macOS Tahoe Drops FireWire Support
The first macOS Tahoe developer beta does not support the legacy FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 data-transfer standards, according to @NekoMichi on X, and a Reddit post. As a result, the first few iPod models and old external storage drives that rely on FireWire cannot be synced with or mounted on a Mac running the macOS Tahoe beta.
Unlike on macOS Sequoia and earlier versions, the first macOS Tahoe beta does not include a FireWire section in the System Settings app.
I’ve seen reports that FireWire support has been partially broken since macOS 12.3, anyway.
Take a fine comb and look through the latest developer beta, tell me if you find any mention of FireWire anywhere – not even System Profiler has it anymore. They’re saying on AppleInsider that even with a Thunderbolt Dock, it won’t let you connect any FW device to macOS.
[…]
Macs started carrying FireWire as early as 1997 as a BTO/CTO option, however, was not included onboard on any model until 1999. Even then, not all models carried it. The mid-2012 13″ non-retina MacBook Pro was the last model Mac to carry any sort of FireWire port.
USB continues to improve, but I just don’t think it’s ever been as reliable as FireWire was.
In honor of FireWire support presumably going away in macOS Tahoe, here’s pictures from when I connected my original iPod to my M1 MacBook Pro.
MacBook Pro to
Thunderbolt 3 to 2 adapter to
Thunderbolt 2 cable to
Thunderbolt 2 to FireWire 2 adapter to
Firewire 2 cable to
External HD with FireWire 2 and FireWire 1 ports to
FireWire 1 cable to
iPod
Previously:
- macOS Tahoe 26 Developer Beta 2
- macOS Tahoe 26 Announced
- The Tragedy of FireWire
- Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter
1 Comment RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
Lionel Wong at Yale first told me about FireWire in 1992. Amazing technology that was peer-to-peer unlike USB that puts the CPU in the driver’s seat, and thus not in Intel’s best interests, which is why they only gave lip service to supporting it on PC platforms.
