Adobe Lightroom is now available on the Mac App Store with native M1 support

Adobe released Lightroom version 4.1 with native support for Apple Silicon Macs so users can take full advantage of the hardware when editing photos.

During the "One More Thing" event, Craig Federighi announced that Adobe Lightroom would be the first Adobe app to be made native for the M1 processor. Other Adobe apps are expected to follow in 2021.

Adobe Lightroom is free to download and try for seven days, then users will need to subscribe to one of Adobe's subscription plans to continue using the software. Subscriptions range from a $9.99 per month subscription which gives users access to Lightroom and Photoshop up to a $52.99 per month subscription containing the entire Adobe suite.

Lightroom has long been a popular editing tool on iOS and iPadOS. The simple tools and classic layout provide users with the best environment to edit photos quickly while on the go.

Apps that run natively on the M1 processor will perform much faster and have access to more system features than those being translated with Rosetta 2. Adobe apps built for Intel-based Macs will still run on the M1 processor, and in some cases it will run faster than your old Intel Mac, even though its being translated and not running natively.

5 Comments

MacPro 18 Years · 19845 comments

About 4 years ago

Logging in to CC now on my M1 to download. Can't wait for Photoshop to be updated too, I have the beta but it only has a fraction of the features so far. I wonder if LR Classic is updated too? I see Photoshop and Camera RAW have updates for Intel also.

sflocal 16 Years · 6138 comments

I just bought a 2020 iMac (due to Windows x86 compatibility) and the one thing that could really come back to haunt me is if Adobe decided to stop supporting us Intel Mac users and pull down Lightroom and Photoshop and go all Apple Silicon. I'm rolling the dice Adobe doesn't do that. Many of us Intel Mac users still have years to go before we upgrade our systems.

nicholfd 6 Years · 828 comments

sflocal said:

I just bought a 2020 iMac (due to Windows x86 compatibility) and the one thing that could really come back to haunt me is if Adobe decided to stop supporting us Intel Mac users and pull down Lightroom and Photoshop and go all Apple Silicon. I'm rolling the dice Adobe doesn't do that. Many of us Intel Mac users still have years to go before we upgrade our systems.

I doubt they will do that anytime soon - subscription income is good, easy money.

nicholfd said:

sflocal said:

I just bought a 2020 iMac (due to Windows x86 compatibility) and the one thing that could really come back to haunt me is if Adobe decided to stop supporting us Intel Mac users and pull down Lightroom and Photoshop and go all Apple Silicon. I'm rolling the dice Adobe doesn't do that. Many of us Intel Mac users still have years to go before we upgrade our systems.

I doubt they will do that anytime soon - subscription income is good, easy money.

Adobe at some point will look at metrics data and see that the amount of Intel-Mac users on subscription does not cover the costs of maintaining x86 support. It will happen. It's just when. My guess is when Intel has iMacs and Mac Pros on Apple Silicon, it will be a year or two after that, at the most.

cloudguy 4 Years · 323 comments

sflocal said:

nicholfd said:

sflocal said:

I just bought a 2020 iMac (due to Windows x86 compatibility) and the one thing that could really come back to haunt me is if Adobe decided to stop supporting us Intel Mac users and pull down Lightroom and Photoshop and go all Apple Silicon. I'm rolling the dice Adobe doesn't do that. Many of us Intel Mac users still have years to go before we upgrade our systems.

I doubt they will do that anytime soon - subscription income is good, easy money.

Adobe at some point will look at metrics data and see that the amount of Intel-Mac users on subscription does not cover the costs of maintaining x86 support. It will happen. It's just when. My guess is when Intel has iMacs and Mac Pros on Apple Silicon, it will be a year or two after that, at the most.

All right ... so the hundreds of millions of people with Intel Macs are going to go out and buy M1 Macs in 2 years? While you may wish to believe this, the reality is that 90% of the population isn't going to stop using good tech that meets their needs just because something better is immediately available. You still have people using their Macs from 2012 or 2014, are very proud of that fact, and state that such was a major reason why they chose Mac over Windows in the first place. M1 chips being available isn't going to change their behavior.

Never forget: the market isn't filled with people like you. And for that you should be grateful, because otherwise the massive computing shift from Windows - which literally had 97% of the market - to alternative platforms like iOS would have never happened. At the very least, Windows Phone - which did have some very good points, especially the ones manufactured by Nokia which had excellent cameras, great screens and were nigh indestructible - would have succeeded.