Moving Photoshop Elements from a PC to a Mac

[Welcome, Martyn]

I use Photoshop Elements 10 on a PC running Windows 10. I use it mostly for organizing and tagging my photographs. After thirty-five years, I've finally had enough of Microsoft and have decided to move to Apple. My original PE discs have both the PC and Mac versions on them, so I'm assuming that I will be able to instal PE on the new Mac without any problems (I have the serial number too). The question is how do I move the image folder structure, files, and meta data to the Mac such that PE will be able to find them without any broken links. I would like to think that this is a simple backup and restore, but that sounds far too easy! Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Bojan Živković]

Post relocated to the appropriate forum for enhanced assistance.

[Greg_S.]

See this Adobe HelpX article.  Scroll down towards the bottom of the page and it will explain how to move catalogs between PC and Macs.  However, you will need to upgrade to Elements 2025 since Elements 10 is not compatible with any newer MAC OS.

[Welcome, Martyn]

Thanks for the link, Greg. It looks like I'd have to put Elements 2025 on the Mac and then update my PC with the trial version in order to make the move, so it sounds "doable". At the personal level, I object to having to pay for the same thing over and over, as is the case with subscription models. Adobe says that this isn't a subscription, but buying a licence that expires after three years looks like one to me. Adobe also says that it's the Editor that expires and that the Organizer will still work, so perhaps it may still be worth considering. Thanks again for the link - I'll give it further investigation!

[Greg_S.]

You shouldn't need to update your PC.  Simply make a backup on the PC with Elements 10 and restore it on the Mac with Elements 2025.  The catalog will be converted to version 2025 in the process.

[Welcome, Martyn]

Thank you. Simple is good! I think this may be worth doing as a one-shot deal to get everything onto the Mac, as long as the Organizer continues to work in the long term and my files stay on the Mac (and not the cloud).

[Greg_S.]

If you don't want your files in the Cloud, make sure you go into Elements 2025 Preferences>Auto sync and turn it off.  The default is to have it turned on.

[Welcome, Martyn]

Thank you again, this is an important detail for me.