With the release of macOS Catalina yesterday, it marks the end of 32-bit apps for the Mac, as the new requirement will require apps to support 64-bit.
Why is Apple doing this? According to the company’s support document on the change from 32-bit to 64-bit, Apple says newer apps will offer a better experience:
Apple began transitioning to 64-bit hardware and software technology for Mac over a decade ago, and all modern Macs now include powerful 64-bit processors that can run advanced 64-bit apps. These apps can access dramatically more memory, enable faster system performance, and take advantage of technologies that define today’s Mac experience, such as Metal graphics acceleration.
Apple has been working with developers to transition their apps, and in 2018 Apple informed them that macOS Mojave would be the last version of macOS to run 32-bit apps.
If you want to find out unsupported Mac apps before you make the plunge into macOS Catalina, here’s a simple way to find 32-bit apps on your Mac using System Information.
1. Choose Apple menu > About This Mac…
…then click the System Report button.
2. Select Applications in the sidebar and look for the column on the right labelled “64-Bit (Intel)”. If you see “Yes”, that means the app will work in macOS Catalina.
Just click the top of the 64-bit column label to arrange all 32-bit apps. You’ll see a list of apps showing “No”, which means they will not work in macOS Catalina:
3. You can also select Legacy Software in the sidebar to see 32-bit apps as well, but we found this didn’t show them all in our case.
So there you have it. If you have some old apps that aren’t going to make the transition to macOS Catalina, you may want to reach out to the developer and ask if an update is coming or not.
