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If you're struggling to find Mavericks-compatible software...

Wowfunhappy

Wowfunhappy

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 12, 2019
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It used to be that when an app dropped support for an old operating system, they'd say something about it on their website, and include a download link for the last compatible version. Some time in the past couple years, this practice appears to have fallen out of fashion. I sometimes can't even find compatibility information listed anymore—the website will just say "Works on macOS™️!" with no mention of which Mac OS.

I've run into this a lot over the past few months because I'm trying to downgrade my life to Mavericks. Modern macOS is no longer a platform I want to use, but I'd rather go back to an older version than outright switch to Windows or Linux. Mavericks is great.

I was originally going to write a very long post with all the great software and compatible versions I've found, and I may still do that at some point, but it's going to be REALLY long and I don't know when I'll get around to it. So in the meantime, if there's anyone else still on Mavericks and you need compatible software for a specific purpose, please post about it here. I'm sure they'll be lots of things I don't know about or can't find, but I can probably help some people!
 
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I still use Mavericks among other options and love it, I also run Lion and have a boatload of apps that make me productive on both despite them being demoted as "old".
Unfortunately, official sites is dead-lock. Some sites offer older versions, most of them assume you're an idiot if you're running something older than 2 or 3 current macOSes (as a rule of thumb, most of devs support from Yosemite onwards, many require El Capitan and newer, or Sierra and newer), however I did find that significant faction of developers both on and outside MAS have Mavericks as the minimum and some apps in fact run on Mavericks way faster than on later macOSes and you still can buy them.
You also may use WaybackMachine to crawl through old snapshots of the sites in question. Thus I was able to download installers a couple of times. Other devs put links to all versions. Among those are Rogue Ameba (Audio Hijack), Chronos (iClipboard), ExpanDrive, Cyberduck, Transmit. With the exception of Transmit I was able to find and install successfully on both OSes. You may run into the issue that the form of the licence number you own doesn't conform to the one in an earlier version of the same app.
However if you in the desperate need of some abandoned piece of software the only option you have is tracker sites, but this is scant because most of the time seeding is no more as the majority of Mac users uses new versions. Even contacting the developer not always helpful, but you should try anyway and maybe you succeed getting them to sell licences.
To work with PDF I use FoxitReader and Adobe Acrobat DC, for OCR FineReader 12.1.11. Of course it's a needle in a haystack of all my 3rd party apps on Mavericks/Lion. As my main browser I use Firefox 71 which supports Mavericks and Safari 9 on compatible sites which are still many including iCloud.com.
 
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Good thread. Mavericks is great.
I am wondering if somebody is still using Skype and can post a 8.49.0.49.dmg SHA1 checksum? Just wanted to verify my dmg file download.
 
Wowfunhappy said:
I sometimes can't even find compatibility information listed anymore—the website will just say "Works on macOS[sup]™️[/sup]!" with no mention of which Mac OS.
Click to expand...
Drives you nuts, doesn't it? But it's not just Mac OS; a friend recently downloaded an app that was "for Windows" yet it gave an error to the effect of "this isn't a Windows application". My guess is that it required a 64-bit version of Windows, but they didn't bother to document that...
 
avz said:
Good thread. Mavericks is great.
I am wondering if somebody is still using Skype and can post a 8.49.0.49.dmg SHA1 checksum? Just wanted to verify my dmg file download.
Click to expand...

No need to download from a sketchy source—as of this writing, you can grab that version of Skype right from the official servers.


But if that link ever goes down:

Code: 
$ shasum -a 256 Skype-8.49.0.49.dmg
44a1aaa29d2a040f6134dcbbb6211cda29766349b5a4e17eaa25f2133d4ca2d3  Skype-8.49.0.49.dmg
 
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It would be great to find out how to bypass discords auto update feature. I made backups of Steam, Discord, WhatsApp Desktop, Spotify so i can use it everytime i need to reinstall or install mavericks on a different machine. On Steam it's easy with the steam.cfg but idk with discord. I tried to block the dl.discord adress using ls but then it's just on a loop trying to connect to the servers... :/ This is what i absolutely hate about modern software using electron.. There's just no way to stay on a older software and keep using it forever. It works fine with Steam, Spotify etc.
 
sXpTv said:
It would be great to find out how to bypass discords auto update feature. I made backups of Steam, Discord, Spotify so i can use it everytime i need to reinstall or install mavericks on a different machine. On Steam it's easy with the steam.cfg but idk with discord. I tried to block the dl.discord adress using ls but then it's just on a loop trying to connect to the servers... :/
Click to expand...
Because I don't use Discord that heavily, I personally just use it inside of Firefox. This works super well, but if you're a heavy user, I imagine you want a separate dock icon and such.

Supposedly, Firefox is going to add the ability to export specific websites as "apps" you can launch from your Dock within the next six months or so—but it's not here yet, so that's not particularly helpful.

Some other things I might try, if you haven't already:
  • Set Discord.app to Locked in Finder → Get Info, so it physically can't update without your admin password.
  • Use adium alongside the purple-discord plugin. If you try this, please report back how well it works, I'm actually quite curious.
 
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Hey thanks for the reply! By looking through the plugins for Adium, i found a tool that lets you create web wrappers based on Electron which works just like the regular Discord app. The best thing about it is, you can choose what version you want to use for it (for Mavericks it's 3.1.13, 4.12.12 kinda works but has font issues and crashes). the last version for mavericks was released in July 2019, so it's not that out of date. It also supports native notifcations and icon badges

github.com

GitHub - nativefier/nativefier: Make any web page a desktop application

Make any web page a desktop application. Contribute to nativefier/nativefier development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com
command: nativefier --electron-version 3.1.13 "https://web.whatsapp.com/"
 

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I ran into a situation yesterday where I absolutely needed a copy of Google Chrome that would work in Mavericks, in order to run a Slack video call for work. Slack video calls don't work in Firefox, they didn't seem to work in nativefier, and old, Mavericks-compatible versions of the Slack app refused to let me log in.

Thus, here is the last Mavericks-compatible copy of Google Chrome: http://www.slimjetbrowser.com/chrome/mac/chrome_67.0.3396.79.dmg

Do not use this for standard web browsing, it should be reserved for specific web apps that absolutely require Google Chrome (presumably because the apps are stupid and don't conform to web standards). For general browsing in Mavericks, use an up-to-date copy of Firefox. You can't have both an outdated OS and outdated browser, it's simply not safe. Your browser runs all sorts of Javascript code from who knows where.

As it so happens, there's a much easier way to get Slack video calls working in Mavericks. Use Firefox, but change Firefox's user agent to Chrome. Video calls will work. 🤦‍♂️
 
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^ Yep, but Slack refused to do a video call in Chromium. Because Slack is dumb.
 
Wowfunhappy said:
It used to be that when an app dropped support for an old operating system, they'd say something about it on their website, and include a download link for the last compatible version. Some time in the past couple years, this practice appears to have fallen out of fashion. I sometimes can't even find compatibility information listed anymore—the website will just say "Works on macOS™️!" with no mention of which Mac OS.

I've run into this a lot over the past few months because I'm trying to downgrade my life to Mavericks. Modern macOS is no longer a platform I want to use, but I'd rather go back to an older version than outright switch to Windows or Linux. Mavericks is great.

I was originally going to write a very long post with all the great software and compatible versions I've found, and I may still do that at some point, but it's going to be REALLY long and I don't know when I'll get around to it. So in the meantime, if there's anyone else still on Mavericks and you need compatible software for a specific purpose, please post about it here. I'm sure they'll be lots of things I don't know about or can't find, but I can probably help some people!
Click to expand...
zoom cloud meetings works still, however it will not download the most up-to-date client anymore. it is a version from 2022 but it still works completely fine.
another great one is python, the programming language. python.org still hosts downloads for os x mavericks and up. the newest version STILL supports mavericks!
obs studio still hosts download for the last compatible mavericks version, i think it was version 18. dont download the newest version 18, since it will be very unstable and will crash upon starting recording.
scroll reverser, a popular software that splits mouse and trackpad "natural scrolling" settings, still hosts downloads for as old as mac os x 10.4 tiger.
google earth pro, a more advanced google earth app by google, still hosts downloads for os x mavericks.

thats all i could find for now!
 
iPodNano3 said:
zoom cloud meetings works still, however it will not download the most up-to-date client anymore. it is a version from 2022 but it still works completely fine.
another great one is python, the programming language. python.org still hosts downloads for os x mavericks and up. the newest version STILL supports mavericks!
obs studio still hosts download for the last compatible mavericks version, i think it was version 18. dont download the newest version 18, since it will be very unstable and will crash upon starting recording.
scroll reverser, a popular software that splits mouse and trackpad "natural scrolling" settings, still hosts downloads for as old as mac os x 10.4 tiger.
google earth pro, a more advanced google earth app by google, still hosts downloads for os x mavericks.

thats all i could find for now!
Click to expand...
UPDATE: as of 11 october, zoom.us/download no longer provides a mavericks-compatible zoom client. they have moved the requirement to high sierra. if you download an old version from wayback machine, the client will launch, but it will tell you that you need a newer version to log in. if you update, nothing will happen and the zoom installer will not show up. you will be stuck on that version and it is impossible to upgrade. that marks the end of an era. at least zoom on the web still works, im pretty sure.
 
@iPodNano3 As of this posting, I can still log into Zoom 5.10.4 on Mavericks. I tried logging out and back in.

Is the version you pulled out of the Wayback Machine version 5.10.4? I saved an installer some time ago, I'll find a place to upload it if need be.
 
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Wowfunhappy said:
@iPodNano3 As of this posting, I can still log into Zoom 5.10.4 on Mavericks. I tried logging out and back in.

Is the version you pulled out of the Wayback Machine version 5.10.4? I saved an installer some time ago, I'll find a place to upload it if need be.
Click to expand...
oh my bad, i forgot to check the version
and also, since archive.org recently god ddosed and went offline, i had to rely on other archived software websites
 
iPodNano3 said:
zoom cloud meetings works still, however it will not download the most up-to-date client anymore. it is a version from 2022 but it still works completely fine.
another great one is python, the programming language. python.org still hosts downloads for os x mavericks and up. the newest version STILL supports mavericks!
obs studio still hosts download for the last compatible mavericks version, i think it was version 18. dont download the newest version 18, since it will be very unstable and will crash upon starting recording.
scroll reverser, a popular software that splits mouse and trackpad "natural scrolling" settings, still hosts downloads for as old as mac os x 10.4 tiger.
google earth pro, a more advanced google earth app by google, still hosts downloads for os x mavericks.

thats all i could find for now!
Click to expand...
other UPDATE (confirmed): python.org has officially stopped supporting os x 10.9 mavericks, and the new requirement is now 10.13 high sierra
the latest version already require 10.13, although you can still run the installer and extract the files on 10.9 mavericks
 
There is now a quite awful situation with respect to Mavericks (still my main OS) - Widevine is broken at system level despite individual browsers such as Chromium Legacy sporting the latest version of it.

This means that there is no DRM video that can be streamed in Mavericks including Amazon Prime. But also ITVX and Channel 4 which despite being free-to-air channels, use encrypted streaming unlike BBC iPlayer which can still (thankfully) be streamed.

This is a major disaster for anyone like me who watches all of their TV, and subscription services, on their computer.
 
MacBiter said:
There is now a quite awful situation with respect to Mavericks (still my main OS) - Widevine is broken at system level despite individual browsers such as Chromium Legacy sporting the latest version of it.

This means that there is no DRM video that can be streamed in Mavericks including Amazon Prime. But also ITVX and Channel 4 which despite being free-to-air channels, use encrypted streaming unlike BBC iPlayer which can still (thankfully) be streamed.

This is a major disaster for anyone like me who watches all of their TV, and subscription services, on their computer.
Click to expand...
I know it's not ideal, but I think the best solution is to install Windows 10 inside of a Virtual Machine (I recommend VMWare Fusion, but Parallels is fine too, just avoid Virtualbox) and using that to watch Netflix et al.

The difference between using a Windows guest in a VM, and a Mac guest in a VM (which I believe is what you are using now), is night and day. This has nothing to do with the quality of Windows vs macOS, but rather that the VM vendors invest 100x more money into making Windows run well, and it shows.
 
Wowfunhappy said:
I know it's not ideal, but I think the best solution is to install Windows 10 inside of a Virtual Machine (I recommend VMWare Fusion, but Parallels is fine too, just avoid Virtualbox) and using that to watch Netflix et al.

The difference between using a Windows guest in a VM, and a Mac guest in a VM (which I believe is what you are using now), is night and day. This has nothing to do with the quality of Windows vs macOS, but rather that the VM vendors invest 100x more money into making Windows run well, and it shows.
Click to expand...
Doesn't that mean I'd have to buy Windows 10? o_O.
 
Wowfunhappy said:
No need to download from a sketchy source—as of this writing, you can grab that version of Skype right from the official servers.


But if that link ever goes down:

Code: 
$ shasum -a 256 Skype-8.49.0.49.dmg
44a1aaa29d2a040f6134dcbbb6211cda29766349b5a4e17eaa25f2133d4ca2d3  Skype-8.49.0.49.dmg
Click to expand...
Is it possible to get this to work nowadays? I still use Skype for some stuff (because discord sucks) and would love to be able to get the desktop app to work instead of having to use the web app, but the sign-in window breaks which I assume is because of old electron being old
 
Just thought you might like to know what apps I'm using (semi-)regularly in Mavericks:

Alfred 3
AppZapper
Audacity
Audio Hijack 2.11
Bean
Carbon Copy Cloner 3
cDock
Chromium Legacy (based on Chrome 124, but no longer maintained)
Disk Drill 2.4
DiskWarrior 4
FileMaker Pro 12
Find Any File
Firefox Dynasty (based on Firefox 132 - there are newer versions)
Hear **
iClip 5
iPhoto 9.5.1
iTunes 10.7 **
iLife 09
Journler **
Libre Office 6.2
Mactracker 7
MacX YouTube Downloader 5.2
MEGAsync and pCloud (instead of Dropbox)
MPEG Streamclip
Ondesoft suite
Parallels 11
Path Finder 6
Photoshop CS6
Photoshop Elements 6
Scrivener 2.9
Snapz Pro X 2.6 **
TechTool Pro 9
TypeIt4Me 5.5.3
VirtualBox 5.1.38
VLC
WhatSize

( ** some of the reasons I still use Mavericks - not supported by later Mac OS)
DRM doesn't work now in Mavericks, so I use a High Sierra VM for this
 
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