How to Move Adobe CC or CS6 Between Computers, or PC to Mac
OK, so your old computer is running out of gas, you’re upgrading or changing systems, adding a new machine, or switching from a PC to a Mac, or vice versa — and you want to move over your copy of CC/Creative Cloud or CS6 (or CS5 or CS4 or CS3) Adobe software — what do you do, and how do you do it? Just follow our complete guide below, which also works for other Adobe desktop products such as Acrobat, Elements, Lightroom, Captivate, and more.
As we’ve covered previously here, you are generally allowed to install and activate most Adobe software on up to two computers, with the restriction that the software can not used on both systems at the same time. So right off the bat, you might be good to go with installing the software on a second computer, although you may wish to double-check the licensing agreement for your product to be sure.
Free Guide! Download Your Creative Career Start-Up Manual Now
Five years ago, Adobe acquired Behance – the leading online community and social media platform for creative professionals, which is often referred to as “The LinkedIn for Creatives.” Back then, Behance had about 1 million members. Since that time, with Behance’s inclusion into Creative Cloud (even with the free version), growth and participation have exploded – and the Behance community now boasts over 10 million members receiving 70 million project views per month.
With Behance, you can easily upload your photographs, projects, or portfolios and gain a fantastic way to showcase, share, and get exposure for your work as well as receive feedback from your creative peers, and get inspired for future work. You can publish many types of media such as images, text, illustrations, video and audio, and follow statistics on how many views your projects are getting, and potentially make money. There’s even a helpful job list for creatives and freelancers, with hundreds of employment opportunities.
The Greatest Hits: Our Most Popular Adobe Posts & Tips of All Time
With one year wrapped up and a new one just beginning, it seemed a great time to put together a comprehensive review of the best and most-shared posts published here since our site launched in 2009, including some very popular free books.
These are the top posts that consistently have the highest readership on our site, month after month, covering all major Adobe software products… They’re broken out by topic below in case you’ve missed any, or are new here – so bookmark, share, and enjoy!
Free Adobe Books
- Download Adobe CC Design Basics, Free! New 228-Page Book
- Two Free Books! Get the Lightroom Quick Start Guides (108 Pgs)
- Learn Adobe Dreamweaver CC + CS6 – Download New Book
- Get Free How-to Books: the Acrobat Pro Tutorial Guides
- Download Now: The InDesign New Features Guidebook
- Free! Download 30 Adobe Books at No Cost, Learn All Products
Creative Cloud (CC)
- New CC 2018 Release Now Available – What You Need to Know
- Compare Versions: What’s New in the CC 2018 Release vs. CS6?
- Are Adobe CC Files Backwards Compatible with CS6?
- The 10 Most Common Myths About Creative Cloud
- What’s the Difference Between CC for Teams vs. Individuals?
- The 14 Ultimate Adobe Keyboard Shortcut Cheat Sheets
How to Get a Big Discount on Adobe MAX 2018 + Fly There for Free
Adobe MAX—The Creativity Conference is lined up for October 15-17, 2018, back in Los Angeles, California – and planning is already underway to make the 2018 MAX experience better than ever: “Join over 12,000 like-minded creatives from around the world for a week of sessions, labs, speakers, events, inspiration and fun — everything you need to keep you creative for the rest of the year. Can’t wait to see what we come up with when returning to Los Angeles in 2018!”
We’ve also got a great set of new promotion codes that will score you US$400-500 discount off the regular price of a full (three-day) conference pass, if you’d like to go… The normal price is US$1,595, but you’ll pay significantly less than that.
How to Solve It When Adobe Programs or Updates Won’t Download
We’re on the Adobe Help Forums every day and regularly see users posting queries like “Can’t install Photoshop from the Creative Cloud” or “CC 2018 won’t download,” or “my product updates aren’t working”… It could be for the free trials or for the full paid versions.
Often the issue is related to one or the other download managers (DLM) that Adobe uses to deliver its software installers. Over the years and for various tools, they have used the Akamai Download Manager, the Adobe Download Assistant (ADA), the Adobe Application Manager (AAM), and most recently the Creative Cloud’s CC Desktop App.
Adobe employs these helper utilities because their downloads are usually large – multiple gigabytes – and download managers can help correct for unreliable Internet connections, and resume a download after it has been paused or unexpectedly broken.
But it turns out there can be interactions between the DLM and some configuration on the user’s computer, web browser, anti-virus software, Internet connection, or something else which causes it not to work… So the first step is to try something different with those.
Learn Photoshop Absolutely Free with This New 5½-Hour Intro Class
Here’s a fantastic new resource that you should not miss – and even bookmark/share… It’s a complete introductory-level class on how to best use Photoshop from the excellent training team at Adobe KnowHow – a course worth hundreds of dollars, but now completely FREE with no catch. It includes 5½ hours of high-quality instruction broken out into 16 chapters with 58 video tutorials (in HD or SD), covering everything you need to know to really get going with Adobe Photoshop – the world’s leading graphics and photo editing application – at no cost!
Join Adobe Stock Free and Get 10 Professional Assets Worth US$50
Adobe has really been sweetening the pot lately for you to try out their massive Stock photo collection… These are high-quality, curated images, illustrations, vectors, graphics, templates, photos, and more from a vast collection of over 100 million assets to choose from. After acquiring Fotolia in 2015, Adobe rolled out a one-month-free offer which was nice, but it required paying for your first month up front (which would later be refunded if you canceled).
Holiday Giveaway! FREE Creative Cloud with All-New CC 2018 Tools
Last month, Adobe shipped the all-new CC 2018 set of tools and services – a milestone marking the sixth major release of the CC product line, which replaced CS6 from 2012. This latest CC version contains thousands of new features and advancements compared to CS6 (across all creative applications), and it is available only via Creative Cloud membership – a community which now surpasses 12 million paid subscribers.
Adobe CC 2018 is also known as the Creative Cloud 2018 Release… And that is exactly what we’re giving away for free below, and this offer is open to everyone worldwide.
How Many Computers Can You Install or Run Adobe Software On?
This is one of the most common questions we get, and the answer may pleasantly surprise you… The place to look to find the answer is the Software License Agreement, also called the terms of use or EULA. This agreement governs the use of your Adobe product, and is translated into 28 languages within each document. It also covers some basics about product activation.
So, in general, how many systems can you install Adobe software on, including the Creative Cloud (CC) and CS6? The answer for individuals (as opposed to businesses) in most cases is two. The catch is that both computers must be used only by you and the two systems cannot be used at the same time. This policy was designed so that you could run Creative Cloud (or Creative Suite) at home on your desktop PC, as well as while traveling with your laptop or tablet PC. But the types of computers and their usage has blurred so much now that you can just pick any two you own and the product should install and properly activate on both…
For example, here is the key text from the Terms of Use for CC Software:
1.1 Use of Software: Subscription-Based License. You may activate the Software on up to 2 devices (or virtual machines) at a time, if these activations are associated with the same Adobe ID for the same individual, unless stated at the Adobe Activation page. However, you may not use the Software on these devices simultaneously.
How to Access, Restore or Update to Any Version of Adobe CC Apps
One of the biggest strengths of the Adobe CC 2018 release is receiving a complete set of creative tools with an ongoing stream of updates included at no extra cost… We no longer have to wait years for our products to innovate and keep pace with evolving technologies; instead we receive the latest and greatest features and improvements as soon as they are ready.
Since the initial launch of CC in 2013, Adobe has regularly issued new upgrades for each individual app about once every 3-4 months, bringing new power and capabilities to all subscribers.
Normally the Creative Cloud works seamlessly with these ongoing product updates… The CC Desktop App runs quietly in the System Tray and gracefully notifies the customer that a new upgrade is available for any of the included applications like Photoshop CC, and (optionally whenever desired) the user clicks one button to automatically download and install the update smoothly in the background.
Sometimes, however, subscribers need more control for various reasons… Read more…
