Rules for Mac OS dropping hardware support and for retiring Mac OSs

[Andrey84]

Hello,

I'm looking for a policy document or any statement from Apple explaining the rules of how they drop certain Macs from being supported by latest Mac OSs. I'm also looking for a similar doc on stopping support for Mac OSs.

These are the current rules, as I understand them. As people said below, they might change. Please feel free to comment.

Updated with the information from the comments

1. Full hardware support by latest Mac OS: 6 YEARS from model introduction.
Example: one can install Sonoma, released in 2023, onto a 2018 Mac, but not on a 2017 Mac. Source: ARS Technica Article.

2. Mac OS security support: 3 YEARS from OS initial release.
Example: Bug Sur was released in Nov 2020 and the support was dropped in September 2023. Source: https://endoflife.date/macos.

3. In total, newly purchased machines are officially supported for 8 YEARS.

Disclaimers: These figures assume variance of up to 6 months. iMac Pro 2017 is an exception.

 

[goMac]

There is no such document. I have unofficially heard things like 3 years since the machine was last sold - with anything longer as a bonus. There certainly have been times Apple has broken that rule. IIRC some of the Power Mac G5s got less than 3 years of macOS updates.

There might be a document on security fixes for macOS version. I feel like somewhere I heard in a more official capacity that was 3 years.

 

[chrfr]

Apple doesn't publish a roadmap with any of this information. The closest we get is that Apple states that only the current major version of their OSes are confirmed to get all security patches. Other older OSes can and do get left out of some security updates or at least get them after some delay.

 

[padams35]

Current MacOS hardware support (Monterey/Ventura/Sonoma) rules seem to be:
1) Support all models newly released less than 6 years ago*.
2) Support all models current** less than 4 years age*.
3) Support all models discontinued less than 2 years ago*.
4) Support other models newer/more powerful than above.

* Age now seems to be as of time of anticipated public release. Ie: November. After all, the Late 2016 Macbook Pro, released October, did not make the cut for 2022Ventura. Note: Spec bumps (2017 MBA) don't always count as new releases.

** For example, 2015/2017 MBA remained current until October 2018 and was still sold new until July 2019. In a bigger stretch the 2013 MacPro was replaced by the 2017 iMac Pro but was still sold until the true successor arrived 2019.

Apple has changed the rules in the past (Big Sur was more generous) and much as we hope not could change the rules for the worse again.


MacOS software support seems to be:
a) Only the newest version supports XCode updates.
b) The two newest versions support iWork/iLife application updates.
c) The three newest versions receive security and Safari updates.

 

[chown33]

This is the only document I'm aware of that's directly from Apple.

Obtaining service for your Apple product after an expired warranty - Apple Support

Learn about your options for getting service and parts for Apple devices that are past their warranty period.

support.apple.com

It's framed entirely in the context of servicing hardware ("Apple products") after warranty expiration. Conspicuous by its absence is info on software support.

The key terms are "vintage" and "obsolete".

 

[Andrey84]

Current MacOS hardware support (Monterey/Ventura/Sonoma) rules seem to be:
1) Support all models newly released less than 6 years ago*.
2) Support all models current** less than 4 years age*.
3) Support all models discontinued less than 2 years ago*.
4) Support other models newer/more powerful than above.

* Age now seems to be as of time of anticipated public release. Ie: November. After all, the Late 2016 Macbook Pro, released October, did not make the cut for 2022Ventura. Note: Spec bumps (2017 MBA) don't always count as new releases.

** For example, 2015/2017 MBA remained current until October 2018 and was still sold new until July 2019. In a bigger stretch the 2013 MacPro was replaced by the 2017 iMac Pro but was still sold until the true successor arrived 2019.

Apple has changed the rules in the past (Big Sur was more generous) and much as we hope not could change the rules for the worse again.


MacOS software support seems to be:
a) Only the newest version supports XCode updates.
b) The two newest versions support iWork/iLife application updates.
c) The three newest versions receive security and Safari updates.

Thanks for your reply. Your system is more complicated than mine and I was kinda hoping you will work on my one instead of writing a new one. However, I can understand what you mean overall. I think yours points 1) and 2) are the same as my point 1). Your point 3) I don't understand, seems like a non-rule. 4) is redundant.
I've also amended my point 1) to be more clear.

I believe the formula is: If [Mac Model Release Year] – (minus) [Latest OS Release Year] >= 6, then this Mac is no longer supported by the latest OS. If it's less than 6, it's supported.

 

[Andrey84]

This is the only document I'm aware of that's directly from Apple.

Obtaining service for your Apple product after an expired warranty - Apple Support

Learn about your options for getting service and parts for Apple devices that are past their warranty period.

support.apple.com

It's framed entirely in the context of servicing hardware ("Apple products") after warranty expiration. Conspicuous by its absence is info on software support.

The key terms are "vintage" and "obsolete".

Thanks for that. I saw this article when googling before posting. It seems to be fully focused on servicing & parts. Also it says "for a minimum of 5 years* from when Apple last distributed the product for sale." The way Mac OS drops hardware seems to be fully dependent on model release version, rather than last available for sale date.

 

[redheeler]

Thanks for your reply. Your system is more complicated than mine and I was kinda hoping you will work on my one instead of writing a new one. However, I can understand what you mean overall. I think yours points 1) and 2) are the same as my point 1). Your point 3) I don't understand, seems like a non-rule. 4) is redundant.
I've also amended my point 1) to be more clear.

I believe the formula is: If [Mac Model Release Year] – (minus) [Latest OS Release Year] >= 6, then this Mac is no longer supported by the latest OS. If it's less than 6, it's supported.

7 years after Mac release was the rough timeframe (meaning if the Mac was close to or above 7 years at MacOS release time it not would not get the MacOS officially, installs may still be possible using a third-party tool but are not supported by Apple). This is unofficial guidance as some models got 1-2 years more and some 1-2 years less. It seems to have gone down to 6 years as 2015 and 2016 were both dropped at once with Ventura in 2022 and it has been linear since then, probably an attempt to smoothly phase out Intels. The 2017 iMac Pro is the only current exception to this, hitting the old 7 year timeframe.

The most interesting bit to me is how Apple used to make up some BS about hardware requirements, but nowadays completely gave up trying to hide the fact that it's an arbitrary decision to put it at 6 years.

 

[padams35]

I believe the formula is: If [Mac Model Release Year] – (minus) [Latest OS Release Year] >= 6, then this Mac is no longer supported by the latest OS. If it's less than 6, it's supported.

As of November.
The Late 2016 MBP, released October, was not supported by Ventura (2022). However the iMacPro, released December 2017 is supported by Sonoma (2023).

Also the simple 6-year cutoff ignores long lived devices such as the late 2013 MacPro, late 2014 Max Mini, and early 2015 MacBook Air which were supported in Monetary despite being more than 6yold.

Rule 4 isn’t a rule as you noted, but gives hope that when stuff like the 2015 MBA is supported stuff like the 2015 MBP will also be supported.

 

[goMac]

It's also worth noting in a lot (but not all) OS releases there is a clear technical reason why it's done that has nothing to do with a yearly formula. Sometimes they dropped certain GPU tiers or certain chipsets. Sometimes they're doing it to drop machines that don't support certain instruction sets.

Trying to reduce it to a formula is doomed to fail because Apple isn't using a formula. They're keeping machines supported for a certain number of years, but past that they're just cutting based on technical features.

 

[throAU]

I'm looking for a policy document or any statement from Apple explaining the rules of how they drop certain Macs from being supported by latest Mac OSs. I'm also looking for a similar doc on stopping support for Mac OSs.

There is no such document but you can infer when hardware support will be dropped by looking at who make some of the components.

Intel, AMD, Nvidia, etc. have support timeframes for the components inside older Macs, and without vendor support, apple isn't going to be left holding the can. An example of this is intel recently retiring Skylake CPU support and no longer putting out microcode updates.

Apple won't (can't) support stuff if intel (or AMD, Nvidia, etc.) won't.

Ditto for the vendor(s) of wireless chipsets, network adapters, etc. inside older generation devices.

I suspect the Apple silicon machines will get comparatively long support time-frames as Apple actually built them.

We've gone through several hardware transitions in recent decades - cpu platform shift, 32 bit to 64 bit, etc. which also influence how long platforms will be supported.

Porting drivers to new OS, fixing bugs, etc. in old hardware is not free either in terms of money or time. Apple would rather be developing NEW stuff than fixing things that are considered end of life.

 

[padams35]

Alternatively instead a complex 4-rule set Apple could be systematically shortening intel Support every year.

Starting with Big Sur (2020) support was <=6yo (2014+ releases) or last sold <=3y ago (2017+ discontinue). Apple also extended support to older models that shared a model ID with a supported machine.

With Monterey (2021) Apple continued the 6y/3y cutoffs, except that in the case of shared model IDs the newer macs henceforth lost support instead of extending support backward (see Mid 2015 5K iMac).

Ventura (2022) then axed a year of support, <=5yo (2017+) or last sold <= 2y ago (2020+).

Sonoma (2023) would seem to follow the 5y/2y cutoffs from Ventura, except it seems to have preemptively ended support for the 2017 21.5" iMac last sold 2021, possibly to better setup dumping 2019 iMacs in 2024.

Further systematic shortening would set up MacOS 2024 to be the last version with Intel support.


So take your pick: A complex set of support rules or changing rules.

 

[theorist9]

There is no rule. The only thing they've done consistently for the past several years with MacOS is to release a new OS every year, fully support that OS with updates until the next OS (call it OS+1) is released, and provide it with security updates until OS+3 is released. [So ≈ 1 year of full support, followed by ≈ 2 years of security-only support; and Apple has warned us that their security support on the two older OS's may not be as comprehensive as that for the current one.]

As for the duration of hardware support, the nicest summary info. I've seen is from this July 2023 Ars Technica article by Andrew Cunningham.

It shows the average duration of both of both full OS support (i.e., support on the current OS), and the average duration of security update support, relative to both the date of introduction and the date of discontinuation.

How long will the last Intel Macs be supported? macOS Sonoma gives us some hints

Nearly 20 years of data show how Intel Macs are faring as Apple switches chips.

arstechnica.com

 

[Siliconguy]

There isn't a good rule that always works. The 2014 Mini was sold until 2018 and can run Monterey which is still supported for the rest of this year. That is the good side.

The 2012 Mac Pro was sold until 2013, and although it would run Mohave, Apple refused to write a Metal driver for the standard video card it came with. You had to buy a better one. But the Apple did write a Metal driver for the 2012 Mini (sold until 2014) that used the built-in Intel HD 4000 graphics which was much worse than a Radeon 5770 in the Pro. And the 2012 mini was supported through Catalina, but the Pro was not even with a Metal video card. It made no sense.

You would think the Pro machines would get longer support than the low-end ones like the Mini, but such is not the case. Apple catches a lot of grief for poor support, but they don't care. Five or six years is probably reasonable for major OS updates, but only two years for security updates after that is not impressive. There was hope that they would extend Mohave support a little longer as that is the last OS with support for 32 bit apps, but it was not to be.

 

[Luna Murasaki]

I suspect the Apple silicon machines will get comparatively long support time-frames as Apple actually built them.

Agreed, and I think for this reason any historical inferences should be taken with a dose of salt. No Apple Silicon Mac is old enough to have lost support for the latest macOS yet. When that actually starts happening we'll have a better idea I think of where things stand long term.

I do think people on the last Intel Macs are going to get thrown under a bus in terms of support life in the end, even if it won't be quite as nasty as what Apple did with the last PowerPC Macs.

I think the reduced dependency on third-party technologies with Apple Silicon also makes it even more questionable why we can't have documented, official support life guarantees at the time of purchase like what OP is asking for. This stuff is expensive.

 

[throAU]

I do think people on the last Intel Macs are going to get thrown under a bus in terms of support life in the end, even if it won't be quite as nasty as what Apple did with the last PowerPC Macs.

If intel support is not dropped from new releases this year, it will be next year.

5-7 years of support on a machine that was from a previous architecture is more than fair as far as I'm concerned. component failure rates are a bathtub curve and the increase in failure climbs steeply after 4 years (which is why 3 year warranties/AppleCare/etc. are such a common thing across various manufacturers). Running out hardware support to 2x the expected hardware life is plenty.

 

[Luna Murasaki]

If intel support is not dropped from new releases this year, it will be next year.

5-7 years of support on a machine that was from a previous architecture is more than fair as far as I'm concerned. component failure rates are an bathtub curve and the increase in failure climbs steeply after 4 years (which is why 3 year warranties/AppleCare/etc. are such a common thing across various manufacturers). Running out hardware support to 2x the expected hardware life is plenty.

It looks like you could have bought an Intel Mac unit brand new as late as June 4th, 2023, when the latest Mac Pro model available was still Intel-based. Such a unit won't even be 2 years old yet when macOS 15 comes out.

Though they no longer sell them new, it looks like Apple continues to sell Intel Macs in their refurbished section to this day. As I write this, there is one up there for 34,099USD.

 

[frou]

The 2018 Mac Mini will be an interesting test case for the idea of "last sold" being a factor, because Apple were still selling it brand new in early 2023.

 

[startergo]

The 2012 Mac Pro was sold until 2013

There is no 2012 Mac Pro. There are 2010 Mac Pro, 2013 Mac Pro and 2019 Mac Pro models.

 

[frou]

There is no 2012 Mac Pro. There are 2010 Mac Pro, 2013 Mac Pro and 2019 Mac Pro models.

Apple designates the models and they say there is a 2012, despite it being so similar to the 2010: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/102887

 

[Andrey84]

Further systematic shortening would set up MacOS 2024 to be the last version with Intel support.

Thank you for the explanation. I didn't know they used to support 6 y.o. devices and reduced to 5 y.o. since Ventura.
This sentence of yours makes me worried. We've bought a maxed out 2020 iMac 27" last month in hopes that the current trend will continue. I.e. dropping all 2018 devices in Autumn 2024 and all 2019 devices in Autumn 2025, so that we get 2 more new OSs. Really don't want it to be just one.

People with Intel Macs are made to feel like we've done something wrong. We still bought an Apple product at the end of the day. They need to show some good will and continue the current already reduced schedule of supporting 5 y.o. systems.

 

[Andrey84]

There is no rule. The only thing they've done consistently for the past several years with MacOS is to release a new OS every year, fully support that OS with updates until the next OS (call it OS+1) is released, and provide it with security updates until OS+3 is released. [So ≈ 1 year of full support, followed by ≈ 2 years of security-only support; and Apple has warned us that their security support on the two older OS's may not be as comprehensive as that for the current one.]

As for the duration of hardware support, the nicest summary info. I've seen is from this July 2023 Ars Technica article by Andrew Cunningham.

It shows the average duration of both of both full OS support (i.e., support on the current OS), and the average duration of security update support, relative to both the date of introduction and the date of discontinuation.

How long will the last Intel Macs be supported? macOS Sonoma gives us some hints

Nearly 20 years of data show how Intel Macs are faring as Apple switches chips.

arstechnica.com

Thanks so much for the link. This is exactly what I was looking for, since the policy doesn't exist.
This graph is brilliant. It aligns with the rules I wrote in the main post and gives a feel for what might come next.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

There isn’t a formula, and there has literally never been a formula.
The original 2006 IMAX stopped receiving updates in 2011.
But the 2007 iMac continued receiving updates all the way until 2016, with security updates until 2018.

Sometimes Apple drops computers extremely quickly, especially during architecture transitions. The last power PC computers and the first Intel computers were kind of screwed, and would lose software updates extremely quickly.

But usually when they’re not in the middle of a processor transition, they try to drop as little systems as they can.

Leopard, snow leopard, and lion all killed tons of 2001-2006 machines extremely quickly.
But then Mountain lion, Mavericks, Yosemite and El Capitan all kept the exact same system requirements four years in a row, allowing most of Apple’s machines from 2007-2009 to just keep on chugging for years and years.

Right now we’re seeing another bloodbath. Monterey, Ventura, and Sonoma have all dropped pretty much all 2012-2017 computers extremely quickly.
But it’s possible once macOS goes M1 and up, we could go another several years without a system requirement change again.

It is very difficult to tell what they will due, as right now they seem pretty stuck to five years of updates, but also… They don’t have any such policy for iPads. The first generation iPad Pro from 2015 only lost support this year.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Agreed, and I think for this reason any historical inferences should be taken with a dose of salt. No Apple Silicon Mac is old enough to have lost support for the latest macOS yet. When that actually starts happening we'll have a better idea I think of where things stand long term.

I also think another reason that Apple Silicon computers will just simply have longer support timelines is that they reuse their processors over and over and over again.
Apple is still selling M1 machines today, and that chip is three years old.
Would the March 2022 M1Ultra Mac studio loose support before the March 2022 M1 iPad Air?
And would Apple stop supporting the 2020 M1 MacBook Air before the 2022 M1 iPad Air?
Or how about how both the 2022 and 2023 MacBook Air’s use M2 chips, of course they’re going to lose support at the same time. Meaning the 2022 machine will receive one year extra than usual, or the 2023 will receive one year less than usual.

Point being, eventually, they’re going to have to stop classifying their updates by computer, and just start doing it by processor family generation.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

The 2018 Mac Mini will be an interesting test case for the idea of "last sold" being a factor, because Apple were still selling it brand new in early 2023.

Apple was still selling the 2017 21.5 iMac in 2021, Sonoma still dropped it.