Using Both CC and Lightroom 'Perpetual' Licenses

[Chris Kern]

I'm posting this in a separate thread because the issue appears to be popping up in several different discussions here.  I just completed a lengthy chat session with Adobe customer support (I'm on the east coast of the United States and the reps were in India, I think), and on the third try I finally was connected to someone who was able to diagnose and resolve my problem.

I have a CC subscription and a standalone ("perpetual") Lightroom 6 license because I want to run LR on more than two machines.  Unfortunately, Adobe's license-management software isn't up to the task of dealing with an account holder with both types of license; apparently, when Adobe decided to bring the standalone product under license management, they didn't anticipate that some CC customers (at least, non-institutional customers) would need more than the two seats the subscription provides.

The workaround, actually, is simple: you need separate Adobe accounts for your CC and standalone Lightroom licenses.  It's easy enough to register a second account.  The only complication is that if you have already purchased a standalone license (upgrade or new) while logged into your existing Adobe account, you will need the assistance of a customer support rep to move that license and, in the case of an upgrade license, the license for your qualifying software to the second account.

Unfortunately, the first-line support rep I spoke to didn't know what to do.  Nor did the one to whom he escalated my inquiry.  The third rep figured it out with a few nudges from me—I had already guessed the workaround, but was hoping there was a clean fix—and he moved my standalone license to a second Adobe account.  I'm now running LR on three machines: two under a CC license and the third under a perpetual license.

And, no, I don't think this hiccup is part of a sinister scheme on Adobe's part to make life difficult for perpetual licensees.  Just a lapse in planning.

[Rick Popham]

Thanks, Chris.  This is the best explanation of the problem that I've seen.  Will Adobe ever post this information prominently to ease the confusion?  Or even fix it?  Who knows -- "most people don't do this", after all.

[john beardsworth]

Chris and Rick

Would it have been easier if you had been able to add a third installation to your CC subscription?

John

[Chris Kern]

Would it have been easier if you had been able to add a third installation to your CC subscription?

I think it's desirable, for both the customer and Adobe, to have information about all of the customer's licensed products in one place.  In addition to serving as an inventory, it's useful for verifying eligibility for upgrade pricing and other promotions, and it allows the support staff to determine what level of assistance a customer is entitled to when reporting a problem.  (The first thing each of the three reps did during my chat session with Adobe's offshore customer support the other night was to "put me on hold" for a few minutes while they checked my account.)

Having said that, as long as you have multiple electronic mail addresses, it's easy enough to register additional Adobe accounts.  I don't know whether having different accounts restricts your ability to run CC and standalone ("perpetual license") products in the same computer session—I haven't tried that—or whether it will pose a problem when purchasing upgrades in the future, but at the moment it's the only workaround, according to the customer support rep who finally resolved my problem.  It's working for me now, and I'll cross other bridges when I come to them.

But Adobe should fix this.  There's no technical justification for the company to be using license-management software that is unable to determine that a particular user has both a CC subscription and a standalone LR license: after all, when you purchase the latter while logged into the Adobe account you use for your CC subscription, Adobe immediately sends an automated message to the email address associated with that account with the upgrade license key.  It just doesn't make sense for the license manager subsequently to prevent you from installing the standalone product from the account you used to purchase it.

Until they do fix this problem, as Rick suggests, they should alert purchasers with a prominent notice on the standalone order form to the effect that "if you already have a CC subscription, you should register a different Adobe account and use it to purchase this product, since LR 6 and LR-CC cannot be installed under the same Adobe account."

[john beardsworth]

But if Adobe did offer a 3 installation CC deal, would you take that rather than want separate CC and Perpetual licences? Assuming the price is sensible.

[Chris Kern]

But if Adobe did offer a 3 installation CC deal, would you take that rather than want separate CC and Perpetual licences? Assuming the price is sensible.

Assuming a two-year run for LR 6, the economics currently favor licensing the standalone product to acquire a third seat—especially since Adobe hasn't offered any specific information about what additional features it may introduce for CC subscribers before the next major release.

I personally have no problem with the software-as-a-service model, so if I knew features I wanted would be introduced only for the subscription product, I might actually pay a premium to keep all my instances of LR the same.  If I were the LR product manager, however, I suspect I might have qualms about disclosing in advance what new tricks the developers had up their sleeves, both for competitive reasons and also because engineering estimates of when an enhancement will be ready often are optimistic.  (My own experience with software development made me a firm believer in computer scientist Douglas "Hofstadter's Law," which states that "it always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.")

[john beardsworth]

So if the cost of three CC installations was effectively the same as CC+Perpetual, it seems you would go with 3xCC. I only ask because I know someone has asked Adobe to look into offeromg extra CC installations and wondered if there was some reason other than cost behind your buying the additional Perpetual copy.

John

[Manoli]

Having said that, as long as you have multiple electronic mail addresses, it's easy enough to register additional Adobe accounts.

It's 2015, do I REALLY need multiple email addresses let alone multiple accounts ?

But Adobe should fix this.  There's no technical justification for the company to be using license-management software that is unable to determine that a particular user has both a CC subscription and a standalone LR license ...

... they should alert purchasers with a prominent notice on the standalone order form to the effect that "if you already have a CC subscription, you should register a different Adobe account and use it to purchase this product

That they don't is just, oh, so Adobe ...

So if the cost of three CC installations was effectively the same as CC+Perpetual, it seems you would go with 3xCC. I only ask because I know someone has asked Adobe to look into offers extra CC installations and wondered if there was some reason other than cost behind your buying the additional Perpetual copy.

I'm on CC, upgraded the perpetual LR5 licence - more out of habit than need and as an emergency 'backup' , but this really pissed me off - don't need the aggravation. It'll either be CC or Lr standalone (if I dump CC) in the future. Sent the perpetual Lr upgrade back for a refund.

[john beardsworth]

So if the cost of three CC installations was effectively the same as CC+Perpetual, would you go with 3xCC ? Or do you just need two installations?

[Denis de Gannes]

What I believe is happening is, Adobe is attempting to enforce to perpetual license usage. two installations active with only one in use at any point in time.

[Manoli]

So if the cost of three CC installations was effectively the same as CC+Perpetual, would you go with 3xCC ? Or do you just need two installations?

Only need two but would possibly tag on the third as a 'safety'.

BUT

What I always carry with me is Lr.dmg on a USB stick for emergency use (laptop crashes, lost, stolen etc.) Don't mind the new one-off licensing authorisation routine (though I prefer the previous one), but what I DO NOT want is yet another account/email AND to have to download the whole CC caboodle just to install Lr, particularly as sod's law says that when you need it there probably won't be an internet connection. Simplicity and reliability are what I want, price consideration is second.

I almost always shoot tethered into C1 Pro and then export to Lr. Currently, C1 is looking a more suitable alternative. Not only do Phase offer single user and multi user options, there's a choice of subscription or perpetual and as a backup you've always got C1 Express.  If you're using a SONY you get a dedicated version for free -  all on the same account. If Phase's licensing manager can handle it, I would have thought Adobe could too ...

[jeremyrh]

It's 2015, do I REALLY need multiple email addresses let alone multiple accounts ?

This is the same Adobe stupidity I've commented on before, that makes you use a different email address and a new account (and a new subscription) when you change countries.

[john beardsworth]

This is the same Adobe stupidity I've commented on before, that makes you use a different email address and a new account (and a new subscription) when you change countries.

Actually, Jeremy, you hit a different stupidity. Here it's a problem of how many installations people want on one account (Microsoft allow 5 for Office 365), yours is how Adobe stop you spending money with them if you move to a new country. I certainly know of American expats who can't upgrade to 6/CC because their local Adobe web site rejects accounts registered in the US and the US site rejects them because they're in another country. Like happened with you, they are forced to get someone at Adobe to change where their account is registered. I'm sure there must be a good reason....

[Simon Garrett]

Actually, Jeremy, you hit a different stupidity. Here it's a problem of how many installations people want on one account (Microsoft allow 5 for Office 365), yours is how Adobe stop you spending money with them if you move to a new country. I certainly know of American expats who can't upgrade to 6/CC because their local Adobe web site rejects accounts registered in the US and the US site rejects them because they're in another country. Like happened with you, they are forced to get someone at Adobe to change where their account is registered. I'm sure there must be a good reason....

I had problems with some software registered on a UK account and some on a US account (it migrated from Macromedia).  Took several hours on chat sessions and phone calls to fix.  Idiotically, once fixed it then took 48 hours for the account information to trickle across all Adobe systems.

Adobe online systems are really not very good.  It's a pity they're not a software company.  Wait a minute...

[Manoli]

I certainly know of American expats who can't upgrade to 6/CC because their local Adobe web site rejects accounts registered in the US and the US site rejects them because they're in another country.

I'm surprised.
The solution there is to always log onto the adobe.com/country site of your account AND the registered address of your credit card.

I'm UK /£ based, but am usually somewhere in the EU. Never had a problem logging on or downloading from adobe.uk. But Adobe were sticklers for making sure every single detail of your account matched those of the credit card - full name, initials, address, postcode etc.. Now that Adobe have also adopted PayPal the problems should be fewer.

[john beardsworth]

These were in Thailand/Singapore. So maybe the issue is between Adobe's operational regions like US, Eu, SeAsia? I don't plan to dig any deeper - happy though I am helping people get more out of LR, I'm done with helping them buy the damn thing!

[digitaldog]

These were in Thailand/Singapore. So maybe the issue is between Adobe's operational regions like US, Eu, SeAsia?

That's possible. I recall Pixel Genius who uses eSellerate had issues at one time with Vietnam. Nothing we could do about it. 

[Rick Popham]

Chris and Rick

Would it have been easier if you had been able to add a third installation to your CC subscription?

John

Sorry for the late reply.  No, I wasn't interested in a third installation.  I just wanted to be able to load LR 6 on a laptop, activate it once, and not have to worry about recurring internet check ins.  Maintaining my LR perpetual license seemed the way to do this.  I was unsure about catalog compatibility between the subscription and perpetual models, so I figured I'd just load the perpetual version on my desktop machine as my second installation.  I do have a Photography Program subscription, but have always just used my perpetual version of LR 5.X, which coexisted nicely with the subscription.  Never expected to run into this kind of problem.