CS6 Illustrator on Mac OSX 10.15 Catalina - anyone managed to run it?

I was browsing Internet for some hints, but did not find anything yet. And the communication is a bit missleading, one say it won't work, becuase of 32-bit references, another claim it should work, because CS6 Illustrator itself is 64-bit.

Ended up after install with:

and after clicking the icon:

“Adobe Illustrator CS6” needs to be updated.

enter image description here

according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator

Adobe Mercury Performance System, 64-bit memory support, new user interface, gradient on a stroke, pattern creator tool, ImageTrace (replaces Live Trace)

From the OSX system information:

Adobe Illustrator CS6:

  Version:  682
  Obtained from:    Identified Developer
  Last Modified:    19/08/2019, 14:06
  Signed by:    Developer ID Application: Adobe Systems, Inc., Developer ID Certification Authority, Apple Root CA
  Location: /Applications/Adobe Illustrator CS6/Adobe Illustrator.app
  Kind: 64-bit
  Get Info String:  16.0.0, Copyright © 1987-2012 Adobe Systems Inc.  All rights reserved.

so it is 64bit

Solution 1:

I was able to get Photoshop CS6 to work with the following. Might work for Illustrator.

package contents > contents > MacOS and launch the executable

(to find the package contents, find the file "Adobe Photoshop CS6.app" in the Apps folder, right-click and select "Show Package Content")

Solution 2:

Here's how I got it working:

Move /Applications/Adobe Illustrator CS6/Plug-ins/Illustrator Formats/IdeaFileFormat.aip out of the Plug-ins folder.
Rename /Library/Application Support/Adobe/APE to APE - disabled.
Right-click /Applications/Adobe Illustrator CS6/Adobe Illustrator CS6.app and select Show Package Contents.
Make an alias of Contents/MacOS/Adobe Illustrator and move it to /Applications.
Double-click the alias.

This is pretty crash-prone, and the Dock icon isn't fully functional, but I've used it a few times to update files and it gets the job done.

If I had a Creative Cloud license like the OP, I'd just use the current versions. But I don't use Illustrator or other Adobe software often enough to justify the high subscription price (especially considering many bugs still don't get fixed even with this forced maintenance fee).

Solution 3:

It won't work anymore. Once you update to Catalina. They need to update the app to 64-bit, so we can download it again and install it on our device.

Solution 4:

No, I did not manage to run Illustrator CS6 in macOS 10.15 Catalina, even if CS6 is 64-bit. I have some related advice, though (hope it fits in here).

I have an Enterprise license allowing me to install the newest versions of most Adobe software. So I uninstalled Illustrator CS6, then I ran the Creative Cloud app for installing the last version (Illustrator 23.1.1). However, it crashes after 5% of the installation process with this error message:

FATAL: Error (Code = 151) executing in command 'CreateMacAliasCommand' for package: 'AdobeColorCommonSetRGB_1_0-mul', version:1.1.4
FATAL: Error occurred in install of package (Name: AdobeColorCommonSetRGB_1_0-mul Version: 1.1.4). Error code: '151'
WARN: Unable to delete file at "/Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Recommended".

So apparently it has some issues with installing ColorSync profiles. Adobe is not able to help with this issue so far. Their main advice is to downgrade to macOS 10.14 Mojave.

However, since I ran into this issue, I tried to do it in a different way on my other Mac: I updated from Illustrator CS6 to the latest version (23.1.1) before upgrading to macOS 10.15 Catalina. This worked fine, so on that computer I can run Illustrator without issues.

So for those who plan to upgrade to Catalina and have the ability to update to a newer version of Illustrator, my advice is to update Illustrator first.