Legacy System Extension

I received a pop-up then researched it. The support article stated: "This gives you advance notice that existing software on your system loaded a system extension that will be incompatible with a future version of macOS". This is actually misleading and not really accurate. It does not give advance notice, since it does not specify which software is incompatible. How are we non-techie people supposed to know/guess which "software" it applies to?

I have had this happen with other software and ended up losing thousands of photos. Apple's response was that they "forewarned" us. How do non-techie people figure out which software?


Posted on May 26, 2020 6:45 AM

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2 replies

May 26, 2020 6:49 AM in response to SeaScape Portraits

That is easy, Mac OS Catalina and beyond will only run 64 bit apps. Your system is warning you that you may have some 32 bit apps that will not work once upgraded. To find out which they are, open System Information (Applications - Utilities) or open About this Mac and click the System Information link or use Spotlight to locate it. Then click Softare - Applications and your apps will be listed and then tell you which are 32 bit and which are 64 bit.

May 26, 2020 11:57 AM in response to SeaScape Portraits

rkaufmann's advice was correct, but I think the message you received was addressing a different issue. Apple is now sending out advance notices that, in the future, their operating system will no longer be compatible with some programs which rely on Apple's system extensions. There is nothing we can or should do at this time. All software vendors have been notified of the coming change and the responsible ones will make the needed changes when needed. Those who do not will have software which will be incompatible. I hope and assume that when that time comes, we will be advised of some way to easily determine which programs are not updated. Then we can decide to either not upgrade our operating system at the time, do without those programs which are incompatible, or download compatible versions of the programs which will no longer work. For now, don't worry about it. I hope this is helpful for you.

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Legacy System Extension

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