Advice for a casual Lightroom 6.0 owner, who don't take pictures very often?

Question

I bought the lightroom products many years ago to use for editing my photos mostly taken on vacations.
Today I spend almost an hour to figure out how to reinstall the app on a new PC. All the download links for my previously bought Lightroom version on my Adobe account have been removed. (Without notice)

I have spend many many hours editing and I liked the non destructive editing in Lightroom.
But I see now, where I have realized Adobe don't want me to continue without a paid plan, that all the editing is somehow lost if I can't use Lightroom 6.0 in the future.

I almost haven't used my DSLR camera for two years so I will not pay for a plan.
Should I give up on Adobe and export all my edited photos while I still can, or will I still be able to use LR 6.0 if I keep the install file I got today?

What alternatives is there for a casual user, where I don't risk loosing my editing work, if the company decides to pull the plug?

dj_paige · Accepted Answer

What alternatives is there for a casual user, where I don't risk loosing my editing work, if the company decides to pull the plug? As far as I know, Adobe has NEVER "pulled the plug" on Lightroom software. Maybe you won't be able to download it after a certain date, but installed software should still work. As others have said, when you download Lr 6.14 you ought to save the installer file someplace where you can find it and use it again in the future. What does happen sometimes is that the operating system updates, and then the software stops working. This is not a deliberate decision by Adobe, this is caused operating system changes. Hwoever, if your only choice is to use old software, then regardless of the cause, you need to be prepared to maintain your work somehow. Exporting photos with metadata is a way to do this.

DS256 · Answer

I'm running LR 6.14 on an old 2009 Macbook I use for travelling. As @dj_paige mentioned, I am at the mercy of Apple since I can't update my MACos to a version to support LrC. However, for what I need for travelling, LR 6.14 does the trick. Others here have documented how to upload.

As to your query, the subscription model is what it is. I resisted upgrading but finally did and have been very happy with the frequency of new features. Unlike you, I do use LrC regularily.

It sounds like you may be better off with one of the free photo editting programs. I know some 3rd party editting programs can read the LR XMP sidecar files with your RAW pictures. If you have not been shooting RAW, your LR changes to your JPG will be in the JPG file. No recommendations.

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