Force an app for macOS 10.12 Sierra and later to run on OS X Yosemite 10.10 I have an application that wouldn't start on OS X Yosemite and throws the following message


  This application required OS X 10.12 or later.


The application itself is fully functional. I can easily run it via Terminal

/Applications/My\ App.app/Content/MacOS/My\ App


It does start perfectly fine.

The old method was to edit app's Info.plist file and set LSMinimumSystemVersion to the version of OS X you are running. However, my app bundle's Info.plist doesn't have any LSMinimumSystemVersion specified at all.

I tried to spoof the OS X version by editing: /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist and it works for My App.app but breaks a few other apps.

Somehow, just by reading app bundle the Finder knows, it's incompatible and draws the white crossed sign over the app icon.

How does it know that Info.plist file does not have this information?
One possibly explanation is that the other apps are built using the newer macOS SDK, and have their minimum deployment target set which is higher than OS X Yosemite. In such cases editing/adding LSMinimumSystemVersion key won't work.

Also, manually editing the Info.plist file may break the integrity of the app and may curtail it from running.

You need to check with the developers of the apps and see if they still support the older version of OS X or if they have builds targeting the older OS X releases.