In the video tutorial below I show you how to upgrade to Lightroom Classic 9 from any prior version. We’ll go through what you should do before upgrading, how to resolve any issues that come up while upgrading, and then how to clean up afterwards (renaming your catalog, deleting the old catalog, getting your dock and taskbar icons squared away). If you prefer written instructions instead, read my article on how to upgrade.
This tutorial is appropriate for moving to 9.x (where x is any number) from 8.x, 7.x, 6.x or any earlier version. It is not appropriate for updating from 9.x to 9.y – that is a simpler update.
This is one of 112 videos (and 15 minutes out of the 25 hours of training!) in my Lightroom 5, 6 and Classic CC: The Fundamentals & Beyond V. 8 video series, for beginners and experienced users – do check it out!
How to Upgrade to Lightroom Classic 9 – Table of Contents:
- 01:02 Lightroom Classic v. 9 system requirements
- 01:51 Whether to clean up your catalog before or after upgrading
- 02:09 Understand where your old Lightroom catalog is
- 02:43 Whether you need to back up your catalog
- 03:07 Subscribing to the Photography Plan and downloading and Installing the Creative Cloud
application - 04:21 Installing Lightroom
- 05:08 What to do if Lightroom Classic v. 9 is not listed in the Creative Cloud app
- 04:57 If Lightroom gives you a message that it can’t find your catalog
- 05:58 If Lightroom opens but is empty (no photos)
- 06:41 The Upgrade dialog
- 06:27 Make sure that it will upgrade the correct catalog
- 07:56 “This operation cannot be undone…” – what it means. Backing up the previews file
- 10:00 What to expect if the process worked smoothly; what if your photos and work aren’t there
- 10:27 Third party plugins may not work
- 11:24 Distinguishing the taskbar / dock / desktop icon for your old Lightroom version vs. the new one
- 12:16 Adding the new program icon to your taskbar / dock / desktop
- 12:50 “Upgraded Version of Catalog Found – This catalog was previously upgraded…”
- 14:00 Renaming your catalog
- 16:22 When/if to delete your old catalogs
Laura, You are the best teacher going but sorry I have left LR for on One raw
Sorry to hear it, Bob. I wish you the best. (I have had several followers leave for OnOne and then come back, once they realized that OnOne updates frequently and that in the end they ended up paying more than for an Adobe subscription.
Great stuff Laura, much appreciated!
LR file name changes, backup services and your ISP: For those who have an internet provider that caps free data usage, such as my Comcast Xfinity subscription that includes up to 1TB per month, pay attention to your files size. 1TB is a lot, so while you are unlikely to hit the limit I managed to. I renamed, consolidated and generally reconfigured my filing system for LR where I have 2TB of photos (I travel overseas a lot). It did not occur to me that renaming a file or adding a new file are, to the offsite backup storage system, the same thing so it backed up the entire 2TB. The first two times this happens Comcast lets it go free with a notice to you. The third time you get a whopping bill (think hundreds of dollars). RECOMMENDATIONS: First, before you sign up with a backup service (I use iDrive as I have a NAS) clean up your files to a final configuration following Laura’s suggestions/recommendations. Second, some backup services will send you an external hard drive to download your files without charge that you send back to them — use it if you have a large number of files to save the data charges, plus it is surprisingly faster than trying to move all that data through the internet. Third, remember that if you change the name of the folder, it is going to be backed up as a new file. Rename your Photos Go Here file and all those photos are going to be backed up.
This is a good tip, James. For others reading, for clarification, this is unrelated to upgrading to Lightroom Classic 9.
This issue with using a cloud backup service (ISP or not) can be avoided by using a cloud backup service that offers unlimited storage space, such as BackBlaze.
I have LR 6 stand alone. Do you have to pay a yearly subscription for Classic 9. I don’t use it enough to pay.
Yes, Jennifer, Lightroom Classic is only available by subscription – you’ll have to stick with Lightroom 6 as long as you can.
Laura,
Thanks for this great video! It is excellent and I saw some things I need to check before proceeding with the upgrade, like my Windows version and the status of some plugins I use frequently.
I was recently helping two people who had problems with their catalog organization. In at least one case it appeared that LR upgraded automatically. Is that actually an option? Given what I learned from your video, it would seem that auto upgrades (vs updates) would not be recommended. Your opinion?
Thanks again! Sharing to my social media followers! :-)
Kathy