Participant

Answered

P: Activation or Deactivation versions of Lightroom 6

Forum|Forum|10 years ago
April 30, 2015
61 replies
104037 views

Hello,

I have installed LR 6 on new machine. I can't activate it unless deactivated on other machine. So on other machine I did "Sign out". There is a message - "it will deactivate LR on this machine" - I clicked OK. Still can't activate. On my Adobe account there is nothing under Plans and payment->Activated devices.

So haw can I use a product on new machine? I know LR 6 is quite old, but still it is something I purchuased and I want to use.

Correct answer CMass

Adobe no longer supports Lightroom 6.14 (perpetual).

What does this mean?

Installers, one-on-one technical support, security fixes, and bug fixes are not available for perpetual license versions. User to user led support is available through our Adobe Support Community.

For the latest updates and fixes please subscribe to a Photography, Lightroom, or Creative Cloud plan. Please be aware that there are two versions of Lightroom today.

Lightroom Classic (desktop-based) would be the version you want if you prefer the same layout as the Lightroom you're used to. (Available via the Photography & Creative Cloud All Apps plans.)
Lightroom (cloud-based) allows you to sync across all your devices. (Available via Photograhy, Lightroom & Creative Cloud All Apps plans. )

Show previous replies

T

Terry5D23

Participant

Lightroom 6 will not load on new PC. I get a pop up window saying that the serial number is already in use by the maximum allowed omputers. I must deactivate the old computer or provide another valid serial number to use Lightroom 6 on my new PC...My old PC is gone...There is a bullet that says to retry...That doesn't work. Help !!!

Rob_Cullen

Community Expert

CONTACT ADOBE SUPPORT from this Chat link: Be Signed-In here with your Adobe ID and allow cookies in your web browser.

Online Chat: https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html?rghtup=autoOpen

Ask only for DEACTIVATION of Lr6.

If the agent can't do it, ask for a supervisor and persevere. Deactivation is all they can help you with because Lr6 is discontinued and unsupported software.

It is happening more often that some Support Staff say it cannot be done, yet others kindly oblige.

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 .

H

HP-Max

Participant

I have the same problem as above. If the mentioned Online Chat Link above is activated, I see only a page titled "Welcome to Adobe Customer Care! Need Help?"
Where can I activate the chat? When "Get started" is clicked, then only another page opens with lots of information and other links, but still I can't find access to the chat.

Can anyone help me here?

D

defaulton4aith5m0gt

Participant

I have Lightroom 6, my old computer died so i had to get a new one, but now it won't allow me to activate as saying the serial number is already used by the maximum allowed computers. How do i force it to drop any computers i know longer have to allow to continue using Lightroom on my device?

Thank you.

AxelMatt

Community Expert

You have to talk to Adobe's customer support. They're the only ones who can reset the number of activations.

Click the following to contact Adobe customer support staff for help:
https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/support.html
Please signed in with your Adobe ID and allow cookies in your web browser for this to work. The link refer to the US website. If you are not located in the US, the site should redirect to the page

appropriate to the region associated with your ID.
Click the chat icon at the bottom right of the page to open a chat session. Typing AGENT into the chat window should connect you directly to an support employee.

My System: Intel i7-8700K - 64GB RAM - NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 - Windows 11 Pro 25H2 -- LR-Classic 15 - Photoshop 27 - Nik Collection 8 - PureRAW 6 - Topaz Photo AI

J

Justin5C92

Participant

Hi Axel. I have the same issue, and will have my copy of LR6 blocked after 15 more days.

I follow your link, and disable all cookie/tracking protection and refresh, but there is no chat window, and no indication of how to contact Adobe agents. (I am already signed in.)

I am in Spain, but the page does not redirect. However, I don't speak Spanish, so that would not be useful to me anyway.

J

johnc5555815

Inspiring

If I have a legitimate copy of Lightroom 6 on a CD with a legitimate License Key, and the software is compatible with my computers operating system, will I still be able to activate the software once it has been installed.

A simple YES or NO answer will suffice.

kglad

Community Expert

if it's not currently activated on two other computers, yes. otherwise, no.

J

johnc5555815

Inspiring

Thank you. Greatly appreciated.

T

Tomasz5E73

Participant

In 2018 I bought licence of LR6 from an Agent . I decided to buy it , because I was using LR not regularly

, only for private edition of my pictures taking also for own usage ( not commercial) , thats why offline version was a perfect for me . This year I lost my computer ( SSD was bouned out) , bought new one , install LR6 and ....: You have to deactivate old computer . I Can't do it , how? Customer service wan't to help me , because they do not support any more LR 6 and tehy offer of course online version paid month by month . It's crazy , because I do not want to pay for nothing , using LR from time to time , maybe 3-4 times a year . I feel robbed by Adobe ! ! ! :o(( . really . It's against also a law , because If I bought something I have all rights , and ADOBE close this possibility !

JP Hess

Inspiring

2018 is three years ago, and the whole Adobe Lightroom platform has changed. Unfortunately for you and many others, Lightroom 6 is totally obsolete, completely unsupported, and no longer even operable on some older operating systems. However, I have seen reported instances of some users who have contacted Adobe and asked to have their activations reset and have had success. There is nothing anyone on this forum we can do for you because this is a user supported forum. Here is a link where you can contact Adobe support via live chat. Give it a try, asking for a reset of your activations. I don't know if Adobe is still doing that, but it's your only option at this point.

https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html?step=LTRM_membership-account-payment_cancel-your-membership_stillNeedHelp

T

Tomasz5E73

Participant

Thank You Jim . I contacted before to Adobe customer support by chat ( few times ) and they do not support LR6 any more . You're right . I contacted also Adobe Germany by phone - ther tried to help but their server do not see my licence as active , was switched off . Seller who sold me it in 2018 ... do not exist any more , company closed , phone switched off . Lost ! Today I decided to buy AdobePhotoshop Ele , also offline version , because I'm using such tool temprorarly , only private usage .

Again thanky You for Your help . Tomas

D

defaultv3u6oc5cg9pd

Participant

I made the mistake of upgrading to Lightroom Classic since my wife has an Iphone and the version of Lightroom I had is unable to read the file type.

I canceled my Lightroom Classic member plan due to the price I was paying for little benefit. This resulted in me paying an additional $20 cancelation fee and no longer being able to use my previous version due to being unable to deactivate my license key.

I have spent an hour trying to figure out how to contact Adobe support and as far as I can tell they have made it impossible unless I again subscribe to one of their plans and likely get hit with another cancelation fee.

What am I supposed to do and how much more time do I need to sink into this? Why am I being punished for trying the newest version of their software. I really hate this company in regards to their practices in both software protection, consumer tracking, and advertising. They make good products, but are horrible in every other regard.

TheDigitalDog

Inspiring

This is a user to user support forum. You will have to deal with Adobe directly.

To provide feedback and suggestions about what you desire from Adobe, you should go here and comment:
https://feedback.photoshop.com/categories/products/5f5f2090785c1f1e6cc40864
For Camera Raw, use the Photoshop fourm.

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

D

defaultv3u6oc5cg9pd

Participant

That is funny, Adobe says that the forum is the contact for Adobe Lightroom 6.

https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/what-contact-options.html

I would have been able to contact their support if I had tried before canceling my lightroom subscription that I had to pay an extra $20 fee to cancel.

So to summarize, I purchased a subscription to the new Lightroom service that they call "classic". I cancel due to price and all the extra software it requires me to have installed on my system. The cancelation fee was an extra $20.

I now have less than a month to use my original product Adobe Lightroom 6 since I did not unregister before uninstalling and I have no way to contact support. Their support portal tells me to come to the forums and the forums tell me go provide feedback for a product they no longer care about.

How about they turn off the license protection if they are not going to manage it anymore?

T

Thomas.99

Participant

Hello,

I have once again forgotten to deaktivate my Lightrrom before reinstalling my OS.

I would love to contact support to reset the activation-regestriation but I have no idea where and how I can contact support. No phone numbers, no chat, nada to be found on the adobe website ...

Can anybody help please?

Thanks Thomas

T

Thomas.99

Participant

Found a support phone number , very helpful and resolved. Please ignore this message, it seems very difficult to find ways to contact Adobe Support via the website.

danielt34236361

Participant

Where did you find the support number? It's quite impossible to find adequate support for this product. I can't find any way to engage them through chat, email, or phone.

.

.Michael.

Inspiring

Hello,

recently I switched to a new notebook, after LR6 installation and 'sign in' it cannot be used w/o the error desribed at this Adobe website error-activation-limit-reached . I tried everything which is described at this link, e.g. my old notbook shows now (after a new 'sign in' try) the same error as my new notbook. So currently I have LR6 only my desktop PC running well. Can someone help me out of this dead end, please?

Happy new year!

Michael

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

If you tried everything on the page, you've contacted support. What do they have to say about the problem? Is this a one-time purchase, or a Creative Cloud subscription?

.

.Michael.

Inspiring

Lightroom 6 is (in my case) a perpetual purchase / license. I could not find any option to contact the support. The different support websites link to each other so you will follow a circle w/o any chat option or phone number on each of them (they tell about it but there is nothing!) 😞 .

E-mail support is in general not provided, as I found out during my surfing.

My last chance is this forum where Adobe employees sometimes read posts and help users.

I

Isai5C41

Participant

Hi,

I bought a new desktop. I uninstalled lightroom 6 on my previous desktop. When i tried to install lightroom 6 on my new desktop, it says i have already 2 versions installed. How can i fix this?

Thank you

{Moved from Lightroom Cloud to Lightroom Classic Forum by Moderator}

alacker2

Participant

I have Lightroom 5 installed on Win. 7. I have been having issues with the hard drive and need to replace it, and reinstall Windows and Lightroom. I have deactivated the license for Photoshop. How do I do this for Lightroom?

Rob_Cullen

Community Expert

WobertC

QUOTE WobertC:

As another user I have had similar problems and understand your frustration with installing. The 'Solution 6' I referred to is-

Solution 6: Set correct permissions on Lightroom folder inside Application Support. Note: Use this solution if you are asked for your serial number after you relaunch Lightroom after getting this error.

The Lightroom folder inside Application Support could have the wrong permissions preventing Lightroom from writing to it, which can cause this error.

Navigate to the following folder: /Users/[user name]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom.
Highlight the Lightroom folder and chose File > Get Information.
Under Sharing & Permission, verify that you have Read & Write Privileges. If not, click the padlock icon at the lower right, enter your password when prompted, then click the Read only entry and select Read & Write.

Important: (macOS) Apple made the user library folder hidden by default with the release of OS X 10.7. If you need access to files in the hidden library folder to perform Adobe-related troubleshooting, see How to access hidden user library files.

========================================================

PREFACE: Before getting into this again - someone asked what macOS I was working with because of potential compatibility issues. PLEASE believe me... after 34 years - I KNOW what I'm doing with installing, reinstalling, system requirements, and cross compatibility. With that said - here's some of my specs:

macOS: 10.13.6 (High Sierra) it can no longer be updated due to hardware.

HARWARE: iMac 27" /3.4 ghz Intel core i7 / 32gb RAM /1tb HD

LR: Currently (trying) to work with either 5.4, 5.7.1

I'd consider 6 if there were enough benefits and changes that were made beyond 5.7 ?

____________________________________________________________________

ONWARD______________________________________________

I appreciate the continued efforts and desire to help, even when I've already thrown up the white flag. Since you took time to reply though, I'll quickly respond. In short - first addressing each of your numbered points of possible action:

1) Backup my Catalog,

Don't need to. I'm starting with a CLEAN, FRESHLY wiped Macintosh. I have absolutely no LR files, directories, catalogues or anything. Other than the installer(s) in compressed form from installing - I don't have anything. I'll address your suggestion of clearing LR files in another point following.

2) uninstall Lightroom

Didn't really need to worry about this either. Since having a wiped Mac - I was starting brand new with a fresh clean install of LR. However, since then in all my efforts - I've had to uninstall and had just done so, on this last round when I "thought" my license number was going to stick. Anyway... done so at least three times since starting this effort.

3) Use the Adobe Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool to 'wipe' my system clean of any residual Adobe Creative Cloud 'stuff'.

This I have not done, however, I believe I've stated earlier, maybe a couple times. I've NEVER used ANY cloud products or services. Maybe on my iPhone, but if I have - not with any or much effort as I use other mobile editing tools on my iOS products.

* However, I still plan on finding this "cloud cleaner" and running it.

4) re-install v5.7 from the Download Site, Download Photoshop Lightroom and

5) 'Activate' with the eligible Serial Number.

Done, stated before - repeated and stated, and done /said again like..... three times. Adobe's registration system thinks I have an invalid license /serial number. But as I've stated - my number has been confirmed valid by two Adobe agents, and is even already showing registered on my Adobe account along with my other Adobe products. (none cloud)

Maybe this is why. I know there's a process to UNregister (or some term) Adobe products, but I don't really need to do that. It's only if you're transferring a license, migrating your application to another computer, and Im not.

CONTINUED:

I'll also ook over the page regarding errors with modules, and see if there's another page specifically addressing licencing issues. I know there is, but what I saw -- I've already done, or don't address my specific problem.

I am, however convinced however, Adobe is having issues on their side confirming valid licensing /serial numbers. To Note: I went through to check permissions on the Adobe folder, and there's nothing wrong. I have full permission, and even running under an administrator user.

By the way... I guess I've not been clear. No matter when LR is started up... for the first time after a new install, or trying to start it after supposedly registering the license number - the box to perform "irst time licensing" appears. It's done this from a cleanly, and newly installed LR - - - YES from my own LR cd installer, as well as (5.7.1) downloaded directly from Adobe.

Please note, I have found only ONE LR 5 version available for download from Adobe (or otherwise) -- > 5.7.1 There is no longer 5.4, nor 5.0 to download.

And not that I give Adobe agents any credibility anyway --- as even an inept Adobe supervisor didn't know 5 or 5.4 wasn't available who tried to get me to download a 5.0 installer from a 3rd party website - which turned out to be 5.7.1 anyway -- not 5.0 nor 5.4 as he assumed.

But I DO still have 5.4 backed up on an external drive that I've also been trying to work with (and tried reinstalling) Same issues... same problems go with 5.4 or 5.7.1

SUMMARY:

Even though I don't think it will address my situation - I'm heading to get the cloud cleaner, and will again, completely wipe my computer of any& all Lightroom software that's been installed, but NOT any installers. They're all directly from Adobe. Downloading again won't serve any purpose.

So there it is. It's all I got. Dare I ask? ..... suggestions?

With a little research it seems you may be 'out of luck' trying to run 5.7.1 in Mac High Sierra.

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-macos-high-sierra-compatibility/

"many people report that they don’t open, or crash regularly."

If you are adverse to the Adobe subscription method for Creative Cloud, then you will have to look for other software.

Even trying to purchase v6 (to 6.14) will be very risky as Op systems are upgraded and support ceases.

Thanks for your very comprehensive reply with details. Just sorry you cannot get your Lightroom 'up and running'

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 .

N

Nicola0D4D17560539

Participant

Hello there community,
I purchased Lightroom 6 in September 2018 and it worked fine for a while. I switched to another laptop, also OK. After a while, I started to get the message that the serial number was already in use on the maximum of allowed computers. I double and triple checked my old laptop. Nothing is on there anymore. Is there any way to check which laptops/computers are connected to the serial number and disconnect them?
Thank you very much and have a lovely day!

The customer support service told me they don't deal with non-CC versions anymore. However, I found the following information

"CS6, CS5, CS4, Acrobat XI, Acrobat X, or Acrobat 9

A single license for Adobe CS6 and earlier applications lets you install an app on two computers. However, you can use the application on only one computer at a time.

To install the application on a third computer, deactivate the application on the computer on which you no longer want to use the software. Then, activate it on the new computer.

1. Can't access your old computer? If you can't access your previous computer (for example, you reformatted the hard drive or lost the computer), don't worry. We can help you deactivate your app from your old device. Make sure that you have your serial number or Adobe ID handy, and then contact us ."
https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/error-activation-limit-reached-sign.html#CS6CS5CS4AcrobatXIAcrobatXorAcrobat9

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

log into accounts.adobe.com

-- Johan W. Elzenga

N

Nicola0D4D17560539

Participant

The customer support service told me they don't deal with non-CC versions anymore. However, I found the following information

"CS6, CS5, CS4, Acrobat XI, Acrobat X, or Acrobat 9

A single license for Adobe CS6 and earlier applications lets you install an app on two computers. However, you can use the application on only one computer at a time.

To install the application on a third computer, deactivate the application on the computer on which you no longer want to use the software. Then, activate it on the new computer.

1. Can't access your old computer? If you can't access your previous computer (for example, you reformatted the hard drive or lost the computer), don't worry. We can help you deactivate your app from your old device. Make sure that you have your serial number or Adobe ID handy, and then contact us ."
https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/error-activation-limit-reached-sign.html#CS6CS5CS...