Brute force Photoshop CS6 on El Capitan ?

[mikebatho]

I got a spare mac from work because they've got an Adobe CC account, so I may as well be on it, and my old personal imac is a bit long in the tooth. I've had a week of headaches but I've more or less got it (new one) running in a way I can work with. Someone had put Catalina on it and broke its tiny mind, but now we're on Hi Sierra with legacy versions of Illustrator and Photoshop, and it's much happier.

So anyway, my old 2007 imac was running Mavericks, and going downhill for the past 12 months. I'd tried all the usual disk utility remedies, but decided I'd probably benefit from upgrading the OS. So I just upped it to El Capitan.

I'd read the model with my spec could handle ElCap quite happily, and I didn't want to push too far in case some of my old apps wouldn't run.

Imagine my disappointment when I booted up my newly installed ElCap OS to find my old faithful CS6 Photoshop doesn't want to play.

Now... it doesn't flat-out say "Can't use that version with this OS", It loads the app, but when you click on it, or away to another app then back, you just get the spinning wheel of doom.

Is there a fix, or a cheat, or a way of brute forcing it to work? Maybe some TERMINAL witchcraft? I know I have this other work machine now, but it's a loaner, and I'd like the reassurance that my old clapped-out imac still has an old version of Photoshop working, in case of emergencies. I work from home and it would be nice to have a backup.

Thanks folks.

 

[arw]

I remember CS 6 (Photoshop and Bridge) working fine on El Capitan and even High Sierra (Mac Pro 2013 and iMac 2011). No tinkering whatsoever.
There was just this requirement of having Java 6 installed.

macOS 10.13 High Sierra: Will Adobe software work?

macOS 10.13 High Sierra is now available. Will your Adobe apps work with it?

blog.conradchavez.com

 

[mikebatho]

I remember CS 6 (Photoshop and Bridge) working fine on El Capitan and even High Sierra (Mac Pro 2013 and iMac 2011). No tinkering whatsoever.
There was just this requirement of having Java 6 installed.

macOS 10.13 High Sierra: Will Adobe software work?

macOS 10.13 High Sierra is now available. Will your Adobe apps work with it?

blog.conradchavez.com

Actually... progress! By the time I read this I'd already done the Java thing, and now PS.. and Illy will run without the spinny ball, and open files... they're just a little clunky.

I watched a short youtube video of a guy doing a similar java fix, but the link to the java download below the video was dead.

His was a zip file containing 3 folders, which you dragged into Library>Java.

After I installed Java 6, there are only two folders in Library>Java.... and I'm wondering if the youtuber's fix might have worked even better..? But I can't find that Java 6 zip folder anywhere else online...

 

[arw]

After I installed Java 6, there are only two folders in Library>Java.... and I'm wondering if the youtuber's fix might have worked even better..? But I can't find that Java 6 zip folder anywhere else online...

I only installed Java via an installer (from Apple or Oracle).
Then I had a dedicated Java preference pane in system settings where I could initiate Java updates.
Does that still work? That‘s all I ever needed - sorry I couldn‘t be of more help.

 

[organicCPU]

Actually there is no need to install Java 6, it just needs two empty folders:
/System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk
/System/Library/Java/Support/Deploy.bundle

The terminal witchcraft you're looking for, might be that…

To modify the system folder, run El Capitan in rootless mode:

sudo nvram boot-args="rootless=0"

Then create the two folders, that Adobe CS needs:

sudo mkdir -p /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk && sudo mkdir -p /System/Library/Java/Support/Deploy.bundle

After the folders are created, rootless mode can be deactivated again:

sudo nvram -d boot-args