What if I upgrade??

[digartetc]

I have an older (2010) iMac running High Sierra. I may need to upgrade to Catalina but am concerned I'll lose some older Photoshop plug-ins that I love. So my question is if I upgrade and the plug-ins no longer work, would I be able to downgrade back to High Sierra? Thanks in advance.

 

[pigoo3]

I don't think downgrading (in the same manner as upgrading) is possible. I've never done it.

Depending on the age/version of the plug-ins...you will almost certainly will lose some compatibility. You may lose compatibility with some apps as well.

If you wanted to move forward to test things...my suggestion would be to:

1. Clone your drive first on an external drive.
2. Then do the upgrade.
3. See what does & doesn't work.

If you don't like what you see:

1. Nuke the drive (erase the main partition...not the recovery partition).
2. Boot the computer from the external drive with the clone on it.
3. Restore the clone to the internal drive.

Good apps to use for the cloning & restore are Super Duper & CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner).

Another idea is try to find out what the macOS compatibility is of each Photoshop plug-in. If a bunch of them are not compatible with Catalina...maybe sticking with High Sierra is what you got to do (or spend $$$ update/upgrade everything).

HTH,

Nick

 

[pigoo3]

..would I be able to downgrade back to High Sierra?

Short answer = Nope!

At least not easily.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

If things are working well on this machine with the way things are, I advise keeping it that way. Why would you need to upgrade the OS? If you are willing/able to upgrade all of your applications and related things along the way, then you should consider the OS upgrade or even a new Mac as opposed to a legacy 12 year old machine.

Otherwise, keep the machine in a time bubble and continue using it.

 

[pm-r]

I have an older (2010) iMac running High Sierra. I may need to upgrade to Catalina but am concerned

Just in case you were not aware, that (2010) iMac model cannot update to or run Catalina and the latest version it can run is MacOS 10.13: High Sierra
Typical model specs: iMac 27-Inch "Core i5" 2.8 (Mid-2010) Specs (Mid-2010, MC511LL/A, iMac11,3, A1312, 2390): EveryMac.com

I would agree with some of the other members previous comments and just carry on the way you are.


- Patrick
=======

 

[Rod]

Patrick beat me to it, you cannot upgrade that model byond the OS you are already running. So, the question is; why do you think you "may need to upgrade to Catalina"?
We may be able to suggest some workarounds.

 

[digartetc]

Thanks for all of your input. This was my plan - I just bought a Mac Mini and using my 2010 iMac as a 2nd monitor and to have access to an older version of PS with plug-ins that aren't compatible with the latest PS version. I also have a Logitech MX keyboard that isn't recognized by High Sierra. It requires OS 10.15 or higher. It would have been convenient to be able to toggle between the two machines instead of having to use two keyboards which I guess I now have to do since I can't get Catalina anyway. Hohum.

 

[Rod]

Effectively you are running two different computers with two different operating systems so getting them to run off one keyboard simultaneously is not going to work I don't think even if it were compatible with both.
You may be able to use the old device as a 2nd monitor for the Mac Mini but it would be running the same OS as the Mac Mini. You wouldn't be able to access your old version of PS that way.
I'm guessing you will purchase a current version of PS so sadly you may have to do without the old plug-ins. I'd be checking with PS support on that topic.

 

[digartetc]

Not wanting to run both with one keyboard simultaneously. There are Bluetooth toggle keys so you can switch the keyboard to other assigned devices.

 

[Slydude]

Not wanting to run both with one keyboard simultaneously. There are Bluetooth toggle keys so you can switch the keyboard to other assigned devices.

Yes there are such keyboards. Just for clarification those keyboards can work with two different t computers. I've done it and it works well.

 

[digartetc]

Could you tell me which ones they are and I'll check to see if any are compatible with High Sierra. Thanks

 

[Slydude]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LZAK8MM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Amazon.com: Matias FK418BTLS Backlit Bluetooth Wireless Aluminum Keyboard with Numeric Keypad and 4-Device Sync - Compatible with Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows PC (Silver/White) - Blucoil Edition : Electronics

Amazon.com: Matias FK418BTLS Backlit Bluetooth Wireless Aluminum Keyboard with Numeric Keypad and 4-Device Sync - Compatible with Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows PC (Silver/White) - Blucoil Edition : Electronics

www.amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08PKLHT7N/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have used each of these personally. I haven't used the Logitech model with older OS versions but it should work. I didn't notice that it isn't backlit and would love to have that back.

The Matias keyboard worked well but it's not cheap and started having charging issues sooner than I expected it to.

There are other similar keyboards available at various price ranges and they should work.