How do I re-install LR5 after a HD crash?

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Singingstone48

Singingstone48
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Jan 27, 2014
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Richmond, Texas
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Intermediate
Lightroom Version
6.x
Hi,
I have used LR3 for several years and recently (1/7/14) upgraded to LR5.3. Last weekend my computer crashed and the HD had to be replaced. Almost all of my photos were recovered and I have .lcat files for both LR3.6 and LR5.3. I have the email from Abode with the Serial no. for the upgrade I purchased. I do not have the original serial no. from LR3.6 and don't know where I could find it.

How can I download LR5.3 again? What do I have to show Adobe so they will let me download? What about LR3.6? Have I lost that forever? Any help to smooth my path will be greatly appreciated. We are starting to re-install program files.

Steve
 
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Welcome to the forum. If you registered the LR3 version of LR, it will show up on the "My Products" page of your Adobe account when you sign in. If you did not register your original version with Adobe, you will need the original S/N for the full LR3 version as you received it.
Your registrations (original and update) are stored on your HD in "C:/ProgramData/Adobe/Lightroom/Lightroom 3.0 Registration.lrreg" file If you were able to recover your master image files and your LR catalog(s) perhaps you have recovered these files too.
 
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Steve,

Welcome to the forum!

Download 5.3 from here: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=113&platform=Windows
You won't need to prove that you purchased it to download, and it'll run for 30 days while you get your serial number situation straightened away.

To get your LR 3 serial number, Adobe will have it on file if you registered LR3 when you bought it. Log in to the Adobe site. and go here:
https://www.adobe.com/account.html
Expand "My Products", and your serial numbers will all be listed there.

There is probably no reason for you to install LR 3.6. You will need the serial number if your copy of 5.3 is an upgrade.
 
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Thanks for the advice. I did not register LR3 when I got it originally. If I remember correctly I purchased it off Amazon when it went on sale for $199. Tonight I will check my restored files and my backup if necessary to get to the path you described and get the serial # for LR3. Learned my lesson and registered my upgrade serial no. with Adobe this morning.
 
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I managed to find my original purchase box for LR3 which had the serial number with it. I followed the link you suggested and downloaded LR5.3. It installed on my SSD drive (C) just fine. I put in the upgrade and original serial no. it wanted and registered it with Adobe. It wanted to create a new catalog so I let it. My photo files and my old lrcat files are on my new 2 tb HD (D drive). I tried to open the old LR5 .lrcat file and Lightroom told me it could not load it since it was too old a version. I just installed LR5 on 1/4/14, so how could it be too old a version? I don't know what to do now. How do I get the program to recognize my old .lrcat file. Otherwise all the edits I've made for the last two years in LR3 will be lost and I'll have to do everything over again. There must be some way to avoid that, I hope. Thanks for your help so far.
 
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Okay, I went to open a catalog. It would not work with my LR 5 .lrcat file but it would upgrade my LR3 .lrcat file created on the same day. This brought up all my folders as if they were in the C: drive which is where they used to be. My C: drive is now an SSD used for storing the Win 8.1 and program files. My data drive is D:

How do I redirect LR to look in the D: drive for the folders that contain my images?
 
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In LR, right-click on a topmost folder and choose "Find missing folder...". Navigate to your D: drive and point to where that folder is now. Find the folder and hit OK. That will find that folder and all its children. Repeat for any other top level folders.
 
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Followed your instructions and voila! all my photos could be seen. Checked a few random files and my work in Develop all appears to be there. Thanks for your advice, and I'm sure I'll have more questions as I start to learn LR5 while I'm working on my photos. This is a great forum and I wish I had discovered it earlier.
Thanks again!
 
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I have the exact same problem as Steve except in reverse on the SNs. I have my LR3 serial number. Dummy me had saved the email containing my LR5 download SN but did not record it elsewhere. With the HD crash so crashed my emails. How do I load it without the SN?

Luckily, I only had LR and catalog on the C drive. All images were always downloaded to an external HD and backed up to another external HD. So, shouldn't be a major issue once I get the program back.

Thanks in advance.

Michael
 
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If you bought LR 5 from Adobe, your Adobe account will have a record of the serial number they sent you via e-mail. Log in and you ought to be able to find it.
 
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Not much help there. I register all my products when I purchase them. I did as Hal instructed and the only thing they have record of is PS Elements from 2010. They don't have my LR3, which I purchased as a disk (have the disk/case in front of me) and registered as part of the upload process. And, I registered LR5, which was a download straight from Adobe in Sept. 2013. But, neither are showing in the list of My Products.

All LR upload files were saved to my external HD since it backed up all of my internal HD. Is there a file buried anywhere within any of those LR files that may contain the SN? I did find a file that opened up LR download window where I can put in a SN if I have one. Should I do this and put in my LR3 number? Would it somehow locate my LR5 number?


****UPDATE****

Thanks everyone for the help. I followed Hal's advise but it wasn't listed under My Products. However, since I ordered it straight from Adobe I went to My Orders and it had my LR5 SN listed along with my Sep 2013 purchase.
 
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If you have a backup of the failed HD, the serial number(s) are recorded in /ProgramData/Adobe/Lightroom, where you'll find a file called "Lightroom 5.0 Registration.llreg". Open that with Notepad and you should find two serial numbers....one called "original_serial_number" will be the LR3 number, and the other called simply "serial_number" will be the LR5 number.

Make a note of those and enter them at the prompts when you start LR5 after installing it....and for goodness sake write this stuff down (I include all mine in text files which are part of my regular documents backup routine).
 
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Write all serial numbers down on good old pen & paper, still the most reliable way of recording data :)
 
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