 30 gigs worth of stuff and you can't go over. So it's basically like a It's basically like a limit as to what you can do. None added text. Blank. I'm going to leave that at none. GB. OK. Default button. Now I'm going to hit OK. OK. Default button. Apps. Popup. Size options. Button.

Levi/VoiceOver: And now it's taking us back to the main APFS screen. Cancel button. We can cancel the operation or we can... Add. Default button.

VoiceOver: Add an APFS volume. In dialog. Expanded. Closing dialog. Expanded. So it added it really quickly. 100% progress indicator. Adding is complete. Click done to continue. Expanded.

Levi: It doesn't say anything, but you can collapse and expand this with Control-Option-Backslash. And it will show you additional details.

Levi: And it's done. So now we click Done. And notice it now says 16. And here it is, and you can get info on it if you want. I'm going to quit Disk Utility now. Finder.

Levi: Okay, one more thing I wanted to add real quickly is how to delete the beta volume if you no longer want to run the versions of macOS, as well as a quick, easy way to access files on both partitions of macOS. So what I'm going to do right now is go ahead and open Disk Utility.

Levi/VoiceOver: Finder, desktop, Macintosh HD 4. Now in the list view. So I'm going to find my beta testing volume that I made. So it's going to say beta testing. Any other one? It's going to say data like that.

Levi: The one you want to remove is this one. And you're going to do the same, Control-Option-Shift-M on it.

VoiceOver: Menu, 10 items. Delete APFS volume ellipsis.

Levi: And then hit Enter or Control-Option-Space.

Levi/VoiceOver: In alert dialog, can't alert image. Delete APFS volume, beta testing. Deleting beta testing will permanently erase all data stored on it. You can't undo this action. Deleting beta testing will permanently erase all data stored on it. You can't undo this action. The system volume beta testing is a member of a volume group, a set of volumes containing macOS and user data, including the data volume, beta testing, data. You may delete just the system volume or all the volumes in the group. Delete volume group button. And that's what you want. Delete volume group.

VoiceOver: Cancel delete button. Can't delete volume group button. And that's the one you want.

Levi: I want to keep this version of Mac OS, so I'm going to hit cancel. But once you click delete, I'll show you how to test APFS volume here in a minute. But once you click delete, it will open up the details window and you can see it delete. I'm going to cancel this.

Levi: So that's how you delete the beta version of Mac OS if you no longer wanted to run it for any reason. So now I'm going to show a quick little way you can... access files on both your regular Mac OS and your beta Mac OS and that is with yet another APFS volume that you can put stuff on to access from both operating systems.

Levi: I already have one called files and I will make a new one and I'll show you how deleting works, what it sounds like when you actually do delete it. So I'm going to go ahead and create a new APFS volume.

VoiceOver: Menu bar. Closing dial. File. Edit. Restore ellipsis. Add APFS volume ellipsis. Untitled. Content selected. Edit text.

Levi: That is totally fine for this test.

VoiceOver: Format. Size option. Apps. Pop-up button.

Levi: And if you wanted to encrypt it, that way you need a password. I'll demo that here.

VoiceOver: Menu. APFS encrypted. In dialog. Password. Secure edit text.

Levi: Now it wants a password. I'll just make it 1, 2, 3, 4.

VoiceOver: Verify. Secure edit text.

11:19 1, 2, 3, 4.

VoiceOver: Show password assistant button. Enter in scroll area. Password hint, edit text.

Levi: And I'm going to make it O-N-E space T-W-O space T-H-R-E space F-O-U-R. Because why not? Can't choose button.

VoiceOver: Choose. Closing dial. Size up. Can't add.

Levi: I'm not going to ask for size options, and I'm going to click add.

VoiceOver: Expanded. Done. Dimmed. Details. In detail. Untitled. Out. Empty. Operation successful. And now it's done. Out. Done. Default button. Disk selection table. Row 5 of 19. So. Finder. Finder. Close window.

Levi: On the desktop now. untitled 494.4 gigabytes 58 gigabytes this is the new APFS volume I just created and you can open it from here or your other Mac OS volume and put stuff on it and open it from the other operating systems so that is how I do that and if you want to remove that volume also keep in mind that everything on it will be deleted but if you want to remove it you can go back to disk utility

VoiceOver: Disk utility toolbar in tool out disk selection table in disk selection.

Levi/VoiceOver: Find untitled in this case in the table. Disk image Apple disk image media in Apple beta test beta test Macintosh Macintosh Macintosh Macintosh file untitled. And control shift M. Menu 10 items.

VoiceOver: Delete APFS volume ellipsis.

Levi: And we're going to delete it because I don't need this.

Levi: An alert dialog deleting untitled will permanently erase all data stored on it. You can't undo this action. Cancel button. Delete button.

Levi: And we're going to delete it.

Levi/VoiceOver: In dialog, expanded. Closing dialog, expanded. Hide details. Dimmed details. No selection. In details, deleting APFS volume. Untitled. Empty set. Unmounting disk. Deleting APFS volume from its APFS container. This is a bunch of stuff that shows what it's doing.

Levi: It's fun to look at. But anyways, once you do that, you can click Done, and now it's gone. So now I'll continue with the recording where I left off. So if you want to download beta installers, you can get them directly from Apple, or you can do what I'm going to do,

Levi: and install a production version of macOS onto the separate APFS volume, set it up from there and update that volume via software update to macOS 16 when it comes out, which is what I'm going to do. So next what we're going to do is search for, in my case, macOS Sequoia. If you're doing this a year later, you're going to search for whatever macOS 16 is called and download that.

Levi: I'm going to type App Store. I already had it pulled up, but I'm going to search for it again. So you can type M-I-P capital S-E-Q-U-O-I-A.

Levi: And if you spell it wrong like I did earlier, you will still find it. It may not be the first result. Now you hit enter. This is the one you want. Now you do VO space on it.

Levi: And it makes that sound but doesn't say anything and the interface has changed. And that's the icon for the app.

Levi: And then you press get. What this will do is open for systems. This will open the system settings app and it will look like it's going to check for an update. But then it will ask you if you want to download the macOS version. So I'm going to go ahead and press get. System settings.

Levi/VoiceOver: Now in software update. Sidebar. Vertex software. Progressive install. Mac OS on. Show the automatic download button. Okay. I was trying to show you that it said checking for updates, but it opened this screen. Alert image. Mac OS Sequoia. Are you sure you want to download Mac OS Sequoia 15.5? Not now. Download button. And we can click download. Software update. Software update. Downloading Mac OS Sequoia. 22.0 megabytes of 15.65 gigabytes. About 56 minutes remaining.

VoiceOver: 0% progress indicator.

Levi: Yes, this is a big software update file. So I will let this download, and I will be back as soon as it's done downloading. All righty, I am back. I have just finished installing the update. I tried to continue recording this earlier, but somehow it accidentally got stopped, so here we go again.

Levi: So I have installed it, and it leaves an application in your Applications folder, which is called Install macOS Sequoia.app.

VoiceOver: Finder, Finder, slash Applications. Today, install macOS Sequoia.app application.

Levi: So here's the app. It's a pretty big app. So what I'm going to do is once you install macOS with this app, this app deletes itself.

Levi: And this app can be used to create a bootable installer or any means of restoring to macOS Sequoia 15.5. This is the full installer. So I want to keep this. I'm going to copy it and paste it somewhere else. And there we go. And now I'm going to open the macOS installer app.

VoiceOver: Install Mac OS Sequoia window. Mac OS Sequoia has keyboard focus.

Levi: So here's the installer window.

VoiceOver: Zoom. Mac OS image. Mac OS Sequoia. To set up the installation of Mac OS Sequoia, click Continue.

Levi: And if you've installed Mac OS from an installer, you'll recognize this, but I'll show it for those who haven't.

VoiceOver: Continue. Default button. Agree. Disagree. A copy of the English to continue into Mac OS. So here's the license. To continue English. A copy. Disagree. A copy of the license will be saved on your system and can be found through about this Mac after installation. It is also posted at https colon slash slash www.apple.com slash legal slash SLA. In text. SLA. A L S slash SLA. SLA. Legal slash. Legal slash.

VoiceOver: Apple.com slash legal slash SLA. How to disagree. Agree. Button. An alert dialog, disagree button. I hit agree, and then it says. I have read and agree to the terms of the software license agreement. Click agree. Agree button. Continue button. Back button. Show all disks button. Macintosh HD. Select selected disk icon. Macintosh HD. Selected disk name.

Levi: And for me, it says Macintosh HD. There is no point installing the same version of Mac OS that's already on here. So I'm going to click show all disks. Show all disks button. Window. Mac OS image. And I'm going to find my beta testing disk. Perfect. This is what I want. And I stopped interacting with the grid.

Levi: It didn't say it before when I stopped interacting, but yes, I stopped interacting with the grid, and now I'm going to click continue. And this is where you'd select a user for the new volume.

VoiceOver: Grid. In grid. No action of image. Levi Gobin. No action available.

Levi: It says an election available, but if you interact with the grid and navigate, it'll automatically select.

VoiceOver: Copy account settings from Levi Gobin, checked.

Levi: And again, it didn't say that I stopped interacting with it, but you have to stop interacting with it.

VoiceOver: Out of grid, one item selected. Copy account settings from Levi Gobin, checked.

Levi: I would recommend checking that. That way, it won't copy all your settings, but it'll copy a few of your settings, like your username and all that kind of stuff. It doesn't copy your password, though.

VoiceOver: Back button. Install button.

Levi: And you click install.

VoiceOver: In alert dialog, cancel. You must plug in and connect your power adapter before installing. Your computer is not connected to a power source. You must plug in and connect your power adapter before installing.

Levi: Okay, I shall do that.

VoiceOver: In password, secure edit text.

Levi: And now it wants my password, which I'll now type.

VoiceOver: Authentication failed.

Levi: Hooray.

VoiceOver: e disk.

Levi: I won't be able to record from my Mac when it restarts because I'll be in the new user and I don't have my recording stuff set up yet. But I'm going to get my Mac connected to a speaker and I will record setting up the new volume. I'll see you then. Alrighty. I am back.

Levi/VoiceOver: The update is about to install. I think I have authentication. Oh, and there it goes.

Levi: It's restarting. So now I switched to my JBL so that I could show you when it boots up what's going on. And there goes my Mac restarting. What it's going to do now is it's going to restart voiceover might say something like

Levi: installer progress has no windows it tends to do that and when it's in that mode you can't adjust the voice or the rate of it so it will be kind of slow and who knows how long it's going to be but yeah so if it might do that that is there is no way of really seeing the progress unless you unless you like take a picture of the screen and send it off to be my eyes or something like that that is how you can see progress but once that's done

Levi: will boot up into the setup assistant like a brand new mac and i will show you that once setup assistant loads i'll show you how that works and i think it's on that was actually really quickly that was the quickest update i've ever seen it basically was in that mode and by the time i could start recording to show you what it was like it restarted

Levi: My iPad is talking. I pulled it out because I was going to use it to have it look at the screen with me and my eyes, but I didn't need that, so I'll put it back away.

Levi: I know that was kind of quiet, but what it said was Mac OS contains a built-in screen reader called VoiceOver. To turn on voiceover, press and hold the command key and press the touch ID button three times. I will now do that. d I cannot stand this voice that slow. So I will speed it up a bit. And I'll turn the volume up too.

Levi: And this is going to use VoiceOver's default settings. So there's the region. And sorry if the audio cuts out the speaker.

Levi: Like that, it'll drop the audio like that out just because it goes to sleep. So keep that in mind as we go on here. It's saying continue. So you can transfer your information from your other volume. I'm not going to do it, but I'll show you how that works. I'll also show you the other options here.

VoiceOver: From a Windows PC, radio button. Set up with iPhone or iPad, radio button.

Levi: That is a new option in iOS 18.4 and later. Maybe I'll do a podcast on that.

VoiceOver: Set up as new, radio button.

Levi: Set up as new. I'm just kind of making it reread again if it cuts it off like that. I am going to have it select this. Back button, continue button. To show you what it's like. I'm going to set it up as new, but I'll show you what the screen is like.

VoiceOver: Security agent application system dialogue. In order to add new users to the system, we need to collect a password from an existing user who is authorized to unlock this volume. Please enter the password for the existing user, Levi Gobbin. Password, password, secure.

Levi: That is me. So I'll enter my password on my other Mac OS, which is my main Mac OS. I will enter the password for that operating system.

VoiceOver: Setup assistant, window, window, continue, dim, button, continue, back, dim, busy, progress, set up as new, radio, set up, accessibility. Accessibility features adapt your Mac to your individual needs. You can turn them on now to help you fit. Cognitive hearing, button, back, not now, back, button.

Levi: So it's asking for accessibility.

Levi/VoiceOver: I'm going to say not now. Not now, button, table, no, select your Wi-Fi network. Select your table, other network, back, button.

Levi/VoiceOver: You are currently on a... Okay, so I think it's not going to give me the option to choose because it knows I have the startup disk on here.

Levi/VoiceOver: So I'm going to go back and say, set up as new ability, access of cognitive back button, transfer your data. You can tell you from a Mac, from a window set up with iPhone or selected, set up as new, selected, set up as new radio.

Levi: Um, I'm going to hit continue. Basically what it would have done was, um, it, it, it, it might've just been me or whatever. I don't know. But what it would have done was it would have shown your startup disc as well as any time machine stuff you had connected as well as an option to connect to it over the network.

Levi: So I do want to customize a few things just to disable animations. Oh, you can do that? Okay.

VoiceOver: Back. Continue. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back. Back.

VoiceOver: VoiceOver. Back button. Continue. Turn on VoiceOver. Check. Back button.

Levi: I guess VoiceOver is the only one for that. I was going to find the display and turn on reduce motion because it saves battery.

VoiceOver: Motor. Vision. Access vision. Motor. Hearing. Cognitive. Back button. Back. Computer. Motor.

Levi: I'll do that later.

Levi/VoiceOver: So I'm going to hit. Cognitive. Back. Continue. Button. Continue. Table. No selection. Select your Wi-Fi network.

Levi: Table. So what's my Wi-Fi?

VoiceOver: Password. Secure. Edit text. You are currently on a text field. To enter text in this field, type, this is a secure text field. Text typed into this field will not be incorrect. Busy. Prop. Connecting. Fast. Dim. Button. Connecting. Busy. Progress. Incorrect. Password. 9-carat password. Table. Row 7 of 24. Column 1 of 3. Window. Data and privacy. Personal data use.

Levi: OK. It worked.

Levi/VoiceOver: Personal data use. Data and privacy. This icon appears when an Apple feature asks to use your personal information. You won't see this with every feature since Apple collects this information only when needed to enable features, secure our services, or personalize your experience. Apple believes privacy is a fundamental human right, so every Apple product is designed to minimize the collection and use of your data. Use on-device processing whenever possible, and provide transparency and control over your information. You are- Learn more, button. Back, but continue, button. Create a local user account to administer this computer. Selected, radio button. There is a previous user account on this computer.

Levi/VoiceOver: Create an account for that user on the current disk volume or create a new account. For either, you will need to enter the password for the previous user to continue. I'm going to create an account.

Levi: I'm going to create an account based on my other account.

Levi/VoiceOver: Create a local user account. Click continue to set up your local. Create a Mac account. There is a previous user. Create a local user account to administer this computer. Selected. Ready. Click continue. Create a local. Click continue to set up your local account. Create a local administrator account for Levi Gobbin. Radio button. You are currently on a rate. Click continue to set up an account for Levi Gobbin. I will do that.

Levi: Is there another option? No.

Levi: It wants my password and I answer it. It says creating account.

Levi: When it says busy progress indicator like this, there is no progress bar. You're not going to see a percentage that's going to say busy. You don't know to select it. Okay, I am back. It was stuck at that screen forever where it was saying creating an account, press continue, whatever. If it does that and it's stuck, hold the power button down.

Levi: for about 10 seconds it will then restart you may also hit the power button again or press the key to turn the computer back on it will restart you'll have to agree to the terms and conditions again then it will say welcome to mac and when you click continue it boots you to the desktop like this enter password or the login window and i log in

Levi: I think I have to turn voiceover on.

Levi: And it's created me a user, obviously, but I don't think the options for setup assistant registered because I'm having to go through them again.

Levi: So I'm going to go not now.

VoiceOver: Not now. Back. Busy. Proc. Cognitive. Button. Here. Copy. Back. Not. Not. Not. Now. Dim. Button. Dim. Data and practice. Learn more. Back. Continue. Button. Click continue on this. Find email or phone number. Edit text.

Levi: That was my Apple ID. I'm going to do this later.

VoiceOver: Forgot. Pass. Use different personal data. Set up. Later. Back. Set up. In alert. Dial. Skip. Skip.

Levi: I'll do this not on the recording. Don't skip.

VoiceOver: Skip.

Levi: Skip for now.

VoiceOver: Find my. Find my personal. Back. But continue. Back. continue button just agree to the stuff hit continue back about health active share crash and usage data with app developers dimmed uncheck check the health share mac analytics with apple check check box uncheck health share health app about back continue button screen time you are we don't screen set up back but set up later later apple intelligence new ways to intel apple and apple intelligence intelligence that understands your personal context connect the start of new way intelligence that understands your personal context connect to wi-fi and power to prepare for apple intelligence

VoiceOver: new ways to express yourself enhance your writing create personalized images and express yourself in more ways than ever set up apple back set up about the start of a new way to intelligence start of a new era for siri siri is more natural contextually relevant and personal to you built for privacy powerful intelligence without sharing your data with apple About Apple Intelligence, set up back. Set up, set up Apple Intelligence. Set up later, button. Apple Siri is an intelligent assistant that Apple stores transcripts of your, set up back, continue. Speak to Siri, to speak to back, button.

Levi: To speak to Siri, say Siri or hey Siri, then you're back, continue, continue, button. Type to Siri to type your request. Click the Siri button in the menu bar or press command twice on the keyboard. Back, button. I changed that. You are currently on a button. But, yeah. Continue, button. Siri, how's the, set up later, cancel. Siri, how's the, set up later, button. Choose for me, button. Table. No selection.

Levi: Now it's asking me to choose a Siri voice.

Levi: I'm going to choose the one I want. Choose a voice for features like Siri, Maps, and Safari. You can met- Table. No- Voice 4.

VoiceOver: The colors of the sky fade with the setting sun. You are currently on a- Stars begin to shine through the clear night.

Levi: I like that one. Back button. Improve Siri and dictation allows Apple to- Not now. Improved. Not now. Select it. Select not now. Not now. Or whatever you want. Back. Continue. Button. Continue. Touch. Touch ID. Located at the rightmost end of the touch bar above the keyboard. Image. Now I'm going to be on the next ID.

Levi: And it's ready. Dark saves battery, so I do that.

VoiceOver: Your current future software updates will be automatically downloaded and installed for you as they release. You can manage this in software update settings.

Levi: That is fine, considering what I'm using this for.

Levi: Only download automatically. Button. Back. Back. Continue. Continue. Button. Welcome to Mac. Launchpad 2. Support lock finder. Set future. Update Mac automatic. Future busy. Back. Continue. Dim. Button. Set up assistant. Back. Dim. You sometimes have to go to the Applications user and select the Welcome to Mac window. Just hit Continue. And now you're on your desktop.

Levi: I am going to pause the recording, sign in with my Apple ID, and sync my VoiceOver Preferences file over. I will show you how I do that.

Levi: So I'll do that.

Levi: And then I'm going to come back and show you in the next part of this podcast how you can sign up for beta updates. Whether that be public or developer, whatever it is, I'll show you how to sign up for them. Alright, well, I will see you back in a bit to show you how I sync preferences and check for beta updates. Okay, I'm back. I went ahead and imported my preferences because

Levi: I was tired of hearing Samantha, but I'll show you how to do it. What I wanted to show you now was, so I just signed into my Apple account. One thing I'm going to do, you necessarily don't have to if you have enough storage, is I'm going to turn off iCloud Drive on my beta testing partition. Otherwise, it's going to download two copies of it. It'll have the copy of it that's on my main partition.

Levi: and the copy with us on this partition, and that will eat up a lot of space. So I'm going to turn that off.

VoiceOver: iCloud button. iCloud. iCloud. iImage. storage.

34:40 1.

VoiceOver: Manage. Button. Save to up. See all. Photos. Drive. Passwords. Drive. Sync this Mac. Toggle for iCloud Drive. On. Dimmed on. Keep a copy. Button. Cancel. Remove from Mac. In dialogue. Cancel. Stop up. Can't progress. iCloud. iCloud. Keep your files. Sync this. Done. Done.

Levi: And if it has downloaded anything, it will put in your home folder a folder called iCloud Drive Archive. So there's that. The next thing I'm going to show you is how I import my preferences. I'll show you a way to export them as well real quickly. I meant to do that earlier, but I'll show you real quickly. The easiest way to do it is Control-Action-Command-F8.

Levi: voiceover utility press command shift e voiceover archive dot v o p r e um you can leave us whatever you want you can go to the folder you want where document show more options collapse all pop show search text dot vertex column all then here's where you could change to a different folder all export all pop-up button and this is where you can choose what you want to export you can choose all which will export your voices your labels your pronunciations everything and i i have

Levi: all those custom commands custom everything so if you want to export all that to this partition you can save that somewhere um so you have all menu 14 items check mark all basic braille input keys hot spots labels pronunciations command assignments word processing activity system default activities i have closing um export new folder export and that just says export then you can hit save utility categories

Levi: And that saves your preferences to a .voprefs file.

VoiceOver: Your desktop. Now invent voiceover archive .voprefs voiceover utility .app document level one.

Levi: Yours won't say voiceover utility document. It'll just say document. And when you open it, it will say there is no application set to open the document, whatever. The way you change that is you can hit command I to open the info window. and then you can go down to open with at the bottom so you can do control option and or control option function right arrow open with it will probably say text edit you can click this that will probably say text edit you can click other

Levi/VoiceOver: list view no selection and then what you can do out of file route scroll area enable recommended applications change this to all applications all applications closing menu interact with enable in file graph list and activity monitor then you can go to voiceover utility then hit command o VoiceOverUtility.app default. Pop-up button. Closing dialog. It didn't do anything. But then what you'd want to do to make it the default is click Change All.

Levi/VoiceOver: Cancel. Are you sure you want to change all similar documents to open with the application? VoiceOverUtility.app. This change will apply to all documents with extension .v-o-k-r-e-f-s. And it's already set that way, but I'll click Continue just because why not.

Levi: One thing I forgot to mention in this part of the recording was that once you have made that change to the info window, the way you open the files, you hit Command-O...

Levi: And you can hit Command-O, and this will open it with VoiceOver Utility. Are you sure you want to import preferences?

VoiceOver: Importing preferences will completely replace your current preferences.

VoiceOver: Importing preferences cannot be undone.

VoiceOver: Cancel button.

Levi: And this is just a basic preference file. It has nothing new. So I'm going to hit cancel. But if you were to hit okay, it would do the same thing. Utility categories. So I thought I would throw that in there. And now back to the rest of the recording. So that is how you'd import your preferences. Now time for the fun stuff. Say a new beta is out, which currently there isn't. But there are no .6 updates yet as of the time of recording. But I'm sure there will be. Um, say a new beta comes out, how do you update?

Levi: I'll show you that now. Um, I'm going to go ahead and close this. I'm going to go ahead and go to the alpha menu and open system settings.

Levi: And I'm already in the general category. So I'm going to do control option function right here. Correct. Software update.

Levi: And if you've previously signed up for any of the beta programs, you will see them listed in the beta update section. Otherwise, if you haven't signed up, you will not see the beta update screen, and you'll have to sign up.

VoiceOver: Software update. 11 items selected. Image. Your Mac is up to date. Selected. Image. Your Mac is up to. Selected. Image. Mac OS Sequoia 15.5. Check for update button. You can check for update there. Mac OS updates and security responses. Automatic updates.

Levi: I told this thing to automatically do updates. I'm going to click this.

Levi: There's show detail on this. And all that's on. I'm going to click show detail on beta updates because

Levi/VoiceOver: it's available here five items off data updates off data updates pop-up button receive data updates on this mac and provide feedback to help make apple software even better learn apple account use a different gun use a different apple account for you can use a different data updates you can use a different apple account right there data update off data updates pop-up button menu three items check mark off so i only have three items but let's just say you're doing this on the day of wwdc

Levi: you're going to have four items. And if you're doing this from the public beta, you're likely going to have five items. And below that, it's going to say whatever the name is for Mac OS 16, but it's going to say Mac OS 16 Developer Beta, Mac OS 16 Public Beta. You'd click one of those, and then it will put you on the corresponding update channel. As of now, I don't think there's a new beta update.

Levi/VoiceOver: sequoia developer beta i'll do this because this is what i'm doing for now until mac os 16 comes out closing menu mac os sequoia developer beta beta updates pop-up button and now we are on the beta channel for developer betas mac os sequoia developer beta receive data up apple click done done button click done software update closing software update And I'll check for updates, but I don't think there's going to be any beta updates. But I'll check anyway. Yeah.

Levi: If there was a beta update, you'd check for update, and it would show it.

Levi: and then you would click Update, just like any other normal software update, and then you'd be on the beta, and you can enjoy the new features. Alrighty, so that is an in-depth tutorial on installing a second version of macOS to another partition, to setting it up, and getting it ready for beta testing. I hope you've enjoyed, and I'll see you in the next one. Peace.

** Speaker 3 **: