Rosetta can be removed from Mac M1 in some regions under macOS 11.3

Installing the next macOS 11.3 software update on a Mac M1 may remove Rosetta 2 in one or more regions of the world.

In the third beta of macOS 11.3 released for developers for testing today, Steve Moser, MacRumors contributor, discovered new strings in the beta code stating that “Rosetta will be removed when installing this update”. Another new string reads “Rosetta is no longer available in this region. Applications requiring Rosetta will no longer work.”

Apple did not specify in which regions Rosetta 2 “would no longer be available”, and no further details are known at this time.

Rosetta 2 allows Apple silicon-powered Macs like the M1 chip to run x86 applications designed for an Intel Mac. The translation layer works in the background when a user opens an application compiled only for Mac computers with an Intel processor, and automatically translates the application for use with Apple Silicon the first time the application is run.

It’s unclear why macOS 11.3 might remove Rosetta 2 on Mac M1s in some regions, but there may be legal or copyright reasons involved. Apple did not immediately respond to our request for comment, but we will provide an update if we have a response.

The third beta of macOS 11.3 also adds new settings with images to map game controller buttons to keyboard layouts, according to Moser’s code-level results, but we’re not quite sure about this. that this implies.