Made a Big Mistake

[John R Smith]

Your expert advice is requested. I have a very stock Windows 7 64-bit setup. When LR3 was released, I downloaded it and installed the app as a 30-day trial. At that time, I was running a fully-licensed copy of LR 2.6. Unfortunately I had a lot of problems with LR3 – it would crash completely at unpredictable times, sometimes when loading, sometimes in the middle of editing. This was odd, because I had run both beta versions of 3 without problems, and all my other apps are just fine – LR2, PS Elements, MS Office, etc etc.

This was a month ago. At the time, I had a lot of other stuff happening, and I just didn’t have the energy to mess around with LR3 anymore, so after 3 or 4 days I uninstalled it and carried on with LR2, thinking I would find the time later on to assess it again and see if I could get to run reliably, because I really wanted the new perspective correction in 3 and I would be happy to pay for the upgrade as long as I could get it stable. What I did do was upgrade to LR 2.7, which has been running solid as a rock ever since.

Now I have a bit more free time, so last night I decided to re-install LR3 as a trial version and evaluate it again. But to my shock and horror, despite the fact that it had not been installed on the PC during the intervening time, it tells me that my 30-day trial is used up and I have no option but to purchase a licensed copy. So somehow, my trial period had been used up even though I wasn’t using it.

This is a real pain. I certainly don’t want to pay for the upgrade, just to find that I can’t get LR3 to run reliably, and I didn’t actually get around to properly testing the perspective correction either. Has anyone any ideas? Presumably there is no way of reactivating the trial, except (perhaps) by loading it on a different PC (which I don’t have).

John

[dgberg]

Your expert advice is requested. I have a very stock Windows 7 64-bit setup. When LR3 was released, I downloaded it and installed the app as a 30-day trial. At that time, I was running a fully-licensed copy of LR 2.6. Unfortunately I had a lot of problems with LR3 – it would crash completely at unpredictable times, sometimes when loading, sometimes in the middle of editing. This was odd, because I had run both beta versions of 3 without problems, and all my other apps are just fine – LR2, PS Elements, MS Office, etc etc.

This was a month ago. At the time, I had a lot of other stuff happening, and I just didn’t have the energy to mess around with LR3 anymore, so after 3 or 4 days I uninstalled it and carried on with LR2, thinking I would find the time later on to assess it again and see if I could get to run reliably, because I really wanted the new perspective correction in 3 and I would be happy to pay for the upgrade as long as I could get it stable. What I did do was upgrade to LR 2.7, which has been running solid as a rock ever since.

Now I have a bit more free time, so last night I decided to re-install LR3 as a trial version and evaluate it again. But to my shock and horror, despite the fact that it had not been installed on the PC during the intervening time, it tells me that my 30-day trial is used up and I have no option but to purchase a licensed copy. So somehow, my trial period had been used up even though I wasn’t using it.

This is a real pain. I certainly don’t want to pay for the upgrade, just to find that I can’t get LR3 to run reliably, and I didn’t actually get around to properly testing the perspective correction either. Has anyone any ideas? Presumably there is no way of reactivating the trial, except (perhaps) by loading it on a different PC (which I don’t have).

John,
The trial period is for 30 days with no restrictions how much you use it in that time frame. After 30 days the option is to puchase as you already know.
Maybe you have an issue with Windows 7? Lightroom has been extremely stable for most if not everyone I have talked with.
Since I'm on a Mac mabe a PC expert can chime in on a possible glitch with your os?

John

[John R Smith]

Dan

I did post on here and on other LR forums regarding my issues. The only suggestion I got was that it was being caused by a corrupt catalogue, so I created a new catalogue from scratch in LR3 but I still got the random crashes.

If I had been able to reload the trial version, I was going to try a catalogue export from LR2 as per Jeff S, and also start from scratch with a clean ACR cache and presets folder. But I am not going to risk £80 on that (maybe) working.

Worse still, does this mean that I will not be able to try out LR 3.1, 3.2 etc when they are released? Will I have to wait for LR 4 before I get another 30-day trial?

John

[Johnny_Johnson]

Hi John,

It'll be a bit unhandy but I believe that you can get around the problem by setting the date on your computer back by ~30 days.

Later,
Johnny

[jpegman]

Hi John,

It'll be a bit unhandy but I believe that you can get around the problem by setting the date on your computer back by ~30 days.

Later,
Johnny

Welcome to the world of trials!

If everyone could reset their PC easily to extend the trial period beyond the OEM deadline, no-one would need to buy the product - just keep extending the free trial version. That is why some OEM's trial install versions are feature limited or have nag screens to tell you to buy and register!  Adobe gives you the whole enchilada for 30 days, and shuts you down by deeply hidden registry entries that are undetectable. Your best bet might be to contact Adobe Customer Support, and ask them.  

BTW, I have bought and downloaded Adobe products in the past, and THEY ARE RETURNABLE (even though they offer a 30 day trial)! You need to sign a waiver that you have deleted the product from your PC and promise never to use it again, and Adobe will refund your money.

[BobFisher]

Decided to delete my comment.

[Bahi]

Worse still, does this mean that I will not be able to try out LR 3.1, 3.2 etc when they are released? Will I have to wait for LR 4 before I get another 30-day trial?

I can't confirm that it will work with LR3, but in the past, those for whom specific aspects of Lightroom 2.x were deal breakers would be able to trial each point upgrade before buying. That's a sensible policy, I think. Adobe will lose some money when people abuse that approach but it gains a lot of respect from people who genuinely need to try a new point release. It also allows the company to release interim support for new cameras. (If I remember correctly, there was support for the Canon S90 raw files in a release of LR 2.x but without the much-needed distortion correction—that feature followed in the subsequent point release. An S90 owner who tried the earlier version and uninstalled it straight away will have appreciated the chance to try again before buying.)

[John R Smith]

If everyone could reset their PC easily to extend the trial period beyond the OEM deadline, no-one would need to buy the product - just keep extending the free trial version. That is why some OEM's trial install versions are feature limited or have nag screens to tell you to buy and register!  Adobe gives you the whole enchilada for 30 days, and shuts you down by deeply hidden registry entries that are undetectable. Your best bet might be to contact Adobe Customer Support, and ask them.

Yes, well, I am beginning to realise that I should never have bothered to post this topic. Of course, if you could reset the trial then as you say no-one would need to purchase the full version. In my innocence, I assumed that if I uninstalled LR3 that the trial counter would stop ticking down, and that I would have 25 or whatever days left when I installed it again. Oh well, it's just my hard luck.

I shall have to stick with LR 2.7 and use PS for my perspective correction, as I have been doing up to now. It's a bit of a cludge, but it does work. Sorry to ask a dumb question  

John

[john beardsworth]

I don't know any trials that work like that. But follow the earlier suggestion - see if you can get in touch with customer support and see if they will help. They may if you sound honest.

John

[mcbroomf]

John,

Just step back to a backup from a month ago and you should be able ot install it again