Now the second developer beta-release of Golden Gate is available, Apple’s release notes are giving further details of features that are being deprecated or removed. This article gives a summary of those that I know about.

Time Capsule support

You may have heard that James Chang and others have got Time Capsules to accept SMB3 connections by running a Samba 4.24.3 server. Although Apple doesn’t appear to have officially confirmed the removal of support for AFP from Golden Gate yet, it has cast doubt on whether its AirPort Utility will still be functional: “AirPort Utility is no longer included with new clean installations of macOS. However, if you update macOS when AirPort Utility is already installed, it remains on your system but functionality is not guaranteed starting in macOS 27.”

As AirPort Utility is part of Tahoe’s SSV, it’s hard to understand how that might work, as the app is automatically installed in all versions of macOS before Golden Gate, and can’t be removed by the user. It’s unclear how fresh installs of macOS 27 won’t include AirPort Utility, but upgrades will, and even if they do, it may not be long before the app stops working anyway.

Encrypted HFS+ and Time Machine backups

Apple has repeated its previous warning that encrypted HFS+ is deprecated in macOS 27, and “will not be supported in a future version of macOS.” I have discussed this in fuller detail in this article. One area of uncertainty raised recently is HFS+ encryption in disk images. I don’t know whether that’s reliant on CoreStorage, and may also be affected.

Stricter network security (TLS)

This applies primarily to those operating servers on enterprise and similar networks, and doesn’t apply to Content Caching servers or sharing services widely used in ordinary networks. I have explained this in an earlier article.

DVDPlayer framework

This is a very old framework that was used in the past by Apple’s own DVD Player and third-party apps, and shouldn’t be used by any Universal apps. However, this has been removed from the macOS 27 SDK, and the framework itself will be removed from “a future macOS release”, no doubt to the relief of all concerned. As I understand it, this shouldn’t affect any apps of current significance.

Preparations for Rosetta removal

Rosetta’s general ability to translate Intel code will be removed from macOS 28, although some will be retained to support some games. Although that’s over a year away, Golden Gate is going out of its way to warn those using apps and other code that still requires translation from Intel binaries. For example, the About section in Golden Gate’s General settings now lists Intel-based apps that will be incompatible with macOS 28, and may try to suggest where you can find an Apple silicon native replacement.

There are some other behaviours you may come across, some of them perhaps unexpected. After upgrading to Golden Gate, Rosetta won’t be automatically restored, so if it is needed, you will be prompted to install it again. Some Installer packages may have problems with pre- and post-install scripts unless they take into account that Arm64 is now the default. Intel-based plugins and loaders may not appear in System Settings.

Although full Rosetta 2 support remains in Golden Gate, it looks as if these preparations might cause some disruption and confusion. Hopefully most should be ironed out during this beta phase.

Logarchive format

Although this isn’t a deprecation or removal, I include it here because of the problems it could cause. Logarchives made in Apple’s 27.0 versions, covering all its OSes, use a changed format that Apple states can’t be read in versions of macOS prior to 26.2.

In macOS, logarchives are most commonly made as part of a sysdiagnose, and for Apple’s devices that’s the only way you’re likely to obtain their log contents. If you then try to open the logarchive included as part of one made in xOS 27, if your Mac is running Sequoia or earlier, it probably won’t be able to access the log entries within it.

I have now checked access using the current version of my free log browser LogUI. When run in Tahoe version 26.5.1, it has full access to log entries in logarchives made in macOS 27.0 beta 2 as part of a sysdiagnose, and in those created using its own method, as described here. I’m greatly relieved, but will still be looking in more detail at what has changed in the new format.