FAQ: Prior major releases of Premiere, Audition, Prelude and AME have been removed

[ProDesignTools]

It looks like Adobe has just pulled many of the primary installers that were available for previous major versions of Premiere Pro, Audition, Prelude, and Adobe Media Encoder (AME).

Notably the following base releases are now gone, and not currently available to customers via any means (whether using the Creative Cloud Desktop app or through direct download links😞

— Premiere Pro CC 2015.3 (versions 10.3 & 10.4 – June 2016)

— Premiere Pro CC 2015 (version 9.0 – June 2015)

— Premiere Pro CC 2014 (version 8.0 – June 2014)

— Audition CC 2015.2 (versions 9.2 & 9.2.1 – June 2016)

— Audition CC 2015 (version 8.0 – June 2015)

— Audition CC 2014 (version 7.0 – June 2014)

— Prelude CC 2015.4 (versions 5.0 & 5.0.1 – June 2016)

— Prelude CC 2015 (version 4.0 – June 2015)

— Prelude CC 2014 (version 3.0 – June 2014)

— Media Encoder CC 2015.3 (versions 10.3 & 10.4 – June 2016)

— Media Encoder CC 2015 (version 9.0 – June 2015)

— Media Encoder CC 2014 (version 8.0 – June 2014)

Note that this loss affects all revisions from these three years (2014, 2015, and 2016), because without the base installers available, none of the minor version updates can be installed either.

Can't say for sure why this happened, but it could possibly be related to the recent change in CC application support for the Dolby codec.

One of the great promises of Creative Cloud is the ability to use any version of the CC apps that you desire or require. This is especially important for video customers, who are urged by Adobe experts to install and maintain multiple CC versions and to always re-open their .prproj files with the exact same versions of Premiere with which they were created, no matter how new or old. This is for compatibility reasons.

Updating and Backing Up Premiere Pro Project Files: Best Practices

The loss of these major releases could also be a big issue for customers who cannot upgrade, for example, due to changed system requirements or newer versions that their current hardware cannot support. They will not be able to access or reinstall older versions of their software.

Adobe also sometimes drops features or functionality between releases, and says that if you want to use the discontinued feature, then you need to go back and install/use the previous version.

If you would like to have these three years of CC releases restored, then the most likely path to having that happen is to let Adobe know how important these are to you (their customers) – so please share why you want or need them...

Please add your feedback below, and/or click "I have the same question" underneath this text.

[toymanjack]

This is an awful policy.  I need the older apps as I have continuing projects which do not upgrade to new versions of PPCC.  There is no point for me to upgrade any apps as they now automatically remove older versions, there is no option to leave them anymore.  I have been a CC subscriber since 2014 but am about tpo give it up and go amck to my previous editor which does not do this disservice to its customers.

[ProDesignTools]

> "There is no point for me to upgrade any apps as they now automatically remove older versions, there is no option to leave them anymore."

That is the default behavior, but fortunately you can change it and keep all your previous CC releases installed on the same computer when you upgrade...

Please see:

Update apps to the latest release of Adobe Creative Cloud: Advanced Options

Make note of this and be careful – because as outlined above, if an older release is removed, then unfortunately you may not be able to get it back.

[excited_Genie16B8]

This is an awful policy.  I need the older apps as I have continuing projects which do not upgrade to new versions of PPCC. 

Just to give you some perspective, DaVinci Resolve allows only one version installed at a time.  if you want any of the new features, and man are they adding some great stuff, you don't have any choice but to upgrade your projects.

Adobe's design is actually more flexible.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi ProDesign Tools,

Please add your feedback below, and/or click "I have the same question" underneath this text.

Actually, that won't help. Devs generally do not read these forums and clicking "I have the same question" will not cause devs to read the post any more or less. I don't even have a way to track how many folks click that button.

Regardless of how you feel about this issue, or if it still affecting you, feel free to create a bug/feature request on User Voice: Premiere Pro: Hot (2516 ideas) – Adobe video & audio apps

Premiere Pro forums are really for troubleshooting existing issues. Issues that are not specific troubleshooting questions cannot be resolved here effectively and tend not to be dealt with properly. Go to User Voice to get the message to devs, please.

Thanks,
Kevin

[distriller]

This is a huge problem and I couldn't find any solution to this. Let's find a solution, shall we?

So, I can confirm this: on two computers I have old Premiere, AE and AME installed and active. On those computers, in Adobe Creative Cloud, pressing the blue button's arrow / Manage / Other versions, I've got these readily available:

Premiere Pro CC:

- CC 13.0

- CC (2017) 11.1.4

- CC 7.0

- CS6 6.0

After Effects:

- CC (2017) 14.2.2

- CC (2015) 13.5

- CC (2014) 13.0

- CC 12.0

- CS6 11.0

Media Encoder:

- CC 13.0

- CC (2017) 11.1.4

Now in my particular case, I absolutely need AE 12.0 on a NEW computer. I can't install that normally because those old versions just aren't available in the Creative Cloud app. However, there must be just some simple way how the CC app checks whether old versions are installed and then it allows installation of those or other old versions. So, what is the check? After finding this out, a workaround might be possible. One workaround might be to clone the entire hard disk and install the clone to the new computer (a ridiculous solution, though).

Can someone compare the differencies between setups with old Adobe apps installed? For example on Windows, regedit has HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe\After Effects and there for example 12, 15.0 and 16.0. They are identical except the path is has CC or CC 2018 or CC 2019 in them. If to a new computer installation the 12 key is exported (even without a working v12 installation), might that do the trick? Or something like this? If someone tries this, please report what happened.

[Stan Jones]

You list AE CC 12.0 as available in your list. That suggests you can install it.

[distriller]

To avoid confusion, I just add that yes I can install AE CC 12.0 on a computer that has old Adobe programs already installed (from many years ago). But the problem is how to install those old programs to a new computer without cloning the whole hard drive which is really terrible if it comes to that. Surely there's an easier way.

[Ann Bens]

You dont clone programs you always install them directly.

[Peru Bob]

As Ann said, cloning the hard drive won't work when using the clone on a different computer.  You have to use a clone on the same computer with the same hardware.

[distriller]

While this is slightly off topic, there are programs that claim to enable a system to boot on new hardware, using certain disk management programs (such as Macrium Reflect's ReDeploy for Windows). Anyway, I haven't tried that and surely there's an easier way to install those old Adobe programs than cloning the hard disk.

[Peru Bob]

distriller  wrote

While this is slightly off topic, there are programs that claim to enable a system to boot on new hardware,

Yes, but only if the second computer has identical hardware (MOBO, CPU, BIOS), and only the operating system is cloned, not applications.

[distriller]

According to

Restoring to dissimilar hardware - What is Macrium Redeploy? (ReDeploy)

it should be possible to switch to different hardware (to some extent, I haven't tried). I'm not sure what you mean that applications can't be cloned. I have cloned drives and the clones have everything intact identically, no difference in practice. You can for example clone to a larger drive and the new drive should have everything functional (incl. apps) without problems.

[Peru Bob]

distriller  wrote

According to

Restoring to dissimilar hardware - What is Macrium Redeploy? (ReDeploy)

. I have cloned drives and the clones have everything intact identically, no difference in practice.

I was referring to cloning to different hardware necessitating reinstallation of applications, not cloning and using on the same machine.

I have used many cloning and imaging tools (Macrium, Todo, AEOMI, and others) to successfully clone and use on the same computer, but have never had any success cloning and using the clone on a different computer without major software issues.

I may not have done it properly or it may not really work "as advertised."

[kirkster501]

I am going to try and run Premiere 2018.  If this too continues to crash then I am leaving Adobe, cancelling my CC subscription,  and moving to DaVinci resolve.  The latter does not crash at all and works perfectly.

[R Neil Haugen]

Fascinating. Among other things, I create tutorials for a major colorist subscription teaching service. Where naturally Resolve is an assumed base skill, and knowledge of Avid, Baselight et al are also considered wise.

And therefore I monitor or participate in a few other more specialized forums. Where there are discussions as to whether any "dot" of Resolve 15 is ready for pro use, and if so, which one.

Because naturally of all the bugs, playback issues, crashes ... leaving many to state no 15.x version of Resolve is ready for pro use.

Personally I haven't installed the most recently released 15.x, but the prior one is stable for me, though playback of the same H 264 isn't as good or smooth as with Pr. The UI is rather more limited in ability to modify workspaces.

If you like it, fine. Of course, as you can only have one version total of Resolve installed at one time, unlike with Adobe where you can have multiple major versions simultaneously installed.

So if you have a 14.x Resolve project and wish to stay in that, you have to uninstall the 15.x version and install 14.x. Then uninstall 14.x and reinstall 15.x

Neil

[kirkster501]

2018 has the same errors for me.  Randomly the source monitor window will not play and the timeline will not play.  I then try and close Premiere and it locks up and stops responding.  I then have to force quit it.

It is a piece of junk.  It is the worst piece of commercial software I have ever used in 35 years of using computers.  All other adobe apps work fine.  Just Premiere.  Even Premiere Elements works fine.

[Media Editor]

I have used Premiere for 28 years.  I have only had two problems in all that time.  They were solved by the Forum users.  If you look at the Davinci Resolve Forums you will see that their program also has problems.  I do not think that there are any editing programs that do not have any bugs.

[R Neil Haugen]

I agree. Down in the aisles at NAB every year there are the same discussions ... use the name of any post-processing app, as they're totally interchangeable. "X app sucks, it's horrid ... Y is so much better" ... but go down the aisle, there's a discussion, "Y app sucks, it's horrid ... X is so much better ... "

They are complex bits of code that work in very different ways with complex media & effects/plugins and complex hardware. They all work well for some things on some machines, not so well on others, and choke on even others.

There have been users here who have out of frustration completely reformatted their OS drive, reinstalled the OS then started on apps. Loaded exactly the same apps on as before, but this time loaded Pr on first. Worked like a dream, had been a dog before. Same apps, same OS, same media, same machine. Just loading it first and it was a hot running app. Weird. Shouldn't make any sense.

Others had trouble with MS's utility file onedrive.dll ... delete that from the machine, their Pr ran perfectly. Put it back on, crashes. Mine had that dll, and had no issue. There's an Asus mobo audio accessory/add-on that can play havoc with Pr also. and apparently a couple other video post-processing apps.

There are tons of things that can affect the operation of video post apps, and may hit one app on one machine but a different app on another. Frustrating, illogical, and ... a pain.

They are all tools. Every app, including every video post-processing app. Tools ... nothing more, just tools.

Hammers come in something like 175 different varieties. Use the hammer that works for the current job. And understand that not any one hammer works well for all jobs. Or for all time.

Neil

[deshant79301346]

I don't have system requirements to run cc 2017 or later. What can i do ? Are All requirements for cc 2014 and cc 2017 are same ?

[ProDesignTools]

No, they're not the same. Here are all the different products' system requirements from Adobe:

Adobe Creative Cloud system requirements

For any individual app, you can see the prior versions' minimum specs by following the link at the top for "System requirements for earlier releases." That will give the details for all CC releases, even if some of those prior releases are unfortunately no longer available.

[Guest]

My desktop refuses to run anything newer than Premiere Pro 2015 even though it should support 2018 12.1.2. Because of this, I need 2015's version which I cannot get so I cannot use Premiere at all on my desktop at home, and yet I pay for a CC license.

This is not acceptible.

[ProDesignTools]

Adobe Premiere Pro System Requirements

Not sure why you cannot run newer releases (CC 2017/2018/2019) if you think your system can support them; you'd have to post more details (in a separate/new thread) in order for us to help you with that... Try to be as specific as possible about any errors or messages you receive.

Since CC 2015 and CC 2014 are not available, could you possibly run CC 2013 instead? It's older, but at least that version is still available.

[the outward spiral]

Premiere Pro CC 2014 is the last version to enable speech analysis. That's the only reason I need it. Guess I'll have to go back to 2013 instead. Wish I'd kept a copy of the 2014 installer.

[excited_Genie16B8]

You may be able to find other software that can do the job.  It may even do the job better.  Adobe's implementation was never all that...useful.

[RjL190365]

Here's the problem:

Effective this past Monday, most older versions of Premiere Pro CC were labeled as "unauthorized." This means that all CC subscribers have now permanently lost the license to run any version of Premiere Pro CC older than the 2018 version; therefore, those older CC versions in question are now no longer available. CS6 remains available for download, but only for those Adobe customers who had already paid the full price for a perpetual license.

UPDATE: The above applies to volume users of Creative Cloud subscriptions. Individuals now have a separate notice that now restricts all Creative Cloud app availability to the last two major releases only. That means only the most recent build of last year's version (CC 2018) and all released builds of the current year's version (Premiere Pro 2019) are available.

I'm sorry that this is of no help whatsoever for your dilemma, but you will now have to find an alternative program that's legitimate for your intended purpose from another company.