How to keep Lightrom 6 if I buy lightroom 15

[AlanBlockhead]

Hi,

I'd like an answer from an Adobe employee i.e. someone who can represent the company.

I have been absent from photography and post-processing for some time, but I am intending to get back into these.  I own Lightroom 6, and I am happy to move to Lightroom 15 and the subscription model.   BUT I do not want to lose what I own i.e. Lightroom 6.

How can I install Lightroom 15 without overwriting Lightroom 6.  The intent here is that if I ever feel the cost of Lightroom subscription is rising irrationally for a hobbyist photographer, I can move to another tool such as PhotoLab but still edit my pre-install-Lightroom-15 photos in Lightroom 6.

Thanks for your help,

Alan

[Rob_Cullen]

I am not an Adobe employee, but can tell you this-

Lightroom-Classic v15.0.1 requires the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop App to be installed (to manage your annual subscription).

Installing the CC Desktop App WILL CONVERT your Lightroom v6 (Legacy) into a 'Subscription' version (called Lightroom CC2015).

I do not know, but I suspect that installing Lr-Classic will overwrite Lr6.

Lr-Classic will upgrade your Lr6 catalogs - you lose nothing in the upgrade - all your edits are preserved in the updated catalog.

Catalogs opened or used in Lr-Classic are not backwards compatible. ie. LrC catalogs will not be useful in Lr6(Legacy).

So I believe you have two choices only - Stick with Lr6, or accept the future and subscribe to a Lightroom Plan with Lr-Classic (and forget Lr6 forever).

Lightroom v6(Legacy) is now becoming  impossible to re-install as the activation servers no longer exist, and this would be the problem you strike if you needed to wipe your system of all Adobe apps and re-install Lr6 (which you would have to do if you had installed the CC Desktop App).

[AlanBlockhead]

Thanks for the info.

I hope an Adobe employee responds, as that is a measure of their support,
and at $220 AUD a year, you do expect support.

[Rob_Cullen]

This is a User to User forum. Only rarely will you see a post from an Adobe employee.

There is no support for Lightroom v6 (Legacy). Adobe will not help with Lr v6. Support for v6 ended long ago.

It is certain that if you install the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop App (for a trial or to install LrC v15) and you later want to return to Lightroom v6 (Legacy), then you will have to do a complete clean removal of ALL Adobe apps and re-install v6- if that is still possible, and with the problems addressed in this long thread- 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-information-regarding-lightroom-6-x-p...

[AlanBlockhead]

Mate, I am not asking for support of LR 6. What I am asking is how to keep
LR 6 operable if I install LR 15 because I own LR 6.

How do you contact an Adobe employee?

[AxelMatt]

@AlanBlockhead  As @Rob_Cullen wrote there's no more any support of LR 6 (Legacy) from Adobe.

Adobe has stopped selling and supporting LR 6 long time ago.

It isn't possible to have Lightroom 6 (Legacy) and the actual Lightroom Classic version installed side-by-side.

It also don't make sense, because the "old" Lightroom version can't handle the catalog from the recent LR versions.  

Mate, I am not asking for support of LR 6. What I am asking is how to keepLR 6 operable if I install LR 15 because I own LR 6.How do you contact an Adobe employee?
By @AlanBlockhead

This IS asking for support for LR 6. And no Adobe employee will support LR 6

[dj_paige]

Mate, I am not asking for support of LR 6. What I am asking is how to keepLR 6 operable if I install LR 15 because I own LR 6.How do you contact an Adobe employee?
By @AlanBlockhead

This IS asking for support for LR 6. And no Adobe employee will support LR 6

By @AxelMatt

Agreed. Good point, @AxelMatt .

[ExUSA]

There is no guarantee that you can do so. And to contact Adobe, you need to use phone or chat support, but they will tell you they no longer support LR6 and will direct you back to these forums.

Your best bet is to use a different computer for the CC subscription.

[Rob_Cullen]

@ExUSA   "Your best bet is to use a different computer for the CC subscription."- This I fully agree with.!

And perhaps , for the OP, I did not explain well enough in my earlier post-

If the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop App is installed on one computer system with Lr6- then it is no longer Lightroom v6 (Legacy).  It is now Lightroom-CC2015  (The top line in the interface will show this.) Lightroom-CC2015 is a subscription version of the same Lr6 app code , and will stop working without paying the subscription.

[dj_paige]

I don't know if both can be installed at the same time. However, if you decide not to subscribe to the Adobe Photography Plan which includes Lightroom Classic 15 (not Lightroom 15, there is no such thing) then you can re-install Lr 6 (assuming Lr 6 is compatible with your operating system — right now Lr 6 works on Windows 10 and 11, but who knows if it will work on Windows 12). The instructions for re-installing Lr 6 are here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-information-regarding-lightroom-6-x-p...

Be aware that some of the work you did in LrC 15 is not backward compatible to Lr 6. Some of the edits can transfer via XMP, but not all. The LrC 15 Library module still works even after your subscription ends, and so you can export all of your work from LrC 15 if you want to, but there is such a large drop in functionality from LrC 15 to Lr 6 that I can't ever imagine doing that myself.

[johnrellis]

I still have LR 6 installed on my Windows 11 test machine along with LR Classic (currently 15.0.1).  I infrequently run LR 6 for the purposes of testing my plugins and haven't noticed any issues running it.  Before installing LR Classic, make a backup copy of the entire application folder, which on my system is:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom

just in case the Creative Cloud desktop app removes it. It didn't years ago when I first installed the Creative Cloud, and it doesn't overwrite it now when I update LR Classic versions, but just to be safe...

[dj_paige]

I still have LR 6 installed on my Windows 11 test machine along with LR Classic (currently 15.0.1). 

By @johnrellis

Thanks for the info, @johnrellis 

[dj_paige · Accepted solution]

There is also this post which explains how you can have two different versions of Lightroom/Lightroom Classic installed at once. https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/keeping-two-version-of-lightroom-classi...

[AlanBlockhead]

Thanks

[AxelMatt]

@johnrellis Thanks for clarification