I received a warning today from Blizzard (July 24) :
“This is a reminder that Mac OS 10.13.6 (High Sierra) has entered the end of like stage as an operating system for World of Warcraft. The game will continue to run for a limited time, however, we encourage you to upgrade your operating system to macOS 10.15 as soon as possible.”
My machine is an iMac 27 inch, late 2013, with OS 10.13.6 (High Sierra). Ive been all over the internet and cannot figure out how to upgrade my OS to 10.15 (Catalina). I also do not have the option to upgrade my OS using the APP Store or System Preferences. I checked on Apple website to see if my machine is compatible with Catalina and they say it is. Can anyone help me find out how to install OS 10.15 so I can continue to play WOW?
Note: I have already backed up my mac using Time Machine.
It looks like you’ll have to install it via a direct download from Apple’s website. You’ll find instructions and a download link for Catalina here:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683
I have the same machine and I just want to note I’m surprised it can still play the game. Mine started to thermally throttle quite badly at the very beginning of Legion, to the point it would put itself to sleep while flying around. I dunno if it was dust or bad thermal paste on top of the uh… design envelope, but rock on.
Thank you for the reply. What do you plan to do about your Mac once Blizzard will no longer support High Sierra? Or, have you already upgraded your OS to Catalina?
Late last night I found the information on how to transfer OS to 10.15. I backed up my Mac using Time Machine (took 8 hours) and prepared to download Catalina this morning. However, when I started the download I got a warning that my version of Microsoft Office and iPhoto wont work with Catalina (two very important apps). So, I’m further down the rabbit-hole today trying to figure out how to upgrade those APPs to prepare for upgrading the Mac OS.
It looks like I need to fork out $125 for a new copy of MS Office (not the end of the world) but I still need to see how/if I can update iPhoto to be compatible with 10.15. I’ve even considered trading in my iMac for a new one but that will cost minimum of $2K.
A third option (if all else fails) is to cancel WOW and say goodbye forever - I will NOT use a PC just to play this game.
I’ve been running Catalina on my iMac since it first came out, but I built a gaming PC almost 3 years ago to play other titles.
I don’t really think too much about Blizzard’s Mac support anymore. My WoW subscription has been dormant for much of the last 6 years, with 2 or 3 half a year play periods along the way, and is not currently active. It’s all end of life, and Mac support won’t ever come to another new (non-mobile) title again.
iPhoto is succeeded by the Photos app. I think the functionality is mostly the same, but I can’t really remember what iPhoto was like.
Yes, I’ve found out that Apple stopped using iPhoto years ago (I’m behind the times lol!).
So, I was able to migrate my iPhoto library to the Photos app. Next I need to buy the latest copy of MS Office for Mac and install that, then convert my OS to Catalina and see how that goes. I’ve considered buying a PC but that’s the very last resort as I gladly left the PC world long ago and would rather not go there again (although its probably improved in the past 20 years).
Thank you for all your help Ryegeleye, you’ve helped a lot
First of all, it’s just a warning that support is ending soon, it’s not actually blocking you from running the game. So no hurry just yet. Typically the cut off officially is imposed when the next expansion roles out.
Second, High Sierra is being depreciated first. Mainly because of issues with the game that they have decided not to address. So if you run High Sierra, you will have problems and Blizzard officially won’t be fixing them.
Third, Mojave may be a better choice than Catalina on older systems. Less impact on your existing software (you can still run iPhoto for example). Mojave isn’t slated to be killed off just yet by Blizzard, but it will likely not be supported by the next expansion. Odds are pretty good it’s either Big Sur or ARM going forward. So even Catalina is a short term fix.
New hardware doesn’t guarantee better performance as these forums have shown. Support is lacking on Blizzard’s end and on Apple’s end. Apple doesn’t care about anything that isn’t ARM based. Apple is still fickle about driver support, even on ARM machines. In a nutshell, you’re in a wait and see situation, not a buy or upgrade situation.
Thank you for that Oatmeal. I’m not sure what an “ARM machine” is but I’ll look into that. I’ve been an Apple user for 20 years, prior to that I used (and built) Window machines; however, that was so long ago and all my knowledge in that area is out of date. It would be comforting to know that Blizzard might not kick me off but I bet the lack of support will hurt quite a bit and I wont want to play wow. I’d probably be happily playing other games (not wow) but they don’t support Apple computers. Guess I’ll see how this goes. Thanks to your comment I no longer feel any urgency to upgrade my OS because of Blizzard.
Typically, yes. But this one will depend on Apple, not so much Blizzard. All, and I do mean all of Blizzard’s games were forced onto 10.13.6 at a minimum on July 1st when Blizzard switched to the latest XCode that lacked the ability to target 10.12.6. Anything created with that XCode version or later will only run on 10.13.6. It won’t even launch on Sierra. It’s only a matter of time until Apple does the same with a future XCode and 10.13.6 is cut off as well. And the cycle may be sped up by Apple’s current changeover to the M1 Macs in full, and as Blizzard must keep up with XCode versions to ensure the latest machines are supported, this cut off is bound to happen sooner than you might think.
Anyone considering updating from High Sierra to Catalina on a Mac with a HDD or Fusion Drive, I highly recommend getting an external SSD to run your OS. APFS runs horribly on HDDs with used as a boot drive and it only seem to get worse with Catalina.
It is really easy and SSD prices are pretty cheap now. You could get a 1TB SATA SSD and a USB/SATA adapter for less than $100.
I just wanted to chime in here, 3 months later, to say that what Apple did near the vent at the bottom of the frames on their aluminum iMacs should be a crime. I ended up replacing the fusion drive in mine and thought it was odd that there wasn’t anything other than the tiniest bit of surface dust on the fan and none whatsoever in the heatsink. That’s because it all gets stuck and compacted underneath a perforated grill in the chin of the iMac that you can’t unscrew.
So here’s something that I think should be more common knowledge.
Apple will clean your iMac for you. For free.
I discovered this one time when I brought a Mac in for support. I forget what originally prompted me to bring it in. It might have been a hard drive that died while it was under AppleCare warranty (which of course they replaced for free), but in the course of talking to the tech I learned that they will clean out the computers at no charge. Because there’s nothing wrong with the hardware of the system, they won’t charge for it.
I agree that the design sucks here. If you can prove it’s intentional, perhaps you could even prove it’s criminal. But until Apple does something sane, like a removeable filter that we can dust or wash off or something, by all means, bring your computer in regularly and force them to work on it. It does suck that you’ll most likely need to leave it with them for a day or two, but I’m with you; I hate Windows so much that I’ll tolerate this as a necessity.
I’ve had my iMac serviced by an authorized provider before. During a repair that required removal of the logic board (a full disassembly), I asked if he’d make sure to dust it out and he said yes. After the repair temperatures were still quite hot (probably ~5C max under what they were) but the computer no longer shut off.
I don’t think anyone has ever dusted in this space. Maybe I got a lazy technician. I dunno. But the temperature difference now is dramatic. Idle temperatures stay almost at what they register at when waking from sleep. Everything else is easily 30-40C cooler all the time.
My warranty is long since expired (it’s a late 2013 machine), so I dunno if they’d purport to clean it for free anymore.
