Unable to access camera raw reliably from Bridge 2025

[intothelens]

I have Adobe Bridge 2025 loaded on my laptop.  It allows me to download and batch rename files.  I also have Elements 2025 loaded on my machine.  From Bridge 2025, I cannot trigger access to Camera Raw - I receive an error message of  "Camera Raw Editing is not enabled".    If I right click on an image and try to open in Camera Raw I receive a message that "camera raw requires a qualifying product".

I have older versions of Bridge and Photoshop and with the older Bridge I can get an older version of  Camera Raw to work BUT - the camera raw file types are limited to older camera versions from years ago.

I now have Bridge 2025 and Elements 2025 since I wanted to use Camera Raw on current camera raw files.  I like Camera Raw's simple UI.     From time to time I can get Bridge 2025 to open camera raw for a .CR3 file by double clicking but not consistently and not more than one image at a time.  I can eget camera raw from Elements but again - it is one image at time.

Any help/ideas on getting Bridge 2025 to provide access to Camera Raw more consistently?  I had thought that Elements 2025 would be viewed as a qualifying product and do not understand why I see that error message.

[John T Smith]

You need to ask program questions in the forum for the program you are using
To ask in the forum for your program please start at https://community.adobe.com/
Moving from Using the Community (which is about the forums) to the Bridge forum

[gary_sc]

To access ACR, you need a "Qualifying Application." Photoshop Express is not a qualifying application, Photoshop is.

As I recall, doesn't Photoshop Express have its own "light" version of ACR? If it still has that, then you do have access to ACR, just the Express version to work with Photoshop Express.

Here is (to me) the best plan for both Photoshop and the full Lightroom family

https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html?sdid=DW3FZVT3&mv=search&mv2=paidsearch&ef_id=CjwKCAjw...

Please note that that is less expensive than getting just Photoshop.

And for full accountability, I do not work for Adobe, I am a non-paid volunteer on these forums.

[ScottyBoyB]

I have a similar question, but I don't have Photoshop. I do have the latest updates of Bridge, Lightroom and Lightroom Classic. I have followed all the troubleshooting tips I can find but without success. Do I have to have Photoshop as well?

[ExUSA]

https://helpx.adobe.com/bridge/kb/camera-raw-editing-not-enabled.html

[ScottyBoyB]

Thank you. Those are the troubleshooting steps I have attempted (several times, in fact), but it didn't help.

[Jeff Arola]

intothelens,

What operating system are you using?

As explained by gary_sc, Photoshop Elements is not a qualifying product for the full version of Camera Raw that ships with applications included in the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, as Photoshop Elements is a separate product from the Adobe Creative Cloud suite of applications.

You should be a able to open more than one Camera Raw file into the Photoshop Elements version of Camera Raw from within the Photoshop Elements 2025 Editor by using File>Open or File>Open in Camera Raw, then selecting multiple images in the Open dialog.

In Adobe Bridge select your files, then right click on one of the files, click Open With and select the Adobe Photoshop Elements Editor 25.0

[intothelens]

Some additional information based on the responses, btw thank you for any help.

This feels like a Bridge issue (see the more detailed issue at bottom of this) so thought I posted in the Bridge forum.  Laptop is Windows Home 11 (Build 21600).  I bought Elements in hopes that it would address the ACR access through Bridge given the error message. 

From a workflow perspective, I prefer to use Bridge to; import, manage, sort and organize all my files.  I also prefer to edit those image files from Camera Raw.  I do minimal editing on most images; clarity, exposure, shadows, highlights; to balance out the image.  I find ACR more direct and simpler to use than other Adobe applications that get more in the way than anything with all of the bells and whistles.  It is just faster for me to hop from Bridge to ACR and back.

The behavior is even odder at the moment.

In Adobe Elements in the File menu, there is an option to “Open in Camera Raw”.  When I select that, a pop-up shows up to select a file(s).   Under help, it also has an “Install Camera Raw” option which I have done.  I even had to close Bridge 2025 for the Camera Raw install to complete successfully which leads me to believe the two interact.   But, If I select “Open in Camera Raw” from Bridge, I get the error that I mentioned above. 

And, it seems more complicated.  Right now, if I double click on a raw file (.CR3 or .RW2) in Bridge then ACR opens with the image.  Yes, that lets me into ACR, at the moment one at a time.  If I right click on the same image and select “Open in Camera Raw” I get the error, need license product.  If I double click a .JPG then Photoshop Elements opens.  For all of the images (.JPG, .CR3, .RW2)  I have associated Photoshop Elements but the Bridge behavior is completely different.  NOTE: Never saw an ability to associate ACR to the extensions.   Trying to find ACR on the hard drive to see if I can associate it.

Since only double click is working, again at the moment, I cannot select a group of images and then open them all with ACR since the right click and File menu options will not work.   And, I keep using at the moment since it stops working at times.  I am scratching my head on the inconsistency.  Screenshot from the double click to ACR added.

[Jeff Arola]

intothelens,

Your screenshot is most interesting because that shows the full version of Camera Raw that would be included with an application such as Photoshop (creative cloud), so what your asking about, as far as i know, is not supposed or intended to work, since Photoshop Elements is not part of the Creative Cloud license that is required in order to use the full Camera Raw plugin, hence that's the reason you get the "camera raw requires a qualifying product" message.

Although the behavior of being able to open the full Camera Raw in Bridge by various means without having a qualifying program/application has been reported in the past, usually it's just been attributed to a hiccup in the licensing.

On the Mac side from Photoshop Elements 3 to Photoshop Elements 8, Bridge was included with Photoshop Elements instead of the Organizer and very often, even though Photoshop Elements had it's own version of ACR like Photoshop Elements 2025 does, users were able to access the full ACR (Camera Raw) version that was installed with Bridge even though Adobe didn't officially support it.

The Camera Raw version you get when using Open in Camera Raw from within the Photoshop Elements 2025 Editor is different in that it has less features than the full ACR version in your screenshot.

Which versions are you older Photoshop and Bridge?

Are they installed on the same Win 11 as Photoshop Elements 2025?

In Bridge you can go to Edit>Preferences>File Type Associations and select the program that is the default for opening files, however, Camera Raw cannot be set because it's automatically the default for Camera Raw files.

Nor can Camera Raw be set in the Windows system settings to open file types in a particular program.

[intothelens]

Quick response.

Yes, I have a much older version of Photoshop (CS6) and Bridge on the same machine.  I was trying to resolve this issue before abandoning the older versions.  NOTE: I cannot have both versions of Bridge active at the same time.  From the last description buying Elements 2025 was not enough to resolve this issue?

Yes, the Bridge 2025 version and Elements 2025 version of ACR look different and the Elements version looks like there is less to it - but still meets my needs.  Just want to access through Bridge rather than Elements/Organizer.

In file associations, it does allow you to pick an application for the different RAW file types (Canon, Nikon, etc).   

I mentioned "at the moment" that double clicking works for RAW in Bridge 2025 - it seems to come and go - to your point of probably some intermittent issue allowing it to work.

[ExUSA]

Bridge doesn't use the limited version of ACR, and Elements is not a qualifying product for Bridge/ACR. So you can stick with Elements, buy a license to Photoshop or Lightroom, or use a different RAW processor.

[intothelens]

Ok, so to close this out.  If I want Bridge 2025 and its ACR to work together to access and manage my RAW files (.CR3 and .RW2), I can do that if I buy (license) the current Lightroom?  I can use ACR through Bridge and not have to work through Lightroom, correct, it just enables what how I am trying to work?

[ExUSA]

The article i linked to explains all that.