LR Won't Let Me Use It--Says it is a Demo

[ronlacy]

The first part of June my iMac had a problem when loading an update from Apple and lost access to a great many of my applications. With the help of the Apple Store Genius I got the HD reloaded--thank goodness for Time Machine--and was back in business. Except for my LR 2.3 software. Whenever I started LR it asked me to either buy the software or continue using the "demo" for 3' days. I originally purchased LR 1.' a couple of years ago and then last summer I upgraded to 2.'. I was running 2.3 when this issue happened and have since upgraded to 2.4. It is interesting to note that I was able to upgrade the software when the message on LR gave me when I tried to start the program was that I had a demo version and needed to buy a license.

I went to he Adobe website and found the area to submit problems to customer support and I wrote a product support email to Adobe asking them to help me fix the issue with LR. It took two weeks for them to respond. Then they told me my LR 1 was an purchased using an educational discount (it was) and therefore I couldn't upgrade to 2.'. That was crazy because I have been running 2.' for almost a year. They ignored the problem I told them I had and they didn't address my question.

I have written them again and still have no response--almost two months. Now the "demo" period has expired and LR will not work. I am completely frustrated. Adobe won't respond to my customer support emails, the one time they did they didn't address my problem and now I can't run LR on my iMac. It does still run on my Mac Laptop and I have PS on the iMac, but I use LR 85% of the time.

Can anyone tell how to get Adobe to address my problem? Does anyone have an idea how to fix this problem? Any help from this forum would be appreciated because I can't get any help from Adobe!

I downloaded the upgrade to 2.' when I purchased it last year so I don't have a disc to use to reload the software. I did try to download again from the Adobe website, but that hasn't worked either.

I am very frustrated. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Ron

 

[clee01l]

When you upgraded to 2.' you should have gotten a Serial number. Just register that using the menu <Help><Lightroom Registration...> This will put your license in all the supersecret places that LR checks for a valid licensed copy. When you got a corrupted OS, you lost a lot of applications. LR was one of them. It just needs to be re-regiatered again

 

[ronlacy]

Cletus-

Thanks for the reply. However, the choice to register LR under the help menu is grayed out and not available.

When I select the option that I have a serial number (I do) and I want to register the software, LR takes me to the screen to enter the serial number. I enter the serial number for LR 2, the software recognizes that this is an upgrade and automatically fills in the serial number for the original LR 1. It then opens a registration screen. I complete all of the information to register the new serial number and LR 2. When I select either "next" or "finish", LR quits and I am back to square one.

Any other ideas?

Thanks
Ron

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Hi Ron, welcome to the forum!

When you enter the serial number, does it put a green tick at the end?

And when the genius helped you fix it, did they get you to reinstall Lightroom? And did they copy a load of Application Data back?

Initial thought - try this technote - http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/4'1/kb4'1346.html Refers to LR1, but the principle should be the same for LR2. I'm guessing the permissions on LR's registration data storage may be wrong, as a result of the copying from TM, and it's not saving the registration data.

PS. And you can buy a regular upgrade for an Education version http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/4'2/kb4'2371.html

 

[ronlacy]

Victoria-

Thanks for the suggestions and thanks for the welcome.

Yes, when I enter the serial number I get two green ticks--one for the LR 2 version and one for the serial number for the LR 1 version.

The Apple Genius suggested the issue was that the applications were still on the hd and that what was needed was to reset (?) the permissions. I did what he suggested (can't remember exactly what we did) and apparently the permissions were reset so that I could access all of the applications--but apparently LR didn't get fixed as well as other. After the permissions were reset I restored from Time Machine and everything seemed OK--except LR.

I have considered buying another upgrade to LR 2, but I want to have some feeling that it will load properly, recognize the serial number and I will be able to use it. Right now I can't launch LR 1 either.

Thanks
Ron

 

[Victoria Bampton]

If it's green tick showing, it means it's a valid serial, so I don't think buying another one would help.

If fixing the permissions on the file mentioned in that TechNote doesn't fix it, then next I'd delete the app, and then do a Spotlight search for everything to do with Lightroom - obviously making sure your catalogs and presets are safely stored. I'd particularly go looking in Application Support folders for your user and the global Library too. There must be a stray file with the wrong permissions somewhere. Then I'd re-download and reinstall Lightroom 2.4, and enter your serial numbers.... and hope!

Other thing you could try - create another user on your iMac and see if LR will open into that.

 

[ronlacy]

Victoria and All-

Thanks for all of your suggestions and help. I think I have finally resolved my issues with LR. Don't want to make this too complicated, but the permissions folder for LR 1 and LR 2 as mentioned in the TechNote recommended by Victoria, were in different user groups for the computer. Also they could only be changed by that user. The file for LR 2 did not contain the proper serial number. Once I signed in as the authorized user, made the changes described in the TechNote, logged off and then back on as the other user, I was fine.

It took a long time and a lot of frustration, but this seems to have worked. The good news is that I have discovered a new LR/Adobe forum and a lot of very nice folks.

Thanks again for your help and I look forward to being a frequent visitor/user of your expertise.

Ron

 

[Kiwigeoff]

Great work, pleased you got a result here Ron!!

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Brilliant news Ron, so pleased we could help!