"Rosetta was designed to make the transition to Apple silicon easier, and we plan to make it available for the next two major macOS releases – through macOS 27 – as a general-purpose tool for Intel apps to help developers complete the migration of their apps. Beyond this timeframe, we will keep a subset of Rosetta functionality aimed at supporting older unmaintained gaming titles, that rely on Intel-based frameworks." What will happen to Rosetta 2 then? Most importantly, will the ability to emulate x86_64 containers and binaries in virtual machines persist? Will Rosetta 2 be blocked only from the App Store? Will apps be barred from Rosetta, only games be able to use it? Will it only support frameworks?

I installed the WWDC beta on UTM and I'm unable to find the option to disable the so-called "Natural Scrolling". Has this been removed and if so, can we get it put back? I use a mouse with scroll wheel and everything is going opposite the direction I expect in the macOS 26 VM.

Imagine a native macOS app that acts as a "launcher" for a Java game.** For example, the "launcher" app might use the Swift Process API or a similar method to run the java command line tool (lets assume the user has installed Java themselves) to run the game. I have seen How to Enable Game Mode. If the native launcher app's Info.plist has the following keys set: LSApplicationCategoryType set to public.app-category.games LSSupportsGameMode set to true (for macOS 26+) GCSupportsGameMode set to true The launcher itself can cause Game Mode to activate if the launcher is fullscreened. However, if the launcher opens a Java process that opens a window, then the Java window is fullscreened, Game Mode doesn't seem to activate. In this case activating Game Mode for the launcher itself is unnecessary, but you'd expect Game Mode to activate when the actual game in the Java window is fullscreened. Is there a way to get Game Mode to activate in the latter case? ** The concrete case I'm thinking of is a third-party Minecraft Java Edition launcher, but the issue can also be demonstrated in a sample project (FB13786152). It seems like the official Minecraft launcher is able to do this, though it's not clear how. (Is its bundle identifier hardcoded in the OS to allow for this? Changing a sample app's bundle identifier to be the same as the official Minecraft launcher gets the behavior I want, but obviously this is not a practical solution.)

My high-level goal is to add support for Game Mode in a Java game, which launches via a macOS "launcher" app that runs the actual java game as a separate process (e.g. using the java command line tool). I asked this over in the Graphics & Games section and was told this, which is why I'm reposting this here. I'm uncertain how to speak to CLI tools and Java games launched from a macOS app. These sound like security and sandboxing questions which we recommend you ask about in those sections of the forums. The system seems to decide whether to enable Game Mode based on values in the Info.plist (e.g. for LSApplicationCategoryType and GCSupportsGameMode). However, the child process can't seem to see these values. Is there a way to change that? (The rest of this post is copied from my other forums post to provide additional context.) Imagine a native macOS app that acts as a "launcher" for a Java game.** For example, the "launcher" app might use the Swift Process API or a similar method to run the java command line tool (lets assume the user has installed Java themselves) to run the game. I have seen How to Enable Game Mode. If the native launcher app's Info.plist has the following keys set: LSApplicationCategoryType set to public.app-category.games LSSupportsGameMode set to true (for macOS 26+) GCSupportsGameMode set to true The launcher itself can cause Game Mode to activate if the launcher is fullscreened. However, if the launcher opens a Java process that opens a window, then the Java window is fullscreened, Game Mode doesn't seem to activate. In this case activating Game Mode for the launcher itself is unnecessary, but you'd expect Game Mode to activate when the actual game in the Java window is fullscreened. Is there a way to get Game Mode to activate in the latter case? ** The concrete case I'm thinking of is a third-party Minecraft Java Edition launcher, but the issue can also be demonstrated in a sample project (FB13786152). It seems like the official Minecraft launcher is able to do this, though it's not clear how. (Is its bundle identifier hardcoded in the OS to allow for this? Changing a sample app's bundle identifier to be the same as the official Minecraft launcher gets the behavior I want, but obviously this is not a practical solution.)

Given that I have enabled System Settings -> General -> Software Update -> Beta Updates -> macOS Tahoe 26 Developer Beta. When I run the following command: softwareupdate --list-full-installers I'm not seeing macOS 26 within the resulting list: ➜ softwareupdate --list-full-installers Finding available software Software Update found the following full installers: * Title: macOS Sequoia, Version: 15.5, Size: 15283299KiB, Build: 24F74, Deferred: NO * Title: macOS Sequoia, Version: 15.4.1, Size: 15244333KiB, Build: 24E263, Deferred: NO * Title: macOS Sequoia, Version: 15.4, Size: 15243957KiB, Build: 24E248, Deferred: NO * Title: macOS Sequoia, Version: 15.3.2, Size: 14890483KiB, Build: 24D81, Deferred: NO * Title: macOS Sequoia, Version: 15.3.1, Size: 14891477KiB, Build: 24D70, Deferred: NO * Title: macOS Sonoma, Version: 14.7.6, Size: 13338327KiB, Build: 23H626, Deferred: NO * Title: macOS Sonoma, Version: 14.7.5, Size: 13337289KiB, Build: 23H527, Deferred: NO * Title: macOS Sonoma, Version: 14.7.4, Size: 13332546KiB, Build: 23H420, Deferred: NO * Title: macOS Ventura, Version: 13.7.6, Size: 11910780KiB, Build: 22H625, Deferred: NO * Title: macOS Ventura, Version: 13.7.5, Size: 11916960KiB, Build: 22H527, Deferred: NO * Title: macOS Ventura, Version: 13.7.4, Size: 11915317KiB, Build: 22H420, Deferred: NO * Title: macOS Monterey, Version: 12.7.4, Size: 12117810KiB, Build: 21H1123, Deferred: NO Is there an issue with the softwareupdate utility?

We have a Mac app that uses some restricted macOS entitlements, thus to test it we embed a development provisioning profile, that needs to contain the correct provisioning UDID. Typically, for test VMs, we extract the provisioning and UDID and add it to the developer portal and then re-generate the provisioning profiles. However when we try to do this in our newly created VM (Apple Silicon), our executable won't run, and macOS logs that the provisioning profile doesn't allow the device: 2025-06-12 12:37:52.168 E taskgated-helper[27489:e97da] [com.apple.ManagedClient:ProvisioningProfiles] embedded provisioning profile not valid: file:///Applications/foo.app/Contents/embedded.provisionprofile error: Error Domain=CPProfileManager Code=-212 "Provisioning profile does not allow this device." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Provisioning profile does not allow this device.} 2025-06-12 12:37:52.169 E taskgated-helper[27489:e97da] [com.apple.ManagedClient:ProvisioningProfiles] Disallowing com.company.foo because no eligible provisioning profiles found 2025-06-12 12:37:52.169 Df amfid[112:e99b0] [com.apple.xpc:connection] [0xb34c74a00] invalidated because the current process cancelled the connection by calling xpc_connection_cancel() 2025-06-12 12:37:52.169 Df taskgated-helper[27489:e97da] [com.apple.xpc:connection] [0x839144000] invalidated because the client process (pid 112) either cancelled the connection or exited 2025-06-12 12:37:52.169 E amfid[112:e91ac] [com.apple.MobileFileIntegrity.framework:default] Failure validating against provisioning profiles: <private> 2025-06-12 12:37:52.169 E amfid[112:e91ac] [com.apple.MobileFileIntegrity.framework:default] Restricted entitlements not validated, bailing out. Error: Error Domain=AppleMobileFileIntegrityError Code=-413 "No matching profile found" UserInfo={NSURL=<private>, NSLocalizedDescription=No matching profile found} 2025-06-12 12:37:52.169 Df amfid[112:e91ac] /Applications/foo.app/Contents/MacOS/foo not valid: Error Domain=AppleMobileFileIntegrityError Code=-413 "No matching profile found" UserInfo={NSURL=file:///Applications/foo.app/, NSLocalizedDescription=No matching profile found} The UDID for this VM does look weird, in System Profiler: But I can verify that this UDID string is present in the provisioning profile embedded in the app bundle: $ security cms -D -i /Applications/foo.app/Contents/embedded.provisionprofile | grep -i 7cd9234e9aa4fa8ba528ee417f857b2c993a20a3 <string>7CD9234E9AA4FA8BA528EE417F857B2C993A20A3</string> I also tried deleting the manually added device from the Developer portal and installing Xcode on the VM and letting Xcode register the device, but I end up in the same situation there. Even after letting Xcode itself register the device, it says that "this device not registered to your account" and then when I click "Register device" it changes into " already exists". Has anyone else managed to get Mac development provisioning profiles to work in a VM?

Hi everyone, We work on a macOS plugin which then gets loaded into another application. I'm trying to load a webpage in that application through our plugin using a WKWebView & I set my class as the navigationDelegate for the same. I do not receive any callbacks for the WKNavigationDelegate methods. I have debugged & made sure that the navigationDelegate is actually set to my class. Here is a sample code of what I'm doing : [[NSApplication sharedApplication] runModalForWindow:self.mWindowController.window]; - (void)windowDidLoad { [super windowDidLoad]; [self.window makeKeyAndOrderFront:self]; [self.window orderFrontRegardless]; if (self.mLoadingView == nil) { self.mLoadingView = [[LoadingView alloc] initWithFrame:[[self.window contentView] frame]]; } [[self.window contentView] addSubview:self.mLoadingView]; [self.mLoadingView showLoadingView]; [self.window setLevel:NSMainMenuWindowLevel]; [self loadWebPage]; } -(void)loadWebPage { [self.mWKWebView setUIDelegate:self]; [self.mWKWebView setNavigationDelegate:self]; [self.mWKWebView stopLoading]; NSURL *lURL = [self samplePageURL]; WKNavigation *lNavigation = [self.mWKWebView loadRequest:[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:lURL]]; } - (void)webView:(WKWebView *)pWKWebView didFinishNavigation:(WKNavigation *)pNavigation { [self removeLoadingview]; [self.mWKWebView evaluateJavaScript:@"document.body.setAttribute('oncontextmenu', 'event.preventDefault();');" completionHandler:nil]; } I do not get any calls in the webView:didFinishNavigation: & I also tried other methods like webView:didStartProvisionalNavigation, webView:didFailProvisionalNavigation:withError: etc but did not receive any call in those either. Instead of runModalForWindow: if I use showWindow: on the mWindowController the webpage somehow loads but I still don't get any callbacks & so the loadingview subview is also present. The WKWebView is placed in a storyboard, and I have an IBOutlet connected to it in my class. Has anyone faced a similar issue or can point me to something I might be missing? All help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

When exporting an icon using Icon Composer Beta for macOS 26, a light, dark and tinted versions for macOS are created, but I was not able to find how to use them on the Xcode Project. I also tried finding something pointing to that on documentation, but I was not able to find anything. I see that system apps have light, dark and tinted versions on the first beta of macOS 26, which leads me to believe it would be possible for third-party apps to do that same.

Hi Apple developer community. I have a question a lot of users don’t like the new control center and notification center. Are you guys gonna blur the background or are you guys gonna keep it the same?

I’m currently using the stable release of Xcode 16.4, and I’m considering installing macOS beta 26. Before I upgrade, I’d like to know: 👉 Is it generally possible to use Xcode 16.4 with macOS Tahoe beta? My goal is to continue building and submitting apps to the App Store using the non-beta Xcode version. I understand that Apple only officially supports each stable Xcode with the current public macOS release, but in practice, has anyone run into issues doing this? This would not be my primary development Mac, but I’d still like to be able to compile and test code on the machine running the macOS beta. I’d appreciate any experiences or official guidance — especially regarding app signing, archiving, or compatibility with Xcode Cloud. Thanks in advance!

I just installed macOS Tahoe beta on a mac mini. It says I am not connected to the internet, and attempts to use file sharing fail. Network status says that Ethernet and WiFi are working. Any suggestions?

My app already has UI that allows the user to show/hide a menubar icon. If the user disallows my app's icon via System Settings > Menu Bar > Allow in the menu bar, I'd like to customize my own UI to reflect that. Does macOS provide a way for me to determine the "Allow in the menu bar" state for my application?

Hello, I want to create a Launch Agent that triggers an executable upon changes in the /Applications folder. The launch agent is normally a loaded but not running, and by adding /Applications to the WatchPath parameters in the plist, launchd is supposed to trigger the process, that will run and exit once done. Sadly this seems not to be working uniformly. The script only works on one machine, in the the others the execcutable is never run. There seem not to be any meaningful differences in the launchd or system logs. The same identical plist works perfectly when changing something in the user's ~/Applications folder. The script does its job and logs are visible. Is there an undocumented limitation specifically for the /Applications folder that prevents luanchd to observe it in the WatchPaths? Maybe SIP not allowing access? But why does it work on my machine? Here is an example of the ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.company.AppName.LaunchAgent.plist: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>AssociatedBundleIdentifiers</key> <string>com.company.AppName</string> <key>KeepAlive</key> <false/> <key>Label</key> <string>com.company.AppName.LaunchAgent</string> <key>ProgramArguments</key> <array> <string>/Users/username/Library/Application Support/com.company.AppName/Launch Agent.app/Contents/MacOS/LaunchAgent</string> </array> <key>RunAtLoad</key> <false/> <key>WatchPaths</key> <array> <string>/Users/username/Applications</string> <string>/Applications</string> <string>/Network/Applications</string> </array> </dict> </plist> With the executable being a standard app bundle in /Users/username/Library/Application Support/com.company.AppName/Launch Agent.app Thank you

Hey folks! I'm working on a macOS app which has a Finder Quick Action extension. It's all working fine, but I'm hitting a weird struggle with getting the icon rendering how I would like, and the docs haven't been able to help me. I want to re-use a custom SF Symbol from my app, so I've copied that from the main app's xcassets bundle to the one in the extension, and configured it for Template rendering. The icon renders in the right click menu in Finder, the Finder preview pane and the Extensions section of System Settings, but all of them render with the wrong colour in dark mode. In light mode they look fine, but in dark mode I would expect a templated icon to be rendered in white, not black. I've attached a variety of screenshots of the icons in the UI and how things are set up in Xcode (both for the symbol in the xcassets bundle, and the Info.plist) I tried reading the docs, searching Google, searching GitHub and even asking the dreaded AI, but it seems like there's not really very much information available about doing icons for Finder extensions, especially ones using a custom SF Symbol, so I would love to know if anyone here has been able to solve this in the past! Finder preview pane in light mode: Finder preview pane in dark mode: Finder quick action context menu: System Settings extension preferences: The custom symbol in my .xcassets bundle: The finder extension's Info.plist:

Hi Everybody knows about how this kind of files works. My issue is about trying to load data from these files to a HTML page. Everything works, I can read and use this data on my project however the records I have in Numbers, text where there are commas for punctuation, will be separated when this file is loaded. The comma is breaking the records, I know this is a CSV file but is there a way to set semicolon as delimiter on Mac or Numbers to be able to use the comma in my records without any issue? Also could be another symbol, but definitely I need the commas. thank you!

Hello, I'm working on a iOS project, and I added a setup precedure to save and load configuration files during the app's initialization process. However, I can't find my files in my iPhone test while it's Ok on my Mac. How can I retrieve them? Thanks

I'm trying to make an FSKit module for NTFS read-write filesystem and at the stage where everything is more or less working fine as long as I mount the volume via mount -F and that volume is a RAM disk. However, since the default NTFS read-only driver is already present in macOS, this introduces an additional challenge. Judging by the DiskArbitration sources, it looks like all FSKit modules are allowed to probe anything only after all kext modules. So, in this situation, any third-party NTFS FSKit module is effectively blocked from using DiskArbitration mechanisms at all because it's always masked during the probing by the system's read-only kext. This leaves mount -F as the only means to mount the NTFS volume via FSKit. However, even that doesn't work for volumes on real (non-RAM) disks due to permission issues. The logs in Console.app hint that the FSKit extension is running; however, it looks like the fskitd itself doesn't have permissions to access real disks if it's initiated from the mount utility? default 16:42:41.939498+0200 fskitd New module list <private> default 16:42:41.939531+0200 fskitd Old modules (null) default 16:42:41.939578+0200 fskitd Added 2 identifiers: <private> default 16:42:41.939651+0200 fskitd [0x7fc58020bf00] activating connection: mach=true listener=true peer=false name=com.apple.filesystems.fskitd debug 16:42:41.939768+0200 fskitd main:RunLoopRun debug 16:42:41.939811+0200 fskitd -[liveFilesMountServiceDelegate listener:shouldAcceptNewConnection:]: start default 16:42:41.939870+0200 fskitd Incomming connection, entitled 0 debug 16:42:41.940021+0200 fskitd -[liveFilesMountServiceDelegate listener:shouldAcceptNewConnection:]: accepting connection default 16:42:41.940048+0200 fskitd [0x7fc580006120] activating connection: mach=false listener=false peer=true name=com.apple.filesystems.fskitd.peer[1816].0x7fc580006120 default 16:42:41.940325+0200 fskitd Hello FSClient! entitlement no default 16:42:41.940977+0200 fskitd About to get current agent for 503 default 16:42:41.941104+0200 fskitd [0x7fc580015480] activating connection: mach=true listener=false peer=false name=com.apple.fskit.fskit_agent info 16:42:41.941227+0200 fskitd About to call to fskit_agent debug 16:42:42.004630+0200 fskitd -[fskitdAgentManager currentExtensionForShortName:auditToken:replyHandler:]_block_invoke: Found extension for fsShortName (<private>) info 16:42:42.005409+0200 fskitd Probe starting on <private> debug 16:42:42.005480+0200 fskitd -[FSResourceManager getResourceState:]:not_found:<private> debug 16:42:42.005528+0200 fskitd -[FSResourceManager addTaskUUID:resource:]:<private>: Adding task (<private>) debug 16:42:42.005583+0200 fskitd applyResource starting with resource <private> kind 1 default 16:42:42.005609+0200 fskitd About to get current agent for 503 info 16:42:42.005629+0200 fskitd About to call to fskit_agent debug 16:42:42.006700+0200 fskitd -[fskitdXPCServer getExtensionModuleFromID:forToken:]_block_invoke: Found extension <private>, attrs <private> default 16:42:42.006829+0200 fskitd About to get current agent for 503 info 16:42:42.006858+0200 fskitd About to call to fskit_agent, bundle ID <private>, instanceUUID <private> default 16:42:42.070923+0200 fskitd About to grab assertion on pid 1820 default 16:42:42.071058+0200 fskitd Initializing connection default 16:42:42.071141+0200 fskitd Removing all cached process handles default 16:42:42.071185+0200 fskitd Sending handshake request attempt #1 to server default 16:42:42.071223+0200 fskitd Creating connection to com.apple.runningboard info 16:42:42.071224+0200 fskitd Acquiring assertion: <RBSAssertionDescriptor| "com.apple.extension.session" ID:(null) target:1820> default 16:42:42.071258+0200 fskitd [0x7fc58001cdc0] activating connection: mach=true listener=false peer=false name=com.apple.runningboard default 16:42:42.075617+0200 fskitd Handshake succeeded default 16:42:42.075660+0200 fskitd Identity resolved as osservice<com.apple.filesystems.fskitd> debug 16:42:42.076337+0200 fskitd Adding assertion 183-1817-1669 to dictionary debug 16:42:42.076385+0200 fskitd +[FSBlockDeviceResource(Project) openWithBSDName:writable:auditToken:replyHandler:]:bsdName:<private> default 16:42:42.076457+0200 fskitd [0x7fc5801092e0] activating connection: mach=true listener=false peer=false name=com.apple.fskit.fskit_helper default 16:42:42.077706+0200 fskitd +[FSBlockDeviceResource(Project) openWithBSDName:writable:auditToken:replyHandler:]_block_invoke: Open device returned error Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=13 info 16:42:42.077760+0200 fskitd +[FSBlockDeviceResource(Project) openWithBSDName:writable:auditToken:replyHandler:]: failed to open device <private>, Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=13 default 16:42:42.077805+0200 fskitd [0x7fc5801092e0] invalidated because the current process cancelled the connection by calling xpc_connection_cancel() debug 16:42:42.077830+0200 fskitd +[FSBlockDeviceResource(Project) openWithBSDName:writable:auditToken:replyHandler:]:end info 16:42:42.078459+0200 fskitd openWith returned err Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=13 dev (null) error 16:42:42.078501+0200 fskitd -[fskitdXPCServer getRealResource:auditToken:reply:]: Unable to convert proxy FSBlockDeviceResource into open resource error 16:42:42.078538+0200 fskitd -[fskitdXPCServer applyResource:targetBundle:instanceID:initiatorAuditToken:authorizingAuditToken:isProbe:usingBlock:]: Can't get the real resource of <private> default 16:42:42.105443+0200 fskitd [0x7fc580006120] invalidated because the client process (pid 1816) either cancelled the connection or exited The mount utility call I use is the same for RAM and real disks with the only difference being the device argument and this permission error is only relevant for real disks case. So, the proper solution (using DiskArbitration) seems to be blocked architecturally in this use case due to FSKit modules being relegated to the fallback role. Is this subject to change in the future? The remaining workaround with using the mount directly doesn't work for unclear reasons. Is that permission error a bug? Or am I missing something?

I am developing a FileProvider on Mac OS. I want to support Coauthoring Via Microsoft. As per Microsoft's documentation, the supportedServices function should be called via the OS when an Office file is opened. I have overridden this function in my fileprovider extension, but fail to see this function getting called. Has anyone else had any experience with coauthoring integration for File Provider and could give some advice? I am mostly working from the given documentation from Microsoft https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/cloud-storage-partner-program/plus/sync-client/metadata

building gcc14-libgcc14 using Macports + Apple clang returns following error In file included from /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX26.sdk/usr/include/mach/message.h:78, from /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX26.sdk/usr/include/mach/arm/thread_status.h:40, from /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX26.sdk/usr/include/mach/machine/thread_status.h:35, from /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX26.sdk/usr/include/mach-o/loader.h:52, from /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX26.sdk/usr/include/mach-o/dyld.h:30, from /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_macports_release_tarballs_ports_lang_gcc14/libgcc14/work/gcc-14.2.0/libgcc/config/darwin-crt-tm.c:29: /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX26.sdk/usr/include/mach/port.h:510:1: error: conflicting types for 'MPG_PAYLOAD'; have 'uint64_t(uint8_t, uint32_t, uint32_t)' {aka 'long long unsigned int(unsigned char, unsigned int, unsigned int)'} 510 | MPG_PAYLOAD(uint8_t flag, uint32_t a, uint32_t b) | ^~~~~~~~~~~ /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX26.sdk/usr/include/mach/port.h:498:1: note: previous definition of 'MPG_PAYLOAD' with type 'uint64_t(uint8_t, uint32_t)' {aka 'long long unsigned int(unsigned char, unsigned int)'} 498 | MPG_PAYLOAD(uint8_t flag, uint32_t a) | ^~~~~~~~~~~ /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX26.sdk/usr/include/mach/port.h:523:1: error: conflicting types for 'MPG_PAYLOAD'; have 'uint64_t(uint8_t, uint32_t, uint16_t, uint16_t)' {aka 'long long unsigned int(unsigned char, unsigned int, short unsigned int, short unsigned int)'} 523 | MPG_PAYLOAD(uint8_t flag, uint32_t a, uint16_t b, uint16_t c) | ^~~~~~~~~~~ /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX26.sdk/usr/include/mach/port.h:498:1: note: previous definition of 'MPG_PAYLOAD' with type 'uint64_t(uint8_t, uint32_t)' {aka 'long long unsigned int(unsigned char, unsigned int)'} 498 | MPG_PAYLOAD(uint8_t flag, uint32_t a) libgcxx compiles fine if forcing compile using clang20/clang19 there is no error.

A few minutes back I filed a feedback assistant issue for this (FB18173706), but I am not sure I filed it in the correct category and I can't find a way to edit it either. So posting this message here just to have to assigned in the right category if appropriate. The issue is as follows. On macOS 26 Tahoe Beta, "man sw_vers" has this among other details: Previous versions of sw_vers respected the SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT environment variable to provide compatibility fallback versions for scripts which did not support the macOS 11.0+ version transition. This is no longer supported, versions returned by sw_vers will always reflect the real system version. It says that SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT is no longer supported. That doesn't look right, because running sw_vers as follows on macOS 26 Beta results in: SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT=1 sw_vers ProductName: macOS ProductVersion: 16.0 BuildVersion: 25A5279m i.e. setting the environment variable SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT=1 results in sw_vers reporting the version as 16.0. Now try with SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT=0, and the result is: SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT=0 sw_vers ProductName: macOS ProductVersion: 26.0 BuildVersion: 25A5279m notice the output says 26.0. So it appears that SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT is supported even on macOS 26. I think the man page requires an update to match this behaviour.