Adobe Creative Cloud What are the pitfalls? I currently use Lightroom 5.7 and Photoshop Elements 15. The Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan makes more sense than upgrading both. I...

MrT Loc: Gilbert, AZ

I currently use Lightroom 5.7 and Photoshop Elements 15. The Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan makes more sense than upgrading both. I want to understand what I need to be aware of before I get in trouble.

Here are my questions:
What "gottcha" when you converted from the stand-alone versions to the cloud versions?"
Should I uninstall LR and Elements before signing up?
My computer is an I7, 7700K with 32GB ram, Windows 10 and I use onboard video. Would a separate video card make a difference? if so which one?
Will my old Wacom tablet still work?
I know the LR "catalog" is where my current changes are stored what happens to them when I convert? will CC use my existing catalog?

I know this is a big request and I REALLY appreciate any help anyone can provide. I just had 2 hard drives fail and lost some irreplaceable photos of my children. I don't want to lose more.....

THANK YOU.

chevman Loc: Matthews, North Carolina

If you decide to go the subscription route go for Lightroom classic it will be more familiar and also is more robust. If you want to get better information you may want to check out the Lightroom Queen forums on line you can find it here; https://www.lightroomforums.net

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

MrT wrote:

I currently use Lightroom 5.7 and Photoshop Elemen... (show quote)

I encountered no gotchas. CC won’t be a problem. Your LR catalog should be converted smoothly. Yes, a separate video card will speed things up. But SSD drives will speed things up the most! Your Wacom tablet should work fine, too.

Get a backup drive, and a regimen of using it!

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

There are no "gotchas"

Don't uninstall anything until you are happy with what you get.

You don't need a new graphics card.

The new CC will make an updated copy of your catalog. Nothing will be lost.

No reason your tablet won't work.

Sorry about the loss of photos.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

As far as Lightroom Classic CC is concerned, you should not encounter any issues. That's exactly what I did when I converted to the CC version a couple of years ago and I am completely happy. A good graphic card would be a wise investment, but you might want to wait until you get a new machine, depending on when that may be. An SSD will also make a BIG difference. On the hard drive crashing front, the adage is "It's not IF your Hard Drive will crash, but WHEN!" Sorry you had to learn that lesson the hard way. I deal with that issue by using Synology NAS Servers, all in Raid 5 or RAID 1, and multiple copies of everything, some off site. There are lots of ways to accomplish this, pick one and go to it. Do it NOW before anything else happens. Finally, depending on how badly you want you photos back, there are companies who specialize in data recovery but be forewarned that it's not cheap. Best of luck. Happy Holidays to ALL!

MrT Loc: Gilbert, AZ

chevman wrote:

If you decide to go the subscription route go for Lightroom classic it will be more familiar and also is more robust. If you want to get better information you may want to check out the Lightroom Queen forums on line you can find it here; https://www.lightroomforums.net

THANKS Chevman. Took a quick look and bookmarked Lightroomforums.net

MrT Loc: Gilbert, AZ

burkphoto wrote:

I encountered no gotchas. CC won’t be a problem. Your LR catalog should be converted smoothly. Yes, a separate video card will speed things up. But SSD drives will speed things up the most! Your Wacom tablet should work fine, too.

Get a backup drive, and a regimen of using it!

THANKS Burkphoto. The hard drives that failed were C: and E:. I was recopying E: to F: as part of my backup process when C: and E: failed. Spent a week and $ on restore programs and got back lots but lost a lot too. Replaced the c: with an M.2 NVMe. Bought a 3TB backup and have copied it all over so back to 2 copies. Will address a better solution than two copies after the holidays.

MrT Loc: Gilbert, AZ

bsprague wrote:

There are no "gotchas"

Don't uninstall anything until you are happy with what you get.

You don't need a new graphics card.

The new CC will make an updated copy of your catalog. Nothing will be lost.

No reason your tablet won't work.

Sorry about the loss of photos.

THANK you for taking the time to help.

MrT Loc: Gilbert, AZ

cjc2 wrote:

As far as Lightroom Classic CC is concerned, you s... (show quote)

cjc2.

THANKS have amazon up and looking at Synology NAS. Thanks for the recommendation. I can set up a raid on my desktop machine so am thinking about that as option too.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

MrT wrote:

cjc2.

THANKS have amazon up and looking at Synology NAS. Thanks for the recommendation. I can set up a raid on my desktop machine so am thinking about that as option too.

Make SURE the RAID you are setting up is true HARDWARE RAID. Some systems can do it that way, others use SOFTWARE RAID which I consider to be 'smoke and mirrors'. I have three Synology systems, a 2-bay, a 4-bay and an 8-bay (my latest, a fully loaded 1817+ -- $$, but super fast with Seagate Ironwolf drives and 1GB SSD for caching read/write.) I shoot 75,000 plus images a year! Happy Holidays to ALL!

jethro779 Loc: Tucson, AZ

MrT wrote:

I just had 2 hard drives fail and lost some irreplaceable photos of my children. I don't want to lose more.....

THANK YOU.

I think the first order of business is to get external backup drives to keep from losing more photos when the main hard drive fails. Just because there is cloud in the name doesn't mean the files will be in the cloud. I see in the time it took me to type the initial response here that several others also recommended external drives. I am not a fan of the latest iteration that Adobe has come up with so I will use Lightroom 6 till it quits responding before I go the cloud route if I do go the cloud route.

Clapperboard

MrT Were the drives that failed external plug-in drives? If so it is more likely the interface built in to the drive unit that has failed. If that is the case dismantling the units and removing the hard drives might be a possibility for recovering your data from the hard drive itself.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

If desired, Adobe offers a 30 day free trial period for LR Classic CC, Photoshop CC 2018 and even LR CC. That should be ample time to explore and decide. I have LR Classic CC and PS CC 2018.
I also use PSE 11, FastStone, Gimp, NIK and a few others. Good luck in making your choice.
Mark

MrT wrote:

I currently use Lightroom 5.7 and Photoshop Elemen... (show quote)

JerseyT

The real "gotcha" with subscription software is that when you eventually discontinue the subscription you will lose access to all PSD files (and any TIF with layers). I know of no other software that can truly read a PSD with layers.

Mundj Loc: Richmond TX

The new subscription LR CC Clasic is not a cloud storage system. It still put your photos on the hard drive you designate. You need to have active backup systems running to backup both your photo collection and just as important your LR catalog file.