“Mac users may have missed Apple’s memo when the company warned it plans to discontinue support for 32-bit Mac apps in 2019,” Jony Evans writes for Apple Must. “It is already evicting 32-bit apps from its mobile platforms, fall’s iOS 11 release will only support 64-bit apps.”
“Macs have been running 64-bit chips since mid-2011, when it introduced Mac OS X Lion,” Evans writes. “That’s great, and you’d certainly expect most application developers would have migrated their apps to full 64-bit support, but you’d be wrong. Even Apple hasn’t finished the job – the DVD Player app remains 32-bit, which isn’t a great surprise when no new Macs include an optical drive.”
Evans writes, “So, how can you check which of your Mac applications won’t make the cut when Apple terminates 32-bit support in 2019?”
How to check your Mac apps for 64-bitness here.
MacDailyNews Take: Aw, DVD Player, we hardly knew ya.
Apple shipped the world’s first 64-bit personal computer over 14 years ago with the release of the Power Mac G5 on June 23, 2003. Apple unveiled the world’s first 64-bit smartphone (iPhone 5s) on September 10, 2013.
Apple’s notice:
64-bit Requirement for Mac Apps – June 28, 2017
At WWDC 2017, we announced new apps submitted to the Mac App Store must support 64-bit starting January 2018, and Mac app updates and existing apps must support 64-bit starting June 2018. If you distribute your apps outside the Mac App Store, we highly recommend distributing 64-bit binaries to make sure your users can continue to run your apps on future versions of macOS. macOS High Sierra will be the last macOS release to support 32-bit apps without compromise.
SEE ALSO:
Apple: High Sierra will be last macOS release to support 32-bit apps ‘without compromise’ – June 29, 2017
Hmmnnnn…. Microsoft Office 2011 is a “No”. Epson Scan (which just shipped with my new printer is a “no”. The app that shipped with my new camera that enables me to access RAW is a “no”. The tax software I used in 2013, 14 & 15 (and need t access my taxes from those years in case I’m audited” is a “no”. uTorrent is a “no”.
So I guess High Sierra for me is a “No”. So much for Apple’s vaunted customer service.
So do you expect Apple to wait for all software companies to upgrade their products first? If that’s the case nothing would ever progress, and we’d end up with another Windows. Just keep using Sierra until your preferred apps do become compatible; that’s what I’m going to do.
Old tax software will never be updated. He has a good point.
The problem with withdrawing support for older applications is that users will no longer be able to access work or files that they created on those apps in the past.
I’ve got two very old Mac laptops, one with a G4 and the other a PPC CPU and they’re still occasionally used to open files that I created many years ago on applications which are no longer available. Obviously I wouldn’t do any new work on those old applications, but I still need to access my working drawings, maintenance records, artwork and layouts for projects that were completed anything up to twenty five years ago.
Apple’s work may have a limited lifespan, but some of my work lasts for decades and the tools I use to support my work need to stay around for decades too.
I’m going to have a careful look so see if I’m likely to access anything created with my old 32 bit apps in the future and if necessary will store an old iPhone 5 in the cupboard with the old Mac laptops. However my inclination is that this won’t be so much of an issue for me on IOS as it was with Macs.
High Sierra supports 32-bit apps. It’s the next version that doesn’t.
Considering how long Macs have been 64-bit, don’t you think the blame really is on developers at this point if they haven’t offered upgrades?
Your version of Office will be almost 8 years old, and should’ve been 64-bit years before it was even released. There have been Office upgrades for a long time now that support 64-bit.
It’s worth noting that while you won’t have to upgrade next year, if you decide to do so, you have over a year to deal with upgrading your apps or looking for suitable replacements.
Really though, going past 15 years for a transition from the first introduction of 64-bit to no longer supporting 32-bit apps in the OS is extremely reasonable, especially considering that 32-bit apps will still work in a version of macOS that will still be supporting for years longer.
Compare this to the nonsense that was Windows where one had to make sure they decided correctly between 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows itself.
Of course if you don’t want to upgrade/replace your apps and still want to be on the latest version of macOS next year, you can always run macOS virtualized on the Mac.
Even if the blame (rightly so) is on developers, when somebody’s app stops working, you know Apple will be slammed for it. That is just the way it is…..
High Sierra is the last OS that WILL support 32.
Apple Compressor is also 32 bit.
Parallels runs macOS quite well now, as does the free VirtualBox. For the odd app, it could work while you scout a replacement.
Excellent point! Meanwhile, I’m waiting for Parallels to announce another full point upgrade (seeing as I found version 12 worth skipping) compatible with APFS in High Sierra.
It wouldn’t be Parallels if they didn’t charge first for an upgrade to High Sierra and then an upgrade to APFS… oh, and of course it’s faster!
Humph. Have to agree. Meanwhile, I’m perfectly happy with version 11.
Apple better not kill the DVD Player… I still use it till this day and with the Apple remote mind ya!
I think they’re gonna let it wither on the vine.
Doesn’t 64-bit VLC support the old remote control?
I’ve been using VLC almost exclusively as a superior replacement for DVD Player.
I’m much more worried about 32-bit iOS apps. There are some oldies but goldies dating back to iPad 1 (which have been updated periodically — but iOS warns on launching that they don’t run efficiently and the devs need to update them), the original version of GoodReader with an internal file system, for example.
Added to Apples’ clearout of dead apps in the App Store, the prospect of hunting down the developers, dragging them out of retirement and convincing them to do some work sounds hopeless, to be truthful.
For users of these ‘old’ but highly useful apps, it’s hard to comprehend why they’d leave them to rot.
Can anything realistically be done to persuade them to ‘do the honours’ and 64-bit these things?
About 25% of my Mac applications are 32-bit. That’s going to clean off some significant drive space! 😀 But there are a few in my collection I’m going to have to keep enabled on a 32-bit enabled macOS boot partition.
At least we can put that off for another year.
‘All things must pass…’
Sigh. Looks like I’ll have to upgrade to High Sierra and stop there. I’ve a lot of older 32-bit apps that I use (that the developers have ceased updating) that don’t have equivalent alternatives. Double sigh.
Wow, Aperture is 64-Bit. Reprieved! 😀
looks like I’m lucky- all the ones I have look like they should be upgraded in time, including numbers and pages.
The only exception is my tax software from 2014,15 and 16! Better make PDF fall the documents…. and save a .dmg of Sierra, just in case for an emergency VM courtesy of the IRS. 🙂
….better make a PDF of all the documents and a cd of the software…..