The latest M4 Macs have a pretty major shortcoming when it comes to running VMs
- M4 Macs have trouble booting VMs running macOS versions older than 13.4
- It appears that VMs start up and fail in one core
- Apple has not yet commented on the issue
Buyers of Apple’s latest M4 Macs have noticed that they cannot run virtual machines with macOS versions older than Ventura 13.4, causing headaches for developers, security personnel, and legacy software users who want or need to use older versions of macOS.
The issue extends to the newest family of Macs introduced the week of October 28, including the MacBook Pro, Mac mini and iMac.
Researcher Csaba Fitzl (via The eclectic lighting company) noted that virtualization software fails to boot older macOS versions on the latest hardware, but it could just be a bug and not an intended limitation.
M4 Macs cannot virtualize old versions of macOS
Those who try to load versions prior to macOS 13.4 will notice that they are presented with a black screen and the VM will not boot. The error only occurs on M4 Macs, meaning those looking to upgrade from M1, M2 or M3 Macs will have to wait until a fix is available.
Because the VM doesn’t boot, researchers can’t access logs to understand where things are going wrong. However, examination of the Activity Monitor app shows that the VM only boots on a single core, despite having multiple cores allocated.
While this compatibility issue may have dampened the launch of M4 Macs, the company’s latest macOS Sequoia introduces virtualization improvements, including iCloud login support for VMs, which was previously unavailable.
The operating system also includes a range of generative AI features, many of which have already been rolled out and many more will follow soon in other regions. M4 chips are the most optimized for these functions to date.
TechRadar Pro Apple has asked if this is an intentional limitation or if a fix is being worked on, but we did not immediately receive a response.
