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Bazsl
Inspiring
April 23, 2024
Answered

How install beta and have access to both Photoshop versions from LR Classic?

  • April 23, 2024
  • 3 replies
  • 5364 views

I installed the PS beta. After installation PS beta was not listed in the list of External Editors in LR Classic. I uninstalled PS beta and then had no version of PS shown in the External Editors drop-down. The list was empty. After uninstalling and reinstalling both LR & PS I now see PS 2024 in the External Editors list and everything works.

Is there a way to install the PS beta on Windows 11 and have both PS 2024 and the PS beta appear in the External Editors drop-down in LR Classic so I can use both? Thanks.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer David Ayars

Bazsl, you're right. The advice you got works in Mac but not Windows. Also having wasted time on this, I feel your pain. If you want to try one more time, it will only take a few minutes, and the following will either work or not for you. You'll have to go back to the Creative Cloud app and install beta Photoshop again.

 

Here's the deal: in MacOS, you can easily choose which installed version of Photoshop (PS), whether regular, beta, or an older version of PS you want to use from Edit In in Lightroom Classic (LrC)... at least after changing the External Editor Settings. This is what you see demonstrated in some YouTube videos and help advice online. They're using MacOS.

 

But after you download and install the beta version of PS in Windows, at least as of April 2024, if you use the Edit In command in LrC, you get no choice of PS version, you can't change it in LrC's External Editor Preferences, and the file opens in regular, not beta, PS. So how do you use beta PS from LrC in Windows??

 

You have to do a workaround one time only. In Windows open the Adobe Creative Cloud app. Go back to the Beta tab where you installed the beta version of PS. Once Beta PS is installed, the "Install" button says "Open" instead. Click "Open" for Beta PS in the Adobe Creative Cloud app. Beta PS opens. Leave beta PS open. Also open LrC for Windows, choose a file, right-click and choose Edit In > Adobe Photoshop. The image will open in beta PS. It may just say "Adobe Photoshop" with no mention of "(Beta)" from the Edit In choices or in External Editor Preferences, but it should open in beta PS. You can verify that it did by clicking in PS: Help > About Photoshop and check out the version displayed there.

 

In future edits, after one success as above, you should not need to use the Adobe Creative Cloud app to open PS first. Just use Edit In from LrC for Windows as you did before, and it should open automatically in beta PS. If you want to go back to regular PS, as you may want to do once regular PS includes the beta features you want, just uninstall the beta version of PS from Windows, and only if needed because using it is not an option in LrC, open regular PS first in Adobe Creative Cloud, or if needed reinstall regular PS in Windows from the Adobe Creative Cloud app.

 

LrC in MacOS handles this much better than LrC in Windows. Who knows why?? Not me.

 

 

3 replies

L
Lumigraphics
Legend
April 26, 2024

Mixing the beta and release versions of Photoshop seems to work on the Mac but not Windows. The betas are for testing, not production, and with a beta release you can have all sorts of problems. You should expect things to break.

David Ayars
David AyarsCorrect answer
Participating Frequently
April 24, 2024

Bazsl, you're right. The advice you got works in Mac but not Windows. Also having wasted time on this, I feel your pain. If you want to try one more time, it will only take a few minutes, and the following will either work or not for you. You'll have to go back to the Creative Cloud app and install beta Photoshop again.

 

Here's the deal: in MacOS, you can easily choose which installed version of Photoshop (PS), whether regular, beta, or an older version of PS you want to use from Edit In in Lightroom Classic (LrC)... at least after changing the External Editor Settings. This is what you see demonstrated in some YouTube videos and help advice online. They're using MacOS.

 

But after you download and install the beta version of PS in Windows, at least as of April 2024, if you use the Edit In command in LrC, you get no choice of PS version, you can't change it in LrC's External Editor Preferences, and the file opens in regular, not beta, PS. So how do you use beta PS from LrC in Windows??

 

You have to do a workaround one time only. In Windows open the Adobe Creative Cloud app. Go back to the Beta tab where you installed the beta version of PS. Once Beta PS is installed, the "Install" button says "Open" instead. Click "Open" for Beta PS in the Adobe Creative Cloud app. Beta PS opens. Leave beta PS open. Also open LrC for Windows, choose a file, right-click and choose Edit In > Adobe Photoshop. The image will open in beta PS. It may just say "Adobe Photoshop" with no mention of "(Beta)" from the Edit In choices or in External Editor Preferences, but it should open in beta PS. You can verify that it did by clicking in PS: Help > About Photoshop and check out the version displayed there.

 

In future edits, after one success as above, you should not need to use the Adobe Creative Cloud app to open PS first. Just use Edit In from LrC for Windows as you did before, and it should open automatically in beta PS. If you want to go back to regular PS, as you may want to do once regular PS includes the beta features you want, just uninstall the beta version of PS from Windows, and only if needed because using it is not an option in LrC, open regular PS first in Adobe Creative Cloud, or if needed reinstall regular PS in Windows from the Adobe Creative Cloud app.

 

LrC in MacOS handles this much better than LrC in Windows. Who knows why?? Not me.

 

 

    B
    BazslAuthor
    Inspiring
    April 25, 2024

    Thanks, David. Your method not only works it works better than your message suggests. After following your procedure, close both PS and LRC. Launch the shipping version of PS from Creative Cloud, launch LRC and open a photo using either Ctrl+E or the Edit In menu. Now close both PS and LRC. From this point on always launch PS before you launch LRC and LRC will open photos in the running version of PS regardless of whether the running version of PS is the shipping version or the beta version. The secret is to always launch the version of PS that you want to use before you launch LRC. Thanks again for finding the secret sause to make using the beta easy.

    Bill

      David Ayars
      David Ayars
      Participating Frequently
      April 25, 2024

      Cool. I hadn't noticed that, though it makes sense in light of what I was saying about switching back.

       

      Now I see that after Photoshop Beta is installed in Windows, both versions are listed at Windows' Start button  > Programs. So you probably don't need to use Adobe Creative Cloud to launch PS Beta the first time, or to switch versions; you can probably do it from the Start button (or desktop icons you create), then launch LrC and Edit In your chosen version of PS from there.

       

      Thanks for the follow-up tip!

      Rob_Cullen
      Community Expert
      Rob_CullenCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      April 23, 2024

      I will have a guess at this- and let us know if it works:

      Add Ps Beta as an 'Additional External Editor'.

      You won't open Ps Beta by [Ctrl/Cmd +E]  but it would appear from the [Right Click > Edit In] or [Menu: Photo > Edit In...]

      Add external editors to Lightroom Classic?

       

      TBMK the Default 'Photoshop' that opens from [Ctrl/Cmd + E] is the version that was 'last installed'.

       

       

      Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .
      B
      BazslAuthor
      Inspiring
      April 24, 2024

      Without getting into details, you suggestion did not work. I have wasted most of a day of my life that I will never get back uninstalling both versions of PS and LR in various orders including installing LR and PS beta only and I can not open a photo from LR in PS beta in any of the installation orders I have tried. I will never try to intall PS beta again. Thanks for your susggestion even though it did not work.

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