Which OSX version (10.10-10.14) best for LR 6?

Status
Not open for further replies.
P

process

Active Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2013
Messages
231
Lightroom Experience
Intermediate
Lightroom Version
6.x
Lightroom Version Number
Lightroom 6.7, Mac OSX 10.9.5 Mavericks
Operating System
  1. Other (please note in thread)
Which Mac OSX version from 10.10 (Yosemite) up to 10.14 (Mojave) works best with LR 6?
I'm quite happy with OSX 10.9 (Mavericks) but due to some added hardware I need to upgrade to 10.10 or higher. I also need to consider which OSX version will still let me run Photoshop CS4, but that's another discussion, but something to take into consideration.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
At some point, your Mac OS version will become obsolete due to hardware or software changes that you make. LR 6.14 will apparently run on Catalina although the 32bit installer will not. I would recommend upgrading to Catalina (MacOS 10.15.2). The dot 2 release is stable now and I see no reason not to use it.

The Catalina OS will be the last OS in your list to be obsoleted by technological improvements,
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Personally I'd suggest Mojave, as if you hit any issues with Lr6 you can reinstall on that - Catalina you can't.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
For Lr6, I'd go with Mojave too. CS4 will suffer the same problems as LR6 on Catalina. . But note that CS4 was released long before Mojave, so you may have to google for ways to get that working too. 10.12 Sierra is a safer bet for CS4, and would be ok for Lightroom.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thanks for your suggestions.
I should have mentioned that I found out 10.14 Mojave won't work on my Mac Pro as I don't have a "metal" compatible graphic card (mine is the standard ATI 5870) so that's out of the question.

Several people have recommended 10.11 El Capitan for the best performance/hardware ratio, so right now I'm busy installing various OSX versions on different SSD parttitions so I can try them out (not an easy task as Apple has made it quite restrictive and tricky to install OSX on any partition you like).

Anyway, is the understanding that Lightroom 6.x will work on any of those OSX versions (10.10 and onwards)?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
That's correct, Lr6 will run on El Capitan. Metal support - the only relevance of that is for Graphics Acceleration, Lr simply doesn't use it if Metal isn't supported. Doesn't mean it doesn't run. However, CS4 is probably the bigger decider, as Victoria mentioned.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
If a Metal compatible graphic card isn't found -does that mean that the available GPU isn't used at all? I have an ATI 5870 in my Mac Pro (mid-2010) and Intel HD 4000 in my Macbook Pro (mid-2012).

I found that I had already downloaded the various 6.x updates up to 6.13 a while back, but read in this forum that the final 6.x update is 6.14 which I can't find anywhere (there was a thread about it somewhere here (can't find it now) with a download link to Adobe by Victoria, but it no longer works. Apparently Adobe has pulled for some unknown reason (after all it's no threat to their rental system as only existing 6.x license users can take advantage of it).

Does anyone know of a download source for it, and is there an overview of the system requirements for the various 6.x versions (so I can find the final LR version compatible with the OSX version I decide to upgrade to)?
All I've been able to find is a feature summary of LR 6.x releases, but with no system requirement specs.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Contact adobe Support and they will assist with the download of 6.14 (yes, they pulled the link)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thanks Paul for the suggestion, and I now have the updaters (or full installers, I'm not sure which, but the person I was in touch with confirmed it was version 6.14 (Lightroom_6_LS11.dmg (1.27 GB) for the Mac platform and Lightroom_6_LS11.exe (1.19 GB) for Windows).
In case others reading are wondering how to get the 6.14 updaters/installers, this is what you do:

1) log into your Adobe account (I had to create an account with them in the first place, when I bought a Lightroom license online).
Just go to Adobe.com and click on "Log in" at the upper right hand corner.

2) once logged in, click on your user-name, then "Adobe account"

3) on the right hand side there's a colum entitled "Useful resources". Click on "Contact Adobe" and a chat window will pop up

4) I just told them I had a 6.x license and wanted to upgrade to the latest version (6.14). I was asked Mac or Windows and was presented a download link (I asked for both in case I ever transition to a PC, and since I received links to both platform versions when I purchased the license). I wasn't asked for the license numbers, but it's found in the "Register a product" section of your Adobe account.

Does anyone have the system requirements for 6.14 and the other 6.x versions? Seems like Adobe have pulled everything related to the perpetual versions from their site.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Upvote 0 Downvote
LOL! Such timing!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thanks to both of you!

It was a little unclear at first, but having read through the fine print as well, this is what I understand (regarding the Mac platform), just in case others are wondering about the same:

LR 6.1 (or earlier) -OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion
LR 6.6.1 (or earlier) -OSX 10.9 Mavericks
LR 6.12 (or earlier) -OSX 10.10 Yosemite

I suppose the rest of the specs ("Lightroom 6.x system requirements") applies to anything beyond 6.12 (?):
OSX 10.11 El Capitan (or higher, which includes 10.12 Sierra and 10.13 High Sierra), but for added graphic processor support, these system requirements apply as well;
10.12 Sierra for AMD, Intel and NVIDIA "Metal" graphic processor support,
or: OSX 10.11 El Capitan for OpenGL support for NVIDIA graphic processors.

There's no mention of 10.14 Mojave support, even though the page says "last published: november 2019".

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that should sum it all up (for Mac users at least).
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
It's been a while, but I ended up choosing middle ground, ending up with MacOS 10.13.
As explained here, Photoshop 4 works fine within 10.13 just as long you install it within a previous OS version. And I purchased Affinity Photo, so the advanced editing part is sorted out :)
I've also upgraded my 4-core 2.8 GHz processor in my Mac Pro with a 6-core 3.46 GHz processor, so that should keep the machine running for a while!

As for 10.14 Mojave: that would mean buying a new graphic card, and from what I've read the Bluetooth in my Mac Pro will no longer work, and as far as I know it won't support 32-bit apps any longer, so all in all I see more disadvantages in that. You mileage may vary as they say ;)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
If your existing OS does for you what you need, there is no reason to upgrade to a higher OS, like HighSierra, Mojave or Catalina.
Sierra is the latest with HFS+ formatting of the inside disk, the rest is APFS when you have a SSD inside and HFS+ when you have a HDD inside.
Catalina is a "horrible" chain to Apple, and no 32bit apps.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
That's a good summary.
Luckily I tested out various OS versions on a separate SSD before commiting. I learnt that High Sierra 10.13 can actually be installed without converting the file format to APFS, so at my second attempt I did that. I had first decided to end upgrading at 10.12 (10.11 has flawed USB-3 support, which is bad because I've installed a USB-3 PCIe interface card for increased transfers from memory cards etc.) but since everything appeared to work as intended (once it was installed with HFS+) I decided to listen to those who have pointed out about newer security updates and the ability to download newer software if needed.

But if it wasn't for the iPad that I bought I wouldn't have to upgrade at all and would probably still stay at 10.9.5 (if it works don't fix it).
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top