# Compiling Delta Chat for older versions of macOS, such as Catalina 10.15.8

**URL:** <https://forum.delta.chat/t/compiling-delta-chat-for-older-versions-of-macos-such-as-catalina-10-15-8/5364>\
**Category:** Mutual Help\
**Tags:** development, desktop\
**Created:** [June 3, 2026, 9:54pm UTC](https://forum.delta.chat/t/compiling-delta-chat-for-older-versions-of-macos-such-as-catalina-10-15-8/5364 "2026-06-03T21:54:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Seth](https://forum.delta.chat/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Seth](https://forum.delta.chat/u/Seth)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2026, 9:54pm UTC](https://forum.delta.chat/t/compiling-delta-chat-for-older-versions-of-macos-such-as-catalina-10-15-8/5364/1 "2026-06-03T21:54:33Z")

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**2.49.1**

**Expected behavior**

Current versions of Delta Chat run on older versions of macOS

**Actual behavior**

1.43 was the last supported version on my Mac and now that won’t interoperate with current versions of Delta Chat.

**Steps to reproduce the problem**

1. Launch v 1.43
2. Observe it no longer communicates with current versions of Delta Chat.

Really just want to know if there’s a way to manually build current versions of Delta Chat on macOS 10.15.

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**Author:** ![WofWca](https://forum.delta.chat/user_avatar/forum.delta.chat/wofwca/32/1702_2.png) [@WofWca](https://forum.delta.chat/u/WofWca)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2026, 6:49am UTC](https://forum.delta.chat/t/compiling-delta-chat-for-older-versions-of-macos-such-as-catalina-10-15-8/5364/2 "2026-06-04T06:49:33Z")

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The reason here is that Electron does not support older macOS versions.  
The way to build Delta Chat for older versions is to downgrade Electron, like here: [Downgrade electron to v37.x (this pr is only to have a downloadable experimental version for macos 11) by nicodh · Pull Request #5880 · deltachat/deltachat-desktop · GitHub](https://github.com/deltachat/deltachat-desktop/pull/5880).  
I am not sure, however, whether anything else would be required.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![WofWca](https://forum.delta.chat/user_avatar/forum.delta.chat/wofwca/32/1702_2.png) [@WofWca](https://forum.delta.chat/u/WofWca)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2026, 6:49am UTC](https://forum.delta.chat/t/compiling-delta-chat-for-older-versions-of-macos-such-as-catalina-10-15-8/5364/3 "2026-06-04T06:49:46Z")

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Also if running outdated or experimental software is not a concern to you, you might try the Tauri version of Delta Chat, it might support older macOS, I don’t remember. You can get it from GitHub releases or [Index of /desktop/v2.49.1/experimental/](https://download.delta.chat/desktop/v2.49.1/experimental/).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Seth](https://forum.delta.chat/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Seth](https://forum.delta.chat/u/Seth)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2026, 2:23am UTC](https://forum.delta.chat/t/compiling-delta-chat-for-older-versions-of-macos-such-as-catalina-10-15-8/5364/4 "2026-06-13T02:23:19Z")

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Looks like Tauri requires macOS 14 or higher, bummer.

 ![Screen Shot 2026-06-12 at 7.22.16 PM](https://support.delta.chat/uploads/default/original/2X/c/c52b718c2f97c43976eb10c94ce41c51234a183f.png)