What happens when you put off beta upgrades and put them off and off and off and suddenly the release version has outpaced the beta? This happens:

And this happens:

So there you are, stuck in beta and complaining to your friends about what is, ultimate, my your fault. If you don’t update on a timely basis, you can waste a few hours (as I just did) getting your system back on track so you can mess with (for example, just to pull something out of thin air) Swift Playgrounds for iOS for Mac (which requires the 10.15.4 beta10.15.3).

Just so you don’t waste time, don’t try installing the 10.15.3 combo updater. (Image above) You need to:

• Unenroll from the beta program,
• Install the latest macos from the App Store,
• Re-enroll into the beta program, and
• Upgrade to the latest beta.

Prepare to waste your entire morning on this, hopefully less the time I spent figuring it out courtesy of friends. Once you get the App Store blessed macos install going, remember that once it reboots, there’s another hour of wait time just on the standard install:

Those 13 minutes are a lie.

Expect at least another hour once you get to the beta access installer:

Hopefully this post will help anyone doing a websearch to get out of exactly this issue at some point in the future.

A final note: Once you’re up to date, swear to yourself that your rule of “never be the first to install a new beta” doesn’t mean “never be the last to install the new beta“. Hopefully I’ve learned my lesson.