Before moving to Catalina

DaveWT

Well-Known Member
If you have been doing your reading before upgrading your Mac to Catalina (macOS 10.15) you will have heard that this will spell the end of 32 bit apps. Apple has warned about this for years but finally is going through with this important step in going forward. But some of you may wonder "do I really still have any 32 bit apps?
The easiest way to do a quick check is to start from the Apple logo at the top left end of the menu bar. If you click on that, you can pull down to the first item that appears: "About This Mac".

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That will produce a new window with all sorts of useful info about your Mac, including the serial number if you ever have to talk to Apple about an issue. But what you want here is the button: "System Report..."

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That will produce a new window with an amazing amount of information about your Mac that could entertain you for hours.

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But for these purposes you need to click on "Applications" under the "Software" heading (1), then pull down on the little dot separating the lower detail area from the upper list (2). Finally click on the "65 bit..." heading at upper left to see which applications are NOT 64 bit (i.e. they are still older 32 bit apps that won't work after you update to Catalina. (3)

You can see I have several that need attention here before I can update to Catalina. I have a drawing program called Intaglio that appears to be 64 bit (found lower in the list if I scrolled down with a "Yes" beside it. So this method suggests I am safe there.

But on the MacWorld podcast I heard of a very useful FREE utility called "Go64" from https://www.stclairsoft.com/Main/products.html I downloaded, installed it and ran it for a much more informative picture. A few moments after launching it, this app will do a scan and fill its window with the results:

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I have highlighted my Intaglio drawing application for which it has shown a warning. Clicking on "More Info" at the bottom presents more details about a component that is still 32 bits and may or may not cause me grief. I can then click on "Go to Website" at the top to take me to the Intaglio developer's site to look for a newer version or perhaps contact the developer to learn if he plans to address this issue.

Some applications like my "Toast Titanium" will clearly not work under Catalina but can be easily remedied by paying for a newer version if I decide I want to keep it. My beloved EyeTV software is in a more perilous place at this time, with the developer claiming to be working on a 64 bit version but not clear (if it does ship) whether it will work on my old hardware.

Of much interest to me is how poorly Epson has handled its software for my expensive 1 year old Eco Tank printer. Some components will clearly fail, some are questionable and there are some that are safe (not shown here.) For those of you thinking of upgrading to Catalina, perhaps trying out "Go64" may be a valuable tool.

But in any case, whatever you do, "DON'T FORGET TO MAKE A BACKUP" before you attempt Catalina!

Dave Teece
 

DaveS

Well-Known Member
Dave,
Thanks a lot for posting this thorough look at leaving 32 bit operation behind. I'm not even sure my current MBP is upgradeable past Mojave, but if so, I have some other upgrading to do.

Dave Squance
 

chas_m

Well-Known Member
This is yet another instance where a BOOTABLE backup (Time Machine backups are great, but they’re not bootable) can save a lot of time. Depending on your need, Carbon Copy Cloner or ChronoSync are both great options for creating a bootable backup.
 

dfaulks

Well-Known Member
This is yet another instance where a BOOTABLE backup (Time Machine backups are great, but they’re not bootable) can save a lot of time. Depending on your need, Carbon Copy Cloner or ChronoSync are both great options for creating a bootable backup.
Foolishly, since obtaining and using a very large external drive for use as a TimeMachine backup, I've forgotten all about using CCC. Thus, having migrated to "the latest and greatest OS", I have NO backup of my latest version of the previous OS to fall back onto. As a result of my foolishness, I'm having all sorts of problems, the current one being that my Mail program is NOT WORKING. Thus, I am completely cut off, apart from using my iPad or iPhone - both of which are a pain to use as compared to my iMac.
 

dfaulks

Well-Known Member
Sorry for not recognizing, right off, the fantastic research and presentation by Dave Teece.
A big "Thank you!" for that, Dave.
 

dfaulks

Well-Known Member
Using OS Catalina and following Dave's guide, I arrived at the Software/Applications page.
No version information Column is offered there. (First screen clip.)

However, by highlighting one of the Applications, I noticed that the lower part of the Window provides details, including the (bit) Kind. (Second screen clip.)


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DaveWT

Well-Known Member
Not having yet gone to Catalina yet myself, I can only assume they removed the column that formerly showed whether an application was 32 bit or 64 bit, because 32 bit applications no longer work in Catalina, hence all should be 64 bit applications.

Dave
 

chas_m

Well-Known Member
Foolishly, since obtaining and using a very large external drive for use as a TimeMachine backup, I've forgotten all about using CCC. Thus, having migrated to "the latest and greatest OS", I have NO backup of my latest version of the previous OS to fall back onto.

This is not correct. Time Machine backs up your entire computer, including the OS. If you have not yet used Time Machine with Catalina, then you could use your last Time Machine backup and your Recovery Partition to roll back. You would erase the Mac using the Recovery Partition, and then restore from your old Time Machine backup.

That said you would lose everything since that last Mojave-based Time Machine backup was made, of course.

As I’ve often said, it’s a good practice to have BOTH a Time Machine backup AND a bootable backup for quicker recovery or redundancy or just troubleshooting use.
 

dfaulks

Well-Known Member
As I’ve often said, it’s a good practice to have BOTH a Time Machine backup AND a bootable backup for quicker recovery or redundancy or just troubleshooting use.

Went and bought an external hard drive so that I'll have a CCC backup.
Can I "Restore" this new drive (from the TimeMachine backup drive) -
. by loading up the new drive with the last TM backup of the Mohave version and
. thus ending up with a Bootable Mohave drive???
 
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