macOS 27 Golden Gate does something Apple has never shipped before: a built-in list of the Intel apps on your Mac that will stop working once Rosetta is removed. Open System Settings → General → About, find the Intel-Based apps section, and click Details. You get a clear list of every application that still needs Rosetta, including unused Intel software sitting on disk, and for some entries macOS will even point you to a website where an Apple silicon version can be found.
This is a really welcome addition, and we mean that. For years the only way to answer "which of my apps are Intel?" was a third-party tool or a manual trawl through System Information. Now it's one screen, built by Apple, switched on by default. So the honest question this post sets out to answer is a simple one: now that macOS does this for you, do you still need anything else? For a lot of people, the honest answer is no, and we'll happily say so.
For most people, the built-in list is all you need
If you use your Mac mainly for browsing, email, office documents, video calls, and the occasional app you downloaded once, the built-in list genuinely has you covered. Open it, look at what's flagged, update or replace those apps before macOS 28, and you're done. There's nothing else to buy and nothing else to install. We'd rather tell you that than point you at a tool you don't need. Check the list, act on it, and get on with your day.
When a closer look helps
The picture changes when your Mac is a working tool rather than just a computer. If you rely on it for music production, video or photo work, software development, design, or 3D — or you look after Macs for other people — your Intel exposure usually reaches beyond the apps themselves and into the things that plug into them. That part doesn't show up in a list of applications, simply because it isn't an application. That's the gap Rosetta Check 2.0 is built to fill, and if any of the above sounds like you, it might be worth a look.
The reason, in one sentence: Apple silicon readiness isn't really a property of an app, it's a property of every binary on disk — and a creative or developer Mac has hundreds of those living well outside /Applications. Here's what that looks like in practice.
Your plug-ins, grouped by the app that loads them
A Universal host app loading an Intel-only plug-in is a quietly frustrating thing. The host opens, the project loads, and then the plug-in slot is simply empty. Nothing crashes and nothing warns you — the feature just isn't there. Rosetta Check scans the standard plug-in locations and reports each finding with its own architecture and the app it belongs to:
- Music: Audio Units, VST, VST3, AAX (Pro Tools) and CLAP, plus audio drivers like BlackHole and Loopback. For producers and engineers this is usually the biggest single area of Intel exposure on the Mac.
- Video: FxPlug (Final Cut Pro and Motion), OFX (DaVinci Resolve, Nuke, Fusion), and the Premiere Pro and After Effects plug-ins that live inside the Adobe app bundle.
- Photo: Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom Classic and Capture One plug-ins.
- 3D: Cinema 4D, Maya, Houdini and Rhino modules — fewer people, but a single Intel plug-in here can hold up a whole pipeline.
You see "AAX (Avid Pro Tools)" or "Plug-In (Photoshop)" rather than an anonymous path, and you can filter to Only Intel for a focused list of what to replace. There's a full walkthrough in how to find every Intel plug-in, driver and extension on your Mac.
System extensions and background pieces
These are easy to overlook, because when they break it can look like random Mac weirdness rather than a Rosetta issue:
- Spotlight importers — an Intel one means a file format quietly stops being searchable.
- QuickLook generators — an Intel one means a file's Finder preview goes blank.
- Virtual cameras (CoreMediaIO plug-ins) — an Intel one means tools like OBS, Camo or mmhmm disappear from the camera menu in Zoom and Teams.
- Preference panes, screen savers and Services — third-party panels that simply stop appearing.
- Launch agents, daemons and helper tools — background services and auto-updaters that won't start, which can occasionally trip up an app that's otherwise perfectly native.
The Intel parts tucked inside apps that look native
This one matters most for developers and anyone running pro creative suites. A macOS app can ship as a Universal main binary that contains an Intel-only sub-binary inside it — an XPC service, an app extension, a login item or a helper tool. The app launches and runs natively on Apple silicon, so an app-level view will reasonably treat it as ready. The thing to know is that the feature backed by that embedded binary can still stop working on macOS 28.
Rosetta Check inspects every .app bundle on your Mac, reads the architecture of each embedded executable directly (no app is ever launched), and reports any Intel sub-binary as its own finding with the host app named: "App Extension (in Slack)", "XPC Service (in Adobe Photoshop)". It isn't something an app-level list is designed to surface, and spotting it early gives the developer time to fix it before it becomes a support ticket.
A single readiness score, and an eye on what changes
Working through a list is one thing; knowing when you're actually finished is another. Rosetta Check rolls everything — apps, every plug-in category, system extensions, embedded helpers — into a single Total Mac Readiness Score. Replace one Intel plug-in and the number moves; reach 100% and your Mac is genuinely ready, hidden pieces included.
And because a working Mac is a moving target — you install a new plug-in, drag in an old VST3, add a camera extension — Rosetta Check keeps a quiet eye on your app and plug-in folders and lets you know within seconds when a new Intel binary turns up, rather than waiting until you next check. It's lightweight, sits in the menu bar, and costs nothing in battery.
Knowing a native version is actually out there
Here's a small but genuinely useful difference. macOS 27 may point you to a developer's website for an Apple silicon version, which is helpful. Rosetta Check goes one step further and answers a sharper question: has a native version of this exact app actually been seen running on Apple silicon yet?
Rosetta Check is backed by a community catalogue of tens of thousands of Intel binaries reported by thousands of opted-in Macs. When any of those Macs scans and finds an Apple silicon or Universal build of an app that's otherwise tracked as Intel-only, that's recorded as an anonymous sighting — an "I've seen this native version, at this version number, in the wild" signal. On an app that's flagged Intel on your Mac, you'll then see a "Native version spotted" note: a native build has genuinely been observed, here's the version to look for. It saves you chasing an update that isn't out yet — and if nothing has been spotted after months, that's a gentle hint it may be time to plan a replacement instead.
It's all anonymous, opt-in, and on-device by default. Rosetta Check only ever shares lightweight "I've seen this" signals, never personal data or file contents, and you can turn community sharing off entirely in Settings.
If you look after more than one Mac
The built-in list lives on a single Mac, in one person's Settings, which is exactly right for an individual. If you're responsible for a team or a lab, Rosetta Check exports both apps and components to CSV and JSON, writes a predictable filename for automated collection, and ships as an MDM-deployable build with managed configuration keys — so you can build one migration picture across the whole fleet. See the fleet audit guide and the MDM deployment guide for the full workflow.
The bottom line
macOS 27's Intel-based apps list is a genuinely good step, and we're glad Apple shipped it. For most people it's the whole job: open it, act on what's flagged, and you're set for macOS 28. If that's you, you can stop here with our blessing.
If your Mac is also your studio, your edit suite, or your development machine — or you're looking after a roomful of them — your real Intel exposure tends to reach past the app list, into plug-ins, extensions, and the bits tucked inside otherwise-native apps. That's the moment a deeper scan earns its place. Rosetta Check 2.0 is on the App Store: run a full scan, get a single readiness score, keep an eye on what changes, and lean on the community to tell you when a native version is really out there.
For more on the timeline and how to prepare, see what happens to your Intel apps in macOS 28, how to prepare your Mac for macOS 27, and Apple's own guidance in Using Intel-based apps on a Mac with Apple silicon.