Codebook Ending Support for macOS 10.12 through 10.14

Codebook
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Throughout the history of Codebook we’ve tried our best to support as many older versions of macOS (known previously as Mac OS X) as we could. Many apps these days only support the latest and greatest version of macOS, but that’s not how we roll. The current version of Codebook, 4.5.8, supports versions 10.12 through 10.15, macOS 11 Big Sur, macOS 12 Monterey, and macOS 13 Ventura. That is quite a spread, seven major operating system releases!

As proud as we’ve been to offer this level of long-term support, the time has come for us to start limiting support for older versions of macOS. Already, some features and improvements in Codebook require our customers to be using 10.15 or later [1]. There are development improvements we’d like to make that we’ve been avoiding for a long while because they require us to set the minimum supported version for Codebook to either 10.13 or 10.15. Then there’s the developer tools from Apple, specifically Xcode—the latest version of Xcode no longer supports building software for 10.12.

While we have no intention of requiring the latest release of macOS in order to run Codebook, setting the minimum supported version to macOS 10.15 Catalina seems reasonable to us. Here you can see a list of all Mac hardware that can run macOS 10.15 Catalina, with many models dating back to 2012.

The next major version of Codebook, version 5, is in the works, and will require all clients to upgrade to remain compatible with each other for sync. We think it’s best to make this change now while version 4 is still the current production release, so that any customers with Macs running an older version of macOS can continue syncing with all their copies Codebook until we release version 5.

Accordingly, the upcoming version 4.5.9 4.5.10 of Codebook for macOS will be the last version to support macOS 10.12, 10.13, and 10.14. After that, the new minimum version of Codebook for macOS in the version 4 series will be macOS 10.15 Catalina.

[1] For instance, the Google Drive sync feature requires 10.15 Catalina.

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Hi,

First, this is pretty reasonable policy. Second, I am now on the wrong side of it as my iPhone auto-updated Codebook to 4.5.10 for iOS and my desktop is permanently frozen at macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra.

So I can’t follow the Mac upgrade path, and I don’t believe I can synchronize between the phone and the desktop anymore.

I wasn’t planning to buy new Mac hardware to run Codebook properly just yet ($$$).

For now, I sync the desktop to Dropbox and I don’t make changes on the phone. Is there anything better I can do to cope without burdening a charge card?

THX!

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Hi @jtclayton

Thank you for your support of Codebook and for posting to the discussion forum.

I don’t believe I can synchronize between the phone and the desktop anymore.

You should still be able to continue syncing between Codebook for macOS and Codebook for iOS.

Just to clarify, the latest Codebook for macOS release (Codebook for macOS 4.5.9 Released) and the next Codebook for macOS release (4.5.10) won’t drop support for 10.13 and will be fully sync compatible the latest Codebook for iOS updates.

The plan is to drop support for macOS 10.14 and below in the release after 4.5.10. Even though support will be dropped for those versions in that update, you should still be able to sync Codebook for macOS 4.5.9 and 4.5.10 with Codebook for iOS as it updates until a Codebook for iOS update does a schema change. Currently we’re definitely planning a schema change in Codebook for iOS 5, but at this time we don’t have one planned before then.

To summarize, you should be able to continue syncing Codebook for macOS 4.5.9/4.5.10 with Codebook for iOS 4.x as it updates, but you won’t be able to sync it with Codebook for iOS 5.x when that’s released.

Is there anything better I can do to cope without burdening a charge card?

You could turn off automatic updates for App Store applications on your iOS device by following these instructions: How to manually update apps on your Apple device - Apple Support and then handle manually updating Codebook for iOS (and other iOS applications) first reviewing the release notes for whether there are schema changes which will make it sync incompatible. When there are schema changes which make an update sync incompatible, we always call it out in the release notes. You can view the release notes here in the discussion forum or in the Codebook for iOS App Store page here: Connecting to the iTunes Store.

This would allow you to stay at the Codebook 4.x series to allow you to continue syncing with Codebook for macOS 4.x until you’re able to update your hardware.

Let me know if this answers your questions. If you’re experiencing any sync issues with the current versions, feel free to let us know here on the discussion forum or write us at support@zetetic.net and we’ll be happy to help. Thanks!

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I am using Codebook on different Boots from my Mac from Mac OS 10.12 (for legacy Apps that I need to run) to Mac OS 10.14, 10.15 as well as Mac OS 12.x

That being said, if I upgrade Codebook on Mac OS 10.15 or Mac OS 12.x, would I still be able to sync Mac OS 10.12 back to DropBox until I upgrade to Codebook 4.x or does the Schema get broken with CodeBook 4.5.12 for Mac OS. I am currently running CodeBook 4.5.12 on my iOS devices.

I just want to make sure I don’t have Database corruption and to be able to proceed accordingly.

Also, I appreciate your notice hear dated in December, but your website needs to reflect the updated minimum system requirements. It is now March and your website still states that Codebook minimum system requirements from your website contradict your message here and state that Mac OS 10.12 indeed is supported so if this indeed is not the case, please update your website to reflect this fact so we don’t get confused.

Codebook-website-Min-System-Requirements
Codebook-website-Min-System-Requirements1212×779 92.6 KB

Here’s the current info from your website that match as of this posting:
CodeBook System Requirements

I know that I was not able to automatically update to Codebook 4.5.12 on my Mac and got the following error:

CodeBook_EndofLife_10-12-10-14
CodeBook_EndofLife_10-12-10-14868×512 116 KB

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Hi @JCK

Thanks very much for using Codebook and posting to the discussion forum.

Yes, Codebook for macOS 4.5.10 (the last supported version compatible with macOS 10.12) is fully sync compatible with the latest versions of Codebook on other platforms. That being said, eventually we are going to update the schema version which will make it sync incompatible. When this occurs, we’ll mention it in the release notes/discussion forum update post.

Apologies about that. We wanted to give Codebook users a heads up well ahead of the release which would cut-off support for macOS 10.12-10.14 which is why we initially posted this in discussion forum post in December. We didn’t want to update the platform requirements page on our website until we actually did a release which cut-off support. That release occurred at the beginning of this month, but we neglected to update the platform versions page of our website. That has been adjusted now to be consistent with the minimum macOS version the latest releases of Codebook for macOS supports (10.15).

Please feel free to let us know if you have any further questions. Thanks!