CAN I UPDATE ADOBE APP
MANAGER TO 64–BIT?
Not directly, but you should
ensure that all other Adobe
apps, Acrobat Reader in
particular, are 64–bit. When you
upgrade to Catalina, old
components like this won’t run,
are disabled, and are easy
to remove.
WHY ARE 64–BIT APPS
LISTED IN LEGACY
SOFTWARE?
Once software running in
Mojave has been detected as
not being fully 64–bit, it’s
added to the Legacy Software
list in System Info. But that list
is never checked again or
refreshed, so when you upgrade
an app to 64–bit, it stays there.
Check the replacement using
the free ArchiChect from
bit.ly/mf346elc32b.
That depends on your Mac’s hardware.
Although it’s time–consuming to perform
a clean install, erasing internal storage and
installing macOS 10.14.6 should be fairly
straightforward if your Mac doesn’t have
a T2 chip.
This gets more complicated if your Mac
has a T2 chip, because of its firmware. In
theory, downgrading it to Mojave shouldn’t
result in the installer attempting to
download and install an older version of
BridgeOS, or iBridge, the firmware which
runs on the T2. However, some users
downgrading from beta versions of macOShave reported that this can run into
problems. These would normally be solved
by performing the elaborate procedure
to restore T2 firmware, which requires
a second Mac and a copy of Apple
Configurator 2. This process is detailed
at bit.ly/ml163t2rst.
At present, Configurator is unable to
solve this problem. The T2 firmware which
it tries to install in this situation is not that
provided with the beta version of macOS,
but the current macOS release. As it can’t
perform a firmware downgrade when that
would be called for, the restore can fail,
leaving that Mac bricked. The only way
forward from this is to return it to Apple
to be fixed.
This should be resolved in the full release
of macOS Catalina, or by Apple ensuring
that Configurator doesn’t attempt such
a firmware downgrade. However, until this
situation is clearly resolved, you shouldn’t
put a T2 Mac at risk of an attempted
firmware downgrade. For the moment, it’s
safer to upgrade.> Downgrading danger
After running Catalina public betas, I want to downgrade to Mojave. Is doing that going
to be straightforward?Restoring BridgeOS firmware on
a T2–equipped Mac requires it to be
connected to another Mac running
Configurator 2, and is tricky.
Whether anyone patches Catalina to allow
it to run on unsupported Mac models
remains to be seen. It may not be a wise
thing even to attempt.
First consider the age of the hardware:
your Mac’s logic board and graphics card
are reaching the end of their electronic life.
Any replacement parts will be second–hand,
of similar age and vulnerable to failure. If
you haven’t replaced its internal storage
recently, that too is at high risk.
Unsupported versions of macOS often
have significant shortcomings too. Theymay be unable to update, or obtain pushed
security updates, which puts them at risk.
The biggest problems, though, result from
the fact they run old EFI firmware, which
hasn’t been updated to support the new
version of macOS, or to fix known bugs.
As a hobby system, a Mac running
an unsupported version of macOS can
be fun, much as setting up a “Hackintosh”
is on non–Apple hardware. However, you
shouldn’t risk it with your important
documents or data, because it would be
so easy for it all to fail.> Unsupported Catalina upgrades
I’ve been running High Sierra on my 10–year–old unsupported Mac, thanks to dosdude’s
patcher. Do you think it will also upgrade to Catalina, or is it finished?
Ask