Lightroom 6 on CD won't install- do I have to buy a subscription??

[Darrell2293]

I bought Lightroom 6 in 2015 on cd. When I bought a new Mac with iOS 11 Big Sur, it would not work. My question is, can I upgrade without having to buy a subscription? I don't want to pay over a hundred dollars every year!

[GoldingD]

No

note: not an Adobe employee, none (or extremely few) on this community page are. If an actual Adobe employee replies, I will be pleasantly surprised, as that would be an improvement.

[John Waller]

Same answer to your same question in the Download & Install forum.

Unfortunately no. Lightroom and Lightroom Classic are both subscription only now.

[GoldingD]

WARNING

Ok, this is just a nice polite BE AWARE

As you have posted to the Lightroom Classic community, you may be already aware of this, but.....

The geniuses at Adobe Marketing (not) have mucked up product names. When (IF) you go to subscribe to one of the Adobe Plans, this one may confuse you.

Your old Lightroom v6 (end of life at v6.14), is currently referred to as Lightroom Perpetual (as to separate it from subscription). You can see that in:

Adobe | Cameras supported by Camera Raw 

In the offered plans, and in the above link, you will see a program named Lightroom (Lr). Currently v4.3 This is not the successor of v6. This is also called Lightroom Desktop, it has the nickname Lightroom Cloudy. Lr (Cloudy) runs on your computer, stores and use an Album on the cloud, stores photos on the cloud. It is feature poor compared to Lightroom Classic (LrC). As I am being polite, I will note share my nickname for Lr.

Also, their is Lightroom Classic (LrC) . Currently v10.3. This is what v6 has evolved into. LrC runs on your computer, uses a database, the catalog on your computer, typically you store image on your computer (but they can be anywhere). This is the program you are used to.

PART 2 of Be Aware

In the Adobe Plans, their is a Lightroom Plan, That is for Lightroom Desktop only (Lr)

In the Adobe Plans, their is no Lightroom Classic (LrC) only plan.

Lightroom Classic is included in the Photography Plan (and a few others that cost Oh my gosh) The Photography plan includes PS, Lr, Lrc, Bridge, and a few oddities.

[GoldingD]

Followup

I see you run MACOS. The Adobe Plans are not in the Apple Store. Some have tried. not pretty.