Today’s Question: I just installed all of the updates to my Adobe Creative Cloud applications, including Lightroom and Photoshop. I see the new features in Lightroom, but Photoshop doesn’t reflect any of the features for the new update. But the Creative Cloud applications shows that I’ve updated. Why can’t I get the new features if I’ve updated Photoshop?!
Tim’s Quick Answer: The latest (October 2018) release of Photoshop is actually a major update to a “2019” edition, replacing the 2018 edition. However, it is installed as a separate application, so you’ll need to be sure to launch the 2019 version to see the new features.
More Detail: Photographers who subscribe to the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan (https://timgrey.me/photoplan) have gotten used to getting somewhat frequent updates to the various applications in the Creative Cloud. Generally, those updates are literally just an update to the existing application installed on your computer. In some cases, however, a completely new installation is created when you “update” an application.
Such is the case with the latest update to Photoshop, which is the “Adobe Photoshop CC 2019” version. Because this is a major update to Photoshop, it is installed as a separate version alongside the 2018 version.
This approach provides you with the opportunity to revert to the older version should there be any problems with the new update. However, this can obviously lead to some confusion if you are using a shortcut to the 2018 version when you think you’re launching the latest update.
To get to the new version, you can click the “Open” button to the right of Photoshop on the Apps tab of the Creative Cloud application. You can also go to the Applications (Macintosh) or Program Files (Windows) folder to launch the new version.
Once you’re happy working with the new 2019 version of Photoshop, you will want to update any shortcuts you use to access Photoshop (such as on the dock or Start menu), and uninstall the 2018 version so you’ll always be sure you’re only running the latest version of Photoshop.
Note that Adobe will most likely release a variety of updates to the 2019 version of Photoshop, which won’t require updating your application shortcuts until another “major” release (presumably for 2020) is available.