Will 6.14 work on MacOS 10.15 (Catalina)?

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process

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I'm on a Mac Pro (mid-2010) still running MacOS 10.14 (Mojave) for reasons of compatibility with old software (requiring costly upgrades (or monthly payment plans) to work with newer OS versions whereas I'm perfectly happy with their current functionality and don't use them often enough to justify the added costs, or software that simply doesn't exist in 64-bit versions). I also have a MacBook Pro (mid-2012) which too runs MacOS 10.14.
Both computers have Lightroom 6.14 installed (the latest perpetual version as far as I've been told) and work fine.

However I'm considering looking into upgrading at least one of the Macs to 10.15 (Catalina) but am struggling to find out how that will affect Lightroom. There are lots of assumptions and opinions on the matter but very little facts to find online, but I understand that while Lightroom 6.14 is indeed a 64-bit application, its installer is still 32-bit. So does this mean that as long as I already have Lightroom 6.14 installed on a 32-bit OS (MacOS 10.14 being the final OS to run 32-bit apps) it's just a matter of upgrading the OS to 10.15 and it'll work fine, just as before?

I've kept all the older installers throughout the years along with my upgrade licenses (I read somewhere that Adobe no longer has working download links for people to download 6.14 etc.) just in case I do need to reinstall. But in case I do upgrade to MacOS 10.15 and at some stage need to reinstall Lightroom 6.14, do I need to do that within MacOS 10.14 (or earlier), then copy the (now freshly installed) Lightroom app over to the MacOS 10.15 drive's application folder? I suppose there are some support files/folders to be transferred over as well, and saw there were some workaround for all this in one of the forum discussions, but alas the link for this no longer worked.

Failing all this (i.e. Lightroom 6.14 won't work in MacOS 10.15), would Lightroom 6.14 work in a virtual environment within MacOS 10.15 (using software such as Parallells, VMware Fusion etc.) or would I have to look for another app to replace Lightroom in its entirety (if I don't want to go for the Adobe subscription based model)?
Fortunately I've organized most of my photos within a folder structure, with this kind of scenario in mind, which I assume would make a move to another software easier than relying on Collections).
 
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If I have the version history correct. MacOS 10.15 is a 64bit only OS That means that all apps need to be 64 bit. While the Lightroom v6.14 is 64 bit, the installer app was 32 bit. If you upgrade the computer to MacOS 10.15, then the 64 bit apps already installed will continue to run without issue. You should be fine. However if you want to reinstall Lightroom 6.14 from scratch, then the installer app will not run .

If your other old software that keeps you from upgrading is 32 bit, then these 32bit apps will not run on that OS.
 
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Thanks for confirming.
Are there any MacOS 10.15 Catalina users here who can confirm that Lightroom 6.14 perpetual will actually continue to function as before?

I found something interesting using the free Go64 app (it checks your Mac for any 32-bit apps).
It does indeed tell me that the installer is 32-bit, but while the Lightroom app itself is 64-bit it still contains some 32-bit components:
lr614_1.png

lr614_2.png


So three internal components are 32-bit:

The Canon tether plugin:
/Applications/Adobe Lightroom/Adobe Lightroom.app/Contents/PlugIns/tether-canon-plugin.lrplugin/Contents/PlugIns/tether-canon.app/
which also contains something called the DPP framework
(/Applications/Adobe Lightroom/Adobe Lightroom.app/Contents/PlugIns/tether-canon-plugin.lrplugin/Contents/PlugIns/tether-canon.app/Contents/Frameworks/DPP.framework/Versions/A/DPP)

The dynamic link manager:
/Applications/Adobe Lightroom/Adobe Lightroom.app/Contents/Helpers/DynamicLinkSupport/support/common/dynamiclink/dynamiclinkmanager.app/

The Leica tether plugin
/Applications/Adobe Lightroom/Adobe Lightroom.app/Contents/PlugIns/tether-leica-plugin.lrplugin/Contents/PlugIns/tether-leica.app/

Although I can live without it, I've found the Canon tether app useful in the past -is this likely a 3rd party plugin from Canon which can likely be replaced with a newer 64-bit version?
How about the dynamic link manager? What's that for, and can it be replaced with a 64-bit version if it's essential to making Lightroom work under MacOS 10.15?

If anyone's wondering how I found those files I simply right-clicked on the Lightroom 6.14 app (in the /Applications/ folder), then selected "Show package contents":
lr614_3.png


This allowed me to go to its /contents/plugins/ folder which looked like this:
lr614_4.png



Regarding re-installation of Lightroom 6.14 within MacOS 10.15...
If at some stage (i.e. a hard drive crash) I would need to reinstall it, would it suffice to say boot the Mac into an older MacOS version (10.14 or earlier) compatible with the 32-bit installer, install it on that drive, then copy the app and support-files over to the MacOS 10.15 drive? Or would Lightroom complain that it's not a legit copy?
 
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process said:
Thanks for confirming.
...
Regarding re-installation of Lightroom 6.14 within MacOS 10.15...
If at some stage (i.e. a hard drive crash) I would need to reinstall it, would it suffice to say boot the Mac into an older MacOS version (10.14 or earlier) compatible with the 32-bit installer, install it on that drive, then copy the app and support-files over to the MacOS 10.15 drive? Or would Lightroom complain that it's not a legit copy?
Click to expand...
The issue then becomes one of re-registering the 6.14 app. Adobe has retired the registration servers for LR6.14. I believe you can contact Adobe and get your reinstalled app registered as long as you have the original registration key and the 6.14 upgrade key (if 6.14 was an upgrade from an earlier version of LR.
 
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I understand.
In that case it might be an idea to clone the entire drive and save it as a disk image. So if the drive does go bad at some stage it'll be a matter of restoring the backup, then add everything else (unrelated files, documents etc.).

Yes, I do have the original 6.14 key and keys for all previous versions I had before that, so hopefully Adobe will be able to help with any licensing issues, even though this particulr product is no longer supported.
 
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I think it is really a dead end road now. There used to be an offline registration procedure, but the links to that in the Adobe Community forums are dead now as well, so it seems Adobe really does not want to be involved in this kind of zombie process anymore.
 
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So, if I understand all this correctly:
Lightroom 6.14 which has already been installed/working will continue working indefinitely.
But if I ever need to reinstall it (i.e. because of a hard drive crash etc.) I'm doomed (regardless of which MacOS version I'm using) because the installation is reliant on Adobe servers (or manual activation via Adobe customer service) which is no longer available?
This regardless of myself having all activation codes (both the first purchase and all subsequent upgrades thereafter).
And it's not possible to copy all Lightroom related files over to a different drive or computer to continue using it there?

If the above is indeed the case, are there any solutions to safeguard my access to Lightroom 6?
Cloning the current drive which contains a working Lightroom 6.14 is only an idea I had. I haven't actually tried it out, so it would be nice to hear from anyone who's actually succeeded doing this.
 
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process said:
So, if I understand all this correctly:
Lightroom 6.14 which has already been installed/working will continue working indefinitely.
But if I ever need to reinstall it (i.e. because of a hard drive crash etc.) I'm doomed (regardless of which MacOS version I'm using) because the installation is reliant on Adobe servers (or manual activation via Adobe customer service) which is no longer available?
This regardless of myself having all activation codes (both the first purchase and all subsequent upgrades thereafter).
And it's not possible to copy all Lightroom related files over to a different drive or computer to continue using it there?

If the above is indeed the case, are there any solutions to safeguard my access to Lightroom 6?
Cloning the current drive which contains a working Lightroom 6.14 is only an idea I had. I haven't actually tried it out, so it would be nice to hear from anyone who's actually succeeded doing this.
Click to expand...
Your earlier suggestion to clone the drive might work. When duly registered Adobe places a special file "somewhere" in the filesystem. No one to my knowledge has ever identified the location of the registration information. If it exists on the cloned drive then you have everything. It is this registration key that you need to make the registration valid.
 
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process said:
And it's not possible to copy all Lightroom related files over to a different drive or computer to continue using it there?
Click to expand...
That is very unlikely, because that would mean that it would have been trivial to use Lightroom 6 on an unlicensed computer all the time.

process said:
Cloning the current drive which contains a working Lightroom 6.14 is only an idea I had.
Click to expand...
Maybe, but still not too likely, because that drive would be recognized as different, meaning it’s not exactly the same computer that licensed Lightroom.
 
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Johan Elzenga said:
That is very unlikely, because that would mean that it would have been trivial to use Lightroom 6 on an unlicensed computer all the time.
Click to expand...

I see what you mean. Yes, that would have been quite trivial for people to do.


Johan Elzenga said:
Maybe, but still not too likely, because that drive would be recognized as different, meaning it’s not exactly the same computer that licensed Lightroom.
Click to expand...

You mean stuff like the drive size, volume name, motherboard serial number/tech specs (if changing to another computer) and so on?
Because otherwise a clone (using Carbon Copy Cloner or Superduper for instance) should be 100% identical to the source.

So is the conclusion that using Lightroom (perpetual version) today is like sitting on a leaking and slowly sinking ship?
An already installed and working Lightroom setup will continue just as long as the computer (and its hard-drive/SSD) functions, but if it starts acting up there's no way to reinstall it, regardless of having legally bought it and having kept all the purchase and upgrade license codes?
 
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process said:
So is the conclusion that using Lightroom (perpetual version) today is like sitting on a leaking and slowly sinking ship?
Click to expand...
I'm sure there are still DOS apps that do the same job today (if you could find an operating system that would run them.) LR6 is like that. At some point it will cease to work for many of the reasons you mention.

Many of the major developer companies have adopted the subscription model: Microsoft, Topaz, On1, are examples. Though some still offer a perpetual license, that will always come with the same limitations that you have encountered with LR6
 
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process said:
You mean stuff like the drive size, volume name, motherboard serial number/tech specs (if changing to another computer) and so on?
Click to expand...
Yes. In those days it was not uncommon that you needed to register again due to a very small change in your computer, so a different drive -even if the content of that drive would be a clone of the original drive- could be enough for that.
 
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process said:
So is the conclusion that using Lightroom (perpetual version) today is like sitting on a leaking and slowly sinking ship?
Click to expand...
I would concur with that statement. Even if you do get it to run on a new computer, it would be a matter of time before some new problem would break it again.
 
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