Posted by John W. Wall on November 12, 2008 at 7:17 PM
Just a note that even though Adobe does not mention this up front, you cannot upgrade to Photoshop CS4 from Creative Suite 2. Obviously you have PS CS2 in the suite, but you still can't upgrade just PS. You have to upgrade the whole suite, or buy a full edition of PS CS4.
I found this out when I tried to do it and got a failed attempt. I phoned a service rep who finally figured out that was my problem, then directed me to a web page where I could download a form to send them so I could get my money back.
Posted by Jesse Speer on November 12, 2008 at 8:14 PM
I went through the exact same thing. Very frustrating. I have no need to upgrade my suite, but I really wanted the PS4 features. But not for $600!
Posted by Paul Wegemann on November 12, 2008 at 9:35 PM
Unfortunately, once you go the suite route, you're stuck as far as upgrades go. It's been this way forever. I luckily found this out right before I was about to purchase Creative Suite CS. If you can get your hands on a later version of Elements you may be able to get a discount on the upgrade to CS4. John Mumaw posted something on this awhile back. It's worth a search.
Posted by Greg Barteluk on November 12, 2008 at 10:07 PM
CS4 certainly has many great new features and is well worth the upgrade price, but $600? Not so much.
Posted by Ed Cordes on November 12, 2008 at 10:39 PM
Sheesh! Why should it make a difference? If you paid for the suite you obviously paid for CS2, so upgrading to CS4 should be a no brainer.
Posted by Jesse Speer on November 13, 2008 at 1:05 AM
A "no-brainer" assumes you have $600 (or more) to burn. Photoshop is really the only compelling update. It's the catch-22 of the CS route. You either bite the bullet or sit out the revision - and hope your software plays nice together. And Adobe is famous for making the "gotchas" anything but obvious. Throwing Lightroom/PS compatibility into the mix makes it an even bigger headache. CS owners should just plan on updating all Adobe software all at once, for the rest of your Suite lives. $$$$. Sure, it's a no brainer for Adobe. The upgrade path is now being paved with gold.
Regardless, it's a good tip, John. Would have saved me some wasted time last week.
Posted by Robert Fisher on November 13, 2008 at 8:59 AM
You can save a little bit by getting a copy of PSE for somewhere around $100 then upgrading to PS for about $300. Still not inexpensive but it saves a bit.
Posted by Roger Rouch on November 14, 2008 at 9:48 AM
I probably won't upgrade for a while, but saved some money by getting an unregistered earlier version of PS off eBay and they bought the upgrade software.
When I tried to upgrade from CS3 to CS4, there were some problems with the old CS3 serial number. After hours and hours and days on the phone with Adobe (they have arguably the worst customer service of any company I have ever dealt with) someone finally solved the problem by giving me a "dummy" CS2 serial number to complete the upgrade. If I had known that, I would used MY CS2 serial number to get around the problem. Anyway, it worked for me in using a CS2 serial number when making the upgrade to CS4.
Discussion
8 repliesI found this out when I tried to do it and got a failed attempt. I phoned a service rep who finally figured out that was my problem, then directed me to a web page where I could download a form to send them so I could get my money back.
Regardless, it's a good tip, John. Would have saved me some wasted time last week.
When I tried to upgrade from CS3 to CS4, there were some problems with the old CS3 serial number. After hours and hours and days on the phone with Adobe (they have arguably the worst customer service of any company I have ever dealt with) someone finally solved the problem by giving me a "dummy" CS2 serial number to complete the upgrade. If I had known that, I would used MY CS2 serial number to get around the problem. Anyway, it worked for me in using a CS2 serial number when making the upgrade to CS4.