Intel Mac Package Support: End of an Era

As Apple completes its transition to Apple Silicon and the broader Python ecosystem evolves, Anaconda is announcing the deprecation of Intel Mac (osx-64) package builds, effective August 15, 2025.

What’s Changing

Starting August 15, 2025, Anaconda will stop building new packages for Intel Mac computers (osx-64). This change affects users who are currently using Intel Mac packages, whether on actual Intel hardware or Apple Silicon Macs running in emulation mode.

Important: All existing Intel Mac packages will remain available in our defaults channels. Your current Python environments will continue working normally.

Why Now?

This decision reflects several industry-wide changes:

Apple’s hardware transition: Apple stopped manufacturing Intel-based Macs in June 2023 and recently announced that macOS 27 will not support Intel hardware, marking Apple’s full transition to Apple Silicon hardware.

Infrastructure reality: Cloud providers no longer support Intel Mac virtualization, which our package build system requires. Continuing Intel Mac support would compromise our ability to deliver secure, reliable packages for all platforms.

Industry standards: Major Python packages including PyTorch and TensorFlow already dropped Intel Mac support in 2024. We’re following established precedent in the Python ecosystem.

What You Need to Do

Follow these steps to determine if you need to take action:

Step 1: Check your hardware

1. 1. Click the Apple menu → “About This Mac”
   2. Look at the processor or chip information:
      
      • • Intel processor = You’re running on Intel hardware
      • • Apple M1/M2/M3/M4 = You have Apple Silicon hardware

Step 2: Check your current conda setup

1. 1. Open Terminal
   2. Run: conda info
   3. Look for the platform in the channel URLs:
      
      • • If you see osx-64 = You’re using Intel Mac packages (affected)
      • • If you see osx-arm64 = You’re using Apple Silicon packages (not affected)

Step 3: Determine whether you are affected by this deprecation

If you’re using:

• • Intel hardware + osx-64 packages → You’re affected and will need to migrate to osx-arm64 to receive future package updates after August 15, 2025.

• • Apple Silicon hardware + osx-64 packages → You’re running in emulation mode and should migrate to using osx-arm64 for better performance and to receive future package updates after August 15, 2025.

• • Apple Silicon hardware + osx-arm64 packages → You’re not affected.

 

Migration Guide

If you have an existing conda environment with osx-64 packages, here are the steps you can take to migrate to osx-arm64 packages:

1. 1. Export your current osx-64 environment to a YAML file:
      conda env export --from-history -n <env-name> > my_env.yml
      
      NOTE: The --from-history parameter pulls from your history only those packages (and any version constraints) you explicitly specified for this environment when you created and installed packages to it (e.g., “python=3.12” and “numpy”), and excludes any additional packages that conda may have pulled in as dependencies.
   2. (OPTIONAL) If you are using an osx-64 installation of Anaconda Distribution or Miniconda in emulation mode on an Apple Silicon machine, uninstall your current osx-64 installation of Anaconda Distribution or Miniconda.
   3. On an Apple Silicon machine, download and install Anaconda Distribution or Miniconda for Apple Silicon (osx-arm64):
      
      
   4. Re-create your environment using the YAML file, now with osx-arm64 packages.
      conda env create -f my_env.yml -n <env-name>
      
      NOTE: There may be unavailable or different versions of packages between the osx-64 and osx-arm64 platforms. For example, the first Python version supported on osx-arm64 was Python 3.8, so older versions of Python are not available for this platform. In such cases, you may need to upgrade to newer versions of dependencies to successfully re-create your environment.
   5. Test your new environment.

1.  

Individual users & students: The vast majority of Mac users are already on Apple Silicon hardware. If you’re still using Intel Mac packages, now is a great time to migrate for better performance and continued updates.

Enterprise users: We understand the complexity of enterprise environments. Our Professional Services team can help with migration planning or explore custom solutions for critical business needs.

Open source community: This change only affects Anaconda’s defaults channel. Conda-forge maintains its own support policies.

This transition enables us to focus our resources on delivering the best possible experience for current and future Mac platforms. Apple Silicon offers superior performance and energy efficiency, and by aligning with Apple’s roadmap, we ensure Anaconda users get the most from their hardware.

• • Now through August 15: All Intel Mac packages continue building as normal

• • August 15, 2025: Final Intel Mac package builds

• • Beyond August 15: Existing packages remain available; no new builds

Need help? Reach out to your Anaconda representative or contact our Support Team.

We’re committed to supporting you through this transition and ensuring you get the best Python experience on modern Mac hardware.