How to check which Mac apps are Intel (and need Rosetta) before macOS 28
Most guides on how to check if an app is Intel on a Mac were written in 2020, when the answer was a curiosity: Rosetta 2 translated everything so well that it didn't matter. It matters now. Apple's support page says Rosetta is available on Apple silicon Macs running macOS 27 or earlier, and that starting with macOS 28 it will only be kept for "certain older, unmaintained games". Anything else still built for Intel stops opening on the next major release. Here's how to find all of it — including the bits the obvious methods miss — and what to do about each.
Why this is worth ten minutes now
Nothing breaks on macOS 27. Your Intel-only apps run exactly as they did. The point of checking now is that you get a year to replace things on your own schedule, rather than discovering a dead app the morning after an upgrade, when the only fix is a downgrade (which, on a Mac, means a restore, not an undo).
Since macOS 26.4, launching an affected app has shown a "Support Ending for Intel-based Apps" notice. That banner only appears for apps you actually open, though, and it's easy to dismiss and forget. A deliberate pass is better.
1. The new list in System Settings (macOS 27)
Golden Gate added the quickest answer. Open System Settings → General → About and look in the macOS section for Intel-based Apps. Click Details and you get a list of Intel apps that have been opened on this Mac in the past year, under Apple's warning that they "will not open in macOS 28". Hover an entry to show it in Finder or move it to the Trash.
Two limits to keep in mind:
- It's based on use. An app you haven't opened in a year won't appear. That's mostly a feature (you clearly don't depend on it), but check the yearly tools — tax software, a scanner utility, the thing you open once a year to flash a keyboard.
- It lists apps. Components that load inside another app, like audio plug-ins, aren't apps in their own right. More on those below.
2. System Information: every app at once
For a complete inventory regardless of when you last used something, hold Option, click the Apple menu and choose System Information. In the sidebar, select Software → Applications, then click the Kind column header to sort.
You'll see Apple Silicon, Universal (contains both, runs natively), and Intel. The rows marked Intel are your list. It takes a moment to scan, and it includes apps buried in subfolders and helper apps that never show up in the Apps view.
3. Activity Monitor: what's running right now
Open Activity Monitor, go to the CPU tab and look at the Kind column (if it's missing, add it from View → Columns). Each process is marked Apple or Intel. Sort by Kind and leave it open for a normal working day.
This is the method that catches what the other two don't: menu-bar helpers, login items, background agents, updaters and printer or scanner daemons that ship inside a Universal app but were never rebuilt themselves. If something launches at login and shows Intel, it's on the clock.
4. Get Info for a single app
To check one app, select it in Finder and press ⌘I. Under General, Kind reads Application (Apple silicon), Application (Universal) or Application (Intel). Apple's page is specific on the last one: Intel means it needs Rosetta.
Watch for a checkbox called Open using Rosetta in the same window. It only appears on Universal apps, and if it's ticked the app is running as Intel even though a native version is sitting inside it. That setting was common in 2021, when it was the way to keep older plug-ins working. Untick it, relaunch, and confirm everything you need still loads.
The parts that are easy to miss
| Where it hides | How to check | What usually fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| Apps you rarely open | System Information → Applications, sort by Kind | Update or replace |
| Login items and menu-bar helpers | Activity Monitor → CPU → Kind, after a fresh login | Update the parent app; remove stale ones in General → Login Items & Extensions |
| Audio plug-ins (AU/VST) | Your DAW's plug-in manager; a host forced into Rosetta is the giveaway | Plug-in vendor's Apple silicon build |
| A Universal app set to "Open using Rosetta" | ⌘I on the app | Untick the box |
| Command-line tools | file $(which tool) or lipo -archs in Terminal | Reinstall a native build |
| An Intel Homebrew install | Homebrew living in /usr/local rather than /opt/homebrew on an Apple silicon Mac | Reinstall Homebrew natively and reinstall your formulae |
For command-line tools, file prints the architectures a binary contains: arm64 means native, x86_64 alone means Rosetta. If you set up your Mac by migrating from an Intel machine, an x86 Homebrew in /usr/local is the single most common leftover — every formula it installed is Intel too.
What to do with each Intel app
Work down the list in this order:
- Check for an update. Many apps went Universal years ago and you're simply on an old version — especially apps installed outside the App Store, whose built-in updater you may have switched off. The developer's site is the source of truth.
- Check whether it's abandoned. No release in several years and no Apple silicon build usually means none is coming. Don't wait on it.
- Find a replacement before macOS 28, not after. Do it while the old app still opens, so you can export settings, licences and data and compare the two side by side.
- Decide whether you'll upgrade at all. If one Intel-only tool is essential to your work and has no replacement, staying on macOS 27 for a while is a legitimate choice. Just make it deliberately, and keep the Mac otherwise current.
Window managers and other always-running utilities are worth extra attention, because you only notice they're gone when your muscle memory hits a dead shortcut. Divvy is the clearest example — its last release was in 2019, it's Intel-only, and we wrote up the alternatives that keep its grid idea alive. Our own apps, Let's Tile and Let's Switch, are Universal builds that run natively on Apple silicon and Intel, so they're not on anyone's list.
Frequently asked questions
Will Intel apps stop working on macOS 27? No. Rosetta 2 is fully available on macOS 27. Apple says the change comes with macOS 28, when Rosetta is limited to certain older games that rely on Intel frameworks.
What does "Universal" mean in the Kind column? The app contains both Intel and Apple silicon code. On an M-series Mac it runs natively, without Rosetta, unless "Open using Rosetta" is ticked in Get Info.
Does an Intel Mac need to worry about any of this? Not about Rosetta, which only exists on Apple silicon. But Intel Macs can't run macOS 27 at all — see macOS 27 supported Macs for what that means in practice.
Is it safe to uninstall Rosetta? There's no supported way to remove it, and no reason to: it costs nothing when no Intel code is running. Getting your Intel app count to zero is the goal; Rosetta takes care of itself.
Where's the rest of the upgrade prep? Our macOS 27 upgrade checklist covers permissions, hotkeys and login items — the same steps apply when macOS 28 arrives.