Lightroom 5 to Lightroom Classic with OS Monterey on Macbook Air M2

[parisadele]

Hello,

I have Lightroom 5 (the original purchased version) and have recently upgraded to a Macbook Air M2 running OS Monterey. My old macbook air was running High Sierra where Lightroom 5 was still operating.

I paid someone to transfer my data from the old Macbook Air to the Macbook Air M2 and he said there is a possibility that Lightroom 5 will not operate on the new Macbook Air. He said that when I do launch Lightroom,  Apple will ask me if I want to download 'Rosetta' and that will sort things and to then update to Lightroom Classic.

I store my images on an external hard drive but the catalogues are on my laptop.

I am terrified to launch Lightroom and trust this process. Has anyone done this or know if this process will work?

Thank you.

[Rob_Cullen]

You do not need Lightroom-5 on the new Mac!  (You cannot install it anyway!)

All you need is-

1) Your working Catalog file (Lightroom Catalog.LRCAT)  COPIED to the new system.

2) Lightroom-Classic installed (from the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop App)

3) Your photo files on the external Drive, connected.

4) Any Plugins, etc you might use: Copied from the old system.

Move Lightroom to a new computer? | The Lightroom Queen

To Open your Catalog: [Double-Click] on the Catalog name in Finder.

LrC will ask you to allow an upgraded copy of your catalog- Answer YES.  AND in the upgrade dialog give your Catalog a new name (if you don't like the default.).

If the upgraded catalog cannot find your images (marked as Missing) follow instructions here-

MISSING FILES & FOLDERS (Lightroom Queen)

[parisadele]

Thank you so much Rob for your fast and articulate response. If you don't mind me asking another question please?

The Lightroom 5 widget is on my dock, the IT guy already moved everything over to the new mac. I found the file Lightroom Catalog.lrcat in finder. Presumably it is better to upgrade using that?

Will the current Lightroom 5 Widget update after the process you suggested or do I delete that to allow space for the new Lightroom Classic?

Apologies if my questions sound stupid but I am terrified of losing everything. Thank you once again for your fast response. I really appreciate it. I am almost breathing again.

Adele

[dj_paige]

You do not need Lightroom 5 installed on the M2. Lightroom Classic is all you need. Make sure LrC is installed, then open it and select your old Lightroom 5 catalog via the menu command File->Open Catalog. You can remove the Lightroom 5 icon/software.

[JohanElzenga]

"Will the current Lightroom 5 Widget update after the process you suggested or do I delete that to allow space for the new Lightroom Classic?"

There is no such thing as a 'widget' in your dock. It is an icon that links to the old Lightroom 5 application. You can remove it, because it won't update when you install Lightroom Classic.

[TheDigitalDog]

On your dock, click on the icon (what you call a 'widget') drag it up and let go to remove it. You simply can't install LR5 on that newer M1 machine. As others have said, you need to update to a modern version of LR that will install on that newer hardware. 

[Rob_Cullen]

Hi Adele, the other three learned people have given answers suitable to your question.

An analogy:  Think of Lightroom Catalogs like Word Documents- When you upgrade MS-Word you can continue to open old 'word' documents in the upgraded version of the App.  Likewise 'old' versions of the Catalog can be upgraded to work with newer versions of the Lightroom-Classic app.

You can safely delete Lightroom-5 and its Dock icon from your system now that you have upgraded to Lightroom-Classic.

The CATALOG and your PHOTO FILES are the essential items with any App upgrade.

[parisadele]

Hi Rob (and everyone else),

thank you for your responses. It has taken me so long to respond because I was nervous about the process.

However, I did it today and something hasn't seemed to work.

I followed your instructions, pressed 'allow' for each prompt. The Lightroom Classic is now on ( think) but it appears as a fresh account and the catalogues are not sitting in the new application but still in LR5.

When I clicked on Lightroom Catalog.lrcat it pulled up the old LR5 Version asked me if I wanted to update but it still seems to be sitting in LR5 and not transferred to LR Classic. LR Classic is sitting there as a fresh account asking me to add photos.

Also despite selecting Lightroom Classic, I have a feeling that I have instead subscribed to the other one, my receipt doesn't specify LR Classic nor does the 'about' tab.

Probably first I need to ensure that I have purchased the LR Classic 

[parisadele]

please ignore this, turns out I subscribed to the incorrect plan