How to buy Lightroom 6 - UPDATE: sadly, you can't any more

(Updated July 2019)

The hammer has finally fallen. I’ve looked around the usual places online and I’m afraid I can’t find anywhere that sells official copies of Adobe Lightroom 6, the last version of Lightroom that was available as a non-subscription standalone product. That makes the original version of this article completely redundant unfortunately, and I’ve removed the links to Amazon, which used to be the last place you could get hold of it.

If you need Lightroom professionally, as I do, at this time I strongly recommend just biting the bullet and subscribing to Creative Cloud. There was a time that I objected to paying for a subscription, but my views have changed and I’m very happy with my Photography Plan that includes Lightroom Classic CC and Photoshop CC and 20GB of cloud storage (which I never use) for just over £100 a year.

If you’re not that bothered about LR in particular, or you’re not a professional, there are plenty of alternatives to consider such as Capture One, but personally I’m fine with Lightroom and it does everything I need. Photography is my livelihood and I’m happy to pay the low subscription fee until such time as it’s not my living any more.

However, if you don’t need anything more than Lightroom 6, the last version they sold without a subscriptions, then you’re probably trying to find out how to buy it, or upgrade from a previous version.

Unfortunately, it’s bad news: you can no longer upgrade from a previous version to LR6, or purchase LR6 outright. It’s not available on Adobe’s store, nor on any Amazon store that I searched. I’m afraid the only option now is alternative products, or Creative Cloud.

How to buy Lightroom 6 (Standalone) on Amazon

NO LONGER AVAILABLE

Unfortunately there’s no upgrade pricing available, but it is the official product, fully supported by Adobe. The best price is usually by download so make sure to switch to Mac Download or PC Download on Amazon’s product page.

How to upgrade the Lightroom CC Demo to Lightroom 6

The Lightroom demo is now only available branded as Lightroom CC, but don’t worry, you can switch the Lightroom CC Demo to a fully licensed Lightroom Standalone. Simply download and use the Lightroom CC demo as normal, ignoring any CC features (such as sync, etc – they won’t be available if you switch to Standalone). Then when you’re ready to switch from the demo to the full Lightroom 6 Standalone, simply follow Adobe’s official instructions, which I’ve copied below:

1. Launch Lightroom and select: Help > Sign Out (YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS)
   (Important: When you sign out of Lightroom the Creative Cloud desktop app may open and ask you to sign in again. DO NOT sign in to the Creative Cloud desktop app.)
2. Relaunch Lightroom. Click [Sign In Now]. If you sign in with an Adobe ID that has an active Creative Cloud membership associated with it, you will NOT see the serial # screen as it will activate with your Creative Cloud account. Just head over to the Adobe instructions page where they’ve got more info about mixed licensing situations.
3. Click [License This Software]
4. Enter your serial #, then click [Next].

Note: If you’re upgrading from a prior version, have your prior version serial number handy to enter as part of the activation process. If you’ve lost your box and/or serial number – or can’t remember prior version serial number – sign into your account to view your registered product serial numbers. If you didn’t register your product, but you still have Lightroom installed and licensed, you can retrieve your serial # from the following location:

Mac:

/Users/[your user name]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/Lightroom 5.0 Registration

Note: You may need to access hidden user library files in OS X 10.7 or later: http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/access-hidden-user-library-files.html

Windows:

C:\[your user name]\Program Data\Adobe\Lighroom\Lightroom 5.0 Registration
Note: On Windows it will have the extension .LRREG

5. After licensing your software with your serial number, Lightroom 6 will launch!

How to use Dehaze on Lightroom 6 Standalone

If you’d like to use Dehaze in Lightroom 6, you can add some of the functionality using a workaround. Click here to find out more about how to add Dehaze to your Lightroom 6!

I hope this helped you!