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Reminder: iWork '09 & some iMovie files won't work in macOS Catalina

If that Pages icon (left) is what you see every time you switch on your Mac, we have some bad news for you

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If you've been hanging on to a popular version of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, or have some iMovie files relying on older plugins, time's up. You're going to have to take some steps in order to move to macOS Catalina.

The forthcoming macOS Catalina will not run Apple's old iWork '09 apps, and nor will its version of iMovie load certain older types of files. It's due to Catalina's dropping of support for 32-bit apps but Apple says users can update to the latest versions of the iWork apps in order to carry on working with their existing documents.

However, iWork '09 is more significant than its age suggests. Normally you wouldn't expect any company to support software from a decade ago, but the '09 suite is famously the one before Apple radically revised Pages, Numbers and Keynote.

In 2013, Apple rewrote its iWork apps from scratch and introduced new versions for the Mac and iPad. As it had done with video editing tool, Final Cut Pro X in 2011, Apple made a new version of iWork that was better in many ways but lacked a lot of existing significant features.

Numbers lost various spreadsheet cell management options, for instance, plus some row sorting features. Pages lost its mail merge and format bar.

In the years since, Apple has slowly added back most of the missing features — ">but not all. Six years on from this iWork 2013 release, Pages has still not got its outlining feature back.

Consequently, some users have stuck with iWork '09 through thick and thin, but now Apple says they will have to update if they're to use macOS Catalina.

Old video files

The changes to iMovie for macOS Catalina are less significant, but they may still be problematic.

While the issue is again related to Catalina's dropping of 32-bit apps, iMovie itself is not affected. What may be an issue is what Apple calls incompatible media files.

These were mainly, but not exclusively, created using the old QuickTime 7. Even though Apple itself has moved on from QuickTime 7, it kept supporting it for compatibility right up to macOS Mojave, but no more.

Since QuickTime 7 is old, though, you can use iMovie on macOS Mojave to see whether you have any incompatible media files. Open the app and then try to import media.

You'll get a window listing all the incompatible media and there's a Convert button. Click that and your files are converted to H.264 to be playable on Catalina.

This all supposes that you have all of your old media in one place, though, and that you go through this process before upgrading to macOS Catalina.

Apple maintains a comprehensive list of which video formats will still work in iMovie in Catalina, and which ones won't.

As well as the consumer iWork '09, macOS Catalina is also going to see the final end of Apple's pro-photography software, Aperture. While it was discontinued in 2015, it's been supported through the different macOS releases since then, but Aperture will cease to work with Catalina.



13 Comments

SpamSandwich 20 Years · 32917 comments

iMovie on Mac was dead to me for years and the iWork trio is only used on my iPad now. Good thing.

Mike Wuerthele 9 Years · 6930 comments

iMovie on Mac was dead to me for years and the iWork trio is only used on my iPad now. Good thing.

FWIW, specifically, this is iWork '09's problem and some very old plugins for iMovie. Newer versions are fine.

1 Like · 0 Dislikes
lkrupp 20 Years · 10521 comments

I can’t help but think the upgrade to Catalina is going to cause massive disruptions for a lot of people. Try as you might to inform and disseminate the fact that 32 bit apps will stop working with Catalina there will be millions of users who blissfully upgrade to Catalina only to find out they’re screwed. We see it every day in the Apple discussion forums even now. A user updates an app or macOS and finds something is broken. Then argument starts about who’s fault it is, Apple or the developer. For example, I use Epson and HP printers and some of both are still using 32 bit drivers according to System Report. I’m hoping both manufacturers update their drivers and utility apps before Catalina lands. This is one time I might sit back and watch the fireworks before moving ahead.

3 Likes · 0 Dislikes
Wgkrueger 9 Years · 352 comments

lkrupp said:
I can’t help but think the upgrade to Catalina is going to cause massive disruptions for a lot of people. Try as you might to inform and disseminate the fact that 32 bit apps will stop working with Catalina there will be millions of users who blissfully upgrade to Catalina only to find out they’re screwed. We see it every day in the Apple discussion forums even now. A user updates an app or macOS and finds something is broken. Then argument starts about who’s fault it is, Apple or the developer. For example, I use Epson and HP printers and some of both are still using 32 bit drivers according to System Report. I’m hoping both manufacturers update their drivers and utility apps before Catalina lands. This is one time I might sit back and watch the fireworks before moving ahead.

Waiting might be the intelligent thing to do but no guts no glory is better :-)

1 Like · 0 Dislikes
charlesatlas 10 Years · 401 comments

This is why I keep an old Macbook around that's running Mavericks and loaded with older apps.

1 Like · 0 Dislikes