Quicken compatibility with Mac M2 processor

abctwhite2

I'm buying a new mac Laptop and can keep using Quicken 2017 for a while, I understand the newest M2 Macs will not run Quicken for Mac, is this correct?

jacobs

No, that's not correct. Quicken Mac runs fine on any Macs running macOS Catalina or later. Quicken 2017 will work on older operating systems (not an issue with a new Mac). If there is any issue with Quicken 2017 in the future, it will be due to some change in the operating system breaking something in the old version of Quciken Mac.

Jon

That said, I would not expect Apple to continue supporting this forever. At some point they are probably going to discontinue Rosetta 2 support (this is what lets the Apple Silicon processors run Intel apps). That's what happened the last time they switched processors from PowerPC to Intel - after several years of supporting both kinds of apps the OS dropped support for PowerPC apps.

If that day comes for Intel apps you will have to either upgrade to a newer version of Quicken or stop upgrading MacOS.

jacobs

@Jon Well, the M-series Macs are only 2.5 years old, and Apple is still selling one Intel-based Mac today — so I don't think there's any chance of them removing Rosetta 2 from macOS for at least 4 or 5 years, if not longer. (Also, Apple licensed the technology for Rosetta 1, but developed Rosetta 2 in-house, so they may be less impetus to deprecate it.) And even if some future macOS removes Rosetta 2, users could simoply not update to that version of macOS for a while to continue using their old software. So I just don't think there's a realistic fear of not being able to run Intel-based software for quite some time. If something else in macOS doesn't prevent Quicken 2017 from running, I'd certainly argue that anyone still trying to run Quicken 2017 in 2028 (five years from now) will be very much on borrowed time anyway. As we saw in the transition from the legacy Quicken 2007, people who hung on for a very long time risked getting stranded without a way to move forward (although Quicken has come to the rescue a few times).

So looping back to the original question, yes, Quicken software runs fine on M2 Macs. That includes Quicken 2017. I have an M2 MacBook Air, and it launches Quicken 2017 (and 2016 and 2015). But Quicken 2017 isn't supported, and problems might show up in odd places. For instance, if launching Quicken 2017 on the new machine requires logging into the Quicken servers to authenticate and check for updates, it's possible that the server URLs in the original Quicken 2017 code may no longer work. I believe that trying to install Quicken 2017 from an installer may fail for this reason currently. I've read some reports of people having problems trying to install Quicken 2017 on new computers, and is has nothing to do with the Apple hardware or OS. In my case, migrating from one Mac to a new one last year worked without a problem for all my old versions of Quicken, so might escape that problem one might encounter trying to start from an installer. I can't say for certain, as I don't have a new Mac without Quicken 2017 to try to install it.

abctwhite2

I bought the newest Quicken for Mac today and it's opened Quicken 2017 just fine, with some of the most recent transactions still to be re-entered. But I'm still not certain from the above answers that Quicken for Mac will open on an M2 Macbook Air.

thanks for all your answers…

smayer97

Technology changes, sure, but Rosetta (to enable running 32-bit PowerPC applications on Intel Macs) was introduced in Jan 2006 in Tiger, Mac OS X 10.4.4, and was removed in Lion, Mac OS X 10.7, in June 2011, 5 years after the sale of the last PowerPC Mac (G5) stopped in Aug 2006.

Rosetta 2 (to allow running 64-bit Intel applications on Mx-based Macs) was introduced in Big Sur, macOS 11, in June 2020 and the current version is Ventura, macOS 13. Apple is still producing/selling Intel-based Macs, the (2019) Mac Pro.

Given the pace of development of Mx-based Macs and Apple's track record, I surmise there is still some time (at least 2-3 years? and up to 5ish) before this becomes an issue.

jacobs

I bought the newest Quicken for Mac today and it's opened Quicken 2017 just fine, with some of the most recent transactions still to be re-entered. But I'm still not certain from the above answers that Quicken for Mac will open on an M2 Macbook Air.

If you're sticking with the current Quicken Mac your purchased today, then rest assured that the answer is unequivocally that Quicekn Mac runs fine on an M2 Mac. I have an M2 Mac, as do other user son this forum, and Quicken Mac runs fine on it.

If you were trying to get Quicken 2017 to run on a new Mac, the only question I threw out is whether you'd have any trouble logging in/authenticating the old software. It might depend on how you'd install the software on the new Mac, or perhaps not. But this is a moot issue if you're going forward with the current Quicken Mac software. 😀

abctwhite2

Thanks, @jacobs, that's the info I needed before I buy a new Laptop. Quicken for Mac that I bought today is working just fine.