- What Apps Broken By Mac Catalina Island
- Apple Music App Catalina
- What Apps Broken By Mac Catalina 2017
There are so many new features and enhancements in macOS Catalina that it’s easy to forget that along with lots of additions, there are a few things that have gone missing, and other things that will no longer work. So, for balance, here’s a list of all the things you lose when you switch to macOS Catalina.
If it is available, get it installed and you will find that your broken app now functions very well on your Mac. Downgrade from Catalina to the previous version of macOS (Mojave) One of the ways to get your music files to work with your Mac is to downgrade your Mac to an older version of the macOS. MacOS Catalina's iPad apps for the Mac are here, but the story is just getting started. Catalyst has been slow to take off on MacOS 10.15, but here's a look at the state of tablet apps migrating.
1. iTunes
This is the most obvious one. The loss of iTunes won’t be mourned by many people. It had become bloated and buggy and is the app everyone loves to hate. In fact, the loss of iTunes is probably more a positive than a negative, but it is a loss nevertheless.
Happily, although the app itself is gone, its features are not. Everything you could do in iTunes, you can now do in the new Music, TV, and Podcasts apps, as well as the Finder and Books. Here’s a quick list of which apps handle which bits of iTunes.
- Streaming, buying, and playing music – Music
- Buying, renting, and watching movies and TV programs – TV
- Subscribing to, organising, and downloading podcasts – Podcasts
- Downloading and listening to audio books – Books
- Syncing, backing up, and restoring an iOS device – Finder
If you haven’t upgraded to Catalina yet, or don’t intend to, it’s worthwhile cleaning up iTunes junk. There are probably several gigabytes’ worth, or maybe tens of gigabytes’ worth of broken downloads, update files, and other clutter you don’t need lying on your startup drive. Get rid of them and you’ll free up all that space.
I recommend using CleanMyMac X’s iTunes Junk tool for that. It’s quick, easy to use, and could free up several gigabytes of disk space. Here’s how to use it.
- Install, and launch CleanMyMac X — download free edition here
- Choose iTunes Junk from the sidebar.
- Press Scan.
- When it’s done, press Clean to get rid of all the unnecessary files.
2. 32-bit apps
Apple has been warning for some time that it would stop supporting 32-bit apps and it has finally happened. If you install Catalina and you have 32-bit apps on your Mac, you will be prompted to upgrade them. If there isn’t a 32-bit version available, you’ll have to find an alternative. If you don’t want to find an alternative, you can do one of three things
- Not upgrade to Catalina
- Keep a Mac that’s running macOS Mojave or earlier and run 32-bit apps on that
- Install an emulator like VMWare Fusion and install an earlier version of macOS on that to run your 32-bit apps
This is something you should give some careful thought to before you upgrade. It will be too late afterwards.
You can update many of the apps on your Mac in one go, including installing 64-bit versions, using CleanMyMac X. It scans your Mac to see what apps are installed, then searches for updates and tells you which of your apps have updates available. You can then choose to update all of them, or only those you select.
3. QuickTime 7
One of the casualties of the withdrawal of support for 32-bit apps in Catalina is Apple’s own QuickTime 7. It will no longer work on the Mac. That shouldn’t be a surprise given that it’s full 10 years since it arrived. Back in 2009 when Snow Leopard was launched, Apple overhauled QuickTime Player and called it QuickTime X. However, the new version was missing lots of features, like the tool in QuickTime Pro that allowed you to cut two or more videos together using only QuickTime. QuickTime X also dropped support for some video formats. So lots of people kept QuickTime 7 around so they could quickly edit video or strip audio from a cued and replace it. But now, QuickTime 7 is gone for good.
4. Dashboard
Remember Dashboard? It allowed you to keep widgets in a Desktop space for things like viewing weather forecasts, stock prices or consulting a dictionary. Introduced its Mac OS X Tiger way back in 2005, it’s been slowly pushed out over the last few versions of the OS and is disabled by default in Mojave. It’s still there, though, and you can re-enable it in System Preferences. In Catalina, though, it’s gone completely. All references to it have been scrubbed from the code. It’s no great loss, though. You can view weather and stocks widgets in Notification Center, and the Dictionary is only ever a couple of clicks away in a text editing app.
5. Support for mid-2010 and mid-2012 Mac Pro
The last of Apple’s ‘cheese-grater’ Mac Pros, at least until the next Mac Pro is launched, won’t be supported in macOS Catalina. The oldest supported Mac Pro is the 2013 model. Apple is very good when it comes to supporting older Macs on new versions of the OS, but even it has to drop support for older machines now and again. On the plus side, Macs as old as the 2012 Mac mini, iMac and MacBook Air will all be able to run Catalina. If you have an older Mac Pro, it may be time to upgrade, or perhaps you could keep it around, running Mojave so that you can use it for 32-bit apps and QuickTime 7.
As you can see, there are quite a few things to say goodbye too with the introduction of macOS Catalina. Some of them, like Dashboard and iTunes won’t be missed by too many people. Others, like QuickTime 7 still have ardent fans and regular users. It’s clear, though, that the benefits of Catalina, and the focus on 64-bit apps far outweigh the losses. And as long as you plan your upgrade and come up with replacements for the things you will lose, the transition should be a positive one.
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When macOS Mojave was announced, Apple warned that it would be the last version of macOS that would support older 32-bit apps. Apple has been phasing out 32-bit apps for the last 10 years and is now ready to take the final step, even if Mac users may not be ready to lose access to older apps.
With the release of macOS Catalina, 32-bit app support is no longer available, which means many of your older apps will no longer work if they haven't been updated to 64-bit.
32-bit vs. 64-bit
32-bit apps date back to a time when there were 32-bit processors and 32-bit operating systems, but are now outdated. Apple has long since transitioned to 64-bit processors and macOS has been 64-bit since the launch of Snow Leopard in 2009.
Compared to 32-bit apps, 64-bit apps can take advantage of more memory and offer faster system performance. Apple technologies like Metal only work with 64-bit apps, and for Apple to ensure that Mac apps include all of the latest advancements and optimizations, support for 32-bit needs to end. In the simplest terms, 32-bit apps are inefficient.
32-bit apps can run on a 64-bit system as they've been doing for years, but Apple wants to get rid of outdated apps to make sure everything that runs on the Mac is properly optimized and isn't an unnecessary drain on system resources.
Previous Warnings
Apple started warning Mac users about plans to end support for 32-bit apps back with macOS High Sierra. In High Sierra, users started getting warnings about a 32-bit app's future incompatibility with macOS.
A similar message was available in macOS Mojave, and if you opened up a 32-bit app while running Mojave, you saw an alert letting you know a specific app wouldn't work with future versions of macOS unless it was updated.
Alerts re-appeared every 30 days when launching an app, with Apple aiming to make sure customers would not be caught unaware when a 32-bit app stopped working in the future, so you should already know if one of your frequently used apps hasn't been upgraded to 64-bit.
Upon updating to macOS Catalina, you'll be shown a list of 32-bit apps that no longer work on your system.
How to Check if an App is 32-Bit or 64-Bit in macOS Mojave
To determine whether an app is 64-bit or 32-bit and to see if there are 32-bit apps installed on your machine before upgrading to macOS Catalina, follow these steps:
What Apps Broken By Mac Catalina Island
- Click the Apple symbol () in the menu bar on your Mac's desktop.
- Click on About This Mac.
- Choose 'System Report' at the bottom of the window.
- Scroll down to the Software list on the sidebar.
- Select Legacy Software.'
Anything in the list of Legacy Software applications is a 32-bit app and will not work when upgrading to macOS Catalina.
If Legacy Software isn't an option in the sidebar, select the Applications option and then check the list of apps at the right. The column that's labeled 64-bit will show a 'No' listing for apps that are 32-bit.
How to Prepare to Update to macOS Catalina
The first step is to make sure there aren't already available updates for apps that you have on your system, which you can generally do by updating through the Mac App Store for Mac App Store apps.
Apps outside of the Mac App Store use other update methods that can vary by app, but for many, you can click on the app's name in the menu bar and choose the 'Check for Updates' option. Some other apps have more hidden update methods, so if you do have a 32-bit app, make sure to Google how to update it to be sure there's not already new software available.
After ensuring you've updated everything you're able to update, you can contact developers and ask them to update their apps, but if that doesn't pan out, the only other solution is to start the search for an alternative app if you're committed to upgrading to macOS Catalina or have already done so.
32-Bit App Warnings When Installing Catalina
When upgrading to macOS Catalina, the installer will show a list of recently used apps that are 32-bit so you know what to expect before installing.
After viewing this list, you can choose to either cancel or continue with the installation.
macOS Catalina also shows a stop symbol over the icon of 32-bit apps in the Finder, so you know that the app isn't going to open.
Aperture
With the release of macOS Catalina, Aperture is going to stop working. Apple warned Aperture users in April 2019 that the software won't run in future versions of macOS, starting with macOS Catalina.
If you're an Aperture user, you'll have to transition to alternate photo editing and management software, such as Adobe's Lightroom. Aperture is not 32-bit, but Apple is phasing it out all the same.
Affected Media Formats
Certain media files that use older formats and codecs are also not compatible with macOS after macOS Mojave due to the 64-bit transition, and you will need to convert some iMovie and Final Cut Pro X libraries. Incompatible media files were created using codecs that rely on QuickTime 7, and while macOS Mojave has QuickTime 7 frameworks, future versions of macOS will not.
Apple has a full list of media formats that are going to be affected by the transition available in a support document.
Apple Music App Catalina
Continuing to Use 32-Bit Apps
In macOS Mojave and earlier versions of macOS like High Sierra, you can continue to use your 32-bit apps. If you have a 32-bit app that you absolutely depend on, you're going to want to think twice before upgrading to macOS Catalina.
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What Apps Broken By Mac Catalina 2017
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