OpenVPN 64-bit client with macOS Catalina

I’ve recently upgraded the macOS to Catalina (10.15) on my MacBook and the only issue I had was with my OpenVPN client that stopped working because was a 32-bit. I’ve quickly searched for a solution, but with no luck,  so once I’ve figured out how to solve it, I’ve created this article.

macOS Catalina allows just 64-bit apps

As you probably know:

Apple’s transition to 64-bit technology is now complete. Starting with macOS Catalina, 32-bit apps are no longer compatible with macOS. If you have a 32-bit app, please check with the app developer for a 64-bit version.

As you can read on https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT208436 

Open VPN

It’s a very flexible SSL VPN, but the client that I got from my endpoint portal it’s not the 64-bit and from the official website I couldn’t find where to get the latest client. On the official documentation page Catalina it’s not even mentioned: https://openvpn.net/vpn-server-resources/installation-guide-for-openvpn-connect-client-on-macos/

So what I’ve done is downloading from the official website the latest version of their Virtual Appliance.

Virtual Appliances

Once created a Virtual Machine and attached the virtual disk downloaded and started the VM.  Finally, I logged in and searched for the “dmg” file for macOS, I found 2 versions 2.7.1 and 3.0.2.

I’ve download on my macOS the dmg file and installed the version 3.0.2 and it’s 64bit and working as expected. It was quite fast to solve it, but not something that maybe every user would do or find.

Other viable option are probably try to use other (64 bit) clients compatible with OpenVPN such Tunnelblick or Viscosity, but I didn’t investigate any deeper after solving the issue.

OpenVPN Client