The beta version of Catalina, the 16th major version of the macOS, has been released a few weeks ago and caused an uproar within the Apple community. The new macOS boasts of some exciting new features, including the capability to use an iPad as a secondary display.
macOS Catalina was first introduced during Apple’s WWDC 2019 conference in San Jose earlier this year, and now the beta version is ready to download from the Apple website. The new macOS has ditched good ol’ iTunes and introduces new versions of the Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple Podcasts and Apple Books, instead.
macOS Catalina’s Sidecar feature, on the other hand, is probably the most exciting feature of this new macOS version. Sidecar allows your Mac’s display to extend to another iPad, both wired and wirelessly. You can also use the iPad display as a drawing tablet using specifically supported apps, such as Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Illustrator, and iWork.
macOS Catalina will also bring more iPhone and iPad apps to the Mac, including Screen Time. Project Marzipan, also known as Project Catalyst, is responsible for seamlessly integrating iPhone and iPad apps on macOS.
Unfortunately, not all apps will work with macOS Catalina. Older apps, particularly the 32-bit versions, will either stop running or might encounter problems with the drivers. So, before you get excited and upgrade to the new macOS when it becomes available to the public this October, it is important to check first whether your apps will still work with the new macOS.
Which Apps Won’t Work With macOS Catalina?
When macOS Mojave was released in 2018, a lot of apps were also not compatible and had trouble running with the new macOS. With macOS Catalina, more apps will see their demise because of incompatibility.
Some of these apps are older versions of software from developers, including Adobe, Microsoft, and Apple itself. Although these apps have been updated recently, there are still a lot of users who prefer to run the older version and kept on delaying the upgrade due to some reason. Some of these apps were able to work with Mojave, albeit buggy, by tweaking some settings and using a Mac cleaning tool. However, these apps will be totally disabled when you upgrade to macOS Catalina.
Old apps, particularly those that contain 32-bit code, will no longer work with macOS Catalina. Some drivers that utilize kernel extensions also won’t run with the new OS. You should still be able to install and use unsigned apps, but they will soon be phased out as well due to security issues.
Apple has already announced and explained why it’s cutting off support for 32-bit apps on Mac. Basically, Apple thinks that 32-bit apps slow down Mac’s performance and wants to focus more 64-bit apps that are faster and more efficient. This isn’t anything new. In 2017, Apple has already ended support for 32-bit apps in iOS 11.
According to rumors, more than 200 apps will be disabled with the release of macOS Catalina. Here are some of these unsupported apps that you need to upgrade or find a replacement for, should you decide to upgrade to the new macOS.
- Adobe Illustrator CS5
- Adobe InDesign CS5 & CS6
- Adobe Final Cut Pro X 10.3.4
- Adobe Motion 5.3.2
- Adobe Compressor 4.3.2
- Adobe Logic Pro X 10.3.1
- Adobe MainStage 3.3
- Adobe Acrobat Pro 9.5.5
- Adobe Lightroom
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- Adobe After Effects
- Microsoft Excel 2011
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2011
- Microsoft Outlook 2011
- Microsoft Word 2011
- Aperture 3 released in 2010
- Work ’09 applications, including Pages, Keynote and Numbers
- Photoshop CS5
- Photoshop 2018
- Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
- Call of Duty
- Call of Duty 2
- Call of Duty 4
- Call of Duty Black Ops
- Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
- Civilization IV
- Civilization IV: Colonization
- Doom 3
- Duke Nukem Forever
- Fahrenheit
- Homeworld Remastered Collection
- Prey
- Quake 4
- RAGE
- Star Wars: Empire at War
- Star Wars: Jedi Academy
- Star Wars: Jedi Outcast
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
- Sims 2: Life Stories
- Sims 2: Pet Stories
- Sims 2: Castaway Stories
- Tomb Raider 2
- Transmit 4.1.7
- 1Password 2.12.2
- iStats Menu 2.9
- QuickBooks 2015
- Creative Cloud 1.1.0.592
- SugarSync 1.0
- DeFault Folder X 4.3.10
- Parallels 2.5
- Box Sync 4.0.
Although some of these apps are already using the 64-bit code, there will still be incompatibility issues because of how the new operating system works.
How to Check if Your Apps Will Work in macOS Catalina
One thing is for sure: 32-bit apps will totally not work in macOS Catalina. So, the first thing you need to do is to check whether the apps you have currently installed on your Mac are 32-bit or 64-bit. If they are 32-bit, you might need to upgrade to a newer version or find an alternative before you switch to the new macOS.
To identify 32-bit apps on your Mac, follow the steps below:
- Click the Apple logo in the upper-left corner of the screen, then choose About This Mac from the dropdown menu.
- Click on System Report > Software > Applications. You will see a list of all the apps installed on your Mac.
- Check the last column to see what version (32-bit or 64-bit) of the app you have installed. You can also sort the items on that column to make it easy to find out which apps will not be supported by macOS Catalina.
- You might also need to check the Obtained from column. If the value is Identified Developer, Mac App Store, or Apple, then there should be no problem. But when you see Unknown, it is possible that you may experience problems in the future.
What to Do if Your App Won’t Work in Catalina
If the app that you are using will no longer be supported in macOS Catalina, here are some options you can try:
1 – Update the app. Since macOS Mojave has started disabling 32-bit apps, it is highly likely that the developer has already released a 64-bit version of the app that meets other requirements of macOS. It is also possible that some developers will require you to pay for the update. Otherwise, you’ll have to look for an alternative app.
2 – If the app developer did not release a 64-bit version of the app, is out of business, or has stopped development, you need to find an alternative app that works in Catalina.
3 – Another option is to run an older version of macOS together with Catalina so that you could enjoy the best of both worlds. You can continue to use your 32-bit apps and enjoy the new features of the new macOS.
4 – Or, you could just decide to stay with your current macOS version and not upgrade to macOS Catalina. If you’re buying a new Mac, you won’t have a choice though.
5 – If you’re thinking of not upgrading to macOS Catalina just so you can continue to use your 32-bit apps, be warned that Apple might stop supporting Mojave as early as 2020, so this is obviously not a practical choice.
Author Bio
As a Journalist by profession, April Reyes has extensive experience in writing about various topics under the sun, including technology, gadgets, travel, social media, and digital marketing. If she’s not writing articles for Software Tested she’s either watching her favorite TV series or playing video games.
