May 08, 2020 It is that time again. Time to decide whether to keep or replace your Mac laptop or desktop computer. If you are reading this article, chances are you've already come to the decision to replace your Mac with the newes model (or maybe you just got a new Mac as a present!), and you're thinking about selling your old one.
How To Tell If Mac Is Ready For Catalina Island
Yes, the Steam client itself is 64-bits, and most of your games probably are too, but if you've had an install for a while, your client is probably only 32-bit. Here's how to make sure you've got a Steam client compatible with macOS Catalina.
You'll have to ask Valve why they can't always update your 32-bit Steam client app to the 64-bit version that will run under macOS Catalina. But, AppleInsider is repeatedly being asked by users why their install is yelling at them that it needs an update.
The update from Valve is ready, and the Steam client will work just fine under macOS Catalina — you just may have to prepare the ground a little.
Specifically, the problem is with the Steam client on your Mac. Even if you have shortcuts to your favorite games, they all launch through that Mac app, and it's possible that your copy of that is still a 32-bit app.
If you're stuck with that 32-bit version, you have to manually get rid of it and then reinstall a new copy.
Oh, yes, it is. The Steam service is fine and so are at least most of your games. It's just the Steam client you have to fix.
One quick tip: do be certain to have your Steam account name and password to hand. You clicked that Remember Me button years ago, but this is going to appear to Steam as if you're setting up a new computer.
You'll have to be able to log in again, and you'll have to have access to email to get the verification codes that you'll be sent.
When you're sure you have the account details, start with this:
If you have Hazel installed on your Mac, it will spot that you've removed an application and will offer to also delete all of that app's supporting files. As good as that is, as so much handier it is than going through the whole process of deleting them manually, don't let Hazel do it. Mac contacts keeps asking for aol imap password mojave.
That's because Hazel will do too good a job and it'll remove everything. We want rid of a lot of Steam, but not the bit that includes your games.
If you have Hazel on your Mac, it will offer to delete Steam's supporting files. But you need the ones to do with your installed games, so click Keep All.
So next, you find all of Steam's supporting files from the Finder.
Hold Shift, Command and press G. In the Go to Folder dialog that appears, enter this: ~/Library/Application Support/ and click Go.
Hold down Command and Shift, then press the letter G to call up this Go To Folder dialog. You're going to get very familiar with it.
In the folder that opens, scroll to find the Steam folder, and delete everything in there except /steamapps. That directory is where your games live, and keeping that folder preserves the installs.
Next, repeat that Go to Folder with each of the following. In every one, look for Steam or Valve files.
Do be careful to solely select Steam or Valve folders, but then drag them to the Trash and empty it.
Now go to store.steampowered.com where you'll see an Install Steam button at the top right of the site.
How To Tell If Mac Is Ready For Catalina Song
Work through the steps it tells you. Then log back in to your Steam account, and you're done.
There is, seriously, nothing you can do about games developers who haven't moved to 64-bit binaries. Barring a virtual machine or something else drastic, those games won't work under Catalina. But at least taking these steps now will save you having that awful moment when you've updated to Catalina, the Steam client won't load at all, and it appears as if you've lost all your Steam games.
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When Apple announced macOS 10.15 Catalina last month, it touted several new features, including the end of iTunes as we know it, better second screen support and window management, along with several other features, but there’s a dark side to Catalina that Apple’s not talking about nearly as much (and no, we’re not talking about Catalina’s new automatic dark mode).
Catalina is going to spell the end of the road for 32-bit Mac apps, meaning that many of your old apps could stop working completely when Apple’s next major operating system arrives this fall. Of course, you don’t have to upgrade, but if you want to enjoy all of Catalina’s yummy goodness when it arrives, you’ll want to be prepared so that you at least know what you might be sacrificing to move to this new island paradise.
The Death of 32-bit Apps
To be fair, this has been a long time coming, so it really shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody. As Apple notes, it began the transition to 64-bit apps over a decade ago, and when it announced macOS Mojave last year at WWDC 2018, it clearly told developers that it would be the last version of macOS that would be capable of running 32-bit apps.
In addition, Mojave hasn’t been shy about warning you if you attempt to open a 32-bit app, letting you know that it’s going to stop working soon, and recommending that you contact the developer to request a 64-bit version. Unfortunately, however, Apple decided not to be a nag about this, so the warning is only shown the first time you open a new 32-bit app.
This also isn’t the first time we’ve been down this road. Apple made the same move of killing off 32-bit apps on iOS, first warning users in iOS 10.3 in early 2017 before shutting them out when iOS 11 arrived later that year.
Ferreting Out Incompatible Apps
Since Apple only warns you about 32-bit apps once, you could probably be forgiven if you’ve forgotten that you still have some of these kicking around on your system, especially if you’ve been using a Mac for over a decade like we have. When you’re in the middle of a project, there’s definitely an understandable tendency to just click “OK” and figure you’ll deal with it later.
Unfortunately, “later” often never gets here, and many of us could be sitting on 32-bit apps that are vital to our workflow and waiting to self-destruct on us once we arrive on the shores of Catalina.
The good news is that there’s a fairly easy ways to identify if your apps are 32-bit or 64-bit, and you can do it using the tools that are already built into macOS — not only Mojave, but even in prior versions where the incompatibility warning doesn’t even appear.
Follow these steps to get a list of all of the apps installed on macOS and see if they’re 64-bit:
How To Tell If Mac Is Ready For Catalina Beach
You’ll notice that there are a lot of system apps in this list as well, including some by Apple itself. Most of these, however, ship with the operating system, and will therefore naturally be updated as part of macOS Catalina.
So What Can I Do About This?
If the only apps that have “No” beside them don’t really matter to you, there’s really nothing you need to worry about. You can delete those apps now or later, but they won’t prevent you from updating to Catalina, they’ll just stop working once you do.
If there are one or more important apps on the list, however, you’ll want to check with the app developer — either on their website or reaching out to them directly — to see if there’s either an update already, or if they’re at least working on one.
If the app in question came from the Mac App Store, it should be updated automatically, so if there’s an update available you should already have it. For apps installed from other sources, though, it’s a good idea to open them up and do a “Check for Updates” within those apps, assuming they have that capability (most apps put the option for this either on the app’s main menu or in their Help menu). If you don’t know how to get in touch with the developer, you can also often find contact information inside the app, either from the About option found on the app’s main menu, or within the app’s help screens.
How To Tell If Mac Is Ready For Catalina Island
Lastly, if there’s an app that you rely on that’s 32-bit and no longer in development, this is probably as good a time as any to start searching out 64-bit alternatives that are still being actively maintained by their developers.
How To Tell If Mac Is Ready For Catalina Full
Read Next:Apple Made Window Management Better in macOS Catalina (Here’s How to Use It)
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