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How to find Intel-only apps on your Mac

Short answer: Select an app in Finder and choose File › Get Info: “Kind: Application (Intel)” means it is Intel-only and will stop working on Apple silicon Macs with macOS 28. To check all apps at once, open System Information › Software › Applications and look at the Kind column. Activity Monitor and Terminal’s lipo command work too.

Last checked October 4, 2026

1. One app: Finder › Get Info

  1. Open the Applications folder in Finder and select the app.
  2. Choose File › Get Info (or press ⌘I).
  3. Look at Kind:
    • Application (Intel) — Intel-only. It needs Rosetta and stops working with macOS 28.
    • Application (Universal) — contains Apple silicon code. It keeps working.
    • Application (Apple silicon) — native. It keeps working.

This is the quickest check for a single app, but slow if you want to check every app on your Mac.

2. All apps: System Information

  1. Open the Apple menu, choose About This Mac, then More Info…, and scroll down to System Report… (or hold the Option key and choose System Information… from the Apple menu).
  2. In the sidebar, under Software, choose Applications. The list may take a moment to load.
  3. Click the Kind column header to sort. Everything marked Intel depends on Rosetta.

The list also shows apps outside the Applications folder, such as supporting tools installed with other software. Focus on the apps you actually use.

3. Apps that are running: Activity Monitor

  1. Open Activity Monitor (in Applications › Utilities).
  2. In the CPU tab, look at the Kind column (if it isn’t shown, right-click a column header and turn it on).
  3. Intel means the process runs through Rosetta right now.

This also shows background processes, such as a sync tool or a device utility that starts with your Mac.

4. Advanced: Terminal

lipo shows which processor types a program contains:

lipo -archs "/Applications/Some App.app/Contents/MacOS/Some App"

x86_64 alone means Intel-only; x86_64 arm64 means Universal; arm64 alone means Apple silicon only.

To list every Intel-only app in the Applications folders, including subfolders and your own ~/Applications folder:

find /Applications ~/Applications -maxdepth 3 -name '*.app' -prune 2>/dev/null | while IFS= read -r app; do
  exe=$(defaults read "$app/Contents/Info" CFBundleExecutable 2>/dev/null) || continue
  [ "$(lipo -archs "$app/Contents/MacOS/$exe" 2>/dev/null)" = "x86_64" ] && echo "$app"
done

The same lipo check works for plug-ins, such as audio units in ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/: point it at the program inside the bundle’s Contents/MacOS folder.

The warning in macOS 26.4 and later

Apple says that from macOS 26.4, macOS may show a notification when you open an app that relies on Rosetta. If you see it, check that app.

What to do with your list

For each Intel-only app:

  1. Look for a native version. It is often a free update, sometimes a paid upgrade. Our compatibility database shows what we know for many apps, with sources and dates.
  2. Look for an alternative if the developer has stopped working on the app.
  3. Keep it on a Mac that stays on macOS 27, or in a macOS 27 virtual machine. See How to run Intel apps on Apple silicon after macOS 28.

Keep86 will also include a free scanner that does all of this in one click and points to native versions where they exist. It is planned for October 2026 together with the app.

Sources

  • Apple Developer News, “Upcoming changes to Rosetta support for Intel-based macOS apps”, 1 September 2026 — https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=w5ngl9k2
  • The Finder, System Information and Activity Monitor steps were written for macOS 26 and 27; menu names can differ slightly between versions.

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