Download 1,000,000+ High-Quality Assets from the Adobe Stock Free Collection

Are Adobe CS6 Files Compatible with CS5, CS4 & CS3 - and Back?

You are currently browsing this article's comments (below). If you would like to read the full story, then you can see the complete post here:
Can You Save/Open CS6 Files on CS5, CS4 or CS3 – and Vice Versa?

GET FREE ADOBE BOOKS

Sign up for our popular newsletter and we’ll send you 30 great ebooks to learn all major Adobe tools at no cost!

Thank you for subscribing! We hope you enjoy the newsletter and your free Adobe books... Click here to see the books now, and start downloading and reading!

Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again.

Share This

Download 1,000,000+ Royalty-Free Images from the Adobe Stock Free Collection

62 thoughts on “Are Adobe CS6 Files Compatible with CS5, CS4 & CS3 - and Back?”

  1. @Kirsten
    Also, forgot to say that, When I open for example: I opened a sprite in cs6 and saved to cs5. Can I open it still in cs6 until cs3? Then I will save cs3 to flash 8. (Yes, I’m using flash professional then made a horrible mistake).
    Please I need a quick answer because I gotta make a vid for the madness day, it’s really special. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Hi Kirsten, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to do that and maintain all your work, but you can give it a shot. Overall it just sounds like too many steps back to a version that came out 10 years ago. Unless you were very careful about which features you used in CS6, then you’d probably lose some content that is unsupported on the much older Flash 8. But then again, it costs nothing to try and couldn’t hurt anything.

  2. I have the latest Illustrator CC 2015. There is no problem saving files down to lower versions of Illustrator. Some newer functions will change the artwork. For example lines created with the width line tool will become fills and not editable lines. So be aware that some of the newer features when used will not be editable in the same way.

    You can easily open old Illustrator files in it. Where there is a problem is with Freehand files. As a former Freehand user who has old files in Freehand, I can tell you they do not open in CS6 or CC. You can however open them and resave them as .ai’s in CS5 and lower. Then you can open them in CS6 and CC.

    Reply
    • Hello Paulette, welcome back and thanks for sharing that! And you’re right about FreeHand, which is a dozen years old now – Adobe discontinued support for opening FreeHand files in Illustrator CS6. However, if you want to convert your files then you can use any Illustrator version prior to CS6, and resave them as .ai files as you noted.

      If you need a prior CS/CC release for any conversion project like that (another example would be for saving back several releases in InDesign), then check out our Adobe software direct download links, where you can access and install all trial versions going back to CS3… The free 30 days usage that you get will hopefully be enough to take care of your files.

      If you have or use Illustrator CS4 (even as a temporary trial), then you can even use automated scripting to convert your FreeHand files to Illustrator files.

  3. I’m using adobe cc in 2015, to say this is a great improvement, many useful changes for users that do not have the old adobe, if you have the condition, use adobe 2015 cc

    Reply
  4. I have Adobe Premiere CS5, and at my school we use CS4. Is CS5 compatible with the version I have at my school (CS4)?

    Reply
    • The section above for Premiere Pro pretty much explains what you can do… You more easily go from CS4 to CS5 than vice versa, but techniques for going backwards are described as well. The one caveat is it’s possible to lose data if you are using newer features in the product that aren’t supported (and wouldn’t be recognized) by the older version.

  5. have hard copy of cs3 – using cs6 on mac and windows – need to add cs6 to third machine — or a way to work backwards – work/live in country area – internet Is bad at best – worst at other times – can’t (and don’t wan’t to) work in cloud – where can I buy (at a fair price) cs6 for my new machine? have spent hours on net looking –
    tks

    Reply
  6. May i ask… why can’t flash in cc or in cs6 save in cs4 or cs3 or lower because it will be a lot of help, a lot… even now in 2020, i can’t save the file like that

    Reply

Leave a Comment or Question


Receive over 30 Adobe Books plus Our Newsletter, Free!
DOWNLOAD FREE ADOBE BOOKS

Download Free Adobe Books Sign up for our popular newsletter and we’ll send you 30 great ebooks to learn all major Adobe tools free!

Thanks for subscribing! We hope you enjoy the newsletter and your free Adobe books... Click here to see the books now, and start downloading and reading!

Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again.

And don't miss: The New CC 2024 Direct Download Links
Boost your content creation with 1,000,000 free images from Adobe Stock

Don't miss: Download 1 million FREE Adobe Stock assets!

Start downloading instantly from the Adobe Stock Free Collection:

DOWNLOAD NOW

This message will close in:

WANT FREE ADOBE BOOKS?

Download Dozens of Free Adobe Books Sign up for our popular newsletter and we’ll send you 30 great ebooks to learn all major Adobe tools at no cost!

Thank you for subscribing! We hope you enjoy the newsletter and your free Adobe books... Click here to see the books now, and start downloading and reading!

Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again.

Thanks for sharing!
Subscribe to ProDesignTools for Adobe updates:
15.8kFans
7.2kFollowers
2.5kRSS
DOWNLOAD FREE ADOBE BOOKS

Download Free Adobe Books Sign up for our popular newsletter and we’ll send you 30 great ebooks to learn all major Adobe tools free!

Thanks for subscribing! We hope you enjoy the newsletter and your free Adobe books... Click here to see the books now, and start downloading and reading!

Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again.