How to Check Apple M1 App Compatibility on Mac

For a long time, Apple is well-known for its hardware and software in the digital industry. Last month, on the 10^th, Nov 2020, Apple reached another milestone, launching its first own custom chips for its computer – the Apple M1 chip. Until now, there are 3 models equipped with Apple M1 chip or Apple Silicon M1, including MacBook Air, MacBook Pro 13-inch, and Mac mini. With its incredible performance in processing speed and battery life, it has established a good reputation among M1 users. Despite that, more and more users notice that they are faced with a series of issues such as the app compatibility issue when running apps on the Mac with the Apple M1 chip.

For this reason, you are encouraged to learn what is Apple M1 chip and check if your common-used apps are M1 already before buying the newly-developed Apple M1 Mac. On the other hand, if you have already bought a Mac computer, you can test the compatibility of its apps according to your demands.

In this post, we’d like to reveal 2 methods to see if an app runs well on an M1 Mac with Apple silicon.

The Tool You Need to Check Apple M1 App Compatibility

To check if your common-used apps are M1 ready, iMobie’s search and development team has developed a free M1 app compatibility checker for Mac called iMobie M1 App Checker. It allows checking if the apps on your Mac/iPhone/iPad are M1 compatible and supports to run almost any iOS apps on M1 Mac by exporting .ipa files. You can both check the M1 app compatibility with iMobie M1 App Checker online or download the desktop version.

If you want to change out your old MacBook to an M1 one,  you may want to check if your mac apps are M1 ready. On the other hand, since Apple M1 Mac allows you to run the iPhone/iPad apps directly, you may want to know whether your favorite iOS apps could be directly downloaded from the M1 App Store.

For these reasons, as an M1 Mac user, you may want to know how to check whether your mac apps or favorite iPhone/iPad apps are M1 ready and what you can do if you want to run an iOS app that doesn’t show in M1 App Store.

Check M1 App Compatibility with iMobie M1 App Checker (Online)

With the online iMobie M1 App Checker, you can check whether Mac,iPhone, or iPad apps you want to use on M1 MacBook are M1 ready. This tool is especially workable for users who haven’t got a Mac computer but seek to figure out the app compatibility. Anytime you can make it by using the online iMobie M1 App Checker.

Part 1. Check Mac Apps Compatibility

iMobie M1 App Checker(Online) allows you to search or directly view Mac apps in our database to find if the Mac app is ready for M1 or not.

Step 1. On your computer, navigate to the iMobie M1 App Checker Website.

Step 2. Scroll down and you will see the interface below. Under the Check Mac App section, you can search a Mac app here to see the result.

Step 3. Then, you can check the result immediately:

• “Universal” indicates the app fully supports both Apple Silicon Mac and Intel-based Macs.
• “Yes, it works via Rosetta 2” means the app can also be used on M1 Mac with the translation technology Rosetta 2. Most of the Intel-based Mac apps can run on M1 with Rosetta 2, while the performance on the ARM-based Mac system is less stable than that on the Intel-based Mac system. This means the M1 users might face some crashes while running this kind of apps on the M1 Mac.
• “No, not yet” means it is an intel 32-based and PowerPC based Mac app, which can not run on M1, whether with or without Rosetta 2.

Part 2. Check If iPhone/iPad App Is Available on M1 Mac

iMobie M1 APP Checker (Online) also allows you to check if an iOS app is available on the Mac M1 App Store or not.

Step 1. Also go to iMobie M1 App Checker Website.

Step 2. Scroll down and click on the Check iPhone/iPad Apps mode.

Step 3. Search for an iOS app like HBO Max.

Step 4. Check the result:

• “Yes, go to download” means the app is M1 ready. Clicking on the download button, you will be navigated to the Apple Store page to download the app over there.
• “Not yet, go to export .ipa” means you fail to download the app you are searching for from the M1 App Store. However, you can still access the app on the iMobie M1 App Checker (Desktop) by clicking on go to export .ipa.

In this situation, you will be suggested to download the iMobie M1 App Checker (Desktop), with which you can access the .ipa files in iOS.

A .ipa file is an iOS application archive file that stores an iOS app. If you have got a .ipa file, you could run the app by installing .ipa files on your iPhone, iPad, or even an M1 Mac computer.

In the next section, we will further discuss how to check M1 app compatibility and access .ipa files with iMobie M1 App Checker (Desktop).

Check M1 App Compatibility with iMobie M1 App Checker (Desktop)

With M1 App Checker (Desktop), you can scan all the apps on your Mac computer to check the app’s compatibility at once or access the .ipa files according to your needs. Now, freely download the iMobie M1 App Checker (Desktop) on your Mac to start the checking process.

Part 1. Check All Existing Mac Apps Compatibility Quickly

Now follow the detailed steps to scan the apps on your Intel-based Mac computer and see if they are M1 ready.

Step 1. Click on the Start Scan button under the Mac App mode to scan and check all the apps on your Mac at once.

Step 2. Then you will see the interface as below.

Step 3. Check the result now:

• The “Universal” indicates the app can work both on Intel and M1.
• The “Apple Silicon” indicates the app only works on M1.
• The “Intel 64” indicates the app can work with Rosetta but may face some crashes.

However, there are also apps tagged by “Intel 32/PowerPC”, which means the apps cannot be downloaded from the M1 Mac App store.

Part 2. How to Export a .iPA File to Mac M1 & Run It

As mentioned in the last part, the apps tagged by “Intel 32/PowerPC” cannot be downloaded from the M1 Mac App store. However, you can still access the app via M1 App Checker (Desktop) and manually install the app to your M1 Mac.

Here, we will take “YouTube” as an example to show you how to download and install “Intel 32 app” on your M1 Mac with M1 App Checker (Desktop).

Step 1. Run M1 App Checker (Desktop) on your M1 Mac > Search the “YouTube” app under the iPhone App mode > Click on the Search icon to access the app.

Step 2. You will see a group of apps concerning “YouTube” apps > Select one app version and tap on the Download icon to access the .ipa file.

Step 3. The pop-up window will request you to sign in with your Apple ID.

Step 4. Once the app is downloaded, it will be stored in the App Library > Click on the Transfer icon to store the .ipa file to your M1 Mac.

Step 5. Directly launch the .ipa file on your M1 Mac and then you can run the app in a stable way.

The Bottom Line

For M1 Mac users, it is upset to encounter the app compatibility issue while enjoying M1’s amazing performance. If you want to check whether your favorite apps are faced with compatibility issues, you can use our iMobie M1 App Checker to check the app’s compatibility. More importantly, you can also access the .ipa files with the tool and install the apps on your M1 MacBook according to your needs.