Upgrading to Catalina

[stefanmaine]

MacOS Mojave on a 27" 2017 Retina iMac about to upgrade to Catalina.

I ran Apple>About This Mac>System Report>Software>Applications, and discovered about forty apps that failed the 64-bit test. Of those, I use only two (to my knowledge), Word and Excel, which I will replace with a word processor and a spreadsheet app from SoftMaker's Free Office, which I have already downloaded and installed.

I do not recognize the names of any of the other apps that failed the 64-bit test. About twenty of them have "Microsoft" as a first name (like Microsoft Database Daemon, Microsoft Query), which I take to mean they are associated with Word and/or Excel, and so are expendable. Among the others are apps I have never heard of, nor, as far as I know, ever used; among them are names like "Equations Editor," "GoTo Opener," "Ink Server," "MyDay," "Solver," "Quick Look."

Question: Should I do anything about the 32-bit apps before upgrading to Catalina? For example, should I delete them all, one by one (I have AppZapper)? If I do not, will the upgrade process generate a torrent of error messages? Or are some of them apps which are part of Mojave, and necessary to the upgrade process? Is this an issue I should be concerned about?

Thank you.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

"MyDay" is a MS product, so that shouldn't be an issue for you. "Ink Server" is an Apple thing so that will be taken care of as part of the OS upgrade. "GoTo Opener" is from GoTo Meeting.

For each of these applications, you get a Location for them. If they are in the /Applications folder, it is more than likely something that you installed and should scrutinize. If the location is something like /Library or /System or something, you should ignore those since its more than likely part of the OS.

First back up your current system, just in case you need to go back. Then, go ahead and do the Catalina upgrade and then any application that is still 32-bit will have a circle and line across it indicating that will not work. Then you can decide if you want to delete it or upgrade it.

 

[MacInWin]

+1 for Ashwin, except that not all of my Apple 32 bit stuff got updated, so some of it may be older and no longer supported. Hence, Apple neither upgraded nor deleted it when I moved to Catalina. But since it's not running or called for anymore, it just sits there. I suppose I could go find each one and delete it--nah, too much work, I'll just let them sit. Next time I'll do a nuke/pave upgrade and get rid of them.

 

[NSMacGuru]

As the OP noted, much of those are tied to the old Microsoft Office install. Microsoft's recommended method for uninstalling the suite is just to drag it to the trash:

To uninstall Office for Mac 2011 move the applications to the Trash. Once you've removed everything, empty the Trash and restart your Mac to complete the process.

Before you remove Office for Mac 2011, quit all Office applications and make sure there's nothing in Trash that you want to keep. Leave Office applications closed while you go through this process.

I'd be surprised if that method doesn't leave a bunch of crap in the /System/ folder... no doubt an more in-depth web search would turn up more detailed removal instructions.

Do that, then check for 32-bit apps.

Note that the FreeOffice alternative - which I'm using now almost exclusively - is a great substitute, though you may run into things that the free version doesn't handle, like text boxes. I've also seen table / picture captions get 'stuck' behind objects. Might we worth upgrading to the full suite. And keep an eye on LibreOffice - if they ever get their act together with font rendering, I'll be back there in a minute....

 

[chscag]

I'd be surprised if that method doesn't leave a bunch of crap in the /System/ folder... no doubt an more in-depth web search would turn up more detailed removal instructions.

You're right. That method will leave around 1GB of MS junk in various places. Microsoft does offer a nuclear uninstaller for Office 2011 which will remove everything including hidden files, folders, etc. Not sure where to find it anymore and I deleted my copy after removing Office 2011. The uninstaller app does not touch documents and personal templates.

 

[stefanmaine]

I have installed Catalina, and everything seems to be working fine. Thank you all for your suggestions.

As RazOrEdge predicted, each of the "failed" 32-bit apps was marked at /Applications with a circled X. I dragged them, one by one, to AppZapper, and they're gone. I think I read somewhere that AppZapper promises to "remove everything including hidden files, folders, etc." Who knows, maybe it does.

FYI, for those who remember the original issue at this thread, I am able now to add the Gmail account at Mail.

 

[MacInWin]

If you want to see what may be lurking that is still 32 bit, get Go64 (search for it). It looks at the apps on your system and identifies what is 32 bit so you can get rid of it.

And glad you got it sorted out.

 

[stefanmaine]

MacInWin, Thanks for suggesting Go64. It found two apps whose "x'ed circle" I missed; I have now AppZapped both of them. So, that should be it.

Also, it identified a 32-bit file inside Google Earth Pro ("Google Earth.mdimporter" which a Google search suggests relates to Spotlight Search) and another inside Quicken 2017 ("Quicken File Exchange Utility" which enables conversion of data from previous versions of Quicken). The two apps themselves seem to work fine. If Quicken eventually fails, I will shift to Checkbook Pro, and if Google Earth fails, I may never be aware of it.