How to Install macOS Big Sur Beta Right Now

You can install the macOS Big Sur beta on your Mac without a developer account to test new macOS Big Sur features long before their release date this fall. Apple offers a developer beta and a public beta that you can install on your computer for testing. This one is for developers and IT professionals, but if you don’t fall into those categories, you can try it on your Mac today.

We’ll show you how to make a safe backup of your Mac that you can return to if you have any issues, as well as how to download and then install the macOS Big Sur beta. We cover two setup options so you can make sure you’re covered.

How to Backup Your Mac Correctly

Before installing the macOS Big Sur beta, you should back up your Mac and make sure you create a second backup that you won’t accidentally overwrite. This captures a snapshot that you can go back to if you decide to downgrade from macOS Big Sur to macOS Catalina. I prefer to keep this backup on a separate USB hard drive, but you can put it wherever you want. You may not need to do this if you have enough space on your backup drive, but it’s safer than sorry.

1. into the Mac.
2. top left.
3. Choose from the menu.
4. Find the option and click it.
5. .
6. and .
7. Let Time Machine start a backup.

Once this is done, unplug the backup and store it in a safe place. This will provide an easy way to revert to macOS Catalina if you have problems with the macOS Big Sur beta.

How to Download macOS Big Sur Beta

Developers can easily find the beta in their Apple Developer account. Average users should expect the general Apple Developer Beta to arrive in July or later. If you don’t fit in either group, you can download the beta now, but you’ll have to work on these options.

To participate in the public beta of macOS Big Sur, you must visit the Developer Program website or Apple Beta Software Program website and register. This will get you signed up, and then you can download the macOS Developer Beta Access Utility. If you want to install this on a second partition, you can do so. with the following instructions.

If you are a developer, you can download the macOS Developer Beta Access Utility directly from Apple. Here’s how to do it.

1. Go to.
2. and then on.
3. with your Apple ID.
4. Until you see the macOS Big Sur beta 1 listing.
5. To start downloading the macOS Developer Beta Access Utility.

If you’re not an Apple developer, the . This will allow you to directly download the same file without signing up. This is outside of Apple’s terms and conditions, so you may want to wait for the public macOS Big Sur beta.

After downloading the file, continue with the instructions below;

6. .
7. To finish and open the Mac App Store Update section.

We see the Big Sur beta listing in System Preferences, but it’s not yet in the Mac App Store. We’ll update it when we find a link to the app store.

You should see the macOS Big Sur installer that you can download to your Mac from here. When it finishes downloading, it will ask you to install the beta we’ve covered below. There are several ways to install macOS Big Sur beta, depending on your setup.

How to Install macOS Big Sur Beta

Users who want to install macOS Big Sur beta as the only operating system on their Mac can do so very easily. This is best on a spare Mac as it overwrites the macOS Catalina installation. If you’re having problems, you can still downgrade, but it’s not as easy as reverting.

Once the macOS Big Sur developer beta is downloaded, it will prompt you to start the installation. If you cancel, you can find it in downloads or apps on your Mac.

1. When the installer runs, click .
2. Go to Terms and Conditions.
3. .
4. to complete the installation.

In the next 30-45 minutes, your device will reboot at least once to complete the macOS Big Sur installation. If it seems to freeze or pause, wait for it to continue. You must be connected to electricity during this process. When your Mac restarts, follow the instructions and sign in again with your Apple ID and Password if necessary

How to Install macOS Big Sur Beta on a Partition

Use a partition to install the macOS 10.15 beta with macOS Mojave.

If you don’t have a spare Mac to install the macOS Big Sur beta, the best thing to do is to create a partition on your Mac’s hard drive and install it there. This keeps your main macOS Catalina installation in place and makes it easy to transition back and forth. You need to make sure you have enough space. The minimum amount of space is 30GB, but if you can allocate 50GB for the partition you’ll run into less problems.

Before you start the installation, you need to create a second partition on your Mac. Here’s how to do it.

1. Open
2. . (Usually Fusion or Macintosh HD)
3. Click .
4. Click .
5. in size.
6. .
7. and wait for the changes to be saved.

If you’re already on APFS, which is most likely, you can create a new Volume in Disk Utility.

1. Open
2. . (Usually Fusion or Macintosh HD)
3. Click .
5. Click Create

Now that you have a partition to install the macOS Big Sur beta, you can go back to the installation options.

1. .
2. Click .
3. to the conditions.
4. When you see a disc, the .
5. you just did.
6. .

This process will take some time, but it will be completed and you will have a clean install of macOS Big Sur on the partition so you can test it without touching your primary macOS Catalina installation. These instructions also come in handy when you want to install macOS Big Sur beta on an external hard drive.

When you restart your Mac, you can hold down the option key, which will bring up a Startup Manager so you can choose whether you want to boot into macOS Catalina or macOS Big Sur. If you want to use the macOS Big Sur partition first, you can also enter it.