Using old Mac images with Ventura Advanced Data Protection?

I created a MacOS 10.14 (Mojave) image with Parallels, just to cover those weird times when I might want to run some old software that isn't supported by 10.15 and later. That image shows up as a Mac in my list of devices in Settings and in my Apple/iCloud account. I'm now trying to get Ventura's Advanced Data Protection (end-to-end encryption) working on my M1 MacBook Pro. It's blocking me, saying that I have this old Mac -- the Mojave image -- that needs to be upgraded to Ventura before it'll let me enable ADP. Hmm; this is trickier than it seems.

According to https://support.apple.com/guide/security/advanced-data-protection-for-icloud-sec973254c5f/web, "Devices where the user is signed in with their Apple ID must be updated to iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, macOS 13.1, tvOS 16.2, watchOS 9.2, and the latest version of iCloud for Windows". So I GUESS this means that I can remove the image from my list of devices, enable ADP, and then run the Parallels image, AS LONG AS I don't try to log into iCloud, since that's destined to fail somewhere along the line. I think? Maybe?

So I'm rather confused about what's going on here; has anybody gotten farther into this than I have, or otherwise know what the real story is? Thanks!

 

When ADP became available generally, I began contemplating this catch-22. I have several older macOS VMs for software I develop. Being logged into iCloud is required for some of them, to update various software apps, or often to even download some updates to macOS.

- I decided to postpone enabling ADP for a while (in retrospect, I think this was a good choice , after the HomeKit architecture debacle).
- I decided I will create an alternate AppleID to use for these VMs that don't support ADP.

Running older macOS versions is becoming more challenging in a future Apple Silicon world, esp. when features such as ADP require the newest OS versions.

 

Very good points, all around. I'm fortunate in that I'm not trying to do real development in my old images, so an alternate Apple ID is probably all I need (but probably necessary, since I don't see any way that old image is going to work with an ADP iCloud). Thanks for your thoughts, and good luck in navigating the multi-architecture world!