Caution: Don’t rush to upgrade to macOS Catalina

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macOS Catalina is here. But proceed from Mojave with caution.
macOS Catalina is here. But proceed from Mojave with caution.
Photo: Apple

Catalina the island is a paradise. Catalina, the Mac operating system, could be hell for some creatives, including DJs, writers and photographers if they immediately upgrade.

Adobe, makers of Photoshop and Lightroom, are telling users to hold off on updating to macOS Catalina until it can iron out a number of compatibility issues.

Music DJ’s knew they would lose iTunes. They also lose XML file support, used to sort tracks into playlists. Third-party DJ apps. like Traktor and Rekordobx that could read XML, will be obsolete with Catalina.

The warnings come one day after Apple released macOS Catalina, which will not support 32-bit apps.

macOS Catalina: some warning

Many astute users knew chaos could ensue. When Apple introduced Catalina at WWDC in June, it signaled an end to iTunes. Developers working with beta versions later in the summer found lists of apps that would not work with Catalina.

Ben Lovejoy, who writes for 9to5Mac, said he is going to put off updating as long as possible. He is particularly peeved to lose some of his favorite 32-bit apps, including his 2011 version of Office. He may now have to purchase a subscription for Office 365.

“We’re it a purely personal decision, I’d be tempted to either skip it altogether or at least do it some considerable way down the road,” Lovejoy wrote. “This will be the first time in years I haven’t upgrade to a new version of macOS within a day or two of the release version – and it’s all down to losing 42-bit apps.”

Adobe published a list of potential issues for photographers. With Photoshop, Catalina brings problems with file naming, broken plug-ins, broken lens profile creators and older Droplets not working.

Adobe listed just two issues for Lightroom users: a broken lens profile creator and tethering problems with Nikon cameras.

For more details, visit the Photoshop and Lightroom support pages.

“You may want to remain on your current version of macOS until these issues have been resolved,” Adobe said. “(Adobe) strongly recommends that customers do their own testing on a non-production partition to ensure that new operating systems work with their current hardware and drivers (printing and so forth).”

Expect more warnings and upgrade-related frustrations in the days ahead.

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