macOS Catalina 10.15 update

catalina

Apple recently released macOS 10.15 and it brings a number of large changes. We do not have much time testing this version yet and would like to caution our macOS users before they upgrade.

Most importantly, having a backup plan to give you the option of reverting to your previous macOS installation is the most important preparation you can make. Before upgrading to 10.15 we recommend doing a full Time Machine backup. Since macOS 10.13 High Sierra, Time Machine has a “snapshots” feature which gives you the ability to rollback to a previous “snapshot” using macOS Recovery should you find problems with Catalina. Note that this rollback needs to be done within 24 hours as the local snapshots are not permanently stored with your Time Machine file backups.

Other major changes to Catalina may effect other software you use with TouchDesigner. All 32-bit software support has been removed from 10.15 Catalina, so any old applications you rely on will stop working until the developer updates it. This does not affect TouchDesigner as it has been 64-bit on macOS since day 1.

What will effect most people is that hardware drivers and low-level software will likely also need to be updated. This includes MIDI drivers, DMX drivers, Audio Device drivers, cloud file providers and the like. These all run as applications now instead of kernel extensions and you should check if the software you rely on has been updated before you upgrade to 10.15. Old hardware devices or old software you can’t live without might be a determining factor if you are willing to upgrade.

We will add more information to this topic about TouchDesigner compatibility and other software/hardware compatibility as we discover it. If you run into issues or have examples of things that do not work, please add them below for other users to benefit from.

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