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I'm still on Mojave to use 32-bit apps. Any way to use 32-bit in Catalina or later?


No, and there never will be. It's not the execution of 32bit code that's the problem (you can trivially re-enable that with a kernel flag, if you want), but rather the removal of every 32bit library from the OS. Without those libraries, apps won't run.

You can sometimes get away with copying a handful of individual frameworks from older versions of macOS to newer ones, (I recently got Mountain Lion's QuickTime to work on Mavericks this way), but for so many libraries, many of which operate at a low level, it's just not going to happen!

Mojave is still a perfectly fine OS for a while longer. And you can of course use virtual machines, although personally I'd probably opt for dual booting if it really came to that.



Yes, that is interesting! I wonder if there was anything extra they did, or what apps they actually ran.

I did try this, when Catalina first came out. But maybe I gave up too quickly (It was a "there is no way this will actually work" type of thing), or maybe I tried the wrong app...


For my 32 bit binaries, the easiest way to use them is to run the Windows version, because that OS has better backwards compatability.

It's possible to get a Mojave VM up and running but it was nontrivial when I gave it a shot


If I'm not mistaken, WINE is now capable of running 32-bit Windows binaries on 64-bit-only macOS as well, so that may also be an option particularly for more simple apps.


Even the 64-bit WINE can't run 32-bit apps on Catalina. Their website specifically says they support up to macOS-10.14. Apparently 64-bit WINE can run 64-bit Windos apps on Catalina, though.


I don't think Wine can, but Crossover definitely can.


The CrossOver fork of Wine can.


I’m using a Mojave VM with VMWare Fusion on my laptop (that runs Catalina) on the rare occasion of needing to run 32bit apps. Install & setup was easy, without any problems. VMWare Fusion is a paid app, but VirtualBox should be able to do the same for free.


The latest Vmware Fusion has a free license for personal use.


Why do you want to upgrade though? What's Mojave lacking that Catalina has?


The latest XCode that supports deploying to iOS 14 devices, unfortunately.


Ah ok. Yeah, that makes sense.




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