Adobe this week gave Mac users an early heads up that the next major releases of Lightroom and other Creative Cloud desktop apps will only run on OS 10.10 (Yosemite) and later versions. They gave no indication of when the next major release of Lightroom will come out.
If you’re running 10.9 or earlier, you can update now to 10.11 (El Capitan), or wait until after September 20 and update to 10.12 (Sierra) when it’s released. (Check to see if your computer will run: El Capitan Sierra at this link.) I don’t recommend updating to Sierra until it has been out for a while, since there are often early issues with Lightroom compatibility. From what I understand, most of the compatibility issues with El Capitan have been worked out.)
Mac OS updates are free. To see which version you’re running, click on the apple icon in the top left and choose About this Mac. To get to the Update page, from this same screen click on Software Update.
If you choose not to update, you will still be able to continue to use Lightroom 6 / CC 2015 and the current versions of other CC desktop applications.
Thanks for the heads up!
I was just wanting to comment on the problems I have been having with Adobe CC Application manager.
I have been getting errors when trying to open it. I was told to run Adobes CC’s uninstall application but that didn’t work. An Adobe technician had to remote into my MacPro and erase a whole bunch of files that their uninstaller had missed… which begs the question why Adobe’s own uninstaller does not work.
All wa fine until a week or so later Adobe again updated their CC App manager and again it stopped working. Very frustrating.
Hi Laura
Sierra is only compatible with newer (late 2009 onwards) Macs – http://osxdaily.com/2016/06/14/macos-sierra-compatibility-list/
Some of the links in your email today do not work (OS X Mail).
Thanks for the heads up on Mac OS compatibility – I have updated my post with links to the lists. Regarding my email, it sounds like my mailing list vendor had some downtime at an inopportune time, as they work for me now. In the meantime, I’m sorry you had to take the manual route to my blog! If you need the webinar link, contact my assistant through laurashoe.com/contact.
My Mac seems to crash/freeze in LR less these days since the last LR update and 10.11.6
I’m sorry to hear it, Chris. The best places to obtain troubleshooting assistance are on lightroomforums.net and on the Adobe Lightroom forum. If all else fails you can roll back to the prior version. (Google “how to roll back to a prior version of Lightroom” to find the Adobe article on this.)
Hi Laura,
I am on El Capitan, and was about to install the cloud version of LR, when I read that Apple was going to release an update to EL Capitan which is not compatible with LR. I have read your LR tutorials up to the point where I need to install LR to use the practice files. However, I am so frustrated with the intentional competition between Adobe and Apple! I have decided to install LR and avoid the upgrade to El Capitan until Adobe works out the bugs. If you or your readers have a better option please let me know.
Thanks,
Mary
Hi Mary,
I understand your concern, but there is no competition between Adobe and Apple in this regard. Adobe builds their software to function on current operating systems, and can’t predict how it will run on future systems since they don’t know what Apple might build. Once Adobe is given the new OS by Apple they can then start testing Lightroom on it and working to resolve any incompatibilities. El Capitan has been out for a long time, and this Adobe article states that most known issues have been resolved.
Because of this necessary process of identifying and working out issues, I wouldn’t recommend upgrading your OS to Sierra when it first is released by Apple.
Laura on the LIghtroom Queen Blog recently she stated Adobe may not support LR 5 or earlier in Sierra. Do you have anything on this?
Thanks
Thank you very much for bringing this to my attention, Roger. I have checked with Victoria, and there may be significant incompatibility issues with Sierra and Lightroom 3+ that, if present, would be fixed right away in 6 and CC, but would not be fixed in Lightroom 5 and earlier versions – so you’ll need to either not update to Sierra, or upgrade Lightroom to 6 or CC. I’ll get a newsletter out by the end of the week on this.
Thank you Laura. I look forward to your update. I will start looking for alternatives to LR. Not supporting back one version does not feel good for this LR user from day one. Forcing an upgrade or to CC or having to pass on new OS enhancements is not a decent trade off in my book.
Thanks for your prompt action on this.
Roger
Hi Laura,
Thank you for the advice. I have read a lot of comments but yours was the BEST! I am not going to update to Apple’s new OS until Adobe has the chance to evaluate it and work out the bugs. I am new to this level of technology and sometimes the common solutions elude me. Your videos are the Best too. I looked at so many other video series and actually purchased one series and nothing was making sense until I found your series. I am now getting a grasp on LR and am excited about learning more.
Thank you very much,
Mary
Thank you for your note, Mary – I’m glad that you have enjoyed my videos and my blog!
Hi Laura, I have a new iMac running Sierra 10.12.3 with LR 6.8. LR is constantly crashing, it can’t see files to import, loosing sidebars, etc. In 8 year or so of using LR, I can not recall such bad software bugs.
I use LR constantly on a MacBook Yosemite 10.10.5 when travelling (LR 6.0 though), so this is very frustrating. I had hoped to import to the iMac, the recent files from an amazing expedition to East Antarctica, however this won’t happen until I can fix this issue.
If I do the fix as per your email 4th Jan 2017, I am not sure where files will be found on the iMac after changing back a version?
Hi Judy, if uninstalling and reinstalling doesn’t help (it won’t help with the sidebars), then you can revert back to 6.7, as you allude to. Your photos and catalog will be where they are now – you shouldn’t experience any issues with files.
I have 10.6.8 on my imac. I have lightroom 3 and elements 10. I don’t want to touch Sierra until the bugs are worked out. But can i upgrade to el capitain and still run lightroom 3? Thank you!
As far as I know, El Capitan is no longer available, Deb. Here are compatibility issues with Sierra and Lightroom. Note that Lightroom 3 will never be fixed to resolve them, but for most people they are not major.