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cormiertyshawn895
Retroactive
Swift2019–2026
cormiertyshawn895 / Retroactive

Retroactive

Run Aperture, iPhoto, and iTunes on macOS Golden Gate, macOS Tahoe, macOS Sequoia, macOS Sonoma, macOS Ventura, macOS Monterey, macOS Big Sur, and macOS Catalina. Xcode 11.7 on macOS Mojave. Final Cut Pro 7, Logic Pro 9, and iWork ’09 on macOS Mojave or macOS High Sierra.

21Distinct people
25Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
2.3KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

Run Aperture, iPhoto, and iTunes on macOS Golden Gate, macOS Tahoe, macOS Sequoia, macOS Sonoma, macOS Ventura, macOS Monterey, macOS Big Sur, and macOS Catalina. Xcode 11.7 on macOS Mojave. Final Cut Pro 7, Logic Pro 9, and iWork ’09 on macOS Mojave or macOS High Sierra.

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use was verified in the last source check.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year25 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2019-10-28 12:22:48 UTC to 2026-01-13 17:56:13 UTC.

02468102019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 4 mentions; 4 submissions, 0 comments20192020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 10 mentions; 1 submissions, 9 comments2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 2 submissions, 1 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments20222023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 1 submissions, 0 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments. Incomplete calendar period.2026*

* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC440
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC1019
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC321
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC303
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC110
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC303
20252025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
2026 (partial)2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101

From the project README

An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.

Read the project’s introduction
Retroactive You can use Retroactive to run Aperture, iPhoto, and iTunes on macOS Golden Gate, macOS Tahoe, macOS Sequoia, macOS Sonoma, macOS Ventura, macOS Monterey, macOS Big Sur, and macOS Catalina. Xcode 11.7 on macOS Mojave. Final Cut Pro 7, Logic Pro 9, and iWork ’09 on macOS Mojave or macOS High Sierra. Opening Retroactive After downloading Retroactive, double click to open it. macOS may prompt you “Retroactive cannot be opened because it is from an unidentified developer.” This is expected. To open Retroactive, navigate to System Settings > Privacy & Security, then scroll down and click “Open Anyway”. Retroactive will not harm your Mac. This alert only shows up because Retroactive is not notarized. Retroactive is open source, so you can always examine its source code to make sure it’s safe. Transition from Aperture, iPhoto, iTunes, and Final Cut Pro 7 to supported apps Because Rosetta 2 will be removed from macOS 28, macOS Golden Gate is likely¹ the final version of macOS to support running Aperture, iPhoto, and iTunes through Retroactive. After upgrading to macOS 28, you need to transition from Aperture, iPhoto, and iTunes to a wide range of supported apps, many of which are built into macOS or free to download. iTunes Switch to Music, TV, Podcasts, Books, and Finder. Install Windows with Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion, then download iTunes for Windows. To archive iPhone and iPad apps, use Asspp, IPATool, iMazing, Apple Configurator (tutorial), or iTunes 12.6.5.3 for Windows. Aperture and iPhoto Switch to Photos, Darktable, or RawTherapee. Purchase or subscribe to AfterShot Pro, Capture One Pro, Darkroom, DxO PhotoLab, Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Luminar Neo, or Photomator. Final Cut Pro 7 Export your projects into XML on a compatible Mac. Then import them into DaVinci Resolve, Media Composer, or Premiere Pro. You can also use SendToX to import them into the latest version of Final Cut Pro. ¹ It may theoretically be possible to modify Aperture, iPhoto, and iTunes in a way that makes macOS 28 treat them as older, unmaintained games, which will continue to run under a subset of Rosetta functionality. Because Aperture, iPhoto, and iTunes likely depend on frameworks beyond this remaining subset, Aperture, iPhoto, and iTunes may need to be augmented with x86_64 frameworks extracted from the dyld shared cache from macOS Golden Gate using dsce. Picking an app On macOS Golden Gate, macOS Tahoe, macOS Sequoia, macOS Sonoma, macOS Ventura, macOS Monterey, macOS Big Sur, and macOS Catalina, Retroactive can unlock Aperture and iPhoto, or install iTunes. Pick the app you want to run. If you want to run multiple apps from here, pick any one of them. You will always be able to get back to this screen later. On macOS Mojave and macOS High Sierra, Retroactive can also unlock Final Cut Pro 7, Logic Pro 9 (experimental), Xcode 11.7 (requires macOS Mojave), and fix iWork ’09. I’ll use Aperture as the example, but the same process also works for iPhoto, iTunes, Final Cut Pro 7, Logic Pro 9, Xcode 11.7, and iWork ’09. Locating the app or choosing a version Retroactive will automatically scan your Mac to locate an existing Aperture, iPhoto, Final Cut Pro 7, Logic Pro 9, Xcode 11.7, or iWork ’09 install. If Retroactive has already located the app you would like to run, skip to the next section. If Retroactive can’t locate an existing install, you’ll either be asked to download it, or re-install it from a DVD disc. You can also find the app on another Mac you own, then AirDrop it to this Mac, or restore the app from a Time Machine backup. If you chose iTunes, Retroactive will ask you which version to install, then automatically download and install it for you. iTunes 12.9.5 supports Dark Mode and most DJ apps. iTunes 12.6.5 supports Ringtones and iTunes U. iTunes 11.4 has a classic look. iTunes 10.7 supports CoverFlow. If you don’t know which version to install, keep the default setting and click “Continue”. Authenticating Retroactive To install or modify the app you chose, you need to authenticate with your login password first. Click “Authenticate”, and enter your login password. Your password is never stored or sent anywhere. To verify this, you can view Retroactive’s source code. Modifying the app Retroactive will install or modify the app you chose. Modifying the app should only take about 2 minutes. If you chose to install iTunes, this process may longer. Depending on the version you chose, it can take between 10 minutes to an hour. It is completely normal for the fans to spin up during the process. If Retroactive asks for your login password again, re-enter it again. If iTunes 12.9.5 can’t be installed, try to install iTunes 12.6.5. After installing iTunes, Retroactive will ask you about iPod syncing. If you need to sync with iPod devices, click "Enable Full Disk Access", and follow on-screen instructions provided by Retroactive. That's it! You can use the app now. Using the app After successfully modifying or installing the app, you can play with it to your heart's content. All Aperture features should be available except for playing videos, exporting slideshows, Photo Stream, and iCloud Photo Sharing. If RAW photos can't be opened, you need to reprocess them. All iPhoto features should be available except for playing videos, exporting slideshows, Photo Stream, and iCloud Photo Sharing. All features should work for iTunes 12.9.5. Most features should work for iTunes 12.6.5. Use iTunes 12.9.5 or Finder to back up your device instead. Use Apple Configurator 2 to download iOS apps on your Mac. Movies and TV Shows downloaded from the iTunes Store may be unable to play in iTunes. Download or play them in the TV app instead. Some dialogs in iTunes may display a crossed-out iTunes icon. This is purely cosmetic and has no functional impact. All Final Cut Pro 7 features should work. Support for Logic Pro 9 is experimental. You may see frequent freezes
Read the full README on GitHub

What Hacker News says

25 sources
Once upon a time it was Aperture. Because Adobe's Lightroom didn't have some things I wanted, I stubbornly stayed with Aperture including using "Retroactive": https://github.com/cormiertyshawn895/Retroactive It stayed that until Apple eventually managed to bring Photos library up to the same spec including RAW support, non destructive edits, etc., and eventually even import Aperture libraries w/o loss. Since then, stayed with Photos, and it's BnL fine if you mostly ignore "folders" and let it do dates and people and now objects search on-device. To prevent errors, I've found I must maintain at least one machine where all originals are on a RAID array.
In iOS 17.5 Bug May Also Resurface Deleted Photos on Wiped, Sold Devices
No need to keep Mojave to run iTunes — iTunes can be run on newer macOS, by using Retroactive [1] to patch it. Regarding running a newer macOS on older hardware, check out OCLP [1] — do make sure you make full backups and have a working recovery plan before trying anything with OCLP though. I know that might sound somewhat obvious to a lot of folk, but you'd be surprised at the amount of folk that jump in and try OCLP on their main system without any backup plan. Note that are some gotchas re installing OCLP on some older h/w, and it will help to read up on possible issues before wading in. e.g. during installation it might be necessary to use a wired keyboard and mouse, via a USB hub, until the installation is done, you might also need a wired network connection during install, similarly. Depends on h/w (I've not patched MacBooks myself,
Read the rest
yet). Once the patcher is done, these should not be needed anymore. Official support for OCLP is only via Discord — but there is a very active unofficial peer/user support group on FB [3] HTH! [1] https://github.com/cormiertyshawn895/Retroactive [2] https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/ [3] https://www.facebook.com/groups/opencoreprojectlegacy
In How virtualisation came to Apple Silicon Macs
If you only need to run Aperture I've had good success using Retroactive[1] on my M1 Max machine running Monterrey to patch it to run under Rosetta. Almost everything works fine except anything tied to iCloud and some of the video and slideshow features. It's been great in letting me access my older photos which have adjustments that I don't want to re-create in Lightroom. It will copy over the missing frameworks and modify the app so the OS will run it even though it's unsupported, if you're interested there is a technical breakdown that goes into detail[2]. [1] https://github.com/cormiertyshawn895/Retroactive [2] https://medium.com/@cormiertyshawn895/deep-dive-how-does-ret...
In Intel Virtualization and Apple Silicon
For all kinds of reasons, I hate what they did there, abandoning Aperture functionality — there remains zero other software that fills what Aperture did for me. Even though Capture One and Adobe Lightroom Classic can both import from it to a degree: https://learn.captureone.com/blog-posts/migrating-apple-aper... That said, Aperture could still open an Aperture library using the final versions of Aperture up until Mojave. So from the time Aperture was discontinued, Aperture itself worked through six versions of MacOS, until Catalina. As of Catalina, Aperture no longer ran native[1], but Photos itself could still open and migrate those libraries (note: I have not tried in Big Sur). While Photos didn’t recognize everything initially, before Aperture became unsupported, Photos did eventually handle tags, non-destructive edits, JPEG+RAW pai
Read the rest
rs, referenced files, and albums. Apple eventually got the parity enough I was able to move a quarter million photos over into Photos, and haven’t needed to re-open Aperture in a couple years. While I haven’t needed it, I did test the software linked in [1] below, and it worked great. What to do if you’re on Catalina or newer, and need to migrate Aperture to Photos: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209594 --- 1. NOTE: Open Aperture on Big Sur or Catalina using ‘Retroactive’: https://github.com/cormiertyshawn895/Retroactive From README: ”All Aperture features should be available except for playing videos, exporting slideshows, Photo Stream, and iCloud Photo Sharing. If RAW photos can't be opened, you need to reprocess them.” Read more: https://petapixel.com/2019/10/29/this-app-lets-you-use-apple...
In Changes to LastPass Free
For what it's worth, Aperture, iPhoto and iTunes can be made to run in Catalina. People figured out last year what hacks were needed and there is a tool called Retroactive that will automate the steps: https://github.com/cormiertyshawn895/Retroactive Got some discussion on HN [1] about 3 months ago amongst other places, cool bit of sleuthing in the vein of efforts to get versions of macOS running on Macs older than officially supported. Personally I'm somewhat resigned to needing VMs to run certain older software, with a big one for me being Creative Suite CS6. Like you I have no interesting in buying into Adobe's subscription lock-in. But it's nice that some stuff can keep running without that layer for a while longer. Hopefully it'll still be possible in 10.16. ---- 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22454069
In MacOS Catalina: Slow by Design?

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