*** From the Archives ***
This article is from June 22, 2019, and is no longer current.
macOS Catalina is Incompatible with InDesign CS6 and Earlier
At the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, held June 3 – 7, 2019, one of the key announcements was the introduction of macOS 15, to be known as macOS Catalina. As is usual for new macOS versions, the final version will be released to Macintosh users this coming fall, but beta versions were released immediately to Apple developers.
It’s inexpensive to sign up as a developer. And free public builds will be available in July so many people will start running Catalina right away so they can “try out new stuff.” But be warned…
InDesign CS6 and Earlier Versions Are 32-bit and Will Not Work
For a year or two, Apple has been pre-announcing that its next version, macOS 15, would not support older 32-bit applications, and now the time has come for this decision to be put into action.
On June 5, MacRumors reported:
“…macOS Catalina does away with 32-bit app support, so some of your older apps are going to stop working. The operating system will let you know which apps are now defunct once you upgrade.”
InDesign CS6 and earlier versions are 32-bit and will not run in macOS Catalina.
Unlike Photoshop CS6 and Illustrator CS6 which were updated to be 64-bit applications earlier, InDesign was not updated to 64-bit until the first Creative Cloud version InDesign CC 9.0, which was released in June 2013.
The result is the only way to run InDesign CS6 and earlier are to continue to run on them macOS 14 (Mojave) or earlier—assuming that those Mac versions can run older InDesign versions. None of those pre-Creative Cloud InDesign versions are supported by Adobe, so you’ll be on your own.
Be Sure to Back Up Your Macintosh Operating System and Your Software
It’s a usual good practice to make a backup of your system, including its software, before making a major operating system upgrade. However, as with most backups, this advice is ignored by the majority of users.
Come this fall, many users of the “perpetual” (non-subscription) versions of InDesign will simply update their operating system to Catalina, assuming that everything will run as usual. If they have made a backup, they can use their backup to return to an operating system version that will run InDesign CS6 or earlier and they’ll still have their working copy of InDesign. And you’ll hear cries of anguish from those who are surprised because their copies of InDesign no longer run. And they’ll have no older operating system to return to.
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Steve, you might talk to Adobe about what is involved in restoring apps for the more recent but non-CC versions of Adobe products. When I had a hard drive crash some months back, I did a restore from a backup. Everything else was fine, but the CS3 version of Photoshop, which is all I need for my work, wouldn’t run and insisted on being re-authenticated. No problem I thought. Adobe knows I bought it. They’ll give me the magic code to unlock it. I did that once before after a disk crash.
No such luck. I called them twice and both times Adobe told me that the “server” that provided those numbers was no longer operational. They sent me to a webpage that allegedly would tell me how me put Photoshop CS3 back in service. I say allegedly, because the process was complicated and bombed twice over part way through despite repeated attempts. I badgered Adobe for a backdoor, but got nowhere. I ended up moving to Affinity Photo. I am not going to pay $120 a year (or perhaps more) for an app I only use occasionally.
You might want to contact Adobe’s Customer Support and find out if that now-missing server issue affects all the non-CC versions of Adobe products. I would not be surprised if it does. And if so, users need to be very careful with their installation because restoring no-CC versions from a backup for whatever reason isn’t likely to work.
Steve, you might want to talk to Adobe about what is involved in restoring apps for the more recent but non-CC versions of Adobe products. When I had a hard drive crash some months back, I did a restore from a backup. Everything else was fine, but the CS3 version of Photoshop, which is all I need for my work, wouldn’t run and insisted on being re-authenticated. No problem I thought. Adobe knows I bought it. They’ll give me the magic code to unlock it. I did that once before after a disk crash.
No such luck. I called them twice and both times Adobe told me that the “server” that provided those numbers was no longer operational. They sent me to a webpage that allegedly would tell me how me put Photoshop CS3 back in service. I say allegedly, because the process was complicated and bombed twice over part way through despite repeated attempts. I badgered Adobe for a backdoor, but got nowhere. I ended up moving to Affinity Photo. I am not going to pay $120 a year (or perhaps more) for an app I only use occasionally.
You might want to contact Adobe’s Customer Support and find out if that now-missing server issue affects all the non-CC versions of Adobe products. I would not be surprised if it does. And if so, users need to be very careful with their installation because restoring no-CC versions from a backup for whatever reason isn’t likely to work.
Oops, sorry for the almost duplicate comment. It’s been a long day.
For me, I’m not affected, so I have need to contact Adobe Customer Support. It just goes to show that as time goes on it’s going to be harder to run the non-subscription CS versions of InDesign.
I’m merely posting this as a WARNING so people don’t blindly fall into a deep hole!
Typo on my iPad: I have NO need to contact Tech Support.
The Public Beta of Catalina is available today, June 24. If you want to test it, work on a separate partition of your computer if you don’t want to lose you copy of InDesign CS6 or earlier.
Thanks for the info, I will not upgrade
Even Photoshop CS6 is suspect. After upgrading to Mojave, Photoshop would still function, but it would not save any work. It claimed that the file already existed and was open (which wasn’t true). Even uninstalling and reinstalling did nothing to change the behavior and, since CS6 is a legacy application, Adobe offers no support to help its CS6 users. And that’s why I now rely on Serif’s Affinity programs for raster, vector, and layout software. They’re 64-bit, they’re affordable purchases rather than subscriptions, and they’re just as powerful as Adobe’s Creative Cloud apps.
>And that’s why I now rely on Serif’s Affinity programs for raster, vector, and layout software.
That will definitely be a personal decision. I can’t speak for Affinity Designer or Photo, but I’ve been going through the tutorials for the newly released Affinity Publisher this week. There are many things I like about it, but it would be totally incorrect to say that it’s just as powerful as InDesign. I haven’t been building up a list (yet) but there are many things I use regularly in InDesign (starting with Object Styles, Preflighting, Packaging, control over importing Word files, and many others) which are lacking in the version 1.71 of Publisher.
Affinity Publisher is not a real replacement for Indesign; it has no book function for one. It seems aimed for brochures or other small publications. That is not to say it won’t do a large book, I’m sure it will, but the functionality of the book function would be missed.
I think you’ve misrepresented the situation, Steve.
Currently, you can download CS6 for free, IF YOU’RE A SUBSCRIBER. https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/using/install-previous-version.html
I’ve done this myself, and used CS6 to open ancient Pagemaker files … on a 64-bit PC!
Will the MAC Catalina upgrade let Adobe CC work the same as it does now? Wait and see…
But Adobe now only allows recent versions to be downloaded, Mac or Windows. You will have to have purchased the perpetual version of CS6 in order to use it:
https://creativepro.com/adobe-removes-older-versions-of-apps-from-creative-cloud.php
If you have a perpetual license, and if you stick to an earlier version of macOS which supports 32-bit applications, you can still use those versions.
I don’t like the new Adobe policy, but that’s NOT what I was writing about in the article. I was merely trying to warn CS6 or earlier users NOT to upgrade to Catalina.
Steve, I appreciate your warning to CS6 users NOT to upgrade to Catalina.
All I’m saying is that I can still use CS6 on my … as a current CC subscriber, without a perpetual license. I expect my luck will last only until the next Microsoft upgrade, though.
The elephant in the room, of course, IS Adobe’s upgrade policy. If an Adobe user can’t open OLD Adobe files with the wonderful new program, then how long will they be able to open the NEW files? Different topic, I know, but it applies to so many programs thesedays.
Many thanks for the heads up!
@Alan, yes, if you have a copy of CS6 installed as a CC subscriber, Adobe will NOT take it away from you. And you should not do a Catalina upgrade.
As I understand it, if you were to upgrade your Windows computer and you needed to re-install CS6, you would have to go to Customer Service (which would recognize that you had previous downloaded it) and they would provide a link to install it again.
We all knew our CS6 apps would fail eventually. That’s why Affinity users are on their forums desperately begging them to add this feature or that. I’m a big Affinity fan but, no, their apps are not as full featured/bloated as Adobe’s are at this point. Whether you can switch or not depends on your particular needs, your ability to work around limitations, and your dislike of Adobe holding your career hostage.
Alan Wilkie wrote above:
“The elephant in the room, of course, IS Adobe’s upgrade policy. If an Adobe user can’t open OLD Adobe files with the wonderful new program, then how long will they be able to open the NEW files? Different topic, I know, but it applies to so many programs these days.”
Since when have new versions of Adobe applications been unable to “unable to open OLD Adobe files with the wonderful new program?” As far as we know, InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and even FrameMaker are capable of opening and editing files from all the way back to the “beginning.” You cannot save back to those older formats, but you don’t lose any content. (Yes, there might be some possibility of re-layout of text due to positive changes in the text engine over time!)
– Dov
One further admonition with regards to new operating system versions and existing application versions:
It isn’t only the 32-bit versus 64-bit issue you need to concern yourself with. Apple (and regrettably increasingly Microsoft) “deprecate” APIs (Application Program Interfaces) in new OS versions where “deprecation” ranges from providing but no longer officially supporting and guaranteeing proper program execution to totally removing the APIs and requiring often costly workarounds and updates to the existing application programs’ new versions. The more sophisticated the application, the more likely such problems manifest themselves. Ironically, the OS vendors tout this OS feature deprecation as a “feature” to application developers such that they can sell new versions. We obviously don’t see it that way!
Some advice. If you really want to try pubic beta versions of operating system or even applications, run them on totally separate non-production systems. Assume that a new OS version will require some update to your applications. Don’t update your production systems in terms of OS and/or applications until the first updates to the new versions appear.
On the Adobe Forums, it is amazing how many “I’ve got to have the latest” geeks immediately move production systems to beta test software and are upset when the applications either don’t install, are non-functional, or crash when least expected and then complain to Adobe. And of course, these users often don’t backup their systems and have no way of reverting to what they had before.
– Dov
Hate this! It’s like saying your ten-year-old car can no longer be serviced. Many hundreds of dollars down the drain. It’s officially off the road and worthless! But please feel free to keep pestering me to upgrade! Adobe and Microsoft (Office) should be shamed. OK, you can’t put many modern upgrades in a ’49 Ford but you can still drive it and get parts when you need them!