# Transition from the Trial version to Creative Cloud



## Mediaman09 (Jan 11, 2015)

Hi. First post.

I am ready to move on from my current Picassa setup into something more serious to edit / process / manage / share my photos and pretty much decided on the LightRoom path.

My question is, are there any known issues in migrating from the Trial version to the CC subscription, or is it rather seamless?  Just curious if any work done in the Trial is lost, or preserved,  when the trial is over a a CC subscription is taken.

Also what is the difference between the $10 monthly and $120 annual subscription choices, given they are the same price?


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## clee01l (Jan 11, 2015)

Welcome to our forum.

The subscription model uses The Creative Cloud Application manager to manage the apps licensed in your subscription.  If you installed the Creative Cloud Application manager with your trial, then you are already to go. LR also is sold as a standalone perpetual license,  This version is a little harder to find on the Adobe website.  All of the installed code is the same (trial, Perpetual, Subscription) The only difference is how the license is managed.  The Subscription acts like a 30 day trial that continues as long as the Creative Cloud Application manager runs in the background.  If your subscription is not current, after 30 days, the subscription will stop working just like the 30 day trial. The Perpetual License looks for a valid license number installed on the computer.  This is the only difference between trial, subscription and perpetual. 

If you go with the subscription the two fee structures just are differences in how often Adobe debts your credit card and what amount.  I recently switched from a monthly payment plan to an annual plan.  Doing so caused some minor bumps that Adobe Tech support needed to iron out,  However, there would have been no 'bumps' if I had started with the annual subscription.


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## Mediaman09 (Jan 11, 2015)

Many thanks for the respnose.

If one ignores the cloud, and seeks out the standalone version, is that version fixed at 5.0 (ie no updates), or can one still update it to say 5.7 via http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=5853 ? 

Or is the upgrade path rather fixed. For example, I see one can download the standalone version from B&H here: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/983326-REG/adobe_65215298_photoshop_lightroom_5_software.html, with free upgrade to 5.3. Not sure if than means it ends there, or simply costs more to get from there to 5,7.


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## clee01l (Jan 11, 2015)

If you purchase a Perpetual  license (standalone) you get the current release of that version (i.e. 5.0 thru 5.7.1) but not the next release (v6.x) without an upgrade fee.  Although no one who knows can speculate on when LR6 will appear, but I can speculate that it will be in the next 6 months.   The subscription will automatically get LR6 when it is available.


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