i am still confused on whether you can upgrade an educational version of photoshop CS3 to the new CS4 version. can anyone help me out if this can be done?
I actually tried this today. I purchased CS3 EDU while in school. I'm done with school now, and I purchased the CS4 Upgrade.
It took the CS4 serial number without issues. When the installer pulls up the "Upgrade Check", I enter my CS3 EDU serial number and it is rejected. Any ideas??
My guess would be you bought a Photoshop (standard) upgrade. Adobe used Photoshop CS3 Extended as the retail academic product, which would need to be upgraded to Photoshop CS4 Extended.
If your copy of Photoshop (a) didn't come in a box and (b) is definitely Photoshop and not Photoshop Extended, I'd give Adobe a call and see what's up.
You might try calling Adobe with a sob story if you have a standard edition upgrade you can't return and see if they have any mercy. Barring that, you should be able to sell it on eBay or Craigslist for close to full value if the seller won't let you exchange it for the Extended upgrade.
colinm wrote:
My guess would be you bought a Photoshop (standard) upgrade. Adobe used Photoshop CS3 Extended as the retail academic product, which would need to be upgraded to Photoshop CS4 Extended.
If your copy of Photoshop (a) didn't come in a box and (b) is definitely Photoshop and not Photoshop Extended, I'd give Adobe a call and see what's up.
You might try calling Adobe with a sob story if you have a standard edition upgrade you can't return and see if they have any mercy. Barring that, you should be able to sell it on eBay or Craigslist for close to full value if the seller won't let you exchange it for the Extended upgrade....Show more →
Thanks for the info. Late last night I woke up thinking the exact same thing. I went to the computer and verified that I indeed have CS3 Extended, and accidentally purchased CS4 Standard Upgrade, which indeed is an unsupported upgrade path. I'll give them a call today and see if they can fix the mess I got myself into. I'll post back to this thread with any news (good or bad).
Incase anyone else has this issue - all you need to do is give them a call. They have you fill out a "Letter of Software Destruction" form and fax this in. They will review the form and provide a refund. Then, you go back to the store and purchase what you intended to purchase.
Interestingly enough, the download for Photoshop CS4 Standard and Extended Upgrade are exactly the same downloads (verified with checksums for those computer geeks out there).
I purchased an academic (teacher) version of CS3 Design Premium august 7th 2008. CS4 was revealed september 23rd at Photokina (less than 2 months later!). I was told that there is no upgrade possibility to an academic CS4 but that I am eligible to upgrade to a retail version. This upgrade however is more expensive than the purchase of a completely new academic (teacher) version.
I am shocked that I cannot upgrade my CS3 version even as it was purchased less then 2 months before the release of CS4.
Sigh, I just went through the exact same thing today (though I was looking to upgrade CS2, academic license, to CS4). Guy at the computer desk at my school's bookstore looked shocked that I was a little irritated about not being able to upgrade and gave me a wide-eyed "well, the academic licenses are SO much cheaper than the retail..." Well. Lemons into lemonade and whatnot, I took this opportunity to purchase Lightroom 2, which has a lot of the new ACR features I was looking for in the CS4 upgrade anyway. I'm hoping LR will revolutionize my workflow and just make me super efficient and blah blah and I can still use CS2 PS for layers and all that good stuff. <shrug>
Claude wrote:
I purchased an academic (teacher) version of CS3 Design Premium august 7th 2008. CS4 was revealed september 23rd at Photokina (less than 2 months later!). I was told that there is no upgrade possibility to an academic CS4 but that I am eligible to upgrade to a retail version. This upgrade however is more expensive than the purchase of a completely new academic (teacher) version.
I am shocked that I cannot upgrade my CS3 version even as it was purchased less then 2 months before the release of CS4.
Claude
I found my self in exactly the same situation + lightroom. In fact lightroom 2 went live a week after I purchased lightroom 1.X. Very irritating.
Like you found, there is an upgrade option available, but it costs more than a new academic version of the software.
I only really have a need for the updates in lightroom 2, so I'll be skipping the CS4 update for now and will just be getting a new license of lightroom.
I've tracked this issue for several years now, having advised several people to buy an Academic versions. The question appears regularly on various bulletin boards. The answers vary. In the past, a few posters said no, you can't upgrade an Academic license. But I never saw one that said they actually tried and failed. Many more posters said yes, you can, and testified to doing so.
I have 3 old bookmarks to different pages on the Adobe site that described the Academic upgrade policy. All three said yes, you may upgrade Academic versions to commercial versions. BUT, all three bookmarks are now dead. And if you search the Adobe website today for any info on upgrading Academic versions you will find nothing. Nothing saying yes, nothing saying no.
So, Adobe has retracted old published policies and has not made any new published policies. More recent reports seem to indicate that if you call Adobe the answer may vary depending on when you call and who you get on the phone. I have not seen any reliable reports in months from anyone verifying that they tried to upgrade an Academic license and failed.
The interesting challenge, I would think, would be by the person who bought an Academic license back when the website published policy was in effect and now wants to upgrade but is denied.
Bottom line, in my opinion, is that buying an Academic license today with the intent of upgrading later is not a good idea.
It varies, as schools all have varying agreements with adobe as well as pricing. For instance, CDW is LSU's account representative/ reseller. The basic listed "education" price for CS4 Indesign premium is $599, but if you purchase it through CDW it was only $375. As for the upgrade, LSU had the option where you paid $149 for two years, which allowed the version to be upgraded at any time over the next 2 years for $199. Obviously that's not great, since it will likely be 3 years before CS5 come out.
So, like everything else, the "education" price and terms is most likely correllated to the school's size and account.
I've been looking to buy an academic version from academicsuperstore.com. Spoke with a representative who told me that adobe will not let you upgrade an academic version. Don't know if that applies to products only purchased through them or if it is universal. Its tricky because I can get CS4 extended through them for under $200, but I don't know that I want to risk being unable to upgrade in the future...because then I'm stuck paying full price later on.
viper66 wrote:
I've been looking to buy an academic version from academicsuperstore.com. Spoke with a representative who told me that adobe will not let you upgrade an academic version. Don't know if that applies to products only purchased through them or if it is universal. Its tricky because I can get CS4 extended through them for under $200, but I don't know that I want to risk being unable to upgrade in the future...because then I'm stuck paying full price later on.
In the past two weeks, I've upgraded an academic CS(1) Design Premium license to CS4 Design Premium. My CS(1) license was bought through academicsuperstore.com, and my CS4 license was purchased from amazon.com. The CS4 installer detected the existing CS(1) install, and I was never even prompted for a previous product key.
However, I am having difficulty obtaining the CS4 registration incentive (free font), despite registering during installation and despite CS4 appearing in my registered products on adobe.com. (Support has been friendly and accommodating, but unfortunately not yet helpful.)
mfrank123 wrote:
i am still confused on whether you can upgrade an educational version of photoshop CS3 to the new CS4 version. can anyone help me out if this can be done?
*** So I called them and they said you can purchase the commercial update at the normal update price in the future.
I was finally able to find the adobe software distributor for my school. In their FAQ they had this:
"I already have an older version of the product I need. Can I buy an upgrade?
- Adobe does not offer upgrades under the Student Licensing Program. Adobe discounts student licensing so deeply that it will be cheaper to purchase a new license under Student Licensing if you are still a student or employed by a participating school when you need to upgrade. You can upgrade a license purchased under this program at retail pricing if you are no longer a student, faculty or staff member at a participating school."
So it sounds like that you can at least through them. I would just call adobe as the previous poster suggested though. Get it from the "horses" mouth.
One thing that may be confusing on this issue is that I don't believe that Adobe offers "academic upgrades," to coin a phrase. That is, if you have an existing academic product, you cannot purchase a really cheap academic-only upgrade if you still qualify for academic licensing. You have to buy the full version of the new release at academic pricing.
This is generally not too onerous, however, as in my experience, full academic versions are generally priced about the same as standard version upgrades.
As previous posters have mentioned, though, it's best to get word direct from Adobe.
