macOS Golden Gate Release Candidate Megathread

Can I enroll in the RC then switch tothe Public Release without reinstalling?

because the RC is still tecnicly a beta version, you cannot do this. the Feedback assistant app, common to all beta versions, would still be present. just in case anybody was wondering, Apple will not support beta versions of it's software, so you can't call Apple accessibility, and expect to get phone support.

The RC is essentially the public release. If you install the RC and then disable beta updates, you're technically running the stable version. However, Apple may release a minor update on release day if critical issues were found before the official release, so you'll have to install that, but it'll come down as a standard system update and shouldn't take too long. I believe Feedback Assistant is always included with macOS. The only difference is it's hidden by default, while beta versions add a shortcut.

That is correct. Feedback assistant is included in all macOS releases, I don’t Remember Where it is exactly but you can find it if you type feedback assistant into Spotlight. Similar to keychain access in the sence that yeah, its hidden by default, but its there if you know where to look.

Or is it VO as usual.

When I go to the App Store and click on "Purchased" apps, I select the Mac apps; however, there is no download button next to the app itself. I have to click on the app to open its details page and then click the download button there. In contrast, on macOS 26, when viewing purchased apps, we could simply hover over the desired app and use the actions menu (via VO+Cmd+Space) to click the download button and download it easily. I think this is a major flaw.

Faithfully testing and using Feedback Assistant to report "still a problem" throughout the beta cycle has made no impact on the following issues, which are still present in the RC.

After message delete, focus is at bottom of list. This is a new bug with the Golden Gate Mail client.

Afvanced SIRI capabilities non-functional after beta 3 clean install. I seem to be one of the few with this issue. Apple has done nothing to address SIRI's misconfiguration throughout the beta cycle. Apparently they just expect me to do another clean install. Or live without SIRI.

NumPad shortcuts incorrectly disabled in password fields. This bug has been around for a couple of releases now. Still present in Golden Gate.

Heading level does not obey custom verbosity. This is an issue with the headings menu in the VO+U web rotor only. Still present in Golden Gate.

Read Next Paragraph fails for short paragraphs. This bug was introduced a couple of releases ago. Still present in Golden Gate.

VoiceOver occasionally skips over initial words in a phrase. This behavior has changed slightly in Golden Gate. I occasionally hear *entire* phrases skipped, not just partial phrases. And it's predominantly in Finder and Google Chrome.

VoiceOver inconsistencies reading dates. Another long-standing issue that Golden Gate does nothing to address.

No VoiceOver feedback in Wordpress block editor with Google Chrome. This is arguably a Google bug. It's present in Tahoe with the same version of Chrome.

Now I'm really curious. If you know it's a Google issue, why are you reporting it to Apple? I feel like they're not the ones hwo are oging to be able to help you with that.

Compared to Tahoe, are any bugs actually fixed? Or has it just added a few new ones?

Sounds like the useful new features it brings are an advanced Siri that may or may not work, and improved image descriptions (which I really do want). Oh and a few little things like being ablw to speak line numbers that will likely only work in xcode and nowhere else.

Considering this was supposed to be the Snow Leopard release that fixes everything, it feelsl ike another wasted opportunity.

On the RC, Chrome Version 153.0.8010.36 (Official Build) (arm64) resolves the issue where VoiceOver did not speak in the Wordpress block editor.

Mr Grieves, you're right. There isn't a lot of change here. On one hand, that's good. They didn't rearrange the furniture on us. On the other hand, another missed opportunity to address serious usability issues.

SIRI AI is the big change, but I'm unable to use it due to a beta 3 bug with setting up a new Mac. If I can clear a day in my schedule, I'll take a crack at hacking SIRI settings to fix this myself.

there is a slight behavior change with VO+Shift+F3. It now actually changes the stored state and is reflected in VO Utility. This gives me hope that they might have investigated and resolved the long-standing issue with mouse pointer flipping to Follows. Nothing in the release notes about it, though.

Slash is no longer spoken as solidus. Glad they found a way to undo that regression.

The issue with not speaking an initial chunk of a phrase has morphed. Instead, entire phrases are skipped, though this seems to happen very rarely. In contrast, Tahoe skipped portions of speech pretty much all the time.

The only other thing I noticed was the behavior change when deleting a message in Mail list view. It seems like a bug to me, but they haven't lifted a finger to fix it, so I guess it's a feature.

That sounds really annoying, it surely can't be on purpose. Hopefully this also affects sighted folk in which case it might have a chance of being fixed.

there is a slight behavior change with VO+Shift+F3. It now actually changes the stored state and is reflected in VO Utility. This gives me hope that they might have investigated and resolved the long-standing issue with mouse pointer flipping to Follows. Nothing in the release notes about it, though.

I really hope this at least can get some change! Fun that we went from skipping a few words before refresh to full paragraphs, try to navigate apple public security mailing list it's easy to reproduce there, a standard plain html page. ... I mean, I have not even bothered to beta test beyond beta 1 this year so that tells a lot about how I view apple and their seriousness and commitment to fix macos accessibility infrastructure as a whole, sub 0. I really have a hard time doing actual code on macos, after 2 minutes I get so angry that I switch to windows. There are so little things that just add up to become intolerable for me. But yeah, I'll still update my not so used mac to 27 and see after a couple of months if it's worth it. I can't sell it, so as long as apple keeps updating it I'll keep it to have a foot in the ecosystem, but beyond that... I have become quite sinical and have more important things to do than bug report to a close platform where each year I have to copy paste the same reports again as they always remove all reports where nothing has been done from their end, aka literally all the damn reports this year (since mid 2025). Long life NVDA and the web. IMO windows is so wide spread that it's open source in spirit at least, the debloat community is great and passed that... it's the best desktop os on the market for us, period. I seriously believe linux will catch up before voiceover ever does. Sorry if it's off topic, @mods feel free to remove or pm me, but yeah.

I completely agree with the last post. Apple has wasted opportunity after opportunity. The pattern seems to be introduce flashy new features that may or may not work correctly, and then never fix or improve upon them, while leaving all the long-standing bugs unresolved. I doubt the new CEO will change anything meaningful. I'm still waiting for the option to natively boot Windows or Linux on my M4 Mac mini. Said Mac mini should get macOS updates until at least 2031 or 2032 and possibly beyond if the community can get something like OCLP working on M-series machines, so I have a while to see if Apple turns things around. Unfortunately, 2012 to 2026 has demonstrated they don't seem to care as much as you'd think. I keep getting excited because they genuinely do something cool like adding the customizable VO key commands in Sequoia, but I should really stop getting hyped only to be disappointed again.
I have no plans to purchase another Mac or any Apple device for that matter in the future. It's too bad Linux isn't more popular. If NVDA taught us anything, it's that we should be controlling our own future, not some corporation that values profit over everything else. Imagine what we could do with a fully open-source platform like Linux if it was significantly more popular? We could leave Microsoft and Apple behind for good. Oh well, it's a pipe dream, but a really nice one. Too much software is written for Windows, so like it or not, we're stuck, at least in some specific situations.

I'm using Linux as my primary desktop operating system at the moment (I've been a Linux user since the alte 90s). I've also been testing the macOS 27 public beta releases. I suggest reporting any last-minute issues you find in the Release Candidate to eanble Apple to address them in one of the forthcoming, minor updates.

I'll withhold my comments on this version of macOS until the actual release, and I'll keep testing the Release CAndiate. The Mac is a secondary machine for me, so I can afford to run betas on it, as I've been doing for years.

It’s not a question of Apple not caring about you. If you want to be the one sitting here, programming it and making it all run then go ahead and do it. I’m honestly amazed. These things are running as well as they are. Max and iPhones and iPads in the TV and watches. There’s things going on of course there’s bugs that’s incapable part of technology. Doesn’t matter what company it’s from or what kind of operating system it is. As far as being stuck with windows yeah I kind of agree I don’t love windows but unfortunately, at least in the US all the schools and the agencies are pushing windows so we kinda had to learn that. I still use jaws. I’ve actually never used NVDA. But that’s only because I have a Jaws home manual subscription. Although I may be canceling that for next year because I’m really not on my computer as much anymore. I’m mostly on my phone. So I’m mostly using that and voiceover. I can’t believe how much slower a computer is to respond to installing things on the phone. That kind of annoying. Phone is definitely faster to respond for sure. I guess there’s just less going on in the background or something. I don’t even have Windows 11 because my computer can’t run it. But John is 2026 still works in Windows 10 so that’s what I have. I’m using Karen on my jobs computer too so I get to hear her for all my devices now. Heck I even still have a laptop that runs Windows 7 and just 2021 and you know what it’s still imperfectly working order and also is running Karen’s premium high Voice. So yeah couldn’t tell by now. She’s my favorite voice? Lol can’t wait for the new 27 update.

Just one thing. I apologize in advance for again replying in a sub thread of a thread where people expect to read about useful stuff about macos 27, good or bad.

There’s things going on of course there’s bugs that’s incapable part of technology.

Of course, you are 101% correct here, that software without bugs fundamentally don't exist, and never will. How could an imperfect flawed being create something perfect? No, I don't like that much philosophy and will never study this thing for god's sake 😂 But you get my point. What I want to emphasise is that these are not normal tolerable bugs, that they are result of decade of neglect with no acknowledgment of the company whatsoever. Systemic issues at some point in the voiceover / accessibility infrastructure. And I want to highlight that I am really specifically talking about macos. iOS has some little part of it, but we don't see 99% because of how we interact differently with those devices. This is my main argument.

Like a plane where we'd have a little problem, but each inspector will ignore it. And this would go on for other issues, until you have a plane that is very risky to say the least to fly with. Problems that accumulate over time. Not your usual windows update bug, with some sarcasm as people could rightfully say that this year's windows update bugs are absolutely normal and should never become the new standard.

On another note I will be installing the RC now and update with my findings. I believe that the pseudo hidden developer options ideep deep in voiceover utility --> braille have not appeared yet in regular menu structures?

Sorry again but I wanted to make my point clear. No other screen on the market has so many problems at once, and I've tried a lot excluding anything android.

OK, that makes a whole lot of sense. An allergy of the plane actually totally makes sense. Well hopefully something will change in that respect at some point. I mean, I really guess I can’t say I just do get kind of tired about like reading stuff like Apple doesn’t care and stuff like that but I do kind of get the frustration two of you know you’re not getting anywhere but we need to report things so yeah I get that

Whether it is because they don't care, don't have the resources, believe that bugs are fixed when they are not etc and so on,the reason is irrelevant. Fact is, it's a screen reader that has grown stale over the years and has actually gotten worse.

I know its the same old drum I beat all the time but, sadly, it's the same old issue. Though I like the hardware, I'd never ever suggest getting a mac to anyone who is blind, at least, not for anyone who uses it beyond very simple tasks but, even then, mail is awkward to use, as is safari. When they can't get the basics right, it's time to consider alternatives. Windows on my macbook air natively would be perfect. I just don't ever see that happening though.

Yeah, that’s gotta be super frustrating. I definitely get that. We keep reporting things and they’re still not getting fixed. That’s gonna make anybody wanna run away I guess it’s a good thing. I never try to make. So you don’t recommend it. Well then, I guess I won’t do it. I’ve actually heard that from people that did switch from window to a Mac, but they literally told me not to do it if I don’t have to. The person I knew had to because she was going to ease Music things for school or something so she had to switch.

I've been a Windows user for over a decade but now bought a Macbook Air for college purposes. Having used it for about a month i have to say I'm pleasantly surprised and have not encountered any significant drawbacks or issues. I'd genuinely like to know specifically what bugs you guys are referring to, is there a list somewhere that I can browse? The release candidate runs just about as well for me as any other beta since say beta 4 or 5.

That’s awesome that you haven’t had issues. I think it’s cool that you were able to make a good transition. Everything I’ve read here is honestly made me scared to even try and everybody that I’ve talked to personally that has done. It literally told me not to unless I absolutely had to. So I’m not even sure which one to think at this point. I’m glad that it worked out for you though. Hopefully it does get you through college. Good luck.

They are kinda littered through the forum. Main issues you might encounter for university/college is using microsoft word with any long documents. Voiceover chokes. There are alternatives for document creation, apple pages, though it is convoluted and changes word documents into a pages format, but it is a way of reading commented word documents. Ulysses is good for composition though it is a yearly subscription.

Re Singer Girl... Yes, there is no better device for accessibility and music production. The fact that logic pro is completely accessible is a huge boon. Thing is, I'm an author and, as said above, microsoft word is unusable which is a significant problem.

I think a lot of the time it feels like death by 1000 cuts. It definitely depends on what you are doing and your levels of patience I think.

A few things - sometimes you can't get from the Safari address bar into the actual web content. If you navigate by headings and a heading has a child element, VO does not speak out the text of the heading, and tells you the number of child elements instead. In Tahoe, if a modal dialog opens up with a text box in it, usually VO won't speak the contents of the text as you type, until you restart. Often VO will tell you something like "you are on a textbox, to enter text into this box - type". And you type and nothing gets entered into the textbox, and you must fuss about trying to get it there. Or the many occasions where going forwards with VO and then back again takes you to an entirely different place. Or the arbitrary way you know whether to use Windows style tab/shift+tab or VO keys - regularly you need to keep flipping between the two different ways of working within the same task. Or the completely incomprehensible way some first party Mac apps work - every now and again I think I have cracked the App Store, then I come back and spend who knows how long trying to find the download button for an app.

The first signs of mac-ness is doing the same thing over and over again and getting different results each time. It always feels so hard to really master it because it always feel like you are fighting against it.

There are just lots of little things like this that don't sound like much but are just annoying all the time. So I find using the Mac I get things done but I am permanently irritated by it.

And that's not to mention the danger of installing updates. I remember when I first installed Sonoma and I had to blow off the dust on my Windows laptop and suddenly learn nvda because I could no longer use any of the web apps I depend on. New major versions are incredibly risky to install. Every now and again an issue may get fixed, but you can pretty much guarantee that it is accompanied by more new bugs. So you never get the feeling that things are progressing.

Having said that, I do think text editing is better now than it was in the past. I remember many bugs where VoiceOver would lie to you about what text was entered - it would make up punctuation marks and sll sorts of things. And fortunately those ones have actually gone away.

Golden Gate was heralded as the new Snow Leopard and would finally bring us some relief but from what I read on here it is not the case a all.

What I would say is that vibe coding my own apps has dramatically improved my experience of using the Mac. Now instead of having to battle various web apps like Jira, BitBucket and so on I just use my own native apps that do exactly what I want. The less time I am in Safari the happier I am.

And I think using PyCharm on the Mac - for the things I do anyway - is mostly a pretty good experience. When I tried it on Windows it was not good at all and everyone told me to use the (inferior) VS Code instead - to which I thought, might as well stick with the Mac.

The frustration is that Apple don't seem to particularly engage with us at all. They love releasing exciting big ticket new features, but what they don't do is spend any time on the day to day stuff we use all the time. I almost never use the new features they release, and yet I never have a day where I am not tormented by the bugs. I think if they genuinely listened to us they would spend more time making what is there work properly and less on trying to make themselves look good in presentations. It's a bit like learning to run before you can walk. So it definitely feels like they care more about the optics than the individual users.

But I don't think it is fair to say that you can't get things done on the Mac, and that it's unusable and even that it's not possible to have a good time with it. But the overall experience just tends to degrade with every major release.

I want to think the people at Apple care, I really do. As has been said before, I think it's a resource or prioritization problem. Perhaps it's both. If you have a small team of people working on all accessibility features, not just VoiceOver, and that's on all operating systems simultaneously, it's completely understandable. They're spread very thin since they have to cover all those target areas. Bugs are a part of all software. That's fine and completely acceptable. Like it or not, we're not perfect beings. What's not acceptable is the ridiculous culture at the company, especially when it comes to features we rely on every day. Someone came on here a long time ago claiming to be from Apple and said employees aren't allowed to look at this website during work. If that wasn't a troll, it's incredibly troubling, but given Apple's extreme proprietary and secretive culture, I wouldn't be surprised if it was true. If the above is true, it also stands to reason they can't comment on this website at all as long as they're employees.
For all we know these people really do care and would do something if they could, but the executives tie their hands, and if they go against it, they're fired. I initially get angry, but I ultimately end up feeling really depressed after a few minutes. Apple was the pioneer of mainstream accessibility, and it's heartbreaking to see that dedication to quality is essentially gone. At the end of the day, we're beating a dead horse. I don't expect macOS 28, 29, 30, 31, etc to substantially improve the situation, but I'll stay tuned to this space until my machine stops receiving official support. I'm not filing new feedback reports or updating existing ones anymore. The accessibility email address is a laughingstock. Only use it if you want an endless supply of canned responses that will raise your blood pressure. I have a bunch of feedback reports that are still open and unresolved despite many comments stating the issue is still present as new macOS builds are released. I don't even want to know how bad the telephone support is. I've never used it and have no desire to do so.

They're a multi trillian dollar company. If they were a little company, muddling their way through, of course I'd cut them some slack but, they're not. They're flippin' massive! And, if anyone else is like me, have been quite happy to take a lot of my money.

Death by a thousand cuts is a very good way of putting it.

If you want proper communication about bugs taht is superior to most of what you'll find in the corporate world, participate in active open-source communities. Linux accessibility is constantly and vastly under-resourced, but I've had bugs fixed within hours of reporting, and I'm not alone.

Due to the non-disclosure terms, I can't comment on how responsive Apple has been in the macOS 26 beta process to my bug reports. I can simply refer you to publicly available commentary on how bugs reported to Feedback Assistant are typically handled, and leave it at that. My approach to reporting is to use the Mac as I normally would, and to report whatever previously unreported issues, if any, I discover. Issues that I can reproduce are a higher priority for writing and submitting a report.

I agree with you. If they're spread thin, hire more people, change priority levels, or do something. Then again, it probably doesn't make them a lot of money. So much for Tim Cook's virtue signaling about not caring about the ROI when they do accessibility work. Who knows. NO one will tell us one way or the other.

Yeah, open source software is great! Everything is transparent. If you don't like what someone is doing, make your own version and improve upon what's there. If I had my way, the whole world would run like that, society would be organized into an anarchy system where we all work together cooperatively without relying on a central governing body, etc, etc, etc. It's a nice pipe dream.

This is absolutely insane. How can Apple break accessibility of one of their own main apps especially the app you use to install and update apps

I really have no idea how to install apps now because the App Store is just completely and utterly broken at least on dev b7 . I can't install any apps at all not even from my purchased apps list using voiceover.
does anyone no if this has been fixed in the RC?
i'd hope so.
and if not, pleas if you can, pleas file a feedback report.