Adobe Releases Lightroom for Apple M1 and Windows Arm, Adds Apple ProRAW Support

Adobe has announced that the latest version of Adobe Lightroom is now a native app for both Apple computers with the new M1 chip as well as Windows Arm platforms. The company says the app has been “rebuilt to take advantage of the newest performance and power efficiency benefits.”

The rebuilt application will be able to run natively on Apple M1 computers such as the new Mac Mini, Macbook Air, and Macbook Pro as well as computers powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon (for Windows 10) processors. This means that Lightroom is available across all the major desktop (Mac, Win, Intel, Arm), mobile (iOS, Android), and web (lightroom.adobe.com) platforms.

“As we’re getting started on desktop Arm / Apple M1, we’ll continue to optimize for Arm and M1 in subsequent releases,” Adobe’s Sharad Mangalick writes on the Adobe Blog. “And if you’re on an Intel-based computer, don’t worry… we’ll continue to invest in and improve Lightroom for you too.”

Lightroom Classic and Photoshop are not included with this latest release, but they have now been tested and certified to work well with Apple Rosetta emulation. This is progress from the previous situation where support was not certified.

Adobe has not yet made public any specific date for Lightroom Classic or Photoshop native support for Apple M1 or Windows Arm. That said, there is an Apple M1 and Windows Arm native version of Photoshop currently available as a beta app that you can download through the Creative Cloud desktop application.

In addition to the updates around the Apple M1 and Windows Arm support, Adobe Camera Raw has been updated to support Apple ProRAW, the company’s impending new RAW file format. You’ll be able to import and edit images taken in the Apple ProRAW format in the December updates to Camera Raw, Lightroom Classic, or Lightroom (desktop, iOS, Android, lightroom.adobe.com). ProRAW is built using the Adobe DNG file format and specification. Support for ProRAW should now be available as soon as Apple ships the update.

Additionally, Adobe has designed new Lightroom widgets for iOS14 including a quick photo button and access to in-app tutorials from the Widgets screen. They also work on the home screen (Lightroom iOS only, requires iOS14 and later).