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Mojave and adobe creative suites (or other issue)?

i've had issues upgrading the laptop to Mojave and i don't want to upgrade the desktop or buy new hardware until i sort another one of them out.

can i access my paid Adobe Creative Suites Software? if not why not exactly?

also are rhere any other related issue or technical things i should read up on to make sure i don't bork some kind of mission critical workflow i have painstakingly set up i've the years if i upgrade to Mojave or beyond?

Mac Pro

Posted on Sep 7, 2024 9:52 AM

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2 replies

Sep 7, 2024 10:09 AM in response to hotwheels22

If you simply upgrade macOS in place – without wiping the drive – your currently installed Adobe CS *should* continue to function upon upgrading to Mojave.


However, if you need to reinstall Adobe CS after an upgrade to Mojave, you may run into problems with licensing and registration. Adobe currently only supports installation of its products on the newest three macOS versions – Monterey, Ventura and Sonoma.


If you upgrade to Catalina or newer, then expect that all of your older 32-bit software will require replacement or upgrade also. You can use this free utility> Go64 app from St. Claire Software to check your current apps. Only 64-bit apps and utilities will run in Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura, Sonoma and newer macOS versions.


You're on the right track to getting the answers you need. Research is good.

Sep 7, 2024 10:32 AM in response to hotwheels22

To add to D.I. Johnson's excellent post.


Mojave does support 32 bit apps, but kind of grudgingly. High Sierra was the last version of macOS to support 32 bit without compromise (Apple's words).


That said, I did have the CS6 Master Collection running in Mojave on a 2018 mini. Though it's not easy. Things I ran into:


  1. Adobe shut down the activation servers for CS6 at least two years ago. What will happen when you try to activate CS6 after an install is (if it still does the same thing), the suite will throw out a message that it can't activate the suite due to some error. It will do this two or three times. After that, you'll get a different message that says something like, "Oops! We can't seem to complete the activation…". Along with that, it will provide a link that takes you to a page on Adobe's site to do a manual activation. I presume as part of the process it makes sure the serial number isn't in use by someone else, or attempting to be used by multiple people with a stolen/shared number. Once activated, you'll notice there still isn't a choice in any CS6 app to deactivate the suite, as if it's still inactive. But it is active and ready to use.
  2. Applying the last updates isn't easy. I had set all of them aside on an external drive, which was a good thing because you can no longer download any of them from Adobe's site. However, you still can't use them. You'd think they would have been stand-alone updaters, but they still fail.
  3. In relation to that, Premiere Pro will show as broken (red "no" symbol over the app icon). This can be fixed, and the updates can be completed, but you'll need to call Adobe and request their help to finish.


As mentioned by D.I. Johnson, even though the apps show as being 64 bit when you do a Get Info on the main apps, there are quite a few underlying support modules that are 32 bit only. Which is why the suite cannot run under any version of macOS newer than Mojave. The installer itself is 32 bit.


If you must move forward, such as due to incompatibility with files from clients using the latest Creative Cloud apps that can't be properly opened in the CS6 apps, then you really have no choice but to start using the Creative Cloud subscription suite.

Mojave and adobe creative suites (or other issue)?

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