macOS 26 "Tahoe" to permanently remove all FireWire support
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2025 9:24 am
macOS 26 "Tahoe" will permanently remove FireWire support from Macs. There is no way to enable FireWire on Tahoe, so any device that depends on it will no longer function there or on any future release. Running macOS in a virtual machine will not help either, as FireWire passthrough is not possible in VMware, Parallels, or other virtualization environments.
This affects many professional FireWire scanners, including:
- Nikon Super Coolscan LS-8000 ED
- Nikon Super Coolscan LS-9000 ED
- Umax PowerLook 3000
- Umax PowerLook 2100XL FireWire variant
- Minolta DiMAGE Scan Multi Pro
- Imacon Flextight models with FireWire (e.g. Precision II, Photo, 646, 848, 949)
- Hasselblad Flextight X1 and X5
- Leafscan 45 and related high-end drum/flatbed units with IEEE-1394
- Many older DV-era film/video capture devices
Note on the Flextight scanners:
Even before Tahoe, the Imacon/Hasselblad scanners were effectively frozen on macOS. The required FlexColor software relied on 32-bit components and stopped running after macOS 10.14 Mojave. Although Hasselblad offered a nominal 64-bit build, it still carried 32-bit dependencies. As of macOS 10.15 Catalina, FlexColor no longer functions, which means Flextights have only remained usable on older macOS releases or on Windows.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR THE FUTURE:
Fortunately: Every Mac brought to market before late 2025 can still run macOS 25 "Sequoia" alongside Tahoe.
This means you can keep a working environment for your scanner while still using the newest system for everything else.
Unfortunately: Macs brought to market starting in fall 2025 will ship only with macOS 26 "Tahoe" or later. As Apple always locks new hardware to the system generation it launched with, there will be no way to install Sequoia on these machines. For those Macs, FireWire devices are simply no longer an option. So keep your current Mac around
Up until now, many of us kept our scanners alive with a rather cute chain of adapters: Thunderbolt 3 → Thunderbolt 2 → FireWire 800 → FireWire 400. It looked improbable, but it worked flawlessly, and was the only officially supported way to hook a Nikon, Minolta, Imacon or Hasselblad scanner to modern Macs. With Tahoe, even that path is gone, because the FireWire framework itself has been ripped out of the operating system.
Two main setups are possible on Macs released until the present time (September 2025):
1) Dual Boot on Internal Drive
- In Disk Utility, add a new APFS volume to your internal SSD.
- Unlike the old partitioning days, APFS volumes dynamically share free space, so you do not have to split the drive in fixed parts.
- Install macOS 25 "Sequoia" into that new volume.
- At startup, choose which OS to run:
• On Apple Silicon Macs: press and hold the power button until Startup Options appear, then select your system.
• On Intel Macs: hold Option (Alt) at boot to see the boot picker.
2) External macOS Installation
- Prepare a Thunderbolt 3 or 4 SSD and format it as APFS / GUID.
- Install macOS 25 "Sequoia" onto that drive.
- Boot as above by holding the power button (Apple Silicon) or Option (Intel) and select the external disk.
Shared storage is simple: APFS volumes are visible to both systems, so you can keep your scans and TIFF files in a shared volume accessible from either OS.
In short: Tahoe has ended FireWire support for good, but by keeping Sequoia installed -- whether on an internal APFS volume or on a Thunderbolt SSD -- you can continue using some scanners.
This affects many professional FireWire scanners, including:
- Nikon Super Coolscan LS-8000 ED
- Nikon Super Coolscan LS-9000 ED
- Umax PowerLook 3000
- Umax PowerLook 2100XL FireWire variant
- Minolta DiMAGE Scan Multi Pro
- Imacon Flextight models with FireWire (e.g. Precision II, Photo, 646, 848, 949)
- Hasselblad Flextight X1 and X5
- Leafscan 45 and related high-end drum/flatbed units with IEEE-1394
- Many older DV-era film/video capture devices
Note on the Flextight scanners:
Even before Tahoe, the Imacon/Hasselblad scanners were effectively frozen on macOS. The required FlexColor software relied on 32-bit components and stopped running after macOS 10.14 Mojave. Although Hasselblad offered a nominal 64-bit build, it still carried 32-bit dependencies. As of macOS 10.15 Catalina, FlexColor no longer functions, which means Flextights have only remained usable on older macOS releases or on Windows.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR THE FUTURE:
Fortunately: Every Mac brought to market before late 2025 can still run macOS 25 "Sequoia" alongside Tahoe.
This means you can keep a working environment for your scanner while still using the newest system for everything else.
Unfortunately: Macs brought to market starting in fall 2025 will ship only with macOS 26 "Tahoe" or later. As Apple always locks new hardware to the system generation it launched with, there will be no way to install Sequoia on these machines. For those Macs, FireWire devices are simply no longer an option. So keep your current Mac around
Up until now, many of us kept our scanners alive with a rather cute chain of adapters: Thunderbolt 3 → Thunderbolt 2 → FireWire 800 → FireWire 400. It looked improbable, but it worked flawlessly, and was the only officially supported way to hook a Nikon, Minolta, Imacon or Hasselblad scanner to modern Macs. With Tahoe, even that path is gone, because the FireWire framework itself has been ripped out of the operating system.
Two main setups are possible on Macs released until the present time (September 2025):
1) Dual Boot on Internal Drive
- In Disk Utility, add a new APFS volume to your internal SSD.
- Unlike the old partitioning days, APFS volumes dynamically share free space, so you do not have to split the drive in fixed parts.
- Install macOS 25 "Sequoia" into that new volume.
- At startup, choose which OS to run:
• On Apple Silicon Macs: press and hold the power button until Startup Options appear, then select your system.
• On Intel Macs: hold Option (Alt) at boot to see the boot picker.
2) External macOS Installation
- Prepare a Thunderbolt 3 or 4 SSD and format it as APFS / GUID.
- Install macOS 25 "Sequoia" onto that drive.
- Boot as above by holding the power button (Apple Silicon) or Option (Intel) and select the external disk.
Shared storage is simple: APFS volumes are visible to both systems, so you can keep your scans and TIFF files in a shared volume accessible from either OS.
In short: Tahoe has ended FireWire support for good, but by keeping Sequoia installed -- whether on an internal APFS volume or on a Thunderbolt SSD -- you can continue using some scanners.