Can't install classic in Parallels on mac

[Alexander30733174d3es]

Hi all,

I'm trying to install lightroom classic in parallels (Windows 11) on my macbook pro (M2).  However, creative cloud doesn't give the option to install classic - just lightroom cloud.  Any thoughts?

Many thanks,

Allie

[Peter_Linz]

Why do you want to install it on Windows 11 partition and not use the Mac verson of LrC?

[Alexander30733174d3es]

well, that doesn't address the question (which is a common issue on forums like this).  To satisfy your curiosity, I sync my pics and library across mac & pc platforms, and the way that mac & pc's differ in their path specifications makes it impossible to use mac & pc installations of lightroom classic with a sync'd library.

[JohanElzenga]

well, that doesn't address the question (which is a common issue on forums like this).  To satisfy your curiosity, I sync my pics and library across mac & pc platforms, and the way that mac & pc's differ in their path specifications makes it impossible to use mac & pc installations of lightroom classic with a sync'd library.

By @Alexander30733174d3es

Actually, it is possible, so it's good that somebody was so curious to ask you why you wanted to do this. Normally, Lightroom Classic uses an absolute path to the images, and you are right that these paths differ on Mac and Windows because of the difference in disk names (Mac) versus drive letters (Windows). There is a solution however. If you store the images in a folder (or folder hierarchy) that is inside your catalog folder, then Lightroom Classic will use relative paths (paths that start at the catalog folder rather than the disk). That means that the paths are identical for Windows and Mac.

[Alexander30733174d3es]

Thanks Johan - cool trick.  One concern with that is, what happens when the catalog gets upgraded?  I wish Adobe would enable the use of base and relative paths as a configuration...  Any idea if this is on their feature dev list?

[JohanElzenga · Accepted solution]

Thanks Johan - cool trick.  One concern with that is, what happens when the catalog gets upgraded?  I wish Adobe would enable the use of base and relative paths as a configuration...  Any idea if this is on their feature dev list?

By @Alexander30733174d3es

A catalog upgrade is like a catalog upgrade of a 'normal' setup. The upgraded catalog will still be located in the same catalog folder, so nothing special happens. It will be like any other catalog upgrade. The only thing of course is that you would upgrade the catalog on one computer, and then on the other computer (after sync) you must make sure that Lightroom opens this upgraded catalog, and not upgrades the old catalog again.

[Alexander30733174d3es]

So, can you be specific about what you mean by the 'catalog folder'?  Is this the folder that contains the various .lrcat files, and not the subfolders that contain the cache, etc?

[JohanElzenga · Accepted solution]

So, can you be specific about what you mean by the 'catalog folder'?  Is this the folder that contains the various .lrcat files, and not the subfolders that contain the cache, etc?

By @Alexander30733174d3es

The catalog folder is the folder that contains the catalog file (.lrcat) and the other stuff like the previews, smart previews (if you use these), etc. So what you would have to do is place the image folder hierarchy inside that folder too.

[richardplondon]

To lay this out in full, say you have a disk location and this contains not only the Catalog (and its accompanying, similar named support folders), but also a subfolder containing your hierarchy of image folders. In this case that subfolder and by extension, the images inside do not need any navigation path to reach, when starting out from the location of the Catalog. It is "right there". 

When as part of a software version upgrade a new, differently named Catalog is later created - with its own, new support folders alongside - provided the disk location for all of this is no different, then from the viewpoint of this new Catalog, that same image-containing subfolder is equally "right there".

In due course you might clean out that older Catalog with its own support folders, while leaving the newer setup in place.

As for "cache": the Library module previews, Smart Previews, AI masks that a given Catalog creates for its own use, are looked for in support folders directly alongside that Catalog. These support folders are named to specifically match the name of that Catalog. A differently named Catalog would be looking for its own (differently named) support folders: so it will not matter if all this happens in the same folder. The naming scheme keeps everything distinct and properly associated.

Another kind of "cache" is the ACR cache whicn is used in the course of (live) Raw conversion - that is separately held and managed centrally: it is not Catalog specific.

[Lumigraphics]

My current catalog has about 350,000 files across four external hard drives (all of which are full, I'm going to add another drive soon.). I would need a large-capacity Thunderbolt RAID to put everything on one logical drive. So, while this might be a nice idea, for some of us it is unworkable.

[Conrad C]

(Edit: Try the advice of johnrellis in his later posts below…it sounds like he has actually done this, and I have not. I have only seen the Adobe documents linked below.)

I think the problem may be that on an Apple Silicon Mac, Parallels Desktop can run only the version of Windows 11 for ARM processors (which Apple Silicon is based on). The version of Windows 11 for Intel x86 processors is what the majority of Windows applications support; many Windows applications do not yet run on Windows 11 for ARM. But running the Intel version of Windows 11 in Mac Parallels requires an Intel Mac.

There is an Adobe help article about support for Windows on ARM processors:

Will Adobe apps work on Windows computers that use ARM processors?

It says:

Lightroom (version 4.1 and later) and Photoshop (version 22.4 and later) run natively on Windows computers that use ARM processors. We are testing and optimizing other apps for these new processors.

This is one of those times where the exact naming of Lightroom is important. They’re saying Lightroom…not Lightroom Classic. That probably explains why you saw Lightroom in the installer and not Lightroom Classic, because Adobe is saying that at this time, only Lightroom (not Classic) and Photoshop are currently supported in Windows for ARM processors. I have seen Lightroom Classic running in a Windows virtual machine, but it was on an Intel Mac, not Apple Silicon.

In the last line of that quote, Adobe says they’re working on adding Windows ARM support to more Creative Cloud applications. If you want Adobe to make Windows ARM support for Lightroom Classic a higher priority, you can post a feature request in the Ideas section of this community where it can be upvoted, but you might want to check in case someone else already started that and vote up that one.

Also, just FYI, Adobe does not offer full support for running Creative Cloud applications on virtual machines. If it works, great, but if it doesn’t, you’re on your own.

Technical support boundaries for virtualized or server-based environments

[johnrellis]

[This post contains formatting and embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser.]

I believe that Adobe officially supports Lightroom Classic (Intel) in a Windows 11 (ARM) guest on a Parallels / Apple Silicon host.

I have run Lightroom Classic that way for a couple years.  (Currently LR 13.1 / Windows 11  Pro Version 10.0.22621 Build 22621 / Mac OS 14.2.1 / Parallels 19.2.1 / Macbook Pro Apple M2 Max 16" 2023.) It's essential for developing my plugins and helping people here.

The Creative Cloud desktop app installs the Intel version of Lightroom Classic and the ARM version of Lightroom:

I believe this is officially supported by Adobe. There was a problem installing LR 12.3 in Windows / Parallels, and Adobe employee Rikk Flohr filed a "high-priority bug" report:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-win-arm-only-install-fails-in-ccd-app-when-i... 

It was fixed 10 days later.

[johnrellis]

Some troubleshooting steps:

1. Make sure you have the latest version of Parallels (19.2.1) and Mac OS (14.2.1).

2. Run Windows Update.

3. Install the x86 and x64 versions of the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/creative-cloud-and-lightroom-classic-in... 

(This may not be the cause of your current problem. but they need to be installed for LR Intel to run. So rule this out by installing them.)

4. After getting everything up-to-date, run the Creative Cloud Cleaner tool to purge the Windows 11 guest of all traces of Creative Cloud apps. Reinstall the Creative Cloud desktop app and try again.

[Alexander30733174d3es]

Thanks John, much appreciated.  I just don't see the option for installing LR Classic on my M2 Max 16" 2023 with 14.2.1 and Parallels Pro 19.2.1 (Win 11 Education is updated).  I'll follow the C++ and cleaner steps to see if that resolves it.

[Alexander30733174d3es]

Confirmed - after C++ and cleaner, still not offered to install LR Classic.

[johnrellis]

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"Confirmed - after C++ and cleaner, still not offered to install LR Classic."

I tested a virgin Windows 11 guest / Apple Silicon host, downloading the Creative Cloud desktop app. It offered the option of installing Lightroom Classic, which I was able to do.

Double-check you've selected All Apps > Desktop:

[Victoria Bampton - PR acc]

If it makes you feel any better @Alexander30733174d3es, I can't get it to show up either! I'm on an older Parallels version and an M1 Mac, I might try a trial of 19 tomorrow to see if I can get it running. If you figured it out, I'm all ears.

[WHO?!?]

Same on my newly arrived surface pro 11.. misread the native arm support for lightroom thinking it was classic, not that pos cloud version.. 

The annoying part is that there is emulation available.. but Adobe won't let me install a x86 version.. come on.. should've been on the forefront with this..

[johnrellis]

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I retested again six months later, and I'm still able to install the Creative Cloud app and Lightroom Classic on Windows 11 (ARM), run in a Parallels virtual machine hosted on an Apple Silicon (ARM) Mac.  It warns me that it's installing the Intel version of LR Classic:

I've been running LR Classic (Intel) on Windows 11 (ARM) for over a year without issue -- I rely on it for testing my plugins and helping people here.  Last year, there was a problem installing LR Classic (Intel) on Windows 11 (ARM), and Adobe acknowledged it and fixed the problem very quickly.

So it must be some minor glitch that's preventing LR Classic from running on a Surface Pro (ARM) -- frustrating.

[Sunny UK]

I've been banging my head against this particular brick wall for 20 hours near non-stop over the weekend. There are a number of people on reddit who sees what @johnrellis is seeing. There are also a number of people who sees what @Alexander30733174d3es , @Victoria Bampton - PR acc  and @WHO?!?  sees. Unfortunately (for me), I am in the same group.

I asked people on reddit where they live. The common denominator seemed to be that people in the US sees what @johnrellis sees and can download and run an intel version on Windows-on-ARM, whereas people in the UK (and possibly the rest of Europe) cannot.

[Sunny UK]

I spoke with Adobe support today, and the helpful agent gave me this response:

As of now from all the information I gathered, Lightroom classic is not available for ARM based machines. Currently LrC is available on winarm only in simulated mode in NA regions.

I'd advise you to please fil this Adobe Wish Form so that our team can review it and work on it accordingly.

https://www.adobe.com/products/wishform.html

So although the form appears to just pass you onto this very same forum, I would suggest that anyone outside North America who would like to run Lightroom Classic on an ARM based machine fills logs a request to remove the "if region = NA" from Adobe's logic for determining whether Lightroom Classic should be installable via Creative Cloud.

The fact that there was a problem last year installing LR Classic (Intel) on Windows 11 (ARM), and Adobe acknowledged it and fixed the problem very quickly shows that it is a very small change to amend that if statement.