I retired MacBook Pro 2016 and got a MacBook air M2. After migration, Photolab hangs on the activiate step. Nothing happened after I type in the activiation code.
Any possible solutons? There is no need for me to upgrade to newer versions at this moment.
Thanks!
Hi there and welcome
Are you running Sequoia on your M2?
PL5 is a bit long in its tooth and is only supported up to macOS 14 Sonoma.
If your one Sonoma, You could try and change the DNS setting to 9.9.9.9 or 1.1.1.1 and see if it connects to the license server.
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According to https://mactracker.ca , a M2 MBA should be able to run a version of macOS prior to Sequoia.
To get the respective installers use Terminal.app or check out mrmacintosh.com
Apple currently offers the following installers on a 2019 iMac
501@iMac ~ $ softwareupdate --list-full-installers
Finding available software
Software Update found the following full installers:
* Title: macOS Sequoia, Version: 15.3.1, Size: 14891477KiB, Build: 24D70, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Sequoia, Version: 15.3, Size: 14889290KiB, Build: 24D60, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Sequoia, Version: 15.2, Size: 14921025KiB, Build: 24C101, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Sequoia, Version: 15.1.1, Size: 14212458KiB, Build: 24B91, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Sequoia, Version: 15.1, Size: 14209591KiB, Build: 24B83, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Sonoma, Version: 14.7.4, Size: 13332546KiB, Build: 23H420, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Sonoma, Version: 14.7.3, Size: 13334287KiB, Build: 23H417, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Sonoma, Version: 14.7.2, Size: 13333067KiB, Build: 23H311, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Sonoma, Version: 14.7.1, Size: 13339062KiB, Build: 23H222, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Ventura, Version: 13.7.4, Size: 11915317KiB, Build: 22H420, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Ventura, Version: 13.7.3, Size: 11915737KiB, Build: 22H417, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Ventura, Version: 13.7.2, Size: 11916651KiB, Build: 22H313, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Ventura, Version: 13.7.1, Size: 11923883KiB, Build: 22H221, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Monterey, Version: 12.7.4, Size: 12117810KiB, Build: 21H1123, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Big Sur, Version: 11.7.10, Size: 12125478KiB, Build: 20G1427, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Catalina, Version: 10.15.7, Size: 8055650KiB, Build: 19H15, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Catalina, Version: 10.15.7, Size: 8055522KiB, Build: 19H2, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Catalina, Version: 10.15.6, Size: 8055450KiB, Build: 19G2021, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Mojave, Version: 10.14.6, Size: 5896894KiB, Build: 18G103, Deferred: NO
* Title: macOS Mojave, Version: 10.14.4, Size: 5894794KiB, Build: 18E2034, Deferred: NO
501@iMac ~ $
Your list will be shorter I presume.
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Thanks for reply. I am going to downgrade to Sonoma and use PL5 Elite until this coming BlackFriday sale.
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Keep checking back; often DxO has a spring sale between now and Black Friday. Their discount pricing changes year-to-year, but in June 2024, they discounted PL7 20% in the spring (compared to 22% for PL8 for Black Friday 2024, which had also tacked on a $10 price increase compared to PL7). If your email address is on DxO’s mailing list, you’ll be notified of a sale, but checking in once a week should cover you as well.
You may already know this, but if not, be aware that to move up to PL8 this spring, or PL9 next fall, you will need a new full version purchase. To qualify for upgrade pricing for PhotoLab, the current policy is that you can only skip one version. So you could have bought an upgrade version from PL5 to PL7, but not from PL5 to PL8+. While that’s a bummer, take some consolation in that you’ve saved a chunk o’change compared to upgrading PL5 each year.
Depending what you’re doing with PhotoLab, how much you’re using it, and what your photo software budget is, PL8 is much better than PL5 IMO, and in PL8 I’m just doing what I could do in PureRaw. But since I’m not on the upgrade path for PureRaw, I upgrade every other version of PhotoLab, which is less expensive for me than switching over to a new full version of PureRaw.
As well as a a big jump in noise reduction in Raw images in PL8 using the newest model,. you’ll see a big performance jump exporting images with noise reduction, going from a 2016 Mac to a new M2 Mac. And there are other significant improvements as well.
I’m not sure I’d want to downgrade the OS just to keep using PL5, but you know your overall situation best, of course.
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All I need from PhotoLab is the noise reduction. Thanks for your information. I will sign up the mailing list and wait for the deal.
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In it for noise reduction, which DxO definitely excels at, and if you’re processing Raw images, not JPGs, you would definitely be better off by buying a full license for DxO PureRAW rather than starting over with a full version license to DxO PhotoLab. It’s much less expensive, it does noise reduction better than PL5 as well as optical corrections, and it should run very fast on your new M2 Mac. Test it first before buying of course.
But at this point, you should also definitely wait, because typically new major versions of PureRAW are released in the spring with a sale price. If you bought PureRAW 4 now, you would have to buy an upgrade to get PR5 in just a few months.
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I am currently running PL5 on Sequoia without problems. However, I did not do a fresh install, so maybe only the activation poses a problem. I would contact the support to see what is possible, maybe there is another reason it is not working.
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