Restore the Desktop Discord Client on OS X 10.9 - macOS 10.12

[Jazzzny]

Hello everyone, as you may or may not know, Discord's Desktop client no longer supports the following operating systems:
- OS X 10.8 (Dropped in 2016?)
- OS X 10.9 (Dropped in 2019)
- OS X 10.10 (Dropped in 2020)
- OSX 10.11 (Dropped on April 3, 2023)
- macOS 10.12 (Dropped on April 3, 2023)

Fortunately, the last-supported Desktop client versions still function perfectly after disabling the updater:

To make the process of restoring Desktop client functionality very easy, I've written a small Python program (10.9+, no need to use a newer operating system to install!) that downloads the last-supported version of Discord, applies the required changes, and creates a new disk image containing the fixed Discord client, which installs normally.

You may want to use the Desktop client instead of the web client for better integration into macOS, providing features such as Push to Talk, enhanced push notifications, and custom theming through OpenAsar's CSS editor.

The patched Discord client should be perfectly safe to use, as the Discord app is loading the up-to-date Discord website and sending up-to-date API requests. I've tested the patched clients on 10.9-10.12 and they all function very well. Using outdated clients only becomes problematic when outdated API requests are sent (e.g. using a very old Android/iOS app).

Download here:
https://github.com/Jazzzny/Discord-Legacy

UPDATE (APRIL 7, 2023):
I've added OpenAsar support to my patcher through OpenAsar-Legacy (An OpenAsar fork with support for 10.10+). OpenAsar offers greatly enhanced performance (noticeably faster on my 2012 MBA and custom CSS theming support.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

This is super cool! Do you have any idea if this method could be adapted to other Electron apps like Slack, or is it pretty specific to Discord? Okay if you don't know to. Just curious!

 

[Jazzzny]

Patching other Electron apps should be doable, I can take a look at Slack if you provide a link to the last version compatible with your desired operating system.

 

[GMShadow]

Oof, I'd been saying I was surprised/pleased that Discord supported as far back as 10.11, but I suppose it was always a matter of time. Thanks for this fix!

 

[PowerHarryG4]

Patching other Electron apps should be doable, I can take a look at Slack if you provide a link to the last version compatible with your desired operating system.

The last one I could find that works on Mavericks is 4.0.3: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://downloads.slack-edge.com/*

Later versions may work as well but I can't find any to test on the wayback machine. I know that 4.5.0 doesn't work.

Edit: Found a link still on the slack website: https://downloads.slack-edge.com/releases/macos/4.1.0/prod/x64/Slack-4.1.0-macOS.dmg

4.1.0 complains about a missing framework so I think 4.0.3 must be the last one

 

[Jazzzny]

So I've gotten the client to stop complaining about the outdated version, but the login page doesn't load properly. I'll see if I can do anything, but I don't think much can be done if the embedded Chromium version is too old to render Slack.

The app seems to be failing to run JavaScript on the website (Version is spoofed to 4.28.171) -

 

[f54da]

Last official version of chrome to support 10.9 was ~68 or so which doesn't have support for null-coalescing syntax. I'm actually surprised the version of v8 included inside Discord desktop client supporting 10.9 is able to render discord's webpage? Can you test what version of v8 is being used in there?

 

[Wowfunhappy]

So I've gotten the client to stop complaining about the outdated version, but the login page doesn't load properly. I'll see if I can do anything, but I don't think much can be done if the embedded Chromium version is too old to render Slack.

The app seems to be failing to run JavaScript on the website (Version is spoofed to 4.28.171) -
View attachment 2184505

Thanks for looking! No big deal, I'm pretty happy with Slack as a Chromium PWA, probably better for memory usage anyway.

 

[Jazzzny]

Hey all,
I've managed to backport OpenAsar to 10.10-10.12. It's a custom app.asar which provides incredibly good performance (noticeably faster on my 2012 MBA running 10.10) and custom CSS theming. I'll add support for it in the next release of my Discord patcher, but if anyone wants to install it, I've got a build system set up here: https://github.com/Jazzzny/OpenAsar-Legacy/actions (Yosemite branch builds work on 10.10+, main branch builds work on 10.11+, must sign in to GitHub to download)
Enjoy!

I've also started some initial work on getting the 10.9 builds to work better, hopefully I'll be able to fix some of the major issues.

 

[PowerHarryG4]

Hey all,
I've managed to backport OpenAsar to 10.10-10.12. It's a custom app.asar which provides incredibly good performance (noticeably faster on my 2012 MBA running 10.10) and custom CSS theming. I'll add support for it in the next release of my Discord patcher, but if anyone wants to install it, I've got a build system set up here: https://github.com/Jazzzny/OpenAsar-Legacy/actions (Yosemite branch builds work on 10.10+, main branch builds work on 10.11+, must sign in to GitHub to download)
Enjoy!

View attachment 2185554
I've also started some initial work on getting the 10.9 builds to work better, hopefully I'll be able to fix some of the major issues.

That’s awesome. Have you ever looked at what it would take to fix electron for something like 10.9? I saw they were talking about it on the git discussion, https://github.com/blueboxd/chromium-legacy/discussions/43 . I wish I knew more about all this stuff so I could give it a go myself.

 

[Jazzzny]

That’s awesome. Have you ever looked at what it would take to fix electron for something like 10.9? I saw they were talking about it on the git discussion, https://github.com/blueboxd/chromium-legacy/discussions/43 . I wish I knew more about all this stuff so I could give it a go myself.

Porting Electron would be heaps of work. I don't think I'm skilled enough to take on such a big task, but maybe someone more knowledgeable would be able to look into it.

 

[firelighter487]

stupid question, why not just use Chromium Legacy and run Discord in the browser?

 

[Jazzzny]

stupid question, why not just use Chromium Legacy and run Discord in the browser?

You may want to use the Desktop client instead of the web client for better integration into macOS, providing features such as Push to Talk, enhanced push notifications, and custom theming through OpenAsar's CSS editor.

 

[originaldotexe]

on 10.9, after discord updates & launches, i just get a blank app window. any idea what is going wrong?

 

[Jazzzny]

on 10.9, after discord updates & launches, i just get a blank app window. any idea what is going wrong?

View attachment 2188379

Hmm, that's strange. I haven't tested 10.9 in a while, but I know it was working a few months ago. I'll install 10.9 and see what's going on.

 

[originaldotexe]

Hmm, that's strange. I haven't tested 10.9 in a while, but I know it was working a few months ago. I'll install 10.9 and see what's going on.

alright, thank you! let me know

 

[Loon.ig]

When i open discord on 10.9 it shows nothing but a blank grey screen any ideas on what could be causing this?

 

[VirtuallGamer]

Hello everyone, as you may or may not know, Discord's Desktop client no longer supports the following operating systems:
- OS X 10.8 (Dropped in 2016?)
- OS X 10.9 (Dropped in 2019)
- OS X 10.10 (Dropped in 2020)
- OSX 10.11 (Dropped on April 3, 2023)
- macOS 10.12 (Dropped on April 3, 2023)

Fortunately, the last-supported Desktop client versions still function perfectly after disabling the updater:
View attachment 2184025View attachment 2184023View attachment 2184024

To make the process of restoring Desktop client functionality very easy, I've written a small Python program (10.9+, no need to use a newer operating system to install!) that downloads the last-supported version of Discord, applies the required changes, and creates a new disk image containing the fixed Discord client, which installs normally.

You may want to use the Desktop client instead of the web client for better integration into macOS, providing features such as Push to Talk, enhanced push notifications, and custom theming through OpenAsar's CSS editor.

The patched Discord client should be perfectly safe to use, as the Discord app is loading the up-to-date Discord website and sending up-to-date API requests. I've tested the patched clients on 10.9-10.12 and they all function very well. Using outdated clients only becomes problematic when outdated API requests are sent (e.g. using a very old Android/iOS app).

Download here:
https://github.com/Jazzzny/Discord-Legacy

UPDATE (APRIL 7, 2023):
I've added OpenAsar support to my patcher through OpenAsar-Legacy (An OpenAsar fork with support for 10.10+). OpenAsar offers greatly enhanced performance (noticeably faster on my 2012 MBA and custom CSS theming support.

Hey, im newbie so... you didn't explain what we need to do :/ I just wonder if we have to uninstall discord on our device to execute your program or if it's just an updater ?

 

[Jazzzny]

Hey, im newbie so... you didn't explain what we need to do :/ I just wonder if we have to uninstall discord on our device to execute your program or if it's just an updater ?

Hello, good point, I'll add instructions.
To use the patcher, you need to delete Discord (as it has probably updated and is incompatible), download the patcher from github, unzip it, right click -> open the patcher, and follow the prompts to download a patched version of Discord, which you can install normally by opening the downloaded .dmg and dragging Discord to the applications folder.
Let me know if you run into any issues

 

[VirtuallGamer]

Hello, good point, I'll add instructions.
To use the patcher, you need to delete Discord (as it has probably updated and is incompatible), download the patcher from github, unzip it, right click -> open the patcher, and follow the prompts to download a patched version of Discord, which you can install normally by opening the downloaded .dmg and dragging Discord to the applications folder.
Let me know if you run into any issues

The file is damaged, impossible to open, it is advised to put it in the trash.

 

[Jazzzny]

The file is damaged, impossible to open, it is advised to put it in the trash.

this is an issue with macOS's GateKeeper. You can fix the permissions by running

xattr -cr [Drag Discord Legacy into terminal]

in a terminal.

 

[VirtuallGamer]

this is an issue with macOS's GateKeeper. You can fix the permissions by running

xattr -cr [Drag Discord Legacy into terminal]

in a terminal.

Thx a lot It works !!

 

[wicknix]

Cool project. Would it be possible to have users patch the binaries and send them to you to upload to github for each old version? Or does that not bode well in the copyright, license, legal sense? Just curious as nobody really cares about discords mostly unenforced TOS judging by the amount of available 3rd party clients (which i myself use a few of to avoid the official apps tracking garbage).

Cheers

 

[Jazzzny]

Cool project. Would it be possible to have users patch the binaries and send them to you to upload to github for each old version? Or does that not bode well in the copyright, license, legal sense? Just curious as nobody really cares about discords mostly unenforced TOS judging by the amount of available 3rd party clients (which i myself use a few of to avoid the official apps tracking garbage).

Cheers

I could probably write a script to download and patch every functional version of the Discord client, but it isn't really necessary, as Discord still hosts every client they've ever released. So for now, I think just having a tool that downloads the client and adds the required patches (and OpenAsar if chosen) is the best option. However, if Discord ever pulls the old clients (I doubt that it will ever happen), I'll have to look into potentially rehosting them.

 

[UltimateKuriboh]

It should be noted that for me, I had the following situation:

* I have macOS Sierra (10.12.6).
* I attempted to install node-v18.16.0.pkg for the required Node.js installation; however, it failed because I was "using a node version which was compiled for macOS 10.15" (quoted from elsewhere on the internet). So I attempted to download node-v10.0.0.pkg, and that worked until I ran into issues trying to install Asar. The command prompt told me it requires a version of Node.js that is 10.12.0 or newer. So ultimately, I installed "node-v10.12.0.pkg" and that allowed me to complete the entire process successfully.

I hope this helps someone with their issues.