The newest Mac operating system, macOS 26 Tahoe, is now live. The big question is, will Lightroom and Lightroom Classic work on it?
It’s a good question, as the last thing anyone wants is to update their Operating System only to find critical apps either don’t work or don’t work properly.
The short answer is – it’s too early to be sure and Adobe don’t list it as compatible yet. We are not aware of any known issues, but it won’t be officially supported until the next update. Remember, Adobe Max is just next month which usually brings Lightroom updates.
We’re also awaiting feedback on the compatibility of peripherals. Again, see our notes on these at the end of this post – we’ll update as fixes or new drivers are available.
Lightroom Classic
- We’ll update if issues are discovered.
Lightroom Desktop (the cloud-based version)
- We’ll update if issues are discovered.
Other peripherals or software to check
- Wacom Tablet – a new driver was released mid-October for compatibility. The link has full instructions on installation.
- Lightroom Classic Plugins and External Editors.
- Editing device drivers (Shuttle Pro, for example).
- Printer drivers.
- Scanner drivers.
- Backup software compatibility.
We’ll leave the blog comments open for you to share your experiences, and as we gather more feedback, we’ll continue to update this post.
For extensive information on Lightroom Classic, see Adobe Lightroom Classic – The Missing FAQ.
Note: purchase of these books includes the first year’s Classic or cloud-based Premium Membership (depending on the book purchased), giving access to download the latest eBook (each time Adobe updates the software), email assistance for the applicable Lightroom version if you hit a problem, and other bonuses.
We also have a special bundle offer for the two books. This includes Premium Membership for the first year as described above for the whole Lightroom family!
For extensive information on Lightroom Cloud Ecosystem, see Adobe Lightroom – Edit on the Go.
Note: purchase of this book includes the first year’s cloud-based Premium Membership, giving access to download the latest eBook (each time Adobe updates the software), email assistance for the cloud-based Lightroom apps if you hit a problem, and other bonuses.
Keywording not working. Existing keywords still there but only accessible via metadata pane and metadata ‘Library Filter’. Can’t create new keywords, can’t edit existing keywords to nor assign them to additional images.
Tried resetting parameters without effect.
So are the Keywording panel and Keyword List panel visible? With nothing in them? I’m wondering if the Helper.lrdata file is corrupted… no harm in deleting that while LR is closed, it’s just a performance cache that would get rebuilt.
The LR Classic app iPhotos library import plug-in does not recognize the default iPhotos library on Tahoe (26.0.1). Selecting the library results in “Your selection does not appear to be an iPhoto library. (The importer plug-in expects version 9.5.1 or newer).
Yes, that’s been true for years, ever since Apple replaced iPhoto with Photos app. The Lightroom Classic plug-in only works with the “old” iPhoto libraries. The other app just called Lightroom can import the newer Photos app libraries, and could then sync it down into Classic for you.
Thanks for the clarification. I see that option in Lightroom CC and will give it a shot. Classic has not given me any issues on Tahoe.
I updated to Tahoe on the day of its release. Mac Mini M4 with the latest version of LrC and PS. All is working well. I don’t use any peripherals or really old 3rd party apps.
Brave man! I’ve done my laptop as it’s fairly low risk, but my desktop will wait until after Adobe Max.
I’m comfortable with waiting because the issues that I’ve seen following major MacOS upgrades in the past are, to me, a very significant barometer to watch and a convincing reason to exercise significant caution. However, I’m still miffed how Adobe and Apple don’t work more closely during the OS development phase. Does Apple just ignore all application developers until after the OS release?
Application developers can access prerelease builds, and Adobe uses those to start testing long before the new OS is released, but a lot can change even in the last few weeks before release. It’s like trying to code for a moving target. I have the same trouble trying to write documentation for Lightroom, where it keeps changing until very close to release, but I’m doing it on a much smaller scale, so I can pivot more easily than a big company like Adobe can.
Like you, I wait a month or two before I upgrade my desktop operating system. Drivers for devices like my Wacom often have the biggest incompatibilities that would cause me big problems.
I’m on Tahoe with the latest release of Lightroom Classic (14.5.1). I keep getting a crash report window indicating that Lightroom crashed, however, it’s still running. I suspect it’s a background process like sync, writing XMP, generating previews in the background, etc. While I wait for Adobe to complete testing and updates, I’m going to try disabling the functions that run in the background (at least, those I can control) one by one. I’ll report back what I find.
Interesting, thanks for sharing. Yes, do keep us updated please.
After working through Lightroom’s background processes and my installed plugins one by one, it appears John Ellis’ Any Source plugin is involved. I’ve already sent him the details so hopefully he can find out what’s going on.
Since the problem I’m encountering is a segmentation fault, it’s likely either macOS or Lightroom. Plugins can’t fail that way, but there may be something that happens that triggers the bug. Poor John now has to prove to Adobe (and possibly Apple) that there is a problem to be fixed. Hopefully, he won’t have too much trouble and maybe it’s something Adobe will address as they work through compatibility with Tahoe.
BTW, the plugin’s Build Previews in Background feature is what triggers the issue, so disabling that avoids the problem for now. I’m leaving it on to help John troubleshoot.
That’s a good bit of detective work, well done. John’s well respected at Adobe, so I’m sure he’ll be able to figure it out.
I’m having severe memory leaks/usage with LrC on Tahoe. It’s freezing rapidly when using up to 64GB of memory. The catalogue only contain 750 RAW files.
Yikes, that’s a nasty one! Make sure you report it to Adobe so they can check with you for any extra info they need.