macOS 10.15 Catalina

macOS Catalina 10.15 was previewed for developers on June 3, 2019 and became available as a free update on October 7. Music, Podcasts and TV replaced iTunes as entertainment apps, without removing music purchases from the iTunes Store. Apple Arcade reached the Mac as a subscription service, not a free catalog bundled with the system.

Family

macOS

Version

10.15

Minimum RAM

4 GB

Historical US price

US$0

Apple · Catalina · 2019-06-03 · Apple · Catalina · 2019-10-07

Sidecar let an iPad serve as a second display or Apple Pencil input device over a cable or wireless connection. It had its own Mac and iPad lists, such as MacBook Pro from 2016 and iMac from Late 2015, not every Catalina computer. Voice Control expanded accessibility and Screen Time brought activity summaries and limits to Mac.

Apple · Catalina · 2019-10-07 · Apple · Catalina · Technical specifications

Mac Catalyst helped developers create Mac versions of iPad apps; it did not promise automatic execution of every iOS app. Catalina separated the system into a read-only volume and added document-access protections. It ended compatibility with 32-bit apps, which Mojave still supported. Activation Lock was tied to Macs with the T2 chip, not every supported model.

Apple · Catalina · 2019-10-07 · Apple · 32-bit compatibility

Apple required OS X 10.9 or later, 4 GB of memory and 12.5 GB free when upgrading from 10.11.5 or later, up to 18.5 GB from earlier versions. The hardware list admitted Mac Pro from Late 2013; it did not inherit Mojave's exception for 2010 and 2012 towers with Metal. The 10.15.7 advisory records September 24, 2020. These dates are partial and exclude builds.

Apple Support · 111930 · Apple · Catalina · Technical specifications · Apple · 10.15.7 · 2020-09-24