-
Welcome to the Lightroom Queen Forums! We're a friendly bunch, so please feel free to register and join in the conversation. If you're not familiar with forums, you'll find step by step instructions on how to post your first thread under Help at the bottom of the page. You're also welcome to download our free Lightroom Quick Start eBooks and explore our other FAQ resources.
-
29 September 2026 It's Lightroom update time again. There are some minor features, as well as bug fixes, new cameras and lenses.
See What’s New in Lightroom Classic 15.6, Mobile & Desktop (September 2026)?
PC to Mac
- Thread starter Petes
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2007
- Messages
- 3,116
- Location
- St-Hubert, Québec, CANADA
- Lightroom Experience
- Power User
- Lightroom Version
- Classic
This is what I just did last may. It went flawlessly! 
I just had to install Mac version of Lightroom rather than the Windows one tough... Being able to look at my Raws in Finder (Mac equiv. to Explorer) was a nice addition as Explorer need plugins for that.
Welcome Pete; Go for it!
I just had to install Mac version of Lightroom rather than the Windows one tough... Being able to look at my Raws in Finder (Mac equiv. to Explorer) was a nice addition as Explorer need plugins for that.
Welcome Pete; Go for it!
Gene McCullagh
Active Member
Hi Pete!
Denis is right on. The transition is flawless. I switched in the beginning of the year and am glad I did!
I do notice from your signature, though, that you are using PS CS3. While Adobe has made LR cross-platform without having to purchase separate versions, Photoshop is still Windows or Mac. So you won't be able to install PS on your Mac (unless you use bootcamp, VMFusion or Parallels, etc.). However, for the cost of shipping, Adobe will send you the Mac version and deactivate your Windows version.
If you don't want to do that and are planning to upgrade to PS CS4 then you can contact Adobe and cross-upgrade to get the Mac version.
Welcome to Mac!
Denis is right on. The transition is flawless. I switched in the beginning of the year and am glad I did!
I do notice from your signature, though, that you are using PS CS3. While Adobe has made LR cross-platform without having to purchase separate versions, Photoshop is still Windows or Mac. So you won't be able to install PS on your Mac (unless you use bootcamp, VMFusion or Parallels, etc.). However, for the cost of shipping, Adobe will send you the Mac version and deactivate your Windows version.
If you don't want to do that and are planning to upgrade to PS CS4 then you can contact Adobe and cross-upgrade to get the Mac version.
Welcome to Mac!
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2007
- Messages
- 3,116
- Location
- St-Hubert, Québec, CANADA
- Lightroom Experience
- Power User
- Lightroom Version
- Classic
:!::!::!:
Good to mention Gene! Very appropriate as this is also my case and I forgot that one. The problem for me is that when I phoned Adobe to switch my PSCS2 from Windows to Mac, they said "sorry, we cannot do that. But if you upgrade, then you can cross-upgrade".
As I buyed another XP licence to use BootCamp, I work that way for now. But with Lightroom, I use PS SO MUCH LESS!
Thanks everybody. That's good to hear that it shouldn't be a huge hassle. I got the phone number for Adobe yesterday to call when I'm ready to switch over. They will probably try to peddle CS4 to me!
A little OT, but, where we can now do so much in LR is Elements a reasonable substitute for the situations LR can't handle? I believe I would be out of luck for those times I want to work in LAB? And how about layer capabilities in Elements?
And speaking of the switch, after playing with the $'s the quad 4 version of the Mac Pro plus 23" Apple Cinema is only 8''.'' more than a tricked out Imac. I'm thinking I would be better off in the long run to get the 64 bit tower rather than a system which is essentially obsolete now...? (we'll leave my wife's opinion out of this discussion for now
A little OT, but, where we can now do so much in LR is Elements a reasonable substitute for the situations LR can't handle? I believe I would be out of luck for those times I want to work in LAB? And how about layer capabilities in Elements?
And speaking of the switch, after playing with the $'s the quad 4 version of the Mac Pro plus 23" Apple Cinema is only 8''.'' more than a tricked out Imac. I'm thinking I would be better off in the long run to get the 64 bit tower rather than a system which is essentially obsolete now...? (we'll leave my wife's opinion out of this discussion for now
R
Rick L.
Guest
I've been lurking, but finally registered here. Too many forums, too little time....
I'm running LR 2.' on both sides of my MB Pro (Vista & Tiger) and have one common catalog that I keep on an external (Fat 32) drive. My images are on a NAS that both OS's can reach (I'm OK with the speed hit for the sake of the convenience). The only issue I had was keeping my templates available on both sides (when I started, I wasn't keeping them in the catalog). For galleries (LRG, for example), I'm keeping them on the external drive and pointing an alias / shortcut from both OS's to it. Works well.
Regarding transferring licenses between OS's, when I converted one of my licenses from PC to Mac, Adobe was helpful, but it took two calls to find someone that would do it. Also, they insisted on shipping physical media for some crazy reason instead of just providing a new serial number.
I'm running LR 2.' on both sides of my MB Pro (Vista & Tiger) and have one common catalog that I keep on an external (Fat 32) drive. My images are on a NAS that both OS's can reach (I'm OK with the speed hit for the sake of the convenience). The only issue I had was keeping my templates available on both sides (when I started, I wasn't keeping them in the catalog). For galleries (LRG, for example), I'm keeping them on the external drive and pointing an alias / shortcut from both OS's to it. Works well.
Regarding transferring licenses between OS's, when I converted one of my licenses from PC to Mac, Adobe was helpful, but it took two calls to find someone that would do it. Also, they insisted on shipping physical media for some crazy reason instead of just providing a new serial number.
DonRicklin
Senior Member
Welcome, Nice additions to the discussion.
However, for Lightroom One serial number works for two (not used at the same time) installations, that can be cross platform, unlike other Adobe products, so I hope the extra disk and number was for Photoshop, or some other such App!
Don
However, for Lightroom One serial number works for two (not used at the same time) installations, that can be cross platform, unlike other Adobe products, so I hope the extra disk and number was for Photoshop, or some other such App!
Don
Victoria Bampton
Lightroom Queen
Staff member
Administrator
Premium Classic Member
Premium Cloud Member
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2007
- Messages
- 25,406
- Location
- Isle of Wight, UK
- Lightroom Experience
- Power User
- Lightroom Version
- Cloud Service
Hi Pete & Rick, welcome to the forum to both of you!
I regularly transfer back and forth between platforms and it works sooooo smoothly! One tip - you may have to relink files, so make sure you've got your folders panel showing a hierarchy before you switch. If you do a search on hierarchy, you'll find lots of instructions for 1.x and 2.' too.
Pete, yeah, I'd go the Mac Pro route without question.
I regularly transfer back and forth between platforms and it works sooooo smoothly! One tip - you may have to relink files, so make sure you've got your folders panel showing a hierarchy before you switch. If you do a search on hierarchy, you'll find lots of instructions for 1.x and 2.' too.
Pete, yeah, I'd go the Mac Pro route without question.
>>Pete, yeah, I'd go the Mac Pro route without question.
I'm actually leaning more in that direction especially with 64 bit drivers and software becoming more common. Not thrilled from what I've seen of the Imac glossy screen either. Just need to do a little more negotiating on the domestic front!
I'm actually leaning more in that direction especially with 64 bit drivers and software becoming more common. Not thrilled from what I've seen of the Imac glossy screen either. Just need to do a little more negotiating on the domestic front!
Gene McCullagh
Active Member
The problem for me is that when I phoned Adobe to switch my PSCS2 from Windows to Mac, they said "sorry, we cannot do that. But if you upgrade, then you can cross-upgrade".
Adobe will only do the switch platform thing for the current version. If you have CS3 you could probably still get them to do it before the actual ship date on CS4 but they probably will push CS4 at this point.
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2007
- Messages
- 3,116
- Location
- St-Hubert, Québec, CANADA
- Lightroom Experience
- Power User
- Lightroom Version
- Classic
This is what I taught. I am still CS2...Adobe will only do the switch platform thing for the current version. If you have CS3 you could probably still get them to do it before the actual ship date on CS4 but they probably will push CS4 at this point.
But for home use, I am considering Photoshop Elements for Mac. But the documentation on how it integrates with Lightroom is close to nonexitent!
The only function I need it for is to stitch panoramas from Lightroom. Do someone know if the current Mac PSE version can do that as an external editor for Lightroom?
Adobe will only do the switch platform thing for the current version. If you have CS3 you could probably still get them to do it before the actual ship date on CS4 but they probably will push CS4 at this point.
Push they did but I pushed back so am getting CS3. Cost is 6.95 for shipping! I too have considered PE as an option where LR is getting more and more features, but, need to find out a lot more about PE before such a radical move.
- Status
