OS X 10.6/10.7 Retirement

ITS will end support for Mac OS X version 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and 10.7 (Lion) later this year. 10.6 was released in 2009 and the last security update from Apple was March 2013. 10.7's last update was September 2014. Apple has since released other security updates for its more recent systems, but did not include Snow Leopard or Lion. It is against University policy for ITS to support an insecure operating system.

  • Sophos Anti-Virus will end support for 10.6 & 10.7 in October 2015.
  • Java 8 is not supported on 10.6 or 10.7
  • FileMaker 13 does not support 10.6
  • Cisco AnyConnect VPN 4.0 is not supported on 10.6
  • FileVault 2 (encryption software) will not work on 10.6

To see what operating system you are using, go to the Apple Menu in the top left corner. Select “About This Mac” to see the version number. Also, note if the processor says “PowerPC”. If so, you will need to get a newer computer with an “Intel” processor. Snow Leopard was the last operating systems that could use PowerPC (using Rosetta).

Support retirement means that desktop support staff will no longer install or troubleshoot issues related to this software. Instead, ITS will provide assistance with updating to a supported operating system.

Apple’s currently supported operating systems include:

  • 10.8 (Mountain Lion)
  • 10.9 (Mavericks)
  • 10.10 (Yosemite) -- recommended by ITS

OS X Licensing page

What do I do if I have 10.6 or 10.7 Mac?

  1. ITS recommends you upgrade to Mac OS X 10.10.
  2. Put in a ticket to have 10.10 installed.
  3. Determine whether existing hardware and software needs to be upgraded here.
  4. No cost for the upgrade; hardware and software costs as needed.