With the introduction of macOS Catalina 10.15, Apple will no longer support 32-bit applications. Moving forward, Apple will only support 64-bit applications on their macOS platform.
That’s great but what does it mean for me?
With the release of macOS 10.15 Catalina, Microsoft 365 for Mac and Office 2019 for Mac currently support macOS 10.15, 10.14, and 10.13. For more information, see this article. Support for Office 2016 for Mac will end on October 13, 2020.
Well, the short answer is that because of this change, there are now several applications or programs which will not work on the new platform. For example, your old install of Microsoft Office, or your favourite video editing application will no longer work. In fact, these applications will not even open on the new OS version.
But I paid a lot of money for those apps, how do I check to see if they will work?
- Office for Mac received Touch Bar support in an update on February 16, 2017, following the launch of the 2016 MacBook Pro models. 32-bit versions of Office for Mac won't run on macOS Catalina; therefore, version 15.25 is the earliest version of Office for Mac that will run on the latest version of macOS.
- Microsoft only supports Office 365 subscriptions, or the single-purchase, Office 2019 for Mac on Catalina because these suites are 64-bit. Office 2011 was never tested on even High Sierra and was retired in Oct 2017. Office 2008 was retired several years earlier.
To see if those apps will still work you will need to follow the 5 steps below:
- Click the Apple icon in the top left corner of your screen.
- Select About This Mac.
- Click System Report.
- Scroll down to the Software section and click Applications.
- On the right, you'll see a list of apps and a column labelled 64-Bit (Intel).
If any of those apps have a No in that column, it means they're not 64-bit apps, so you'll need to update them, or find a replacement before you get the MacOS Catalina update.
Office 2019 For Mac Catalina
There are some developers that are working on updating their software to be compatible with the new OS, so you may be able to check with the manufacturer to see if it’s in their development pipeline. Microsoft will not be updating Office 2011 for Mac to support Catalina, and Office 2016 for Mac (Although currently compatible with Catalina if you are on v15.35 or higher) will stop receiving updates in October 2020.
Office 2016 For Mac Compatible With Catalina Os
If you are intending on upgrading to Catalina, and are a Microsoft Office user, your best bet would be to upgrade to Office 2019 for Mac, or Office 365. For the balance of applications not supported on Catalina, you may need to (unfortunately) find suitable alternatives.