lost in Lightroom confusion

[Brizzoluk]

Hi everyone

I need a bit of help with Lightroom versions and functionality as I'm a bit lost with it!

Hopefully one of you nice people can help me with it.

So, I have been running Lightroom 6, which i paid a one of licence for, since about 2012, and have always gotten on fine with it, but I always thought there was a better version with more features around which I thought was Lightroom cc or lightroom classic, are these the same?

So this week I have been on the Adobe website and looked at the subscription packages available and signed up for the 20gb photography package on a free trial for 7 days.

So now I go on my crative cloud homepage and it shows now i have lightroom classic v6.0, is this not what i already had?

When I open it, it just seems to open my lightroom 6?

I have copied the information from the system info below

Am i being stupid here or am i going mad?

Thanks for reading...

Lightroom version: 6.14 [ 1149743 ]
License: Perpetual
Language setting: en
Operating system: Windows 10 - Home Premium Edition
Version: 10.0.22631
Application architecture: x64
System architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 12
Processor speed: 4.2 GHz
Built-in memory: 32682.5 MB
Real memory available to Lightroom: 32682.5 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 652.1 MB (1.9%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 769.2 MB
GDI objects count: 380
USER objects count: 1005
Process handles count: 1279
Memory cache size: 172.8MB / 7914.6MB (2.2%)
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 7
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 47MB / 16341MB (0%)
System DPI setting: 96 DPI
Desktop composition enabled: Yes
Displays: 1) 1920x1080
Input types: Multitouch: No, Integrated touch: No, Integrated pen: No, External touch: No, External pen: No, Keyboard: No

Graphics Processor Info:
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti/PCIe/SSE2

Check OpenGL support: Passed
Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Version: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 566.14
Renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
LanguageVersion: 3.30 NVIDIA via Cg compiler

Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom
Library Path: E:\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog.lrcat

[GoldingD]

First up, do you have more than one computer? I ask because some find that if they install the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop App, they have issues reverting back to the old perpetual Lightroom 6.14. If you have a second computer, Accomplish your test, your trial on it. (I could be wrong)

Second, up, Did you download and install the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop App? It is required to install the Adobe applications in the various Adobe Plans.

https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/creative-cloud-desktop-app-download.html

[Brizzoluk]

Hey GoldingD

No I only have the one computer, running windows 11.

i downloaded the creative cloud desktop app, and downloaded lightroom classic through that.

According to the app its showing that i have Lightroom classic installed, but when I click on it to open it, I'm pretty sure its just opening my old Lightroom 6.

[GoldingD]

Hmm, perhaps because your are using a trial, the install may have not removed the old LrC v6. That makes some sense as doing so could foul you up big time as reinstalling LrC v6 will be very very problematic.

So you probably have two versions installed.

If you bring up that Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop App, and mouse hover over the LrC, you will see that if you click on that icon, LrC should open.

Incidentally, if in the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop App, you select Apps, then if you mouse hover over the LrC, you can verify the version

Not having the old v6.14, I do not know if it would show up in the above as well.

[Brizzoluk]

Ok so i bring up the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop App, and hover my cursor over lightroom classic and it says the same as yours, click to open.

When i hover over it in apps, it says Lightroom classic v6.0, Lightroom 6 doesnt show up in this app.

Its almost like I have to delete Lightroom 6 for lightroom classic to run.

[Per Berntsen]

I have both Lightroom 6 and Lightroom Classic installed, and they are both listed under Installed apps.

When I open LR 6, it identifies as Lightroom CC 2015, which is the subscription version of Lightroom 6.

To verify if LrC is installed, with the File explorer, go to C:\Program Files\Adobe, and see if there is a folder named Adobe Lightroom Classic. If the folder is there, open it, and double-click the file named Lightroom.exe to launch LrC.

       

[GoldingD]

That reminds me, Look for the startup icon with LrC, not Lr.

[Brizzoluk]

Ok thank you Per Berntsen and GoldingD

I think I am getting somewhere...

I searched through my program files folder and found the Lightroom classic.exe and opened it from there.

It opened it and then asked me to upgrade my catolog, which I did, and then Lightroom classic finally opened with my whole catolog seamlessly moved into it!

But then I looked for my old Lightroom 6 and it seemed to have disappeared, so I found it in the program files and opened it from there, which it did but my catolog has gone from there, should I be worried about that?

So now when I go to my apps in the creative cloud desktop app, I have 3 versions of Lightroom there.

Lightroom

Lightroom classic v6.0

Lightroom classic v14.0.1

None of which is my old lightroom 6, why do i have two classic versions, and which one should i be using?

Can my catolog be easily put back into Lightroom 6 if I need to?

Thanks.

Per Berntse

[richardplondon]

If a newer Lightroom Classic version tells you that a Catalog needs to be upgraded (because if was made and worked on under an older software version) - this upgrade is done and then saved to disk as a new copy with a different name. By default, this name will show the LrC version number concerned, at the end.

The Catalog that is being upgraded FROM, still remains behind on disk as well. So if that older software is still present in the computer, it can be told to open that again just as before.

The source images and folders that this older Catalog references are the exact same ones that the upgraded Catalog as used by the newer software is also referencing. They are physically shared across both, in other words, and everything starts out looking the same in relation to those within both Catalogs: library organisation, edits etc.

Further work in either Catalog will now cause them to diverge. A Catalog that is compatible with a newer version cannot be back-converted so that an older version can open it, this works in one direction only.

If you want to go forward with the latest version (as that develops over time) under a subscription plan, then Lightroom 6 becomes redundant. At some point it may come that your hardware / operating system will no longer support it, or that some cybersecurity consideration makes using this no-longer-supported software inappropriate.

If the older software is being discontinued, its respective Catalog can be removed without damage to the newer Catalog. Of course, you would need to leave all the imported images and their folders just as they are. 

Otherwise you should consider any usage of these two versions as 100% independent except that you would need to be careful not to delete any images from disk when removing from one Catalog, or reorganise anything on disk, since the other Catalog may be silently relying on those same images remaining where they were. YOu would get no warning : a bad situation IMO.  So I advise: accept the subscription - which is objectively good monetary value in my judgement - cease using Lr 6 altogether, and don't look back. You can then access the latest features constantly, and a product that is under active development. So any functional issues - and these do arise - are going to receive a new corrective update, which will never happen with Lr6.

[Brizzoluk]

Thanks Richardplondon

So I kind of understand all of that, but after going through it all it seems that lightroom has upgraded the current catolog and not created a new one, I do have backups of the old version though, so I'm hoping I can restore that to Lightroom 6 should I need to?

I have to say tho, after spending a couple of days on the Lightrrom classic I think I'm gonna keep it after the free trial as it runs so much better on my my computer!

Thanks again.

[Per Berntsen]

Adobe's naming of the various Lightroom applications is unfortunate and extremely confusing.

In the beginning (2007) there was only one Lightroom, and when LR 6 was released, it was version 6 of the original Lightroom.

At the same time, the subscription model was introduced, but you could still buy LR 6 as a standalone version for some time. If you started a subscription, you would get "Lightroom CC 2015", which had slightly more features than LR 6.

In 2017, a new, cloud-based version was introduced, with the name "Lightroom".

The original Lightroom was renamed to "Lightroom Classic",  which is now on version 14.

So the three versions you see in the desktop app are

• Lightroom (cloud based, and with less features than Lightroom Classic)
• Lightroom 6 (wrongly called "Lightroom Classic 6.0", there was never a version with that name)
• Lightroom Classic 14.01 (the current version that you should be using)

There is no reason to use the old LR 6 when you have access to the latest LrC.

Although they look and feel very similar, LrC has loads of new features, and has come long way since LR 6, which is nine years old.

Note that catalogs are not backwards compatible, so you cannot open an LrC catalog in LR 6.

If you should want to open LR 6, you will probably find the catalog under File > Open recent.

[Brizzoluk]

It's so confusing, I dont know why it needs to be like that!

You are absolutely right about the different versions, it has decided that my old lightroom 6 is now Lightroom classic v6.0!

And i think i'm gonna keep the new Lightroom after the trial as it runs so much better on my computer, Lightroom 6 was very laggy and now I understand why.

Thanks again.