Why can't I download an older versions of some programs/ How can I download older versions?

[Adam Jae5E23]

Hi, I'm a student and through my school I have the creative suite. I have a 2010 macbook that runs perfectly and I just need a slightly older version of Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.  I just wiped my computer so i had to reinstall and Now I can't access these older versions anywhere and I can't find any answers. these programs are a REQUIREMENT for school AND work, not to mention part of my tution cost... I am not purchasing a new computer and I cannot update it any further. I'm extremely frustrated as I was able to download the older versions less than a year ago! I'm also able to get compatible versions of Auditon, Premiere Pro, and After Effects. Why?? There's no reason. This has never been an issue. I have been running older versions of adobe programs since I began using them over a decade ago.

PLEASE help I am an extremely frustrated illustration student!!! 😞

[JJMack]

Adobe not longer markets Perpetual versions of Photoshop.  You need to find out which Creative cloud application versions will run on your 11 year old Mac. See if your school support any of them.

[Conrad C · Accepted solution]

You might be able to find the installer you need at prodesigntools.com. The Direct Download Links on the right side go back a few years.

Formally, the reason you can’t is because the current Adobe policy is to support the current version and one version back. This was a relatively recent change. Those versions are both Creative Cloud subscription versions, so Adobe doesn’t officially support anything further back.

But there are other potential problems to sort out. Does the school teach a specific version that they will require you to install? If they are teaching a version too new for an old Mac, you might be stuck anyway. Recent versions don’t run on a 2010 Mac. Also, since you said you had an earlier version, where did you keep their installers so that you could easily reinstall in case you had to wipe the computer?

For the future, if you are studying to be a professional in this field, start preparing to be able to recover from any disaster quickly. Always keep all original media, installers, registration codes in a place where you can quickly retrieve them. If you are studying to be a professional, you cannot afford for your computer to go down just before a client’s deadline. You must know how to recover from a computer disaster and get working again as quickly as possible. Always maintain current backups of all important applications and data, with rapid recovery procedures in place and practiced. The security of your future income will depend on it.

[Adam Jae5E23]

Thank you for the link, the 2018 version was just what I needed! It works perfectly.

There's no required version that we use, in fact, I've been told to avoid updating a couple of times or use an older, more reliable version by teachers. I have another computer, a 2018 wacom mobilestudio which runs windows, and that one even needed older versions of some products! I have all my programs on both OSs for backup and versatility.

I never got an installer for the older version because I had to download it through CC. I haven't seen a separate installer for any products in a while, whenever I tried to download it separately it forced me to get CC first, which is extremely annoying for this exact reason. 

Thankfully now I have the old installers via the site you linked, I just hope they continue to work in the future... adobe seems to have a habit now of killing off old but still useful things :' ( 

[swiffer2]

Adobe needs to change it's policies to help people who "need to recover".  This issue reveals an important and fundamental flaw with companies that make NLEs.  

At it's core, Adobe sees itself as a subscription sales company that happens to deal with media creation.  Their main focus is to drive new customer acquisition by marketing the "new" and requiring users to continue to update subscriptions.  They just don't care about what happens to the media that users make using their products. They don't care if that media becomes unrecoverable because of their failures to make updates backwards compatible or to make older versions of programs readily available (they will blame users).  

"There oughta be a law" that requires cross-platform compatibility and backward compatibility. At the very least an editor should be able to load a project from a many year old version of Premiere to a new version and see a timeline with basic cuts and shot numbers etc.  Why are digital editing programs so far behind basic film processes?  If one has some decently preserved fim from 80 years ago one can still edit that but one might be very challenged with an eight year old Adobe project.  It might be challenging for Adobe to do this - but not impossible if they really care about what their customers need. 

It's not up to Adobe engineers to make these decisions. Adobe corporate needs to decide if it really is a service company, and if it really cares about the work of its customers.  Adobe should set up a team to work on digital media preservation and access to older projects. It should work with industry partners and even competitors to ensure that media is not lost due to their focus on marketing and immediate profit rather than customer service.  

Adobe - why should users have to go shopping around to try to find software from third parties that you should have on  your servers?  What are you doing to ensure that film makers, television producers, businesses and educational institutions will be able to access past materials,and use them, and re-edit them in the future?  

[Alexander Karmios]

I have the exact same problem... 

We are running 5 suites in our office (different accounts).

We have chosen for our 3 primary systems, to remain with Windows 7 and run earlier versions of Premiere Pro CC,

for many reasons, BY CHOICE. Everything is working properly, we have powerful systems, everything is good! 

UNTIL IT'S NOT!  Suddenly Adobe, the company we are paying our precious money to,

decides to quit supporting earlier Premier Pro CC versions and now nothing is working...! 

Even the earlier versions that were installed and worked properly a day before,

now all of a sudden cannot even be launched. 

I hate that Adobe is taking advantage in such a bad way, that they are monopolizing the market and actually leaving us with no options, holding us hostage to their bad policies and even worst support. Unfortunatelly there are no other options out there combining all those tools that we need, Adobe unfortunatelly is the king..

but trust me, the moment proper competition appears, Adobe will be done..! 

They got too compfortable in their king's seat and they don't care about their customers anymore,

the customers who pay their precious money and expect support and software that is working...  

Me myself, I'm a premium user, I'm paying for 5 professional accounts for more than 20 years and only 2 systems are working properly, only because those 2 happened to be newer systems and were lucky to comply with their latest decision. Of course Adobe's support is completelly absent and even if you manage to reach them, they hook you up to a low tier telephone center assistant agent, who doesn't even know the basics but dangerously demands remote control over your system to supposedly fix the issue (of course he cannot solve anything).  

Currently we are paying for 5 accounts and we have 3 powerful systems idle and useless,

just because Adobe chose to use our money, holding us hostages and trying to force us

to not use our powerfull 10.000 euro older equipment. 

This is the modern Adobe!  Enjoy...

[Tricia28896578txo5]

I agree. I am in a rock and hard place at the moment. Do you have the older versions link? Mac High Sierra. 10.13.6 My computer works great. There is no need to fill up land fills with perfectly good equipment. 

[Tricia28896578txo5]

Hello, I keep going to the link but the pages are now outdated. Does anyone else have a 2020 version of any of the adobe apps?

Tricia

[ProDesignTools]

Definitely there should be older versions of the apps available for exactly the reason you mention above... Many paying customers have older but functional computers which cannot be upgraded to support the absolute latest releases, especially on Macs. It would be a shame to have to cancel their plans or be required to buy a new computer because of that.

As you found, Creative Cloud 2020 was the last CC release to support macOS 10.13 High Sierra. But there have been mixed results when trying to get it from Customer Service. The last time it worked with some repeated persistence and requesting a supervisor.

Alternatively, you could go with the Creative Cloud 2019 release instead. It definitely works with High Sierra and fortunately is still available to everyone to download here.

[Tricia28896578txo5]

Yes, because I've paid more in monthly fees that just buying an out right license.Not happy about that. There is no reason not to offer older versions. They work just fine and most of these "improvements" are not really useful. I'm not happy with Apple either. I doubt they actually recycle any computers because it's been reported that our plastics are not really recycled either.  If I could upgrade this computer to get the next operating system, that would be a true and honest green product. Not allowing perfectly excellent computers to be dumped is that fault of Apple and Adobe. 

I will keep it for personal usage but I need some kind of software for business. I've already learned this program because they expected it in school. 

Honestly, I'd like to write a letter to both CEOs. It's too bad that consumers have to resort to bad google reviews to make a company do the honest thing, isn't it? 

I'm open if you have another other suggestions. Many thanks!