Is it possible to buy a "non cloud" version of Photoshop ?

[etiennetordoir]

I've been a custumer of Photoshop since PS4 back in the nineties... I'm not interested in working in the cloud, nor online...

Is there any "normal" option to upgrade my CS6 version normally ?

I feel like being left over by Adobe...

No cool 😞

[Nancy OShea]

If you're a paying Creative Cloud subscriber, you have access to older products going all the way back CS6.  In fact, I have 3 versions of Photoshop.  I use the one I need for the project at hand.   Just don't try to open more than one at a time.  

See screenshot of Creative Cloud Desktop App.  NOTE: Previous versions are not shown to trial members.  You must be a paying member to see them.

[shawninvancouver]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Noel+Carboni  wrote

Not everyone is dissatisfied.  You don't hear much from folks who like the value.

-Noel

Super old thread but I have to disagree with your "value" point.

If you work it out, the cloud subscription may have "value" for the short term, however, if you are a long-term (decades) user of the product, the cloud subscription is a huge windfall for Adobe Corp. with users being the loser. In other words, over the long-term Adobe will cost you significantly more than the cost of purchasing outright and renewing your subscription. It will take about 4 1/2 years to reach the point where Adobe's Cloud subscription begins to cost a lot more money.

[shawninvancouver]

I actually found this thread because a friend (an avid user of the Adobe Cloud) is in a bit of a pickle... she is going to be teaching in a remote area of Tibet... so remote that their power is from a generator and there is NO INTERNET or no guarantee of Internet access. I am jealous... what an amazing experience!

The question she is most concerned about is how on earth will she be able to use the Adobe Suite if she has no access to the Internet?

I have a couple of ideas on how she might get around that problem... but I am wondering if Adobe even considered customers without access to the Internet?

[Peru Bob]

shawninvancouver  wrote

(an avid user of the Adobe Cloud)

No pun intended?

Sorry for going off topic.  I couldn't resist.

[shawninvancouver]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Peru+Bob  wrote

shawninvancouver   wrote

(an avid user of the Adobe Cloud)

No pun intended?

Sorry for going off topic.  I couldn't resist.

LOL

Funny, I was absentmindedly posting that message (during a meeting) and didn't notice that. Good catch. Pun was not actually intended.

[smart_models]

You don't need the internet to run the applications they are installed on the computer you on;y have to connect to the internet once a month to confirm to confirm that membership is still current (see link)

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=can+you+use+adobe+cc+without+internet+connection&oq=can+you+use+ad...

[John Waller]

On an annual contract, you have up to 99 days offline use before you have to confirm your membership is current.

Internet connectivity, offline grace period, and reminders | Adobe Creative Cloud apps

[Noel Carboni]

>over the long-term Adobe will cost you significantly more than the cost of purchasing outright and renewing your subscription

Huh?  I'm not seeing the logic in that statement.

I bought the Photoshop upgrades every time they released one.  As I recall it was about $200 every couple of years or a bit less.  Now the Photographer's bundle still costs $10 a month.  I work that out with simple math to be $240 every 2 years.

Okay, so the upgrades cost a little less, amortized per month, than the Photographer's bundle, but there's no guarantee the upgrade price wouldn't have gone up if they had kept using the pay-for-upgrade model.  Software prices have been going up for other non-Adobe products I buy upgrades for.  Yet the Photographer's bundle price is still the same as when it was first introduced.

So I don't think anything important has changed since I wrote post 10.

Years have passed yet I still feel like I'm getting a good value.  I use the new features they invent.  Camera Raw's improvements alone have put off any necessity for me to buy a new camera.

-Noel

[shawninvancouver]

Noel,

The subscription model is perfect and short-term economical for those who don't like to pay out large sums of money up front. I was simply looking over the very long-term costs with this model. This model is hugely profitable and it's no wonder that many companies are adopting this model.

I just wish that Adobe either included everything in the full suite (i.e. Captivate) or allowed customers to customize their subscription. I really, really dislike their tiers... single app at $19.99/month or all apps (again, doesn't include Captivate) at $49.99/month. I wish there was an option for any 5 apps for $29.99/month or something like that.

Take care,

Shawn

[Nancy OShea]

Bundles offer the biggest discounts.  Cable or Sat TV + telephone + internet + all basic channels + 2 premium channels gives you the most bang for your buck even if you don't use them all.  However ordering a la cart costs substantially more.   Creative Cloud is no different. 

[shawninvancouver]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Nancy+OShea  wrote

Bundles offer the biggest discounts.  Cable or Sat TV + telephone + internet + all basic channels + 2 premium channels gives you the most bang for your buck even if you don't use them all.  However ordering a la cart costs substantially more.   Creative Cloud is no different. 

That isn't a good analogy because cable companies are buying packages from content producers that force groups and tiers of content.There is no technical reason why it is this way for a company that owns 100% of the IP; it's just status quo and it's purely about maximizing profit. However, I'd argue that they might bring in more users if they offered a middle tier... like I suggested, five products for $29.99 per month (actually, kill the 99 cents, that is another antiquated psychological pricing strategy).

[PAWU]

In all business models, there is a CAPEX vs OPEX discussion. In the steelmaking business whole plants are operated on an OPEX basis. And it's the buyer who wants to have a "subscription" model.

[PAWU]

Adobe is successful with their market strategy. Why should they make their life more complicated? (but I understand your point view!)

[Ellied-ZutrpQ]

I hate this too. I paid a lot for cs4 extended and I had installed it on my laptop, now I had to wipe it and have to reinstall. I have the serial number but not the disc, that seems to be lost. Same for LR 2 have the serial number. I don't want to use the cloud or have to pay an annual fee. What am I supposed to do now? I like photoshop the best. How can I get cs4 back on my laptop? Is elements stand alone? I see versions of photoshop available at Best Buy- are these stand alone without a silly subscription that holds my program hostage if I don't pay a subscription?

[Peru Bob]

Photoshop Elements is a perpetual license and not a subscription.

[Ellied-ZutrpQ]

Thanks, fortunately I was able with persistence to get CS4 back on my laptop so that is what I will use for the time being along with LR which I don't use as much as in the past. I may upgrade that to LR 6 if I can't get LR 2 back since I'm doing more editing again now.

[jane-e]

Ellied wrote:

I hate this too. I paid a lot for cs4 extended and I had installed it on my laptop, now I had to wipe it and have to reinstall. I have the serial number but not the disc, that seems to be lost. Same for LR 2 have the serial number.

Since you have the serial numbers, you can download the software from ProDesign Tools.

Be sure to follow the directions exactly.

http://prodesigntools.com/how-to-get-prior-adobe-software-versions-cs4-cs5.html

[Ellied-ZutrpQ]

Thanks. I found the download page myself but I was not able to do the download at all- I got two error messages and after persisting with 3 phone calls and a chat I finally got a supervisor who helped me with a screen share  to get cs4 back on my computer. I found the disc but I wonder if even that would've worked for me. I hope I never have to wipe it again to find out. The first cs rep said there is NO PHONE SERVICE anymore for stand alone customers and sent me to chat, the chat merely gave me a link for the download which I had already found by that time and which didn't work. They didn't care that it wasn't going to work. I called again and insisted on speaking with a supervisor who did the screen share and who got it back for me. He didn't have the download for LR2 but said I can buy LR6 which is still stand alone.

I am very disappointed with Adobe for doing this. I paid about $500 with a teaching discount for CS4 extended which included illustrator at that time and it is not acceptable to have no service for stand alone customers. I don't want a subscription that I have to pay yearly forever and I don't want to store things in a cloud.

I have since found the discs and I will try to reinstall LR2 and see if it works. But now I remember I had to do this when my computer was sent out for repair 2 years ago and I had to go through the same thing with phone calls etc. At that time they still had official phone service for stand alone customers but they were pretty snooty about helping me. This is just NOT ok Adobe- I hope you are listening.

Don't try to strong arm your loyal customers into a subscription and a cloud storage they don't want! And don't cut off technical help to those who have paid you a lot of money for your programs and who wish to continue to use them. Very bad biz.

[Nancy OShea]

Ellied​

For the record, you don't store anything on the "cloud."  You install the software & save work files to your hard drive exactly as you always have.

The optional 2 GB cloud space is merely for sharing files with other devices or colleagues if you want to use it.  No arm twisting involved .

Nancy

[ShaynaOne]

Really annoying. Does Adobe actually think everybody wants to work online/in the cloud? Time to move on to a different company's products, looks like.

[Noel Carboni]

Just some food for thought, in no particular order...

Comparison:  Buy Photoshop upgrades for 200 bucks every 18 months to 2 years or pay Adobe $10 a month for Photoshop upgrades from now on.  Do you like using the latest features?

Perhaps you're one who expects to skip versions.  Fine, buy Photoshop CS6 (still available for the paltry sum of $700 outright).  Keep in mind at $10 a month that's about 6 years of subscription fees.

Maybe you feel you'll be able to run a perpetual license forever without ever upgrading Photoshop...  Have you been paying attention to what's happening with operating systems?  Apple doesn't care much about maintaining compatibility with old software, and while we can still run old Photoshops on Windows today (with limitations), guess who Microsoft's trying to emulate?  How much will be compatible once Windows 9 comes out?  Microsoft already calls Desktop applications "legacy" in Windows 8.

Perhaps you feel you can maintain an old computer with an old OS for quite a while...  How long did your last computer last until it died?  Toward the end, was it fast enough and did it have enough storage, or did you find it too slow/limited in modern terms to be useful?  Could you buy a new one with that old OS on it?

-Noel

[Spiro01]

I have to concede that to many there is value in the new licensing model for many as thoughtfully articulated here by many.

I prefer to have the option of skipping a version if I don't think the new features are compelling enough to upgrade. Now whether there are compelling new features or not you keep paying or the software quits working. 

It is what it is and I get the benefits for many in the new scheme of things.  I don't mind paying for software when I need it and I do have CS6 and did not pay anything close to $700.00 as I upgraded from a lesser version, but if I just use Photoshop infrequently and don't need anything else in the Suite there is no value for me in paying for the cloud product in perpetuity, none of the additional cloud benefits provide additional value in my scenario.  I suspect there are a lot of infrequent users like me that share the same concern.  I would acknowledge that my initial observations (stated earlier in the thread) are perhaps more likely limited to the infrequent users of a single product like my use case.

--Robert

[Guest]

I'm an infrequent individual user of Photoshop/Indesign and only just discovered my old CS4 doesn't function once I upgraded to a new computer. Is it posible (and the best solution) to activate 1 month, let lapse for several months and come back later again?

[Cozmicone]

The apps require a constant 30-day check in with a 7-day grace period should the activation not work upon the next activation check. Because the yearly plan is auto-paid every month then this won't really affect you unless the payment method has a problem. If you went with the monthly plan then you're paying 39.99 per month for a single app and you would then have the app non-functioning in the first week of the following month. In the long run this will end up costing more as it's $10 more each month.

[iwebwoman]

I have and use Photoshop CS4.  It does everything I want to do. I run it on Windows 10 with no problem.   You should run the troubleshooter and if it doesn't find the prob, contact Microsoft, they have been ever so attentive so people will love Windows 10. 

I don't love it but after several major glitches, I bought a new computer pre loaded with MS 10 and we've been getting along fine.  My only complaint, they wiped out my collection of purchased fonts.  I reinstalled them from a back up and found that altho 10 is not friendly toward "foreign Fonts" it will run most of them.   Windows 10 wants to sell you the good fonts.  And another complaint Windows 10 took away my Word which had spellcheck ... all in an effort to sell you office.   It must burn them to know that people are going to Google sheets that will do everything office offers and do it free.  Sorry I know this is about Photoshop but I got carried away.