Apple Reminds Developers App Updates Must Support 64-Bit Starting June 2018, Warns Customers About Unoptimized Apps

Apple today reminded developers about upcoming changes being made to the Mac App Store. Starting on June 1, all new app updates submitted to the Mac App Store must support 64-bit.

Apple already requires new apps submitted to the Mac App Store to offer 64-bit support, a change that went into effect in January of 2018, so this upcoming policy shift will only affect older apps that have not yet implemented 64-bit support.

appleunoptimizedapps
Along with the warning to developers, Apple says customers who are running the latest macOS 10.13.4 update will begin receiving warning messages when launching a 32-bit app for the first time to let them know that the app is not optimized for their Mac. According to TechCrunch, these warnings will start at midnight Pacific Time on April 12.

With the recent release of macOS High Sierra 10.13.4, the first time users launch an app that does not support 64-bit they will see an alert that the app is not optimized for their Mac.

As a reminder, new apps submitted to the Mac App Store must support 64-bit, and starting June 2018, app updates and existing apps must support 64-bit. If you distribute your apps outside the Mac App Store, we highly recommend distributing 64-bit binaries to make sure your users can continue to run your apps on future versions of macOS.

Apple used a similar warning system when phasing out 32-bit support on iOS before eventually ending support with iOS 11, and the company has said the same plan will be used as 32-bit Mac apps are phased out.

Apple first warned developers and consumers about the impending Mac App Store changes starting last June at the 2017 Worldwide Developers Conference. Apple is slowly ending support for 32-bit Mac apps and has said macOS High Sierra will be the "last macOS release to support 32-bit apps without compromises" and "all future Mac software will eventually be required to be 64-bit."

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
iphone 16 apple intelligence

Apple Drops Plans for iPhone Hardware Subscription Service

Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Rumored to Stick With 'Triangular' Camera Design

Wednesday December 18, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
elevation lab airtag battery

Your AirTag's Battery Will Last for Up to 10 Years With Elevation Lab's New TimeCapsule Enclosure

Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag. Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

New Apple TV Rumored to Launch Next Year With These Features

Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year. Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
blackmagic vision pro

Blackmagic Debuts $30K 3D Camera for Capturing Video for Vision Pro

Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro. The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
mac pro creativity

Apple Launched the Controversial 'Trashcan' Mac Pro 11 Years Ago Today

Thursday December 19, 2024 7:00 pm PST by
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup. The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature

'iPhone 17 Air' With 'Major' Design Changes and 19-Inch MacBook Detailed in New Report

Sunday December 15, 2024 9:47 am PST by
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie. The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...

Top Rated Comments

szw-mapple fan Avatar
87 months ago
Why even bother going to 64 at this point when 128 is right around the corner?

Apple’s stupidity never ceases to amaze.
The sheer ignorance in this comment is as amazing as “apple’s stupidity” is to you. 128 bit OS’s right around the corner? The number of bits refers 2 to the power of that many bits of addressable locations. That means the addressable locations is 4,294,967,296 for 32 bit processsors and over 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 for 64 bits. This in turn means the the most RAM per process we could have for a 32 bit computer is 4GB while for 64 bit, which is about 16 exabytes. It’s more than conceivable that we won’t have need for 128 bit environments for decades to come.

EDIT: clarification about the maximum amount of RAM.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Baymowe335 Avatar
87 months ago
Why even bother going to 64 at this point when 128 is right around the corner?

Apple’s stupidity never ceases to amaze.
I wish I could be $900B stupid and the most profitable company is history.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Alexander Becker Avatar
87 months ago
Why even bother going to 64 at this point when 128 is right around the corner?

Apple’s stupidity never ceases to amaze.
I don't think that's the point at all. The point is to push developers to ditch 32. Apple has been in world of 64 for a while.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
york2600 Avatar
87 months ago
I don't think that's the point at all. The point is to push developers to ditch 32. Apple has been in world of 64 for a while.
Apple wants to dump the 32bit libraries from the OS. It's a pretty big win for the development of macOS to rid themselves of that code and maintenance work.

Source: I'm currently sitting waiting on a 32bit build to pop out of Jenkins. It takes 3x longer than my 64bit builds because of "reasons" and constantly holds up our development.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CptSky Avatar
87 months ago
Could somebody clarify that this will only affect MAS apps and not all Mac apps that are 32 bit? I have some older universal binary 32bit apps that I still want to be able to use, and hopefully they won't be obsolete in two years.
They plan to remove 32 bits support from the OS in the future, it includes non-MAS apps.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Seoras Avatar
87 months ago
Saw this post and thought "what could I have that's so old it's 32 bit?"
Aha! Microsoft Office 2008 !
Just as well I used it's (32 bit) un-installer while I still could.
Good riddance.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)