multiple versions.

[Karen38243450mjih]

I currently have 3 versions of InDesign showing as installed on my computer, 17.4.2, 18.4 and the updated one 19.4. Do I need the older ones or can I uninstall them to free  up space on my coputer?

[Peter Spier]

How badly do you need space? If it's a crisis I would suggest buying mor disk space.

I would venture to say that most of the advanced users who provide answers here tend to keep at least three older versions installed. You might not "need" them, but you might "want" them at some point because you need collaborate with another user who is using an older version, or you might want to revisit an older project for minor tweaking without the text reflow surprises that often accompany opening an old file in a new version. Once gone, you cannot re-install versions older than the l;ast major release -- Adobe no longer provides the installers or the update patches you need, and the space you recover is generally less than 2 gb per version and hard drives these days tend to run in the hundreds of gigabytes or even terrabytes of space.

[Peter Spier]

I just checked my own system. I have a 1tb SSD with the OS, five versions of InDesign (including CS6) installed, at least two versions each of Photoshop and Illustrator, sundry other applications, and data files for myself and clients, and I still have over 350 gb of free space.

[rob day]

Hi @Karen38243450mjih , I archive (copy) older versions to an external drive rather than uninstalling--on MacOS I can launch the older version even though they are not in my application folder.

If you uninstall, you would have to reinstall an older version in order to run it, and Adobe only lets you install the current and previous versions.

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

My usual advice, if you have the room, is keep the last two versions, especially if the newest starts off a bit buggy (as is usually the case when a new version is released). I also like to keep around the OLDEST one that runs on my particular OS, mostly so I can deal wih any legacy files using Type 1 fonts (CC2022 v17 was the last that could). I also have a backup external boot drive with an older OS (Mojave) that can still run CS6 (to deal with any legacy PageMaker files. which I have 30+ years worth).

So my specific advice to you is keep the v17 for the Type 1 support. You could delete V18 now that V19 is pretty stable, but unless you are fighting for space, I'd keep all of them for the time being.