P: Tethering from Canon cameras doesn't work on macOS Catalina 10.15.2

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Hi Guys,
and Photoshop staff
I have a big problem since the new catalina 10.15.2.0 i can't use the tethered mode. Lightroom don't see my canon 5D Mark III. Could you fix the problem ? Thank you. I uste the new macbookpro 16.

[JohanElzenga]

This is an Apple problem, caused by the Catalina 15.2 update. Tethering is also broken in other applications, such as EOS Utility and Capture One.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Thank you Johan for your answer. It's so bad ! do you know a solution ? Thank you

[Sunil_Bhaskaran]

@Krystofz Levet
It's a known issue as mentioned in the tech note: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/macos-catalina-compatibility.html
Right now, there is no workaround, other than trying from a machine with MacOS Catalina 10.15.1 or earlier.

Thanks,
Sunil

[keving86910342]

I wish Apple would address this problem ASAP.  I encountered this also. EOS Utility and Lightroom Classic both have been rendered unusable for tethered capture on their latest Catalina 10.15.2 update.  I really need tethered capture to work!

[Jeff Ellis]

I am a Nikon guy - but I'm sure this applies to Canon as well.

I found a work around today. At least it works fine with Nikon Camera control Pro 2. I'm pretty sure it will work with Capture One & Lightroom as well.

My 2011-17” MacBook Pro died a couple weeks ago. Time for an upgrade. Got the new MacBook Pro 16”. With Catalina - no choice. 

Wanted to run some older software for business, needed no higher than Sierra- OS 10.12.6. So I bought the software-Parallels Desktop -to install legacy OS virtual machine. 

Unfortunately had trouble running the installers, got hung up about 2% from done. It may be a hardware issue on the newest Macs- the MBP 16 and probably the new MacPro just released-because the  people at Parallels tech support did tests on their machines running Catalina and they were able to install OS 10.12.6 fine. My guess they’re running Catalina on the last 2019 - 15” MBP. 

BUT- while waiting for the new laptop to arrive, we did a test with the trial version of Parallels v15, and created a working Sierra VM  then today we just copied that file-22gb- to the new 16”  and Parallels opened that file immediately no problem  

1 problem down. Then copied in Filemaker and the files  they work. Cool  now I’ve got my invoices and equipment and software databases. And yesterday my copy of MS Office 2011 to.

Then- Nikon Camera Control and NikonView. Will they work????

YES! They work, my D850 connects and opens in NV, AND... I was able to choose the destination on my host drive- outside of the Virtual Machine, or onto an external drive if I want  

I even shot rapid fire at least 20 frames and all loaded quickly , no crashes  I am really pleased...

Now I've not had a chance to really work in Catalina with Photoshop & Lightroom for anything real, just enough to see that it basically works. I suppose if it really has issues I could put them in the  VM too, but hope not to. More Testing to follow  

If you do install Virtual Machine this way, don’t forget to install the Parallels Toolbox into the new VM which will allow you to get full screen resolution. If you don’t you’ll only have 1024x769 for the VM window  

It all sounds like a big pain - but I was surprised at how easy and well it works- once you get the VM installed. That's the glitch for now. But if you or a friend has any older machine- older than the just released 2019 models, you'll be able to create the VM there, and just copy that Parallels file over.

Hope this helps all of you  

[Jeff Ellis]

Update - Parallels did tell me that

 "The scenario was tested on and iMac and a Mac mini, both not originally Catalina. Therefore, we would need to get one of the newest, Catalina-only, machines, to test it there (although, there is no ETA yet on when we will receive the machines to do it)."

So many of you that have anything other than the very latest MacPro's or MacBook Pros and have Upgraded to Catalina may not have an issue opening the older Mac OS installers.

And mine is running just fine in Sierra whenever I need it, and can run in the Background simultaneously with Catalina, or be "Paused" to use less resources.

[Art M.]

No this is a specific problem with Mac 10.15.2 that did not exist in 10.15.1. This is not one of the lingering problems with Lightroom and Catalina. It is a new problem. I am now very worried that Adobe engineers and support are oblivious to this fact. By contrast, Capture One is now available with a new update that fixes the tethering problem introduced by Mac 10.15.2. Hopefully Adobe will soon issue a similar fix for Lightroom. - but someone needs to alert the engineers to the problem!!!!!

Noteworthy is that Phase One, the makers of Capture One, issued a warning to its clients to NOT update to 10.15.2 many days ago. (I use Photoshop and Lightroom and Capture One all for different purposes in my photography workflow.)

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

They're not oblivious Art, they've added it to the known issues tech note. It's an Apple bug that needs a fix from Apple or from the creators of the tethering SDK's, so that Adobe can integrate the fix into Lightroom.

[Art M.]

Good! Glad to hear that they are aware if it. Please note that Capture One is already fixed, apparently without a fix from Apple.

[swarc]

Guys! This is not a Catalina problem imho, because my macbook runs with Mojave, previously without any tethering problems with my Canon 1dx and 5d4, but since I updated LR to v9, tehtering is a disaster..! My last to shooting was terribly sticky, becasue the connection just lost, okay, connect again, this was not the first time, but cannot reconnect, LR doesn't see any connetced camera! I tried all the variatinos to connect the two device again, after 15 min it happened, after maybe 10 trying. WTF?? Canon short cable and TetherPro 4,6m cable also. 

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Hi guys, in the first day of photoshoot with my new MacBook pro 2019 Catalina 16 inch I tethered my Canon 5d Mark III with Lightroom Classic last version and it's start working good, but after when my camera go in sleep mode, the tethering never happens again. I did all suggestions. I was update My Camera, and was update Lightroom version., turn on and off. I was switched different USB cables, delete everything from memory card . I use it with memory and without memory card. And it still doesn't work. I tried to solve this problem around four days already. Everything working on my Windows computer. So the problem is not in the camera or cord. Please help me to fix this problem thank you.

[swarc]

I have issues also on Mojave...Just wrote an answer, you can read it a bit bottom up.

[Lisbeth Bech Foto]

Tethering in Lightroom doesn't recognise my Canon 1DX mark II after update to Catalina. Any workarounds?

[BvH]

Two weeks and there still this is not fixed ????..... People at Adobe.......please  I need this tethered shooting for my studiowork... NO HOBBY.... End of this week a big job with clients on the side...so I will have to buy Capture One (C1 already fixed this problem a few days ago) to do the job ?  Really.... ? Hoping otherwise still a few days left......

[Art M.]

Phase One sent out a fix to Capture One for this problem weeks ago.  I was thinking that Adobe could do something similar.  

[Jao vdL]

Pretty sure Capture One uses its own tethering code that is not based on Canon's (or Nikon's) tethering APIs so they can update quickly to deal with issues such as this. Adobe uses the camera manufacturers' API software and so is dependent on that getting updated to deal with issues such as this. You will probably only see Lightroom being able to do tethering after Canon's own software starts running again. Just a guess.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Hi. Any news on this update?
I'm a pro photographer with busy studio shooting tethered with Canon DSLR. I "accidentally" upgraded to Catalina since I wanted to wait a little but figured it should be safe after several months!
I need to know if there is a "fix" coming in days/weeks rather than months. Then I have to downgrade to Mojave but that's a major task! Can't even import directly from camera...

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

Hopefully Apple will fix it in 10.15.3, since they broke it in 10.15.2. Otherwise, it'll need Canon & Nikon to update their SDKs and then wait for Adobe to integrate the changes. This isn't something that Adobe can fix, at least not in the near future, since they're using Canon/Nikon's software for tethering.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Smart Shooter from Tether Tools is compatible with Catalina - Canon, Nikon & Sony no problem.  They offer a free 30 trial - https://www.tethertools.com/product/smart-shooter-4/

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I was unable to tethering cannon 5drs  to Lightroom 9.1  operating  MacOS  Catalina.
I uninstalled Lightroom 9.1 and installed Lightroom 8.4.1 used 2 different that worked for other devices an still failed to tether. what else can I try.

[Art M.]

Tethering is broken under MacOS 10.15.2.  As I understand, only backing off to 10.15.1 makes it work --- but I may not have the latest information. 

Phase One claims that they have fixed the problem (worked around the problem) with their latest release of the editing software Capture One.  Other vendors are quiet about it.   

I subscribe to Capture One for tethering and raw conversion for my photography studio.  I prefer to do my editing in Photoshop and Lightroom, but Capture One seems to be uniquely fast and reliable when it comes to tethering. 

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

My thought is this: If Capture One Pro has solved the problem why can't Adobe?

[Art M.]

I suspect that other companies use some Apple API where as Capture One writes their own.

[Jao vdL]

It's explained above. Adobe apparently uses the Canon API. Capture One wrote their own. Apple's update broke Canon's API. Apple or Canon needs to fix this.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Trying out the trial version of Capture One software now and it works beautifully. I can’t help but admire a progressive company!