Lightroom Classic on new M1 iPad Pro

[5150Code3]

I know it is not yet available but was wondering what the chances of running LC successfully on a new 16GB RAM M1 iPad Pro?

Thanks in advance.

[Jao vdL]

0%

On iPad you will only be able to run the cloud version of Lightroom made for iOS. To run Classic on a M1 you need a new M1 Mac.

[josephlavine]

The mobile devices are designed to work with Lightroom, the cloud-based version, and not Lightroom Classic.

warmly/

[Conrad C]

The current version of Lightroom Classic isn’t even designed for M1 Macs, it’s an Intel version that is only able to run on an M1 Mac through Rosetta translation.

Some fundamental technical aspects of applications like Lightroom Classic are simply not supported on iOS regardless of processor, and Apple does not provide any way to install macOS on an iPad. That’s why the only version that runs on iPad is cloud Lightroom (not Classic) on iPad OS. If anything changes about that, it will depend on Apple expanding what iOS supports. The soonest we might hear about that is if Apple announces sufficiently radical changes to iPad OS (or much less likely, iPad support for running macOS) at Apple WWDC on June 7.

Many people hope that Apple giving the iPad an M1 and up to 16GB RAM indicates some kind of big shift coming in what Apple will let an iPad do, but we won’t know what that is until WWDC.

[Davidstephenphoto]

It is now. 😜

[Conrad C]

Yes, and it is interesting to revisit this post months later. Lightroom Classic is now optimized for M1 Apple Silicon, but…in the many months since the M1 iPad Pro was released, Apple WWDC came and went, the release of iOS 15 came and went, and still, Apple has done nothing and announced nothing to make it possible to run Mac software on an M1 iPad Pro. All of the hopeful speculation for Mac software on M1 iPad Pro never came true. So we cannot expect, any time soon, to be able to run the Apple Silicon Mac version of Lightroom Classic on iPad OS without modification.

What’s left, is to wonder how likely it is that Adobe would completely rewrite Lightroom Classic for iPad OS. But that seems very unlikely for now, largely because of the ways that iPad OS does not support everything that macOS does. If Adobe tried to make Lightroom Classic for iPad OS today, under the limitations of iPad OS and the constraints of a touch UX, it would probably look and work at lot like the existing ground-up rewrite of Lightroom for iPad that they already did.

[Jamie25782681otal]

I know this post is old, but I'll add my two pennies worth, I considered buying a top of the range into iPad Pro, but it's simply not worth it. Apple are really missing so many sales because we don't see full-blown desktop applications. Running on it. My order, in Canadian dollars was over $4,000 but I've moved on because of this. I'm also now looking at Captain One.

[Lukasz29314659ckap]

Totally agree...I think it's a joke that you have such a powerful, advanced and portable machine like IPad Pro yet zero support for Pro apps. Got myself top of the line M2 and am amazed how fast is it and how well is it working yet at the same time completely dissapointed in lack of a proper app support...restricted Lightroom, Photoshop etc are useless...unfortunately will not keep it for long because of that very reason.

[Ian Lyons]

What is missing from the iPad version of Lightroom that makes you write that it 'lacks proper app support...'?

[Lukasz29314659ckap]

Lightroom is probably the most "full" app out there although still missing basic functions like photo merging, hdr, simple copying / pasting attributes is a pain, you have to go back to the previous view and can't select range of photos easily...I mean I could keep listing things but the point is the potential is far from the current version. Still you could get away with a lot of  editing work so I get your point, don't mean to rant, just noticing that doing professional work in photoshop, premiere, after effects, DaVinci could and should be possible on the IPad Pro...but unfortunately at this stage is non existing or just more hassle than it should be, which is a bummer considering that's it's a "Pro" device. Hope it'll change as I'd choose the IPad over bigger bulkier laptops, most of the time, but the reality is different at the moment.

[Ian Lyons]

Lightroom for the iPad, iPhone and Android devices was and likely never will be an alternative to Lightroom Classic. To date, the mobile apps have largely followed the feature set, workflow, etc of Lightroom Desktop. I expect that this will continue, at least as much as it's possible to do so when how we interact with the mobile apps is taken into consideration.

Some people like mobile, some don't, but much of what it can and can't do is as a result of restrictions imposed by Apple along with design decisions based on the experience the engineering and product teams gained from LrC user issues.

Re Photomerge for Pano and HDR, you should add your request to https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-ecosystem-cloud-based-ideas/p-photo-merge-pano-amp-hdr-with...

You might also find the forum dedicated to the Lightroom ecosystem (Cloud-based) a more productive location to share your thoughts. I've provided a link below:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-ecosystem-cloud-based/ct-p/ct-lightroom?page=1&sort=latest_...

[Lukasz29314659ckap]

Thanks for the links and reply! Yes I understand the current situation, and I agree, mobile apps aren't going to be the same that desktop ones...but again we're talking about a IPad "Pro", which suggest a device suited for professionals to do professional work. Hardware wise it's certainly there... software wise - not even close, and I agree with you, it's probably apple's imposed restrictions, hence I referred to this situation as a ridiculous one, most probably driven by marketing decisions and not actual design friendliness, expirience or usability. I strongly hope it'll change and instead of getting faster and stronger machines every year, we'll be granted with the full Pro versions of the most popular apps. Or both in a perfect world scenario :). At the end of the day, imo every professional will choose the device that allows them to do the job in the most hassle free and quickest way possible. Otherwise what the "Pro" even means? Peace!

[Conrad C]

It’s useful to not read too much into when Apple names something “Pro.” Traditionally, “Pro” at Apple has simply meant “a level we will price higher, regardless of whether it’s actually better.” One example would be the 2013 Mac Pro, the black cylinder. They called it “Pro,” but in many ways it fell short of what a pro desktop should do. The more current and long-running example is the 13" MacBook Pro. In the Intel years, they called it “Pro” even though you could never order discrete graphics or more than 16GB RAM for it. Today, even the M1/M2 13" MacBook “Pro” is so limited that in most cases it isn’t any better than the Air, and no match for the 14/16" MacBook Pro.

No matter what apps we use, we can spend as much or more on an iPad Pro and useful accessories (keyboard, mouse/trackpad) compared to a similiarly configured Mac laptop, but still not match what the laptop can do. The iPad Pro hardware is capable of so much more than the OS and applications currently allow, but the problem is not that they named it Pro, the problem is in the nature of iPad OS itself as Apple has currently designed it.

This thread is specifically about bringing Lightroom Classic to the iPad Pro, and from that point of view, many of its features are simply not straightforward to implement within the way iOS works. For example, you can’t have soft-proofing or color-managed printing if iPad OS doesn’t let you install ICC profiles. User-controlled referenced file paths on local storage are the foundation for file management in Lightroom Classic (and InDesign, Premiere Pro, etc…), but those are very rarely used by other apps on iOS. (iOS apps tend to use device-independent cloud-synced storage for ease of cross-device editing, as the current iOS Lightroom app does.) You can’t have lots of those tiny little Lightroom Classic buttons on a touchscreen, unless you require that a mouse/stylus be used. It all has to be redone, or, Apple has to allow macOS to be installed on Apple Silicon iPads so that we can use Lightroom Classic as it is already, as long as a mouse and keyboard are attached to the iPad.

That doesn’t mean it can’t be done; there are competitors who are achieving some (but in no cases all) of those things on iPad. Getting it done is a lot less about whether the iPad is called “Pro,” and a lot more about what both Apple and Adobe are willing to do on an iPad.

[Tomasz249734210mmj]

I miss one simple thing in Lightroom on iPad in my professional reporting work. Namely, a full description of the photos. It's too basic. I am not able to describe the full data in EXLIF that are required in press agencies. I have to travel with my Mac Book basically just to label the photos properly. This, in my opinion, disqualifies the iPad and Lightroom for iPad in professional work.

[Ian Lyons]

Lightroom on the iPad, iPhone and even desktop version have rudimemtary support for EXIF and metadata.  I don't expect that this will improve any time soon, if ever. That being said, there are plenty of professional photographers using the application on the iPad, which would suggest that it meets the needs of, at least, those professionals.

[thomasphoto]

Make this happen, Adobe. Apple just announced Logic and Final Cut Pro (yes, I know not photo editors), but my point is, if they can do that, surely Adobe can bring LRc to the iPad Pro. You guys failed miserably to bring LR up to the specs that we enjoy with LRc as promised so many years ago, all we get is nothing more than a trickle if we are lucky. While I do have a Mac (desktop), I have zero interest in purchasing a MacBook, preferring the iPad Pros for my out-of-town assignments. The ball is in your court, Adobe, don't let us LRc users down.