Lightroom and OSX Catalina

[dfdann]

If I update my Mac PowerBook to OSX Catalina will I lose the photos on
My computer in Lightroom CC when it changes to 64 bit processor?
I know the photos are stored on computer and backup but I don’t seem
able to access them without using Lightroom. I continually update Lightroom CC. Thanks,
Dan

 

[Larry Cloetta]

If I update my Mac PowerBook to OSX Catalina will I lose the photos on
My computer in Lightroom CC when it changes to 64 bit processor?
I know the photos are stored on computer and backup but I don’t seem
able to access them without using Lightroom. I continually update Lightroom CC. Thanks,
Dan

It’s possible that I may be misunderstanding the question, but if your photo files are physically stored on your computer, you can open them by just going to the folder they are located in, and opening them. Lightroom is just an indexing, data asset management system, it doesn’t control your ability to open the files; it only allows you the additional ability to open them from Lightroom itself. The files themselves are still there and jpgs or tiffs can be opened by your computer outside of Lightroom regardless of whether you are using Catalina or Snow Leopard or any other OS version.
As to whether some very old computers might have issues with Lightroom CC itself after upgrading to Catalina, that I don’t know.

 

[View Range]

Is this a serious question? The Mac PowerBook has a 32 bit Motorola processor. The last OSX it will run is Leopard. How are you going to change it to a 64 bit processor?

 

[ranger9]

The short answer to your question is that if you are running Lightroom CC pre-Catalina, updating to Catalina won't lose anything. I did exactly that and had no issues with file loss. The only potential gotcha is that you might have to disable GPU acceleration in Lightroom if you're using an older Mac with a non-compatible GPU; that's not really a Catalina issue, but sometimes upgrading to Catalina surfaces it...

 

[dfdann]

Yes it is a serious question !!! I accidentally misnamed it. It is a 18 month old Mackbook
Pro and will certainly run Catalina. There have been reports of photos
lost when upgrading. When I click on the folders of Lightroom photos
located by the Search function they do not open. I’m probably doing
something wrong and was hoping for help not sarcasm
Dan

 

[Larry H-L]

The most common problem with Lightroom occurs when the path to your folder system has been changed, or renamed. If you moved something using the Macintosh finder system, or a folder name changed, rather than moving or renaming the folder through Lightroom itself, you may have to re-link the photos to update the path to your stored photos. Are there ? marks showing in LR?

Could a folder in your Catalina update now have a different name, or different path to your photos?

 

[Lewis Francis]

I've had no problems with Catalina and the latest LR Classic.

Can you find your photos if within LR, you right click on a photo and select Show in Finder?

 

[View Range]

Yes it is a serious question !!! I accidentally misnamed it. It is a 18 month old Mackbook
Pro and will certainly run Catalina. There have been reports of photos
lost when upgrading. When I click on the folders of Lightroom photos
located by the Search function they do not open. I’m probably doing
something wrong and was hoping for help not sarcasm
Dan

That is a huge difference. I haven't lost any files upgrading.

 

[emayoh]

It is a good idea to back up everything before upgrading your OS. The upgrade process is designed not to delete anything. If the process goes as normal, then nothing will be lost. But things Apple makes these days do not always work as designed. Backups!

 

[Henry]

There will be no issue with CC, it was 64 bit from the start.

The only issue is with the older versions of Classic, some of which were 32bit. Even in those cases, though, the files were still present on the computer.

For CC you will need to check the option to store local copies of all files, and then pick a specific folder in which they will be stored in order to guarantee they are present on the local drive. You don’t need to do this in order to use CC or use the files in CC (you can use them on the web without any download, for instance) but if you WANT a local copy you need to check that option in settings,

I use CC pretty much exclusively, feel free to ask ay questions about it and I will do my best to answer.

 

[frank-grumman]

FWIW, and I'm not being sarcastic, I had no issues whatever in accessing photos either in LR CC or LR Classic when I upgraded (sic) to Catalina. YMMV

 

[willie_901]

As Larry H-L points out, accidentally renaming them means you have to tell LR where the renamed folders are. This can be tedious, but it will solve your problem.

If they weren't accidentally renamed the updating to Catalina would have had no effect on LR CC (except for possible GPU issues other mentioned).