I want to use my personal copy of LR6 alongside my CC apps (subscription from my employer). Is this possible?

[jamesmckay_nor]

At home I have an iMac and I have installed Lightroom 6 on it. I also want to install some CC apps on my home iMac via the subscription I have through my employer. What I DON'T want is to now set up CC on my iMac and have it overwrite my copy of Lightroom 6 with Lightroom CC. I want to use Lightroom as a one-off program, I DON'T want a subscription for it.

(For the record, my Lightroom 6 is installed with my personal Adobe account, and the CC apps are connected to another account.)

Anyone have some sound advice?

[John T Smith]

You SHOULD be able to do that since programs are installed in their own folders

You will need to sign OUT of one to then use a different account to use the other

And if you ever stop using a subscription and remove it, you will LIKELY have problems with your serial number version

Read Cloud takes over https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2089127 for some ideas (see reply #1)

-includes information on how to stop the update manager and/or Cloud from running at startup

-above is for Windows, but may help with ideas for Mac

[jamesmckay_nor]

Hi John,

Thanks for a quick response! I'm automatically signed into Lightroom 6 just now with my personal account. Though that would be a complete pain to have to sign in and out of Lightroom every time I wanted to use it.

I am also interested in preventing the Creative Cloud app starting at startup on my iMac, if I do go ahead and install CC apps with my work account / subscription. (I use my mac far more for photography than all the other CC apps). I read through the thread you posted above, also googled it, and it seems as though I could install and log into the CC launch app, then uncheck 'launch at startup', to have the setup I want.

Signing in and out of everything could be the way to go though, even if it's a bit frustrating. I guess the one thing I'm really concerned about is that I don't want my Lightroom library getting upgraded to a CC library, so my copy of Lightroom 6 would no longer work if I uninstalled CC. What are your thoughts on that?

[John T Smith]

I'm going to move this to the Lightroom forum so someone there can address different library versions

[jamesmckay_nor]

Ok, thanks John. Never quite knew which forum to use, though hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this.

[Just Shoot Me]

LR 6 and CC 2015 are the exact same program. The same download and the same files get installed on your hard drive.

So I don't know what the big deal is letting the subscription service take over your install of LR 6. If in the future you lose the rights to the subscription from your employer you can always turn LR CC back into LR 6 and continue to use it like that.

[jamesmckay_nor]

Thanks for the info. I think I read somewhere that Lightroom CC gets plenty of minor updates whereas Lightroom 6 doesn't, so it seems like the CC version would have different functionality as time goes by. If I decide that I don't want to upgrade Light for a few years or so, having 'switched' to Lightroom CC in the meantime, I'd probably need to buy an update for my own copy. Is that true?

[Just Shoot Me]

Both LR 6 and CC get the same exact updates at the same exact time. The new features that have been added to the CC version are also added to the 6 version BUT because it is the 6 version those newer features are disabled.

jamesmckay_nor  wrote

If I decide that I don't want to upgrade Light for a few years or so, having 'switched' to Lightroom CC in the meantime, I'd probably need to buy an update for my own copy. Is that true?

Whether or not LR 6 is the last stand alone, perpetual license, version of LR no one knows. If Adobe does come out with another version, LR 7, then if you wanted to stay current yes you would need to buy a UPGRADE version of LR 7.

[JP Hess]

I don't think you can have separate installations of Lightroom 6 and Lightroom CC on the same computer. It is the same program, installed in the same folder by the same installer, there is only one Lightroom program. The distinguishing factor is how  you sign in. If you use your serial number then you have Lightroom 6 with its feature set. If you sign in with your Adobe ID and password then you have Lightroom CC. Either way, the same program is being opened.

[99jon]

Set up a second Adobe ID and then its possible.

[jamesmckay_nor]

Yep 99jon​, I have two accounts and did mention that above in the feed, though thanks for the tip.

[99jon]

As long as you are signed in with the separate ID's there should be no conflict.

[jamesmckay_nor]

99jon​ I just tried this and there is in fact a conflict. I had installed Lightroom 6 and logged in with my personal account details, then installed Creative Cloud apps with the CC installer app using my work account details. What happened was that the CC login details dominated … so still signed into the CC helper app I launched Lightroom for the first time after installing the CC helper app, and Lightroom is now showing up as 'CC' on the app launch screen, and then I'm automatically logged in with my work account details.

But I do understand that Lightroom 6 is basically identical to Lightroom CC, but with all the recent CC updates disabled. So I guess I can choose to log into or out of either Lightroom or the Creative Cloud helper app, to then use Lightroom er either a private license holder, or someone with a CC subscription through their job.

Phew. I think I get it now. Thanks for all the input 99jon​ JimHess​ John T Smith​ @Just Shoot Me.

[JP Hess]

jamesmckay_nor  wrote

But I do understand that Lightroom 6 is basically identical to Lightroom CC, but with all the recent...

Lightroom 6 and Lightroom CC are not just "basically identical". They ARE the same program. What I'm trying to understand is why you would want to sign in as Lightroom 6 as long as you have access to Lightroom CC. Lightroom CC has all of the feature updates.

[Just Shoot Me · Accepted solution]

The CC login will always dominate, override, a Perpetual license sign in.

If you Sign Out of the CC DTA and then start LR it might revert to LR 6 and or start a trial and or ask you to sign in and if you use your person Adobe ID it would then ask for the serial number.

No worries just use it under the work Adobe ID as the CC version. As I stated before if for some reason you lose the rights to the work Adobe ID you can always revert LR to the 6 version by using your personal ID and serial number.

[jamesmckay_nor]

Thanks to all of you, that's really good to know. I'm not at all adverse to upgrading Lightroom from 6 to 7, I just wanted to check out the implications of what I'm proposing to do. I realise it's probably a kind-of unusual set-up. So I'll go ahead and install the other CC apps on my computer and will carry on using Lightroom.

Forgive my paranoia but I really don't expect Adobe to make it easy for anyone who persists with their old business model (i.e. buy once, you then own the software). And I've been using Lightroom since version 3 so I'm pretty tied to it now.