Photoshop CS5.1 and iMac OS upgrade

[Bruce38470391jt4t]

I upgraded the OS on a 2017 iMac from High Sierra to Ventura. Now Photoshop CS5.1 won't open, requests upgrade. Is there an upgrade for CS5.1 that will work on OS Ventura?

[Conrad C · Accepted solution]

The main problem is that around the time of macOS 10.15 Catalina (half a decade ago), Apple started making major changes to the foundation of macOS to prepare it for later Macs, such as the transition away from Intel processors to Apple Silicon, and to tighten requirements for security and privacy. Photoshop CS5.1, released 13 years ago, has a lot of code written in a way that Apple simply does not allow any more, as of several years ago. I think the last version of macOS that Photoshop CS5.1 could work on is macOS 10.14 (2018). So you would have run into this problem some years earlier if you had upgraded the iMac to macOS 10.15 or later.

The Photoshop upgrade that officially supports macOS Ventura is Photoshop version 25, also known as Photoshop 2024. (See Photoshop system requirements.) It’s available only as a subscription from Adobe; the least expensive way to get it is the Photography Plan ($9.99/month as of today).

[kevin stohlmeyer]

@Bruce38470391jt4t long story short - upgrading your OS to Ventura has bricked CS5 with no resolution available.

[Lumigraphics]

Mojave was the last version of macOS to run 32-bit software, which CS5.x is. Other 32-bit software (Microsoft Office is another notable example) will not work on Ventura, period.