Sequoia Beta 3 VMs Don’t Support Mac App Store
The third developer beta of macOS 15 Sequoia finally brings support for Apple ID in macOS virtual machines (VM). As this is likely to form the first public beta-release next week, here’s a short guide to how to install a Sequoia VM, and what you can do with it.
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Apple has previously stated that Sequoia “supports access to iCloud accounts and resources when running macOS in a virtual machine (VM) on Apple silicon”. However, that currently doesn’t include access to the App Store or use of apps purchased from it.
With issues of virtualising what was needed from the host’s Secure Enclave apparently solved, some of us had come to expect that would include App Store access, which is also controlled by Apple ID. It’s now clear that Apple didn’t intend to include its App Store as a “related application”, which was implicitly excluded.
However little you might love the App Store, support in macOS VMs is essential if they are to be of any general use. VMs that can’t run all App Store apps as part of the benefits of signing in with an Apple ID are so stunted as to be of little use. Would it be that difficult to implement, now that those VMs can be signed in to all the other services that depend on an Apple ID? Did Apple really forget its own App Store when deciding what apps should be allowed to run in a VM?
Previously:
Update (2024-07-17): Howard Oakley:
If you are beta-testing macOS 15 Sequoia in a lightweight virtual machine on an Apple silicon Mac, beware that it can cause the host to suffer a kernel panic.
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In Sonoma and earlier VMs, if you give the guest 16 GB of memory, it’s likely to use considerably less than that. Those betas of Sequoia will probably use a little more than is allocated to them. But that will double if you restart the VM, and if your host Mac has insufficient memory for twice that VM’s original allocation, it’s likely to suffer a kernel panic with the VM still open.
Update (2024-07-25): Matthias Gansrigler:
I read somewhere that when running macOS Sequoia in a virtual machine, I can log into my Apple account. But that does not seem to be available for Feedback Assistant, or is it? I still get the same error I used to when virtualizing earlier versions of macOS.
Previously:
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Yep, see, this is the real problem with letting Apple control the technology stack from bottom to top; on the one hand you get this nice, integrated experience, and on the other you get mammoth conflicts of interest like this that fundamentally block innovation.
But, of course, you knew that already.
