Macos Catalina And 32 Bit Apps
These 32-bit apps are not compatible with macOS Catalina. Once macOS 10.15 is installed, the icons of incompatible programs are crossed out in the Applications folder. Since these software tools are unusable, you should either update unsupported 32-bit apps to their 64-bit. Oct 12, 2019 Apple’s latest Mac update, macOS Catalina, was released earlier this week, and with it came a flurry of complications both minor and major. For one, this update is the first for Apple to drop 32.
Mac Catalina 32 Bit Apps
Apple was phasing out the use of 32-bits applications on macOS for quite some time. Now the finishing time has come that the version 10.15 or macOS Catalina will no more support 32-bit applications. If you are still running old and unsupported applications in macOS Mojave or earlier versions then you need be cautious before upgrading to macOS Catalina. In this article, we will explain how to check 32-bit and 64-bit apps in macOS.
What Happens When You Open 32-bit Apps?
As of macOS Mojave, Apple will show a warning message whenever you open 32-bit apps. The best example of 32-bit app on macOS is Microsoft Office 2011. Whenever you open the app, macOS will show you a message like below indicating that the app is outdated and not optimized for your Mac.
However, you can still click on the “OK” button to continue using the app. Unfortunately, this is no more possible with macOS Catalina. When the 32-bit app is on the dock, you will see a white cross mark on the app indicating it will not work any more.
Trying to open the 32-bit with macOS Catalina will show a messages like below depending on the app:
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Word 2011:
Kaspersky Antivirus Pro:
iPhoto:
Basically you have the following three options:
- Go to the App Store and find the replacement or upgraded app.
- Click on “Learn More…” button to go to Apple’s page explaining about 32-bit apps.
- Choose “Not Now” button to close the app.
If there are no upgrade or alternate options then you can’t use 32-bit apps with macOS Catalina.
Related:How to fox slow performance and speedup your Mac?
How to Check 32-bit and 64-bit Apps in macOS?
If you wanted to check how many apps on your Mac are running with 32-bit then follow the below instructions.
- Click on the Apple menu icon on top left corner of the Mac and choose “About This Mac” option.
- Under the “Overview” tab, click on “System Report…” button.
- You will see a system information dialog like below. Click on the “Applications” option available under “Software” section. It may take sometime to load the list depending upon the number of apps on your Mac.
- Select any application to view the details on the below pane. You can check against the “Kind” option whether it shows 32-bit or 64-bit apps.
- Generally, all Apple apps should be of 64-bit. Therefore, you can click on the “Obtained from” column to sort the list based on the developer.
- Check the apps downloaded from Mac App Store, Identified Developer or Unknown categories to easily find the 32-bit apps.
- You can clearly see the Kind will show as “32-bit (Unsupported) indicating the app will no more work on your Mac.
Taking Action
Unfortunately, you have no option to modified any parameter on the apps. If you have premium apps purchased from App Store or directly from third-party websites, contact the developer and inform them to upgrade a 64-bit version. For the free apps, you need to find alternatives from App Store from other developers.
If you have no other option to use the app then delay upgrading to macOS Catalina till the time you find alternative solution.
In a recent blog post, my colleague Kayla Myrhow did an excellent job explaining the 32-bit application issue for users who are considering or have already moved to macOS® Catalina. In this post, I’ll show you how to set up your Mac® to continue to run 32-bit apps. You can do this either before or after you upgrade to macOS Catalina.
There are only two steps, but it does take about 45 minutes to complete this setup:
- Create a Parallels Desktop® for Mac virtual machine and install an older Mac operating systemin it.
- Install the 32-bit apps you wantinto this new virtual machine.
I made a videoof this entire process—I edited out the boring parts but left all the essentialsteps. The end result is the 5-minute video below. For this video, I chosemacOS High Sierra as the older Mac OS, but you could install Mojave, Sierra oralmost any older Mac OS. I also chose the Office for Mac 2011 suite as the32-bit application, because several users have told me that it contains the setof 32-bit apps that they most want to run in Catalina.
After you finish this setup, you will be able to run 32-bit apps on your Mac running macOS Catalina.
Try Parallels Desktop for free for 14 days and run 32-bit apps on your Mac.
Let us know inthe comments which 32-bit apps you need to run on macOS Catalina and how thisis working out for you.