Transferring Lightroom Classic to MacBook Pro M1: A Frustrating Experience

When Apple released the M1 Mac, I was excited to upgrade my MacBook Pro and take advantage of its improved performance. However, transferring my Lightroom Classic software from my old late 2013 MacBook Pro to the new M1 Mac proved to be a more challenging task than I expected.

I used Apple's Migration Assistant to transfer all of my data from the old computer to the new one, including my entire 2013 Mac environment. But when it came to Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, things didn't go as smoothly. Adobe's software was not compatible with the M1 chip, and I couldn't get either program to work properly.

I spent hours on the phone with Adobe technical support, but they were unable to help me resolve the issue. They eventually managed to load a Rosetta copy of Lightroom Classic onto another login on my computer, but it didn't look right and didn't function as expected.

I also tried changing the operating system from Big Sur to see if that would fix the problem, but unfortunately, it did not. It seems that the issue is with the M1 chip or graphics card rather than the OS.

Other users in this community have reported similar issues with Lightroom Classic and the M1 Mac, so I'm not alone in my frustration. However, one user did manage to get Lightroom Classic working on their MacBook Air by downgrading from Monterey, which suggests that there may be a solution available.

For now, I'll be holding off on using Lightroom Classic until Adobe can provide a more suitable version of the software for the M1 Mac. If you're in a similar situation, you may want to consider waiting as well or exploring other photo editing options.

Macbook pro m1 lightroom