Upgrading to Lightroom 6 is not as easy as it was with Lightroom 5. This article outlines the differences and shows how to work around the challenges.

I am sure you have already heard about the release of Lightroom 6 and the impressive list of new features. For a detailed list of all the new features, I suggest reading Victoria Bampton’s blog post What’s New in Lightroom CC / 6.0?. For a comparison between Lightroom 6 and Lightroom CC, please read Laura Shoe’s blog post Which Should I Buy, Lightroom CC 2015 or Lightroom 6?.

1.Lightroom 6 upgrade facts

I am also sure that many of you are thinking about upgrading your existing Lightroom installation. Before you go ahead, here are some facts you need to consider before upgrading:

  • I am also sure that many of you are thinking about upgrading your You will need an Adobe ID, even for downloading a trial version. If you don’t have one, register a new Adobe ID here. Once you are logged in with your Adobe ID, you can download the trial versions for Windows and Mac.
  • Lightroom 6 needs to be activated online, using your Adobe ID and your serial number. This was not the case with earlier Lightroom versions.
  • While you can purchase full versions for example from Amazon, it appears that at least for now, updates can only be purchased from Adobe directly.
  • To purchase an upgrade from Adobe, you need to do the following:
    1. Go to the Adobe Photoshop collection page (Products -> Photoshop Collection) and click on “Buy” next to the Lightroom 6 entry. Either you can change the type immediately to “Upgrade”, or you can do it later after you have added the product to the shopping basket.
    2. For Europe, the price for the update is EUR 74,40 (you may see a slightly different price based on your local VAT).
    3. I had issues changing the product type in the shopping cart using Chrome, with Firefox it worked flawlessly. This may have been caused by a Chrome plugin, though. I did not have the time to investigate this issue.

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Picture of Robert Reiser

Robert is an enthusiast amateur photographer from Austria with a preference for black & white and infrared photography. He is an active member of the Austrian Association of Wildlife and Nature Photography (VTNÖ). In his spare time, he likes to take pictures and write about various photographic topics. More about Robert.