Upgrading programs to native M1

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Upgrading programs to native M1

If I migrate to an M1 Mac, many of the programs will start off using Rosetta 2. I can run a utility to see which programs are using Rosetta 2, and which are native M1. That won't tell me which programs can be upgraded to use M1 though.

I suspect I will be running the Intel version of that program until it's time to install the next upgrade of that program and the installation program checks to see what version of the upgrade to use.

Or is there another procedure that will change programs to M1 when available?

Posted on May 3, 2021 2:05 PM

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Answer 1

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VikingOSX

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May 3, 2021 2:27 PM in response to Howard Brazee

It is up to the third-party vendor whether they provide a universal binary that automatically runs the arm64 component on an M1 architecture Mac, or even a separate arm64 binary (as does Microsoft for the current (v1.55.2) Visual Studio Code application).

Unless you have your own application source and recompile it with Xcode 12.5 or the command-line tools for Xcode 12.5, you cannot create an arm64 binary on your own.

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Answer 2

May 5, 2021 8:24 AM in response to Howard Brazee

If their application has a "Check for Updates" menu item, it may pop a window that lists the update changes and among those, it might report that it is now a Universal binary on M1 Macs. Otherwise, you will have to check their website, or contact them directly about their development planning, or if they post an update that states if it is now Universal.

You can always perform a Get Info on a given application bundle and it will report:

Kind: Application (Intel)
Kind: Application (Universal)
kind: Application (Apple Silicon) as reported by the arm64 version of Visual Studio Code

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Answer 3

Howard Brazee Author

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166 points

May 3, 2021 2:34 PM in response to VikingOSX

I expect it would be up to them. If they don't have an update for their software, would I ever know that they have an M1 version of the program I already have on my Mac?

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Upgrading programs to native M1

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