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Photoshop CS6 not opening in Big Sur update for Mac

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
December 4, 2020
17 replies
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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

Correct answer scottkb2000

Truth be told, I found an expert who was able to get Adobe CC 2020 to work perfectly with Big Sur, so I'm sticking with what I know for the time being. I'm a digital artist working with Corel Painter software and usually use Photoshop in a limited capacity (mostly composition functions) prior to painting with Corel. The Photoshop software I am using now may or may not work with higher versions of mac IOS, but I plan on staying with Big Sur indefinitely or as long as practicable.

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Mark24227621wv0r

Participant

My solution to this and Adobe starting to rent its software rather than sell it was to move to Serif products Affinity Photo. Smartest move I've made. It does everything but paint on 3D surfaces. ...for now.

Bye, Adobe. This is what happens when you get greedy and try to take advantage of people.

Conrad_C

Community Expert

The Affinity suite is great, but in case you have not heard this week’s news, Affinity is no longer independent. They agreed to be bought by Canva, the wildly popular cloud-based subscription graphics suite that, among other things, may have motivated Adobe to create Adobe Express.

Affinity is currently trying to reassure users that its applications will remain non-subscription.

D Fosse

Community Expert

Affinity is currently trying to reassure users that its applications will remain non-subscription.

By @Conrad_C

Yes, that's what they all say, until they are 😉

For Adobe, subscription has been a spectacular success. Their paying customer numbers have, what is it, doubled? since it was introduced.

I'm sure that success story isn't lost on the competition.

NewsView

Participating Frequently

Lol, where was this thread when I was searching high and low for a 32-bit workaround after I bought a 2020 iMac, not realizing that 32-bit support had dropped under Catalina? (My bad. I was still using a 2009 and failed to appreciate how much things had changed. Everything I found/read up to this point suggested even Catalina is a no-go for CS6.) I ended up giving the 2020 to another member of my household and downgrading to a 2017 I found new in a box (by some miracle) on an auction site.

Just to clarfiy, however, by CS6 do you mean only Photoshop? Or does the workaround mentioned above work for other CS6 Creative Suite software?

I couldn't bring myself to go the virtualization route under Catalina+ using VMware Fusion or Parallels so I now run a dual-boot setup with macOS High Sierra (and CS6) and a current macOS in another APFS container. Since Apple discontinued the Intel iMacs, I don't feel so bad still being "behind" because it's unclear how many macOS updates there will be after Sonoma that run on Intel, regardless.

I thought long and hard about it and realized I really only "need" a current model for casual word processing and web browsing (newr macOS/better security) so I bought the cheapest "ARM" MacBook Air I could find for that purpose. Consequently, I am more than happy to use my "outdated" CS6 on the 5K Retina 27" desktop!

There is a lot of pressure online to get with the times. (For those who are making a full-time living using Adobe products it only makes sense.) However, for those who started off in web design, graphic art (or similar) and then changed careers/jobs and just want to retain access to former projects, do some volunteer work on the side or freelance every once in a blue moon, perpetual license products are generally adequate. (If not, just buy Photoshop Elments. It will suffice for most uses.)

In recent years the subscription model has caught on among app developers big and small, not to mention streaming services, podcasts and all the rest. At some point, everyone goes through a job transition, layoff or retirement and simply can't justify "subscription everything" forever.

No one deserves to lose access to their body of work just because they retire, get laid off, change careers, etc. IMHO, Adobe should consider having an option to convert a CC: product to a perpetual license — "frozen" at whatever version of CC they are using at that point — after a certain number of years as a subscriber as (call it a "loyalty bonus"). Alternatively, Adobe should consider expanding the Elements line, to include vector graphics (repurposing an older version of Adobe Illustrator would be ideal for this purpose).

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JordanM1

Participating Frequently

I answered this already. See my post from Aug 30, 2021. Note step #1 you need to do prior to installing Catalina. That is because while Adobe Photoshop runs fine on a 64-bit Mac (or M1 or M2 for that matter), the Installer does not because it is a 32-bit installer and only runs pre-Catalina.

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JordanM1

Participating Frequently

For those who want to run their Adobe CS6 on Sonoma (14.4) there is an additional step to get things working on Sonoma beyond the steps I covered in my earlier posts. Here is the additional step: The AdobeCoolType.framework which is embedded in the CS6 app in the Frameworks directory is sadly not compatible with Sonoma. Luckily, you can easily get a Sonoma compatible copy of this framework since this framework is used in many Adobe products. Because the CoolType framework is used in many Adobe Products so you will be able to find it in those other apps and copy it into your Adobe CS6 Frameworks directory replacing the file that is there now. I was able to copy the CoolType framework from Adobe Acrobat 2020 .app to Adobe CS6 .app replacing that framework in Adobe CS6 frameworks directory with the Sonoma compatrible version. After that everything works as before (with the same restrictions) but on Sonoma. Happy Photoshopping! Let me know if this was useful to you.

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Mark24227621wv0r

Participant

Do what I did. I switched to Affinity products. They're inexpensive, updates are free, the learning curve isn't that bad, and you get to give a much deserved middle finger to Adobe for being so greedy. Affinity products will open all your Adobe products easily and I paid $50 apiece for each one, which is more than reasonable compared to Adobe's overpriced and bloated software. Also comes with lots of freebies you can download to extend its functionality.

Bye, Adobe. Hope you enjoy being supplanted as much as I enjoyed replacing you.

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sennekkah22090983x9ug

Participating Frequently

Not as far a I know. In the meantime have purchased Affinity which, after a bit of a learning curve is everything I need.

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Rachel23655067qgwu

Participant

I'm having the same problem but with InDesign CS6. It cost me a lot of money and I can't afford that subscription crap Adobe decided to set up. I did read about how the updates between Apple and Adobe would screw me over, so I hung onto my old computer until it finally died this month. Now I have a new-to-me computer that is a Big Sur OS and voila! No more InDesign availability. I have documents I need to get to. Has anything been done, concretely, to solve this problem since this question was posted?

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JordanM1

Participating Frequently

See my post above. Though that is for Photosthop (what this thread is about). Not InDesign. But something similar might work for InDesign.

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sennekkah22090983x9ug

Participating Frequently

I also have PS CS6 running on Big Sur but for me it was rather simple ...

As others have mentioned I navigated down to: /Apps/Adobe PS CS6/Adobe PS CS6.app rt clicked and selected CONTENTS/MACOS/Photoshop.app and created an alias which I copied to the Desktop.

Now to run PS I just double click the icon on the Desktop and PS starts up as normal (no error messages or terminal windows)

I have recently invested in Affinity Photo which I'm still coming to grips with, so will leave PS hanging around for a while.

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jap345

Participant

Hi

Cannot see any sub folders for Adobe PS CS6.app
Have do you create a alias?, by simply copying?
Screen shot attached from my Mac

Thanks

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sennekkah22090983x9ug

Participating Frequently

OK maybe I was a bit too brief ....

In Finder, navigate down to /Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS6 then right click on the file 'Adobe Photoshop CS6.app'.
From the list that shows click on 'Show Package contents'
Then navigate to Contents/MacOS and right click on the file 'Adobe Photoshop.app'
This time select 'Make Alias' from the list that comes up.
This will create a file called 'Adobe Photoshop CS6.app alias'
Right click on this file and select 'Copy'.....then right click on your Desktop and select 'Paste Item'
Voila you have a new icon on your desktop which you can rename to 'PS CS6' for example.

The one small bug I have found out, which I omitted from my original post, was that when you do the first 'Save' in a PS session I get the spinning ball for a while, just be patient and the file will save. Subsequent saves are normal.

Unfortunately the screenshot you attached was not relevant.

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carolynb7187148

Participant

I have zero problem paying for the software, but everyday there is a new problem

I print form illustrator all day my templates change on a daily basis to weird placements

and the colors are never the same from day to day, does not save any print preferences, you have to set them up everytime

you close and open. I spend the majority of my day changing files instead of designing new products.

I am not a fan of the cloud I want a stable illustrator that they can not change. It is clear that they are no longer driven by customer satisfaction. They may be making more money but I am not considering the time it takes to make it function

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JordanM1

Participating Frequently

@scottkb2000 I posted the steps I used to get Adobe Photshop CS 6 working on Big Sur on my M1 Mac. To answer your original question. Maybe they are similar to what you used to get Adobe 2020 working I'm not sure.

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Rod01AC

Participant

Thanks so much for your great work outlining these steps! Looking forward to following them soon after my upgrade from Mojave to Big Sur. Thanks again!

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JordanM1

Participating Frequently

I have Adobe Photoshop CS6 working on Big Sur. It is somewhat complicated to get it to work (more technical and involved then getting it to work on Catalina). And there are some limitations. But you can get Photoshop CS6 working on Big Sur. It is somewhat technical so I'm not sure if I should post it or not. Perhaps nobody cares about CS6 anymore anyways. But I thought I should answer this question for those still interested. I still like using Photoshop CS6 and I did pay for it outright so I like to continue to use it on Big Sur.

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Rod01AC

Participant

Excellent! Yes, please do post a step by step as I’m sure many will appreciate this. I run a nonprofit organization and can’t really afford their CC subscription model, but we own CS6.

Black_Diesel

Participant

Quickly reading this over for step #11 obviously you want to do a copy with the SLCache not a move. Since you will need to clone that directory each time and need the original version again later.

Jordan,

I followed your steps and got CS6 working in Big Sur with the limitations you mentioned. I had to delete the same two folders (APE and OOBE) and it launched Photoshop CS6 with the same errors about invalid license. When you cancel out PS CS6 works with the save and open limitations you mentioned. Thanks for this process, this is much better than having no CS6 at all. I'm on a 2019 iMac and I do not have to delete any cache, I can just reopen Photoshop CS6 using the same process each time. Thanks again.

Note - what is very interesting is that Illustrator CS6 opens the same way, and it will actually let you open files normally. I wonder why Illustrator will let you open files and Photoshop won't?? Either way, I'm all set for awhile now that I can still use both programs in Big Sur. You are the man!

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Rod01AC

Participant

The best solution is to just use Parallels Desktop to run macOS Mojave on Big Sur virtually. Inside that virtual environment, CS6 will work great!

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