Skip to main content
Participant
April 30, 2015
Answered

P: Activation or Deactivation versions of Lightroom 6

  • April 30, 2015
  • 61 replies
  • 103481 views

Hello,

I have installed LR 6 on new machine. I can't activate it unless deactivated on other machine. So on other machine I did "Sign out". There is a message - "it will deactivate LR on this machine" - I clicked OK. Still can't activate. On my Adobe account there is nothing under Plans and payment->Activated devices.

So haw can I use a product on new machine? I know LR 6 is quite old, but still it is something I purchuased and I want to use.

Correct answer CMass

Adobe no longer supports Lightroom 6.14 (perpetual).

What does this mean?

  • Installers, one-on-one technical support, security fixes, and bug fixes are not available for perpetual license versions. User to user led support is available through our Adobe Support Community.


For the latest updates and fixes please subscribe to a Photography, Lightroom, or Creative Cloud plan. Please be aware that there are two versions of Lightroom today. 

61 replies

Participant
July 15, 2021

Lightroom 6 will not load on new PC. I get a pop up window saying that the serial number is already in use by the maximum allowed omputers. I must deactivate the old computer or provide another valid serial number to use Lightroom 6 on my new PC...My old PC is gone...There is a bullet that says to retry...That doesn't work. Help !!!

Rob_Cullen
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 15, 2021

CONTACT ADOBE SUPPORT from this Chat link:  Be Signed-In here with your Adobe ID and allow cookies in your web browser.

Online Chat: https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html?rghtup=autoOpen

Ask only for DEACTIVATION of Lr6.

If the agent can't do it, ask for a supervisor and persevere.   Deactivation is all they can help you with because Lr6 is discontinued and unsupported software.

It is happening more often that some Support Staff say it cannot be done, yet others kindly oblige.

 

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.0, Photoshop 27.0, ACR 18.0, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0 .
Participant
July 28, 2021

I have the same problem as above. If  the mentioned Online Chat Link above is activated, I see only a page titled "Welcome to Adobe Customer Care! Need Help?"
Where can I activate the chat? When "Get started" is clicked, then only another page opens with lots of information and other links, but still I can't find access to the chat.

Can anyone help me here?

Participant
June 30, 2021

I have Lightroom 6, my old computer died so i had to get a new one, but now it won't allow me to activate as saying the serial number is already used by the maximum allowed computers. How do i force it to drop any computers i know longer have to allow to continue using Lightroom on my device?

 

Thank you.

AxelMatt
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 30, 2021

You have to talk to Adobe's customer support. They're the only ones who can reset the number of activations. 

Click the following to contact Adobe customer support staff for help:   
https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/support.html 
Please signed in with your Adobe ID and allow cookies in your web browser for this to work. The link refer to the US website. If you are not located in the US, the site should redirect to the page 

appropriate to the region associated with your ID. 
Click the chat icon at the bottom right of the page to open a chat session. Typing AGENT into the chat window should connect you directly to an support employee. 

My System: Intel i7-8700K - 64GB RAM - NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 - Windows 11 Pro 25H2 -- LR-Classic 15 - Photoshop 27 - Nik Collection 8 - PureRAW 5 - Topaz Photo
Participant
July 21, 2021

Hi Axel. I have the same issue, and will have my copy of LR6 blocked after 15 more days.

 

I follow your link, and disable all cookie/tracking protection and refresh, but there is no chat window, and no indication of how to contact Adobe agents. (I am already signed in.)

 

I am in Spain, but the page does not redirect. However, I don't speak Spanish, so that would not be useful to me anyway.

Inspiring
June 14, 2021

If I have a legitimate copy of Lightroom 6 on a CD with a legitimate License Key, and the software is compatible with my computers operating system, will I still be able to activate the software once it has been installed. 

 

A simple YES or NO answer will suffice. 

kglad
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 14, 2021

if it's not currently activated on two other computers, yes.  otherwise, no.

Inspiring
June 14, 2021

Thank you. Greatly appreciated. 

Participant
May 24, 2021

In 2018 I bought licence of LR6 from an Agent . I  decided to buy it , because I was using LR not regularly 

, only for private edition of my pictures taking also for own usage ( not commercial) , thats why  offline version was a perfect for me . This year I lost my computer ( SSD was bouned out) , bought new one , install LR6 and ....: You have to deactivate old computer . I Can't do it , how? Customer service wan't to help me , because they do not support any more LR 6  and tehy offer of course online version paid month by month . It's crazy , because I do not want to pay for nothing , using LR from time to time , maybe 3-4 times a year .  I feel robbed  by Adobe ! ! ! :o((  . really . It's against also a law , because If I bought something I have all rights  , and ADOBE  close this possibility ! 

JP Hess
Inspiring
May 24, 2021

2018 is three years ago, and the whole Adobe Lightroom platform has changed. Unfortunately for you and many others, Lightroom 6 is totally obsolete, completely unsupported, and no longer even operable on some older operating systems. However, I have seen reported instances of some users who have contacted Adobe and asked to have their activations reset and have had success. There is nothing anyone on this forum we can do for you because this is a user supported forum. Here is a link where you can contact Adobe support via live chat. Give it a try, asking for a reset of your activations. I don't know if Adobe is still doing that, but it's your only option at this point.

https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html?step=LTRM_membership-account-payment_cancel-your-membership_stillNeedHelp 

Participant
May 25, 2021

Thank You Jim . I contacted before to Adobe customer support by chat ( few times ) and they do not support LR6 any more . You're right . I contacted also Adobe Germany by phone - ther tried to help but their server do not see my licence as active , was switched off . Seller who sold me it in 2018 ... do not exist any more , company closed , phone switched off . Lost !  Today I decided to buy AdobePhotoshop Ele , also offline version , because I'm using such tool temprorarly , only private usage . 

Again thanky You for Your help . Tomas

Participant
March 10, 2021

I made the mistake of upgrading to Lightroom Classic since my wife has an Iphone and the version of Lightroom I had is unable to read the file type.

 

I canceled my Lightroom Classic member plan due to the price I was paying for little benefit.  This resulted in me paying an additional $20 cancelation fee and no longer being able to use my previous version due to being unable to deactivate my license key.

 

I have spent an hour trying to figure out how to contact Adobe support and as far as I can tell they have made it impossible unless I again subscribe to one of their plans and likely get hit with another cancelation fee.

 

What am I supposed to do and how much more time do I need to sink into this?  Why am I being punished for trying the newest version of their software.  I really hate this company in regards to their practices in both software protection, consumer tracking, and advertising.  They make good products, but are horrible in every other regard.  

TheDigitalDog
Inspiring
March 10, 2021

This is a user to user support forum. You will have to deal with Adobe directly. 

To provide feedback and suggestions about what you desire from Adobe, you should go here and comment:
https://feedback.photoshop.com/categories/products/5f5f2090785c1f1e6cc40864
For Camera Raw, use the Photoshop fourm.

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
Participant
March 16, 2021

That is funny, Adobe says that the forum is the contact for Adobe Lightroom 6.

 

https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/what-contact-options.html

 

I would have been able to contact their support if I had tried before canceling my lightroom subscription that I had to pay an extra $20 fee to cancel.

 

So to summarize, I purchased a subscription to the new Lightroom service that they call "classic".  I cancel due to price and all the extra software it requires me to have installed on my system.  The cancelation fee was an extra $20.

 

I now have less than a month to use my original product Adobe Lightroom 6 since I did not unregister before uninstalling and I have no way to contact support.  Their support portal tells me to come to the forums and the forums tell me go provide feedback for a product they no longer care about.

 

How about they turn off the license protection if they are not going to manage it anymore?

Participant
January 29, 2021

Hello,

 

I have once again forgotten to deaktivate my Lightrrom before reinstalling my OS.

I would love to contact support to reset the activation-regestriation but I have no idea where and how I can contact support. No phone numbers, no chat, nada to be found on the adobe website ...

Can anybody help please?

 

Thanks Thomas 

Participant
January 29, 2021

Found a support phone number , very helpful and resolved. Please ignore this message, it seems very difficult to find ways to contact Adobe Support via the website. 

danielt34236361
Participant
April 5, 2021

Where did you find the support number? It's quite impossible to find adequate support for this product. I can't find any way to engage them through chat, email, or phone.

Inspiring
January 3, 2021

Hello,

recently I switched to a new notebook, after LR6 installation and 'sign in' it cannot be used w/o the error desribed at this Adobe website error-activation-limit-reached . I tried everything which is described at this link, e.g. my old notbook shows now (after a new 'sign in' try) the same error as my new notbook. So currently I have LR6 only my desktop PC running well. Can someone help me out of this dead end, please?

 

Happy new year!

 

Michael

Legend
January 3, 2021

If you tried everything on the page, you've contacted support. What do they have to say about the problem? Is this a one-time purchase, or a Creative Cloud subscription?

Inspiring
January 3, 2021

Lightroom 6 is (in my case) a perpetual purchase / license. I could not find any option to contact the support. The different support websites link to each other so you will follow a circle w/o any chat option or phone number on each of them (they tell about it but there is nothing!) 😞 .

E-mail support is in general not provided, as I found out during my surfing.

My last chance is this forum where Adobe employees sometimes read posts and help users.

Participant
December 7, 2020

Hi,

 

I bought a new desktop. I uninstalled lightroom 6 on my previous desktop. When i tried to install lightroom 6 on my new desktop, it says i have already 2 versions installed. How can i fix this?

 

Thank you

 

{Moved from Lightroom Cloud to Lightroom Classic Forum by Moderator} 

Participant
April 30, 2015

Deactivate does not appear in the Help menu of Lightroom 6 and yet I'm asked to deactivate a prior installation before I can finish installing a new installation. Where is the Deactivate option located? Every other Adobe product I've used has Deactivate located under Help.

99jon
Genius
April 30, 2015

Simply use the uninstaller.

Participant
August 12, 2020

Hello there community,
I purchased Lightroom 6 in September 2018 and it worked fine for a while. I switched to another laptop, also OK. After a while, I started to get the message that the serial number was already in use on the maximum of allowed computers. I double and triple checked my old laptop. Nothing is on there anymore. Is there any way to check which laptops/computers are connected to the serial number and disconnect them?
Thank you very much and have a lovely day!

The customer support service told me they don't deal with non-CC versions anymore. However, I found the following information

"CS6, CS5, CS4, Acrobat XI, Acrobat X, or Acrobat 9

A single license for Adobe CS6 and earlier applications lets you install an app on two computers. However, you can use the application on only one computer at a time.

To install the application on a third computer, deactivate the application on the computer on which you no longer want to use the software. Then, activate it on the new computer.

1. Can't access your old computer? If you can't access your previous computer (for example, you reformatted the hard drive or lost the computer), don't worry. We can help you deactivate your app from your old device. Make sure that you have your serial number  or Adobe ID  handy, and then contact us ."
https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/error-activation-limit-reached-sign.html#CS6CS5CS4AcrobatXIAcrobatXorAcrobat9

JohanElzenga
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 12, 2020

log into accounts.adobe.com

-- Johan W. Elzenga
Participant
August 12, 2020

The customer support service told me they don't deal with non-CC versions anymore. However, I found the following information

"CS6, CS5, CS4, Acrobat XI, Acrobat X, or Acrobat 9

A single license for Adobe CS6 and earlier applications lets you install an app on two computers. However, you can use the application on only one computer at a time.

To install the application on a third computer, deactivate the application on the computer on which you no longer want to use the software. Then, activate it on the new computer.

1. Can't access your old computer? If you can't access your previous computer (for example, you reformatted the hard drive or lost the computer), don't worry. We can help you deactivate your app from your old device. Make sure that you have your serial number  or Adobe ID  handy, and then contact us ."
https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/error-activation-limit-reached-sign.html#CS6CS5CS...

hansw99443282
Participant
July 31, 2020

Hi adobe,

can anyone help me with this and make an <activation reset> for LightRoom classic and my account?

Thanks!

Kind rgs Hans 

 

Software message

 

dj_paige
Legend
July 31, 2020

You have to contact Adobe directly, they will be able to de-active Lightroom on other computers.

hansw99443282
Participant
July 31, 2020

Hi.

thanks.

So far i could not find a direct touch point (emaiL, chat, or ... ) at all ;-( on my private account,

just faq, community, blog, etc. ... _ no @mail or phone or ....

Link clicking is just a run in a circle 😉

 

May be I am lucky and adobe is here too