Locked Out of Lightroom

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Today’s Question: Last week I was on cruise without internet access. I launched Lightroom Classic on my laptop, which I rarely use. I got a message that I had to login and identify myself. I could not login because I didn’t have internet access. How can I avoid this problem in the future?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The subscription-based Adobe applications require that you be signed in and online at least every thirty days, in order to validate that your subscription is current. If you will be traveling without Internet access, you will want to launch Lightroom Classic and ensure you are online and signed in before the trip, so you’ll be able to continue using Lightroom during the trip.

More Detail: When Adobe’s software applications were all available with a perpetual license, there was no need to be online to use those applications. Now that most Adobe applications are only available via a paid subscription, it is necessary to go online at least once every thirty days so Adobe can validate that your subscription is still active. If you aren’t online for more than thirty days, you will lose access to the full feature set of the applications.

Under normal circumstances for most photographers, this isn’t an issue at all, as you are likely to be online on your computer and use one of the Adobe Creative Cloud applications at least once a month (and possibly just about every day). However, if you will be offline for an extended period of time, this can become a problem. For example, if you have Lightroom Classic on a laptop that you only use when traveling, it is very possible that when you depart on the trip it will have been more than thirty days since that computer was online.

You can avoid losing access to the Adobe applications by making sure you are online at least every thirty days. In the context of traveling without Internet access (or with very limited access) it is a good idea to get online and launch one of the Adobe applications to make sure everything is working properly before your trip. This will also reset the clock, so you can be offline for up to thirty days without losing access to the Adobe applications.

Furthermore, if you’re traveling with very limited Internet access, it can be a good idea to get online whenever possible, and launch Lightroom Classic, to make sure you don’t run into a situation where it has been more than thirty days since you’ve validated your Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.