At the same time, Apple has given notice that a few features are on their way out: they’re still in macOS 27 Golden Gate, but will no longer be present in macOS 28 next year.
Rosetta
First is Rosetta, the technology that enables Macs with Apple silicon to seamlessly run apps designed to work only on Intel processors. It has been around since macOS 11 Big Sur, but now that the transition to Apple silicon is complete and macOS 27 no longer supports any Intel-based Macs, Rosetta’s days are numbered. Although any apps you have that were designed for Intel processors should still work in macOS 27, you will continue to see the warning messages that started appearing partway through Tahoe’s life cycle.
Technically, it’s Rosetta 2, as Apple had a previous emulation technology called Rosetta. However, Apple’s documentation omits the 2 to refer to this second version.
Translation: you have about a year to obtain a new version of the app designed for Apple silicon (if the developer releases one) or find an alternative. Otherwise, if you depend on that app, you may have to stay on macOS 27 for quite a while.
You can start making the transition from any remaining Intel-based apps now by going to System Settings > General > About and clicking Details under the macOS section. This shows a list of apps and some components on your Mac that have Intel-only code, showing those you used in the last year first.
The built-in tool may not find all the agents, daemons, command-line programs, and other bits and bobs you’ve installed over the years. For that, you should turn to third-party tools that work in Tahoe (and some earlier versions of macOS), like iMazing’s Silicon (free), St. Clair Software’s Go64 (free), and bzwrd’s more elaborate Rosetta Check ($6.99/€6.99 one-time fee).
DVD Player and encrypted HFS+ drives
Similarly, Apple has removed the DVDPlayback framework, which likely means the DVD Player app, which is still present in macOS 27, will be gone in macOS 28.
And, any drives formatted using the encrypted Mac OS Extended (HFS+) format won’t work in macOS 28. If you have such a drive, you’ll want to back it up, reformat it as APFS, and then copy your data back before macOS 28 rolls around in late 2027.
If you’re already running Tahoe, that’s all you need to know for now; the next step is checking your Mac for compatibility. If your Mac is still using an older operating system, there are changes in the past few releases you may not be fully prepared for.
