Photoshop CS6 not opening in Big Sur update for Mac

[scottkb2000]

I had Photoshop CS6 installed on my iMac when it was running High Sierra. It ran smoothly for every update through Catalina. With the most recent Update (Big Sur), it will not open. There is a hack, where you "Show Package Contents" for the CS6.app, then go to Contents > MacOS > click on Adobe Photoshop CS6 and just disregard the error notices that pop up, close them and this opens Photoshop. The video I watched worked in Catalina, but when I tried it with the Big Sur update...it showed different popup messages and the only choice was to leave "terminal" open (if terminal was closed, the whole operation closed). Photoshop opened after closing the pop ups, but I was left with a spinning ball and it never ended. Therefore the hack didn't work for Photoshop in the Big Sur update. Does anyone have any solution to this and if not, does anyone know if there will be any attempt to make CS6 et al work in Big Sur? Any advice or information will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[John Waller · Accepted solution]

>>>Does anyone have any solution to this and if not, does anyone know if there will be any attempt to make CS6 et al work in Big Sur?

Regrettably, there is no solution for Big Sur and CS6 will never be updated to run on Big Sur.

[scottkb2000]

Thanks John, it is regrettable. I think Adobe let many of us down...I am disappointed in them. 

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

No one is forcing you to update your Mac OS. You can very easily stay on the same OS that runs it.

[scottkb2000]

@Kevin Stohlmeyer I think we all know that already Kevin...thanks for that not-so-valuable insight! Maybe it would be helpful if Apple would let its potential updaters know that crucial apps might be rendered useless prior to urging us to update to the next version...that might help. It might also help if Adobe had discounted the subscription prices if you already had the software (like 6 versions, in my case). But corporate greed is the way of things now, I guess. 

[John Waller]

>>>Maybe it would be helpful if Apple would let its potential updaters know that crucial apps might be rendered useless prior to urging us to update to the next version...that might help.

Apple actually did just that. 32 bit support was not suddenly stopped out of the blue. Developers were given 10 years notice by Apple. Consumers were then given two years of notices and warnings in High Sierra and Mojave. Fun fact: 32 bit support was supposed to be dropped in Mojave but Apple could see that developers were not ready so support was extended to Mojave with more intrusive notices to consumers included. Hard to see what more Apple could have done.

Apple article, Macrumors article

Seems that most people are not really interested nor listening until the day it affects them directly when their favourite software will not run. Few people do any research before upgrading. They just try and fix things when they hit a snag. Unfortunately, there's no supported fix for running 32 bit apps on Catalina or Big Sur.

None of that will stop Apple and Adobe saturation marketing their latest products of course. So the cycle continues.

[scottkb2000]

Developers were given 10 years notice by Apple.

Developers may have been informed, but I sure wasn't. Fun fact: my Photoshop CS6 ran perfectly from High Sierra all the way through Catalina...yes Catalina! There was no reason for a non-Developer to suspect that it wouldn't keep running through Big Sur, except that Apple didn't notify its customers, nor did Adobe (but they gave up on us much before that). "Not really interested" customers, you say. Like there isn't enough going on in a person's life, that you insinuate that we should spend our lives researching software compatibilities. The vast majority of us just want software that works and want to be notified if we happen to change our operating system that somebody cares enough to let us know that there is a compatibility issue.

[John Waller]

>>>The vast majority of us just want software that works

Agreed. That includes me.

>>>and want to be notified if we happen to change our operating system that somebody cares enough to let us know that there is a compatibility issue.

I hear you but I've never known that to happen. From the info available online, Apple did their best to publicise the changes.

[Conrad_C]

scottkb2000 wrote:

“Developers may have been informed, but I sure wasn't.”

We users were warned directly by Apple, long in advance. In both Mojave and Catalina, on first launch of an application that wasn’t going to be compatible in the future, Apple displayed warnings as shown in the link below (“The alerts started appearing in early April 2018”). A lot of users immediately clicked through because they wanted to get going without dealing with it. But if they didn’t think about it again, it was never dealt with before the big day finally came a couple years down the road, which is now.

What to do about Apple's Not Optimized & Needs To Be Updated warnings (Macworld UK, 2019)

[Ramon Masongsong]

Also. Adobe did update Photoshop CS6 and Illustrator CS6 to to 64 bit. I don't understand why they did not update InDesign. But like one of the others said, It is ALL ABOUT GREED!!!!

And, the reason MOST people do the Apple OS updates is because of the ever changing hackers out their that Apple, bless them, tries to stay ahead of them with these updates to the OS software. This was one of the main reasons that I kept up with the updates. But now, I have to bypass BIG SUR, because I am a professional who uses Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign on a daily basis. It really sucks, because I can't afford to pay the monthly fee for current versions of the Adobe suites!!!

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

You're talking about updates from 2013 - that's 8 years ago and a lifetime in software development.

You've made the choice to stay with CS6 which is perfectly fine, but with that choice comes consequences - namely keeping your Mac OS on the version that the software was developed for.

No software company keeps support on end of life versions forever.

It's the same reason I keep an older model MacBook Pro with CS5.5 - I have plugins that only work with that version software. The manufacturer does not offer newer versions and is now gone.

[sefanzed]

If it works, don’t fix it.  Frankly, I’m not impressed with either Catalina or Big Sur.  Almost all the apps I currently use have become “rentware,” so the price of updating isn’t justified by the required outlay of $$, at least in my individual circumstances.  Mojave is working just dandy on my 2013 trashcan Mac and I suppose the new hardware with apple’s own CPU chips will pose new challenges, both developmentally and monetarily.  I’ve been a content producer for over 30 years and I’ve watched creative fees steadily decrease while software and hardware costs continue to rise.  I expect no surprises in that regard going forward.  

[Conrad_C]

---

@Ramon Masongsong wrote:

Also. Adobe did update Photoshop CS6 and Illustrator CS6 to to 64 bit. I don't understand why they did not update InDesign. But like one of the others said, It is ALL ABOUT GREED!!!!

---

But they did update InDesign to 64-bit a long time before any of these OS requirements were made, it looks like InDesign went 64-bit in 2014. Seven years ago. It may not have been exactly the same time as Photoshop or Illustrator, but InDesign was only slightly later, and they are all very different code bases.

If it was truly about greed, it would not have been about InDesign alone. If it was an evil plot to control unannounced events that would happen almost a decade in the future, preventing a 64-bit version of InDesign would not have been enough. Instead they would have intentionally prevented all of those CS6 applications from being 64-bit. But that isn’t what happened.

---

@Ramon Masongsong wrote:

And, the reason MOST people do the Apple OS updates is because of the ever changing hackers out their that Apple, bless them, tries to stay ahead of them with these updates to the OS software.

---

That’s right, even if an application is 64-bit, that is not nearly enough to qualify it for Catalina and Big Sur. Apple also requires fundamental changes in how an application handles installation, security, privacy, and access to system files, because of the exact hacker threat you mentioned, so a quick 64-bit update would not have been enough anyway.

I don’t like subscriptions either, but that is the situation.

[teebox]

I HATE the rental software direction Adobe has taken... its like renting an apartment - at some point I want to OWN my software. I guess its ok if you use the stuff everyday - I don't

[sefanzed]

To be fair, it's not just Adobe, many other companies have begun doing business this way.  I supposed if you wish to keep paying upper management millions, you've got to fatten up the bottom line.  Rentware is the gift that keeps on giving.  It's the major reason I'm staying on Mojave...  Like they say, if it works, don't fix it!

[miguelm35614814]

Sorry but I'm sure there are programs that need to have the updated operating system, if not, they do not work

[Mohamed5C41]

Coming from an Adobe Community Professional that's a very ignorant comment. 

As time goes on Apple and Adobe stop releasing security updates for their respective OS and apps. 

In todays world were cyber criminals and malware is rampant it is vital to keep these security patches up to date and running an OS which is years old with no security updates is a real risk.

Everyone is being forced into these pay to use models which companies like Adobe are forcing everyone into.

It's daylight robery. Simple!

[stephend31977117]

duh! not helpful [personal attack on another user deleted by moderator]

[See the Community Guidelines here:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/using-the-community/adobe-support-community-guidelines/td-p/4788157 ]

[philw73125195]

Not quite true, my bank just informmed me that i have to update my current version of Safari to be able to access my account online. At present i run High Sierra which enables me to run Photoshop CS6 . To upgrade Safari i have to upgrade my OS to Mojave or Big Sur and lose my access to Photoshop CS6 

[John Waller]

You can still run CS6 on Mojave, It will not install or run on Catalina or later.

[philw73125195]

Thanks but it seems Monterey is the oldest OS my bank software will support. I will end up buying another iMac and keep this one for just older software.

[defaultoz2n8ubtt4cl]

Hi Kevin.

Depending on your definition of "force," this isn't actually true. Apple drop support for older OSes quickly, with different software vendors following suit to different degrees. I myself have just upgraded from Yosemite to Monterey after giving up battling the toll of time, software-wise, there.

SSL root certificates have been broken for several years, partly fixable by exporting root certificates from newer Macs and importing them into the root keychain on Yosemite. Safari is completely broken. It's getting impossible to find a browser that's still supported. Firefox 78.15 is the last one that'll run there. Brave, Chrome, Vivaldi, Opera, name one, none of them will run, and sites are starting to break, some telling you your browser is outdated and needs an update.

So, in my case, if I want to be on the interwebs much longer, I have to upgrade. I'd call that being forced, it certainly feels like that. I knew this would cost me the usage of my very expensive Firewire audio card, as that's the number one reason I've stuck with Yosemite for so long, but I hadn't expected it would also cost me my scanner, and now my CS6 apps.

I get that you're reacting to the somewhat whiny "I think Adobe let many of us down...I am disappointed in them," it struck me as particularly silly. I mean, CS6 is NINE years old. But to say that no-one forces you to upgrade you OS, well that's just wrong and pedantic.

I'm in the same boat, though, as Mr. Whiny. I don't do the new business model with subscriptions, so it's CS6 or some other, non-Adobe solution. I paid a lot of money for this software. Also, testing out the CC products in the past,as a Danish keyboard user there are keyboard shortcut bugs that make Photoshop unusable (e.g. can't zoom out in Liquify), so Photoshop 6 is better for me that any of the newer versions.

Just sayin'. Have a nice weekend.

[sefanzed]

There are alternatives to "rentware." Affinity Photo and other related products are better in some respects than Adobe's offerings. Updating to the new OS ecosystem will mean more than just finding replacement apps...  Re-training will be necessary to move forward (I'm referring to professional apps, like Affinity).  I'm sticking with Mojave as long as I can, mostly because I'm on a trashcan mac-pro 2013, and everything works!  Good luck! 

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

Thanks for the conversation, and while I agree on some points my original post holds true. You can keep your computer running Mac OS whatever and run CS6 unfettered. You don't need current browsers and OSes to run CS6.

The examples people are giving with bank software, etc. is a dependency for those solutions not an issue caused by Adobe. Adobe is not forcing them to upgrade their computers - they are choosing so to keep using other features.

I for one have kept a 2014 MacBook Pro that has CS5.5 and CS6 installed on it with Yosemite. I know full well that I cannot upgrade the hardware or OS or risk losing my access to CS6 for troubleshooting users issues.

However, my main unit is a new M1 Mac with Big Sur and the latest CC offerings. I use this for my business and keep it current to stay with industry standards.

Its a choice we all have to make when working in fields with software - you can choose to stay where you are and there is nothing wrong with that, or if you decide to upgrade know that there are costs involved and it may impact your ecosystem.

[defaultoz2n8ubtt4cl]

Hi Kevin.

I understand that you can keep running an older OS for a piece of software that's no longer supported on newer versions of said OS, that was not my contention, it was merely that your argument is semantic, and that the actual reality to me and others is that when other critical things on your computer stop working, then in effect you are forced to upgrade.

But let's leave that be, it wasn't actually why I responded back. I just wanted to point out that you can in fact upgrade from Yosemite and still keep running CS6, at least up to High Sierra IIRC, because I've been there before with CS6 before. Well, now that I'm writing this I remind myself that you also said CS5.5, so perhaps my advice is ill with regards to that version.

I don't know. If you haven't tried, then it's worth a shot. Whenever I try a major upgrade (like the Monterey I described, and reverted from two days later as it sucked), I boot from a linux live USB (this time Mint Cinnamon), and create a disk image backup before upgrading so that I can later restore back if I want. Just to let you know. I'll be happy to help with the specifics if you wanna try this.