# Lightroom upgrade options from LR 5.7



## tom manley (Nov 2, 2017)

Hi everyone, tried calling Adobe yesterday to discuss options with upgrade but was told different things and was not easy get a straight answer on best solution for upgrading, and am still getting my head round Adobes new offerings. Im currently using an old CS5.5 standalone version with LR5.7. ( only use indesign and illustrator occasionally so guess i can leave these old programs on my computer and just upgrade photography side of things!) Im not too into creative cloud set up as most of my images are stored locally on hard drives and happy with that - ( guessing working on large images as raw files might be problematic on cloud ) So I'm looking to update system and guess i just need the latest photoshop and LR Classic - can that be purchased without Lightroom CC or do you need to purchase LR CC as well with the photography plan from Adobe - cannot see an option just for LR classic with Photoshop CC. I'm also not too clear on how i would get my existing catalogues into LR Classic and would appreciate any advice - I have 2 large catalogues of a couple of TB of images and don't want to mess them up - Will LR classic be able to open my existing catalogues from LR5.7. 


Operating System: OSX 10.9.5
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info):LR5.7


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## RikkFlohr (Nov 2, 2017)

Yes, Lightroom Classic will be able to open a Lightroom 5.x catalog - however your Mac's operating system is too old. Lightroom Classic CC requires El Capitan 10.11.x or later. 

Please see: 
Lightroom Classic CC system requirements


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## tom manley (Nov 2, 2017)

thanks for your help... ok looks like i need to upgrade operating system... aah sigh! Mavericks works fine for me!


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## clee01l (Nov 2, 2017)

tom manley said:


> thanks for your help... ok looks like i need to upgrade operating system... aah sigh! Mavericks works fine for me!


High Sierra will too and it is free.


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## tom manley (Nov 2, 2017)

Yes thanks Clee... for some reason i'm always a bit hesitant of upgrades but yes - you are right - High Sierra has made my mac book feel spritely again!  Hopefully the Adobe update will go fine - ill probably do that tomorrow - thinking of going with the photography plan PS and Lightroom Classic - guess you have to get CC too but probably just stick to Classic as it will be more familiar... cheers


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## Replytoken (Nov 3, 2017)

Would LR 6 be an option?  Is Adobe even allowing people to upgrade to it, or has it been pulled now?

--Ken


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## Dan Marchant (Nov 3, 2017)

tom manley said:


> ....thinking of going with the photography plan PS and Lightroom Classic - guess you have to get CC too but probably just stick to Classic as it will be more familiar... cheers


I think this is what a lot of LR users are doing. I have not bothered to install Lightroom CC, just Classic and PS.



Replytoken said:


> Would LR 6 be an option?  Is Adobe even allowing people to upgrade to it, or has it been pulled now?


It is still showing as available to purchase but you do have to search for it.


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## RikkFlohr (Nov 3, 2017)

Adobe has not set a date for removal of Lightroom 6.x for sale. It is available and will be supported with bug fixes, camera and lens support through the end of 2017.  Afterwards, it will continue to be available for purchase for some time.  At some point (much like PS CS6) it will disappear from the Adobe store. Whether that is months or years away, no information has been provided.


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## tom manley (Nov 3, 2017)

seems you know better than Adobe! - when i called up they said LR 6 is not available to buy. Im still considering my options here but pretty sure LR Classic and PS is the way to go - as someone else has mentioned on another thread will Classic override 5.7 or will i still be able to have my existing catalogue there as well as opening it in LR Classic? - would this cause any issues or be dangerous to the catalogue. Im still not clear whether I'm best to just open my existing Lightroom Catalogue in LRCLassic or whether i need to export / import entire catalogue over into new catalogue on LR Classic? Ill let you know how i get on!


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## RikkFlohr (Nov 3, 2017)

Live on the website right now...


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## Zenon (Nov 3, 2017)

I have High Sierra on my iMac and Sierra on my MacBook Air. I purchased the 20 gig plan with LR Classic, LRCC and PS CC. You will see a CC dialogue window on your screen and only download what you want to. I avoided LR CC as that is cloud based. I just want to use local storage so I downloaded LR Classic and PS CC.

After it downloaded the install took less than 5 minutes per device. It found the catalogue (per device) and created a new one integrating the old, kept the presets and preserved my default settings. I later moved the old catalogue renamed the new one. Just got rid of the -2. Back things if you want to move or rename. All working great.

You also get a free website with Portfolio. I got an instant domain and you can change the first part of it. Nothing fancy and I don't think I can link from it but I don't want to. I cancelled my Zenfolio account which covered a years subscription. I just go it set up the way I want it and will start to import images.

Not bad for free 

Light Raider Photography


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## clee01l (Nov 3, 2017)

tom manley said:


> ...will Classic override 5.7 or will i still be able to have my existing catalogue there as well as opening it in LR Classic? - would this cause any issues or be dangerous to the catalogue. Im still not clear whether I'm best to just open my existing Lightroom Catalogue in LRCLassic or whether i need to export / import entire catalogue over into new catalogue on LR Classic? Ill let you know how i get on!


The LR5 and the LR6 catalogs require different database structures.  The file that is the LR5 catalog only works with LR5.  When you open that catalog in LR6, LR6 will recognize the different database structure and will build a new LR6 catalog file from the LR5 catalog file data.  The end result is two files containing the same data. The original one will be in the LR5 structure and the new one will be in the LR6 structure.  If you go forward with LR6 any changes that you make in the LR6 catalog file will not be made in the LR5 file.  For most people LR6 becomes the new master and there is never a need to go back to LR5.  This is the standard method to migrate from an old version to a new one.  This is how we went from LR2 to LR3 and LR3 to LR4 etc. 
You only need one master catalog and if you are upgrading to LR6 there is no need to go back to LR5.  However if you ever need to recover from a back up, then the LR5 catalog is there. When you get LR6 backups, you can at some point delete your LR5 catalog backups.


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## Zenon (Nov 3, 2017)

FYI. I wanted to keep LR6 just in case but made the mistake of updating it and it morphed into LR CC 2015.13 which is subscription based. If I stop the subscription then I lose the Develop module. I can reverse this, just have not gotten to it.


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## tom manley (Nov 7, 2017)

clee01l said:


> The LR5 and the LR6 catalogs require different database structures.  The file that is the LR5 catalog only works with LR5.  When you open that catalog in LR6, LR6 will recognize the different database structure and will build a new LR6 catalog file from the LR5 catalog file data.  The end result is two files containing the same data. The original one will be in the LR5 structure and the new one will be in the LR6 structure.  If you go forward with LR6 any changes that you make in the LR6 catalog file will not be made in the LR5 file.  For most people LR6 becomes the new master and there is never a need to go back to LR5.  This is the standard method to migrate from an old version to a new one.  This is how we went from LR2 to LR3 and LR3 to LR4 etc.
> You only need one master catalog and if you are upgrading to LR6 there is no need to go back to LR5.  However if you ever need to recover from a back up, then the LR5 catalog is there. When you get LR6 backups, you can at some point delete your LR5 catalog backups.



LR 6 does not seem to be an option in the UK - If i subscribe to Lightroom Classic will my current LR 5 programme remain on the computer or be replaced... would like to have the option of keeping my current catalogue intact so as if ever stop a subscription in the future then i will not lose edits...and am thinking of comparing Lightroom and Capture One as i move forward...


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## Jim Wilde (Nov 7, 2017)

I've just checked the UK site, and it IS there. It's called "Photoshop Lightroom 6", not just "Lightroom 6" as it is on the US site.

Any upgrade to either LR6 or LR Classic will not uninstall your current LR5 version, so you can always use it. Understand though that if you do upgrade, the existing LR5 catalog will be updated to comply with the database structure needed for LR6 or Classic, although that update only reads the existing catalog and writes out an updated version. So your current LR5 catalog and application are still useable.....but if you upgrade and subsequently decide to revert back to LR5, the updated LR6/Classic catalog cannot be used by LR5. So you would potentially lose any work you do using LR6/Classic before going back to LR5, though there are some things than can be done to reduce some of that loss.


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## clee01l (Nov 7, 2017)

tom manley said:


> LR 6 does not seem to be an option in the UK - ... would like to have the option of keeping my current catalogue intact so as if ever stop a subscription in the future then i will not lose edits...and am thinking of comparing Lightroom and Capture One as i move forward...


LR6 should still be available for purchase in the UK as a perpetual license directly from Adobe. You can install Lightroom Classic and still keep the LR5 app. Any edits made in Lightroom Classic will not be available in your LR5 catalog file and can only be accessed using the Lightroom Classic app and catalog file. But they won’t be lost since the app retains some functionality after your subscription expires.


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## tom manley (Nov 7, 2017)

oh ok... wish the adobe staff knew what they were talking about - thanks!


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## Hal P Anderson (Nov 7, 2017)

tom manley said:


> wish the adobe staff knew what they were talking about


You're not alone.


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## tom manley (Nov 7, 2017)

well I'm spending far too much time weighing up the pros and cons here... but some good advice from Adobe would help... Anyway i t looks like they are playing a policy of not say too much and let the users make their own mind up... well ok i get it but they would seriously benefit from offering more specific support to users of their incredibly wide ranging tools for creative workflows..... sooooooo i guess im going to bite the bullet  - subscribe to the cloud and the photography plan with the main view that Photoshop will continue to be a useful part of my workflow... Along side this i am going to do some serious trials of new editing programs ...as i feel this to be worthwhile to have a better understanding of what else is out there... ultimately i guess i may use Lightroom to manage my library to date whilst experimenting with other options. Thanks for all your help.


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