MacOS – Pretend to be specific Mac OS X version when running app

applicationscompatibilitymacos

I've purchased a Mac OS X app (outside the App Store) that seems to have arbitrary limitations based on the Mac OS X version. It is fully functional on El Capitan, but has a few features that it simply won't allow on Mavericks. One of these features is pretty basic — reading / writing a preferences file — so I'm guessing the developer simply wanted to narrow down the range of testing scenarios when implementing it, rather than it actually requiring Yosemite / El Capitan functionality.

Question: Is there a way to start a Mac OS X app in a manipulated environment such that I can supply specific values of my own choosing when the application calls methods like [[NSProcessInfo processInfo] operatingSystemVersion] or isOperatingSystemAtLeastVersion or whatever?

Best Answer

I know for one app that had a similar problem with we were able to get it to work by modifying /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist

I would say that is NOT a recommended approach. However, you may be able to do something tricky so that when your app environment reads that plist it gets a different version then the rest of the system.

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MacOS – Forcing/Getting app to run on lower Mac OSX version

NSBundle and CFBundle aggressively cache the contents of application bundles to improve performance. Although you edited the Info.plist, the Finder and Launch Services don't yet know that the application is any different.

Running the following command in Terminal to touch the application bundle will force the Finder (and Launch Services) to re-register the application, thereby noticing the changes you made to the Info.plist:

touch "/Applications/My Cool App.app"

After running that, deselect the application, then reselect it in the Finder, and then try launching it.

Note that this won't necessarily guarantee that you'll be able to launch the app. The developer would need to make sure they set a deployment target of 10.4 and/or use weak framework linking to assure that the app will be fully backward-compatible.

Mac – Can app store purchase be shared with a Mac running older version of Mac OS X

An install on Mac OS is generally just copying the relevant files into place. Usually, you'll be able to copy an app's bundle over from one machine to the other. The only thing is that the App Store will have some sort of DRM, so just copying it may not work. I suspect that the answer is no, because you'll need to sign in to the App Store, but I haven't tried it. (On the other hand, I've installed Lion on a Leopard machine via a disk without Sow Leopard.) Additionally, Apps that are downloaded from the Mac App store will carry minimum system requirements that might prevent them from running altogether, even if you theoretically circumvented the DRM from the App Store.

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Related Solutions

MacOS – Forcing/Getting app to run on lower Mac OSX version

Mac – Can app store purchase be shared with a Mac running older version of Mac OS X

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