WWDC 2019 gave us an official preview of Apple’s new macOS 10.15 Catalina. As with any new release, users are always left wondering… Do I need to buy a new computer, or will my current Mac be supported?
Below is Apple’s official list of macOS 10.15 compatible Macs.
- 12-inch MacBook (2015 and later)
- MacBook Air (2012 and later)
- MacBook Pro (2012 and later)
- Mac mini (2012 and later)
- iMac (2012 and later)
- iMac Pro (2017)
- Mac Pro (2013 and later)
Most Mac models from 2012 or later (apart from the Mac Pro 2010-12) will have at least another year of Apple OS updates – that is great news for anyone who isn’t quite ready to cough up the cash for a new machine. And as always, OWC has you covered with plenty of Catalina compatible Macs available—not to mention upgrades galore to keep your current Mac running its best with macOS 10.15!
Looking at the list of Mac’s compatible with Mojave, you will notice that it is primarily the same. One exception is the above noted Mac Pro 2010-12. But OWC has a graphics upgrade solution that makes this particular model Mojave compatible as well!
Read more about Rocket Yard’s take from WWDC 2019 and make sure your Mac is ready to run its Catalina best with My Upgrades!
is mac os catalina support for my 64 bit 4gb ram desktop?
Hackintosh a Mac Pro to force feed it to swallow and digest Catalina !
my buddy started up his imac it opened to catalina screan with steve jobs name and password feild and hes stuck there
MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)
Updated to 10.15.4 (19E287) Cantalina
Plugged in my USB drive and I get:
macOS can’t repair the disk “*** Drive A”.
You can still open or copy files on the disk, but you can’t save changes to files on the disk. Back up the disk and reformat it as soon as you can.
Read something alarming the other day: installing Catalina on an external drive will corrupt your main drive!
WTF?
Where did you read this? We haven’t experienced any problems. Check out: Using an External Drive as Your Startup Drive: Part 1
Super annoyed the iOS update has an update they prompt you to install for Notes (it isn’t automatic with the update thankfully).
But It warns you that if you install it your notes made on your non-Catalina Mac won’t be readable by the new Notes, and vice versa. I don’t know why and I haven’t checked what the new features are, but I need my notes to be readable on my Mac and my poor defenseless cheese grater is left on Mojave… which I guess is ok as I don’t think everything’s compatible with Catalina anyway….
Kudos to Apple for not making the iOS auto-install this! I would’ve been unhappy,
My late 2012 MacBook Pro is still “setting up” Catalina after more than an hour. Just watching the spinning wheel.
Just remember, Apple has been warning us forever that 32-bit programs won’t operate under Catalina, so if you have earlier versions of Office or Adobe suites, you might want to think it through before updating.
So true! Somehow Mojave and many OS updates going back a more than a few years still tap and run an ancient version of Photoshop that I have! It really should not run anyway, but I’m pretty sure Catalina will be it’s deathstroke! Of course, I’m running a non-supported 2010 Mac Pro so Catalina would need one of those tricks to install anyway… but I think I’ll be content with Mojave for quite awhile! If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!
My iMac 27 Late 2013 appears to be both Mojave and Catalina compatible. However … for some unexplained reason … when I upgraded my machine to Mojave, it became incapable of installing Windows from BootCamp? While the Bootcamp section of the Apple Support site explains that this incompatibility exists and is insurmountable … exactly what it is that make this impossible is not explained. Anyone know of a workaround or upgrade that will fix this little inconvenience?
I think Apple released a patch for these iMacs. But you can probably still use BootCamp on a different physical drive, if your iMac can take one.
TONY DOVE; I run Windows 10 using Parallels 14, albeit on my MacBook Pro mid-2012.
I think that could work for you
The graphics card upgrade for the Mac Pro makes it Mojave compatible. I didn’t think that extended to Catalina? Am I wrong?
Does anyone know what it is about Catalina that stops it working on a 2010-2012 Mac Pro with the Mojave Video card upgrade?
There will be another blog post coming soon regarding our testing this scenario. Unfortunately, it looks as though the 2010-2012 Mac Pro with the video card upgrade will not support Catalina.
So with the OWC Radeon RX 580 8GB Graphics Upgrade my Mid 2010 Mac Pro 5.1 Dual Processor Quad Core Xenon will run Catalina? I have it loaded up with 64GB of OWC Ram, the 960GB E2 PciE SSD and my backup drive is an OWC Electra 6G. This is great news, if I have it right. Thanks Very Much!!!
The graphics card upgrade is expensive, but if you’ve got a lot invested in your 2010-2012 Mac Pro, it might be worth it—if you need Mojave or Catalina compatibility. In most cases, though, those upgrades won’t be urgent, unless you’re in a hurry to get rid of your 32 bit apps.
Of course you can find your 32 bit apps in System Report under About This Mac in your Apple menu. Another way to check is to get an SSD external drive and clone your system to it and test the upgrade. You’ll soon see which apps work and which do not. This is a good idea in any case before upgrading you main system to any new OS.
Of course if you don’t live on the bleeding edge of technology, you can leave this wait for some time—at least a year. And it will be two years before High Sierra will lose support from Apple. App support can also be an issue: Upgrades can be expensive.
In sum, it’s too soon to panic over Catalina.
I would like to see an article of all the Software that I am suddenly not going to be able to use. Forewarned is forearmed!
https://www.cultofmac.com/544783/how-to-find-32-bit-mac-apps/
Excerpt from above link:
To check the 32-/64-bit status of your current apps, click on the Apple menu at the top left corner of your screen, and then choose About this Mac from the list. Then, in the resulting window, click System Report.
Look down the source column on the left, and in the Software section you’ll see a subsection called Applications. Click it, and wait for the results to appear in the main panel.
That’s a list of all the apps on your Mac. Over at the right side, click on the 64-bit column to sort your apps based on their architecture. Anything in the list that says Yes is fine. Anything that says No is 32-bit, and will stop working unless updated.
So I guess the next wave of YouTube videos will be, how to flash your old cheesegreater to Mac 6,1
Exactly… specs wise if you upgraded your video card to run Mojave, there seems to be no good reason it can’t run Catalina!