How to Audit Your Mac Fleet for Rosetta Dependency Before macOS 27

With macOS 27 expected at WWDC 2026 and the full Rosetta 2 cutoff arriving in macOS 28, IT administrators managing Mac fleets have a narrow window to understand their Rosetta exposure and plan accordingly. This guide walks through a practical approach to inventorying Intel-based apps across managed Macs using Rosetta Check, Intune, Jamf, and other MDM platforms.

Why you need to act before macOS 27

macOS 27 will ship in autumn 2026 and still includes full Rosetta 2 support — so the immediate risk is low. The hard deadline is macOS 28 in 2027, when Rosetta functionality will be limited to certain older games. For IT teams, the danger isn't the cutoff itself but the lead time required to identify affected apps, engage vendors, test replacements, and update deployment configurations before users lose access to critical software.

Fleet-wide migrations of this type typically take six to twelve months when done properly. Starting that process after macOS 27 ships leaves almost no margin.

The challenge with existing tooling

Most MDM platforms give you excellent visibility into macOS version distribution, hardware inventory, and patch compliance. What they don't give you natively is a per-device breakdown of which installed applications are Intel-only versus Universal or native Apple silicon binaries.

You can pull app inventory from Intune, Jamf, or Kandji, but the architecture field is not typically included in standard app inventory reports. Building that data requires either a custom script running on each device or a dedicated tool.

Using Rosetta Check for fleet-wide inventory

Rosetta Check is a macOS app designed specifically for this problem. Deployed across a fleet via MDM, it scans each Mac, identifies every Intel-based app, and writes the results to a predictable local file path that can be collected by your MDM platform.

The export file is written to:

Export path

~/Library/Containers/com.neiljohn.rosettacheck/Data/Library/Application Support/RosettaCheck/exports/rosetta-check-latest.csv

The filename is always the same, so collection scripts never need to search for the most recent file.

Deploying via Microsoft Intune

Deploy Rosetta Check from Apple Business Manager using the App Store app ID id6759349750. Then push a configuration profile using a Custom Configuration payload targeting the com.neiljohn.rosettacheck preference domain.

The recommended enterprise configuration silently enables auto-export and suppresses all user-facing prompts:

Managed Keys

<key>launchAtLogin</key>
<true/>
<key>scanOnLaunch</key>
<true/>
<key>backgroundMonitoringEnabled</key>
<true/>
<key>autoExportEnabled</key>
<true/>
<key>autoExportFormat</key>
<string>csv</string>
<key>promptForLaunchAtLogin</key>
<false/>
<key>promptForCommunitySharing</key>
<false/>
<key>communityEnabled</key>
<false/>

With this configuration, Rosetta Check launches at login, scans automatically, and writes results to the export path without requiring any user interaction.

Deploying via Jamf Pro

Add Rosetta Check as a Mac App Store app in Jamf Pro and scope it to your target devices. Deploy the managed preferences via a Custom Settings payload using the same preference domain and keys above. Use a Jamf Extension Attribute to collect the export file content and surface it in Jamf's device inventory.

Collecting data with a shell script

The MDM guide includes a ready-to-use collection script that runs as root, identifies the logged-in console user, reads their Rosetta Check export file, and outputs Intel app names and versions to stdout. MDM platforms including Intune, Jamf, and Kandji can capture this output as a custom attribute or extension attribute.

collect-intel-apps.sh

#!/bin/bash
console_user=$(/usr/bin/stat -f%Su /dev/console 2>/dev/null)
user_home=$(/usr/bin/dscl . -read "/Users/$console_user" NFSHomeDirectory 2>/dev/null | awk '{print $2}')
export_file="${user_home}/Library/Containers/com.neiljohn.rosettacheck/Data/Library/Application Support/RosettaCheck/exports/rosetta-check-latest.csv"

if [[ ! -f "$export_file" ]]; then
    echo "No Rosetta Check export found"
    exit 0
fi

intel=$(grep ",Intel," "$export_file" | awk -F',' '{print $1" ("$3")"}')
[[ -n "$intel" ]] && echo "$intel" || echo "No Intel apps found"

Download the full annotated script from the MDM guide.

What the export data tells you

Each row in the CSV export includes app name, bundle ID, version, architecture, disk size, last used date, first detected date, impact score, and full file path. The impact score (0 to 100) combines recency, disk size, and distribution source to help you prioritise which apps to tackle first.

The fields most useful for fleet planning are:

Architecture — filter for Intel to get your full exposure list
Last Used — apps not opened in six months are lower priority
App Store — App Store apps are more likely to receive native updates
Impact Score — a quick way to rank apps by migration urgency
Bundle ID — use this to cross-reference the Rosetta Check community database for native replacement suggestions

Suppressing the macOS 26.4 Rosetta notifications

Starting with macOS 26.4, Apple shows a popup warning each time a user opens an Intel-based app. For fleet environments where users don't need to see these prompts, you can suppress them via a Restrictions profile:

Restrictions Payload

<key>allowRosettaUsageAwareness</key>
<false/>

Deploy this as a Restrictions payload targeting com.apple.applicationaccess. Rosetta Check detects this setting and displays the current suppression status in its Settings window, giving you a simple verification step after deployment.

Building your migration plan

Once you have fleet-wide export data, a practical approach is to segment your Intel app inventory into three buckets:

Already resolved. Apps where a native or Universal version is available. These just need an update push — either via the App Store or your software deployment tooling. Check the Rosetta Check community database for native version sightings.

Vendor engagement required. Apps that are actively maintained but don't yet have a native version. Contact the vendor now to understand their roadmap. Many enterprise software vendors are already working on Apple silicon builds but haven't published timelines publicly.

No path to native. Older, discontinued, or niche apps that will never receive an update. These need replacement software identified and tested before macOS 28. The Rosetta Check app provides AI-generated replacement suggestions for each Intel app it finds.

Timing your rollout

A reasonable timeline given the current macOS cadence:

Now through WWDC (June 2026) — deploy Rosetta Check fleet-wide, collect inventory, segment apps into the three buckets above
Post-WWDC through macOS 27 launch (autumn 2026) — engage vendors, begin testing native replacements, update deployment configurations
macOS 27 launch through spring 2027 — complete replacement rollouts, validate no remaining Intel dependencies for critical workflows
Before macOS 28 (autumn 2027) — final validation, decommission any remaining Intel-only app deployments