Photoshop CS5.1 and Catalina

This is a question to which, despite my best efforts, I cannot find an answer. I have Photoshop CS5.1 (version 12.1 x64) that works well with Mojave. I use it quite often but not enough to justify buying in to Photoshop CC. I would like to upgrade to Catalina but many websites as well as the OS X system report say that it is 32-bit and will not work. The Adobe website says, however, that it is both 32-bit and 64-bit and will load the version called for by the system. (My version does not offer the option of opening in 32-bit mode when I open Get Info). I have not yet found anyone who has said whether Photoshop CS5.1 did or did not work for them after installing Catalina. Has anyone tried this and what was the result? And I have the same question for Acrobat X Pro (version 10.1.12) and Illustrator CS5.1 (version 15.1.0).

MacBook Pro 15", macOS 10.14

Posted on Dec 16, 2019 3:22 PM

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Posted on Dec 16, 2019 4:43 PM

If Catalina sniffs any presence of 32-bit code in that CS5.1 Photoshop, it will block it as it is not a pure 64-bit application. Adobe's warning is to not update a retired application beyond the system requirements that Adobe provides for it. CS6 and all earlier Adobe abandoned applications simply will not run on Catalina.

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Dec 16, 2019 4:43 PM in response to baddabing

If Catalina sniffs any presence of 32-bit code in that CS5.1 Photoshop, it will block it as it is not a pure 64-bit application. Adobe's warning is to not update a retired application beyond the system requirements that Adobe provides for it. CS6 and all earlier Adobe abandoned applications simply will not run on Catalina.

Jan 1, 2020 9:07 AM in response to VikingOSX

Hi,

I rejected the Catalina as long as I could. Seems like the mac updated it automatically and now I can't use any of my Adobe softwares (CS5.1)

Is there anything I can do now? can I undo the update? I use the softwares but not in a manner that justified to upgrade it to the cloud version...

Will Apple release an update?

Any advice is welcome at this point... thank you.

Jan 1, 2020 9:30 AM in response to hagi01

That's the kind of reason I always have automatic updates off. Notifications on so I'm aware of new updates being available, but installed only when I allow it.


You only have two choices to back out of Catalina:


  1. Restore any backup you have that was created before Catalina was installed.
  2. Without a backup available, you'll have to erase the drive and reinstall an older OS, along with all of your third party apps from scratch. Make sure to backup all personal data first so you can restore it afterwards.

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Photoshop CS5.1 and Catalina

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