The Safest Way to Install the MacOS Catalina Beta
Public beta versions of all the latest versions of Apple’s operating system are finally out (with the exception of watchOS, as usual). We always warn people to install them on their primary devices because you don’t want the iPhone you rely on to work and communicate with a buggy version of iOS.
If you are a Mac user it will be easy for you. Instead of replacing the operating system – bad! – you can create a new volume on your disk and install macOS Catalina there. You can then choose whether you want to boot into your trusty old macOS or the new beta whenever you want, and you can easily remove the Catalina beta from your system when you’re done playing. Unless you have space issues on your system, there is no reason you shouldn’t go that route for the Catalina beta.
Apple has a great rundown of everything you need to do to make this happen. Here are the key points:
- Back up your system before doing anything (just in case)
- Open Disk Utility, select the current volume in the left-most sidebar and click the + sign under Volume in the toolbar to add a new APFS volume.
- Make sure you are participating in the Apple Software Beta Program . When you download macOS Catalina and are ready to install it, select the new volume as the target instead of the existing one.
- After installing macOS Catalina, switch between operating systems using the Startup Disk in System Preferences, or by holding the Option key while starting up your Mac.
To uninstall macOS Catalina, all you have to do is delete the APFS volume it was installed on. Open Disk Utility, select the volume and click the “-” icon under the “Volume” to get rid of it – that’s all.