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macOS 27 & Globus Connect Personal

This week, in their annual Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple announced macOS 27 Golden Gate. They also announced future plans that will affect Globus Connect Personal. If you install the macOS 27 Beta, you will see a warning about support ending for Intel-based apps, and that Globus Connect Personal will not open in a future release of macOS.

This is a valid warning. Parts of Globus Connect Personal use code that is written for Intel-based Macs. Today, macOS on Apple Silicon uses Rosetta to run that code. Rosetta has been deprecated in macOS 27, with full removal planned for macOS 28, hence the warning.

Globus are aware of the issue. Globus began the transition with Globus Connect Personal 3.2.5. A future release of Globus Connect Personal will bring full Apple Silicon compatibility.

What is Rosetta?

Rosetta 2 is a software created by Apple in 2020, which allows software written for Intel Macs to run on Apple Silicon hardware. Rosetta 1, created in 2006, did the same thing when Mac OS X on Power PC hardware transitioned to macOS on Intel hardware.

Rosetta 1 support ended in 2011, when Mac OS X 10.7 Lion was released. Rosetta 2 support will end when macOS 28 is released.

Globus supports Apple Silicon already?

In the Globus Connect Personal release notes, there is a note about native Apple Silicon support. This update introduced support for Apple Silicon, but that is not the complete story.

Although Globus Connect Personal looks like one app, it is made up of several components:

  • The program which handles initial registration of your Globus Connect Personal Endpoint;

  • The program which displays the Globus Connect Personal menu icon, preferences, etc.;

  • GridFTP, the software that handles data transfer; and

  • The relaytool, which makes an SSH-based connection from your computer back to Globus HQ, so that directory listings, transfer instructions, etc. can be received for processing by GridFTP.

At this time, only GridFTP has Apple Silicon code.

When will full Apple Silicon support be available?

Globus Support has confirmed that a full Apple Silicon version will be released soon.

When a full Apple Silicon version is released, the Globus Connect Personal release notes will be updated. Once a release is available, the next time Globus Connect Personal is started, it should prompt you to upgrade.

In Globus Connect Personal today, GridFTP is a universal binary, containing code for both Intel and Apple Silicon processors. Even if you are running macOS on an Intel machine, you should still plan on upgrading to the latest Globus Connect Personal version when it is released.

What do you need to do now?

If you plan on installing the macOS 27 Golden Gate Beta, be prepared to see the warning about Globus Connect Personal. You should also watch the macOS at Stanford page, where University IT will report any issues that are found when testing Essential Stanford Software for compatibility with macOS 27 Golden Gate.

If you are running macOS 14 Sonoma, macOS 15 Sequoia, or macOS 26 Tahoe, you don’t need to do anything special: The latest version of Globus Connect Personal is 3.2.8, which you should already be running. If you are running an older version, restart Globus Connect Personal and it should prompt to upgrade. If you do not get a prompt to upgrade, you can find the latest version of Globus Connect Personal at https://app.globus.org/collections/gcp.

If you are running an older version of macOS, you should also continue upgrading Globus Connect Personal when prompted, but be prepared for a future where the latest Globus Connect Personal stops working. macOS 13 became non-compliant on February 12, so you should already be planning on a macOS upgrade.

If you are running macOS on Intel hardware, macOS 27 will be the last version of macOS which supports your hardware. You should start planning a hardware upgrade.