Mac users, don’t upgrade to macOS Catalina if you’re using Photoshop or Lightroom
Oct 11, 2019
Dunja Đuđić Kalinin
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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Earlier in the week, Apple released macOS Catalina. But if you’re using Photoshop or Lightroom CC on your Mac, you may want to put the upgrade on hold. Adobe users have reported numerous problems with Photoshop and Lightroom after upgrading the system. And Adobe itself has confirmed that these two programs still aren’t compatible with the latest macOS.
Adobe pointed out on Help pages of both Photoshop and Lightroom that these two pieces of software don’t work well with macOS 10.15 (Catalina) just yet. In other words, you can use them, but they have a range of compatibility issues.
Lightroom Classic 8.4.1 can’t detect Nikon cameras when the camera is turned on after invoking the “Start Tether Capture…” command. There is a workaround though: you can turn the camera on first, and then select File > Tethered Capture > Start Tether Capture. Adobe notes that it’s working with Nikon to correct this problem.
When it comes to Photoshop, there are more issues users are facing. Photoshop 20.0.6 and later versions work with macOS Catalina, but with a number of hiccups. As for legacy/perpetual versions of Photoshop, Adobe writes that they are “not supported in any way for use on macOS Catalina.”
If you use Photoshop 20.0.6 and later and upgrade your system, here are the issues you might expect:
- File naming options don’t work correctly in the Save As dialog: when you change the file format, it doesn’t change the extension of the file in the name field. Also, when you check “as a copy,” “copy” isn’t added to the file name. If you’ve upgraded the system, you can work around this problem and add the name extensions manually.
- Plug-ins not found or cannot be verified: Adobe explains that, in macOS Catalina, plug-ins that are quarantined will return a Photoshop error that “the file was not found.” Alternatively, you’ll see an OS error that says that the plug-in “can’t be opened because its integrity cannot be verified.”
“Customers that have plug-ins already installed and then update to macOS 10.15 should not see this issue,” Adobe writes. “Customers that upgrade to macOS 10.15 and then try to download and install a plug-in may see failures.”
- Render Video starts but never completes: When you select File > Export > Render Video… the process never completes.
- Droplets don’t work: they launch but don’t run
- Apple color picker causes a crash: If you select Preferences > General… and set Color Picker to “Apple,” the second time you open the color picker, Photoshop will crash.
- ExtendScript Toolkit does not run
- Lens Profile Creator does not run
If you still haven’t upgraded your system to macOS Catalina –good, wait a bit more until the issues are resolved. And if you have, there are workarounds to some of the issues you are experiencing. You can read more about the issues and their possible solutions on Adobe’s website:
[via Creative Bloq]
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Dunja Đuđić Kalinin
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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9 responses to “Mac users, don’t upgrade to macOS Catalina if you’re using Photoshop or Lightroom”
Hardly recommended to ANY users.. ?
I upgraded a few days ago, and everything works fine. Use both, PS and LR daily in work.
Did you do something different? Is your Photoshop and Light Room 32 bit or 64?
I upgraded too quickly. I normally leave it for ages. But now I have an issue with my external hard drive from WD Discovery. The desk top app does not work as WD have not upgraded their software to support Catalina. WD was not in the list of Apps that would be affected. Now I have headache as my computer does not link to the hard drive. Looking on line many people are furious with WD about this, as I am. I shall never change operating systems so quickly again.
Funny how each time Apple screws up, Apple users are mad at third party manufacturers. Apple stopped (abruptly) all 32 bit software support. Windows no the other hand still supports all my 32 bit programs including old Dreamweaver, InDesign and more.
Apple’s arrogance is amazing, yet, people can never face them and always blame others for their arrogance.
I paid good money for my Photoshop programs only to find out that if I go Catalina on my 2017 iMac they become worthless.
Do I get my money back? I didn’t think so.
Apple and Adobe couldn’t give a flying %$#@ about all the now useless programs that we’ve invested money in because of their upgrade. And Adobe had plenty of time to come up with a solution. There’s enough blame to go around for both these companies. They should be sued. But they have deep pockets don’t they?
No wonder so many people pirate these programs for free.
And I can’t even envision what would happen for those of us still on Lightroom 6. I have a computer that just does processing and Lightroom 6 is perfect and FREE since its long been paid for. Adobe’s BS $10 per month is ridiculous when you look at the “upgrades” that have actually occurred since CC went live. Yes some are nice to have and makes it a bit easier but I don’t find those “upgrades” are essential. I use CC at work so I fully understand what they have improved but I am not going to feed the Adobe scam for my own personal work. Both Apple and Abobe’s QC is abysmal. Just get the crap out the door to make money directly or by marketing and let the user deal with the crap that falls out. I sit in the camp that if it works then I’m just fine with it. Yes I lose some efficiency in moving between computers and platforms but it works without grief.
Is it safe to update to OS 10.15 (Catalina) now that Photoshop has the 20.0.7 update?
It seems that some issues have been fixed, but I am not sure that all of them are. You can find more info here:
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/fixed-issues.html
and here:
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-and-macos-catalina.html
I would probably wait a bit more, just to be on the safe side.