I want to transfer LR6 from an old laptop to a new one - how?

[Nigel_O]

My (very) old laptop is on its last legs, so I've taken the plunge and bought myself a shiny new i7 ThinkPad.

I've managed to re-install all my apps apart from Lightroom. I have the original installation CD and the product is registered to my Adobe account.

However, Adobe doesn't provide any live download links and the new laptop (predictably) doesn't have an optical drive. I'm loathed to download links from obscure websites I've never seen before.

When I bought LR6, it was a one-off cost north of £100 for a 'lifetime' licence. I'm not inclined to start paying a monthly cost for something I've already bought a lifetime licence for.

The Adobe support chatbot was worse than useless - is there a real human that can help?

[Rob_Cullen]

You have several hurdles that may be higher than you can accomplish!

1) Lr6 has long past 'end of life' and is not supported by Adobe.

2) Download sites are no longer available, although some suggest a 'Wayback Archive' still has the 6.14 exe.

3) Lr6 has not been shown to be compatible with Windows-11

4) If you exceeded the two activations allowed you cannot activate a further installation without de-activating others.

5) And 4) is even doubtful if Activation as actually possible as Activation servers at Adobe have been permanently closed for Lightroom-6 installs. Some forum posts suggest an 'offline' procedure can work.

For the cost of two cafe coffees, or a hamburger, once a month you can have the fully compatible collection of photography apps for your shiny new Thinkpad.  You might be amazed by the improvements made in the latest v13.5 of Lightroom-Classic in the 'Photography Plan 20GB'.

@ BUY PHOTOGRAPHY PLANS

[Nigel_O]

So near, but so far....

On my old laptop, I replaced the CD drive with an extra HD. So - I re-fitted the old CD drive, then copied the contents of the CD to an external HD. I then accessed the image of the CD from the new laptop and installed LR6. I even had the 24-digit code to activate the product.

I was feeling REALLY smug, up to the point when I then launched the software. It asked me to sign in to my Adobe account, which I did, but then nothing happened.

My understanding is that Adobe have turned off the activation servers for LR6, so nobody on the planet will ever be able to re-install it again.

It feels to me like Adobe are failing their obligations here. they can't sell a 'lifetime licence' for a product and then decline to allow users to re-install it.

Do I have any recourse or ability to speak to someone at Adobe to get the app activated?

[Nigel_O]

PS - I don't mind that LR6 is unsupported - I'm not asking them to help me with the app. I work in software (SaaS, so no issue with legacy licencing) but I can't see how they can simply 'close the doors' on LR6 like this

[dj_paige · Accepted solution]

Try the offline activation:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/download-install-discussions/lightroom-6-on-a-new-pc/m-p/14638713#M58...

[Nigel_O]

Perfect! I now have LR6 up and running (usefull still having the old laptop around while I'm getting the new one up and running...)

Thanks so much for the help - it's very much appreciated.

[Nigel_O]

And it was going so well....

Thanks to the excellent help up-thread, I had LR6 installed on my new laptop and even got to edit a few photos.

However, when I launched it earlier this week, I got a splash screen thanking me for choosing Lightroom and telling me about sharing data - as soon as I click OK, Lightroom closes down.

I've done a bit of searching, reinstalled the app and deleted the preferences file but to no avail.

Any ideas?

[dj_paige]

So not only is Lr 6 unsupported (which you say you don't mind) but we here in this forum have limited ability to help as well, since the software is 9-10 years old now, and few of us still run Lr 6. Hence, your problems would go away entirely if you upgrade to the current Lightroom Classic.

I've done a bit of searching, reinstalled the app and deleted the preferences file but to no avail.

Did you use the off-line activation procedure when you re-installed? If yes, then I have no further suggestions.

[Nigel_O]

Yes - I used offline activation to activate the installation on my new laptop - worked fine for a couple of weeks and now just crashes.

I unerstand about it being an old app now, but when I bought it, I purchased a 'perpetual' licence and I'm just a bit miffed that I can't use it now. I'm only a very amateur 'tog and I can sometimes go several months between editing sessions, so a subscription model really doesn't suit my use-case.

[dj_paige]

Perpetual license does not mean it will continue to work x years into the future. It means you still own the license x years into the future.

But anyway, you might want to try some non-Adobe software.

[Lumigraphics]

You might have better luck running it on an old computer with, say, Windows 7. Lightroom 6 has not been updated for compatibility with Windows 11 and may just fail at any point.

[Nigel_O]

You're all correct of course! I know that no sftware company can guarantee compatibility with future operating systems.

I suppose I'm just annoyed with myself that I was expecting that LR6 would be really quick after I upgraded from my 10 year old laptop.

I'm just going to have to man up and spend some money....

[Nigel_O]

Success! (of sorts)

As I mentioned above, I cn sometime go several months without taking and editing photos. I looked at a few LR alternatives and anything worth having was still going to cost money. So - I tried a different approach...

Because my new laptop comes with Win11 Pro, I can have Hyper-V.    So, I've installed a Win10 virtual machine, installed LR6 to the VM (I had to un-install it from the laptop first to release the activation). I also had to re-use the offline activation method mentioned earlier to activate the new installation.

Everything is working fine. OK, it's a bit of a faff having to launch a VM and then launch LR, but for the infrequent use and very modest editing I do, it's worth the minor inconvenience.

[dj_paige]

Not at all clear why you needed the Virtual Machine.

What you did should work in Windows 11 without the Virtual Machine.

[Nigel_O]

I agree - it should have worked directly in Win11. Indeed it DID work for a few days, but quite soon after getting it running, it started crashing immediately after launch. There were lots of Google hits for "Lightroom 6 crashing at launch" and none of the solutions worked, hence resorting to a VM