I am fairly new to DxO products, in fact I’ve purchased PhotoLab 8 last year in December and I haven’t purchase or use any other DxO software since or before.
I see that some of you here have extensive knowledge of products and updates procedures so I am hoping for some friendly and honest advice.
I downloaded a PL9 trial and my 30 days is running out today.
I am willing to upgrade to PL9 but it doesn’t work too well for me due to some export errors - sometimes it doesn’t export files and then all of the sudden it just does, or it need a system restart and it works perfectly fine for a while.
I am hoping this issue is going to be resolved at some point in the future but I don’t want to pay for software that doesn’t really work as intended.
Question time:
If I purchase upgrade to PL9 will I still have access and be able to continue using PL8?
Will my PL9 license replace PL8 license after upgrade?
Is it possible to activate another trial of PL9 to test is the problem resolved lets say in 2 months time? (maybe by using different email address but will it activate on the same computer / system as the current one or is there an registry entry in OS that will prevent me from doing it)
The bottom line is I am enjoying PL8 and PL9 but I rather stay without new features but have a stable platform to use.
Screen shot from export report of the same file no changes to the file were made, I was just curious is it going to export twice in a row - it didn’t.
As long as you’re not missing anything important from the PL9 offering, simply stick with PL8 and familiarize yourself with it thoroughly.
#1
PL9 is installed in a new folder by default, and you can run both versions.
However, changes made with PL9 are not backward compatible with PL8 due to extensive modifications.
#2
That’s the question if you upgrade or pay full price for the new version. As long as it’s the same computer/hardware/operating system, you should be able to use both versions.
#3
A trial version is only possible once with the same (main) version. – I don’t know how it works with a different account, but just try it yourself by tomorrow or a little later.
If I purchase upgrade to PL9 will I still have access and be able to continue using PL8?
So long as you retain a copy of PhotoLab 8 locally on your computer (you don’t have to keep it installed if you don’t want to, you can keep the installation file and use that at a later date.
You can run PhotoLab 8 AND 9 on the same machine. Their installations sit separately so as long as you don’t mind it using more disc space, this is a good option for redundancy etc.
It’s worth noting that any edits you make to an image in PhotoLab 9 will not work with PhotoLab 8 as the differences between versions are too significant. You could, if you wanted, create duplicates of your images and edit them in either program - but again this uses more disc space and I’m not sure why you’d want to. You could also back-up your .DOP files to another folder, retaining edits made… but that’s a bit long-winded.
Will my PL9 license replace PL8 license after upgrade?
If you upgrade to PL9, you can still use the same license key to activate PL8.
Is it possible to activate another trial of PL9 to test is the problem resolved lets say in 2 months time? (maybe by using different email address but will it activate on the same computer / system as the current one or is there an registry entry in OS that will prevent me from doing it)
It is possible but I can’t recall how and it’s probably a little unethical to post that information here.
Suffice it to say, the PhotoLab 9 trial keeps a certain file on your system which keeps track of whether you’ve used up your trial time or not. Deleting it resets the clock, and of course you’d have to sign up with another email too.
Should you upgrade?
I’ve added this in as a million-dollar question.
You’ve already found PL9 to have errors on your system and we haven’t heard much from DxO about further fixes and updates to the application.
They might surprise us with fixes next week… or it could be 6 months. It could be that your system simply struggles to run the software, as many of us are finding it’s incredibly demanding and has older systems struggling.
If there’s nothing in PL9 that you really really need then I’d be tempted to suggest holding off on upgrading completely until news of updates filters down. It’s up to you, though.
Recently I had to completely erase and reinstall my macOS installation when I was at the end of my PL9 trial (because I hated the new macOS Tahoe and wanted to “downgrade” back to Sequoia). I thought it was the perfect time to test whether a new trial could be started or not, so I used a different email address to get a new trial license key.
Suffice it to say, DxO’s servers recognized my computer, even after the fresh install, and didn’t give me any extra time in my trial.
I think they check some sort of device ID, nothing to do with software, so I believe the answer is a firm no, there’s no way to start a new trial on the same computer for the same major release of a DxO product.
Granted, this is macOS and you are using Windows, but I’m sure it is the same story there too.
As someone who’s thinking of upgrading from PL 8 to PL 9 and has not downloaded it yet, do you have a link for this statement?
Does this mean if we open a photo and edit it using PL 9 we wont see those edits if we open in PL 8, even if the edits are something simple say a crop.
I went onto DXO site and could not see where this info is, and searching for terms like backward, compatible etc… in the user guide for PL 9 only mentions that the database is not backwards compatible.
Not sure if it extends to all edits, but having used the trial and full versions of PL9 and then PL8 I can absolutely confirm that if you do a substantial edit in PL9, you won’t be able to open the same edited file in PL8.
I think opening it in PL8 even overwrites the changes made in PL9, meaning you lose all your efforts for that photo.
Thank you very much for all the answers.
From the trial version of PL9 I see that using it alongside with PL8 is not really an option, backwards compatibility is an issue also I have no clue how to sync database like projects (I’ve been working on some in PL8 and they don’t update in PL9).
So to summarise.
I can download current installation file for PL8 from my account and keep it on my drive in case I need it. After I have it backed up, upgrade my licence to PL9 and activate the key on my trial installation. Keep using PL8 for everything I need reliability and alongside check out is PL9 got any better after drivers / or PL updates and if yes then I can switch.
But doing this I also have to accept that I may pay for an upgrade that will never work for me and I end up continue using PL8 anyway.
All of this is far from ideal but I will consider it.
Have you reached out to DxO support regarding the issue you’re having?
I think before “accepting defeat” you should at least give that a go (again, if you haven’t already).
The problem you’re mentioning is the first I’ve seen of this issue on these forums, so I wonder if you might benefit from simply uninstalling/reinstalling PL9.
Additionally, given the circumstances (software bugs), I think it is possible that DxO might grant you an additional trial license so that they can try to get this worked out with you. Perhaps if you frame it in a way that you’re happy to pay for the upgrade fee if they can get this problem sorted.
I don’t have very much faith in their support system, but given that the issue could prevent them from receiving your cash, they might do something effective?
Thanks for confirming @Wolfgang@Fineus would be nice of DXO to tell us about backwards compatibility, not very good optics for an optics related co ; )
Set up a test set of images in a separate folder. Was able to test PL9 without affecting my PL8 images. (no overwrites) I have since switched to PL9, so that’s gone.
Another way I didn’t try might be to save a backup version of PL8 database and DOP files. Trial PL9, then, if needed, copy back the PL8 files.
I’m fairly sure that a number of years ago I got a trial extension under extenuating circumstances. Your bugs may qualify.
If you report the bug to DxO and in the process mention your desire to continue testing PL9 being hampered by said bugs, they may look favourably on you.
Yes, “even if the edits are something simple say a crop”.
PL adds a number to the sidecar/.dop file (and/or database) that identifies the version of PL that applied the last update to the image. Subsequently, PL will not recognise any correction details unless their corresponding version number is less than or equal to the version of PL now attempting to open the image.
This is standard “fail-safe” behaviour, as software from the past cannot be expected to understand all features & parameters that were added to some future version.
Thanks for confirming @John-M , as for your comment about standard “fail-safe” … there is much software out there that can save files in a newer version that can be opened in an older version, considering these DOP’s resemble JSON, but not quite, then theres no reason old version of PL couldn’t open one, see that only a crop was applied and away we go. Obviously not the case here.
How about the case where, say, some enhancement was applied to the crop tool, incorporating new/different parameters - - so that the earlier version (assuming quite different interpretation of the crop parameters) would lead to a very different outcome.
Examples such as this (tho, not yet for the cropping tool !) have occurred many times with the evolution of PL.
I have experienced crashes and problems with PL9 on my system that uses an AMD graphics card to the extent that PL9 is pretty unusable. My trial version has expired and I won’t pay for PL9 until I know it is going to work for me. I raised a fault ticket with support and explained the above. The response was that when it seems that my issue has been fixed in a forthcoming “9.x release” (DXO words, not mine) which I have to identify by scanning the release notes as they come out, then I can get back in touch with support and they will grant me a new trial period. Not holding my breath for the 9.x release, though.
My experience with the compatibility of PL 9 to PL 8
However, I only use the photo library for selecting images; I have not created a database.
I licensed PL 8 and PL 9 simultaneously on the system. When a new major version is released, I always install it in addition to the old version, which remains in place.
Images developed with PL 9 can also be edited with PL 8 afterwards. However, no PL 9 settings are visible. Not even that I worked with a virtual copy in version 9.
However, some of the settings I made in PL 8 are visible in PL 9.
If I edit an image with PL8 that I have already developed in PL 9, then with PL 8, this change from PL 8 appears in PL 9 as an additional virtual copy. Changes with PL 9 are not visible in PL 8 afterwards either.
Changes are partially compatible but are not always fully available for all versions. However, the changes to your own version are always retained for that version and are not overwritten by another version.
Errors have not occurred in any situation for me. I find this behavior quite acceptable.
Actually, PL always creates a database, which it uses for indexing and caching. The only optional record of changes is the DOP files.
Then just carry on carrying on
Personally, I make no use of the database and I will even delete the three related files from time to time, especially when renaming or moving files.
I have all versions of PL from 1 to 9 all installed on the same machine with no problems. But I try not to revert any images as this is one sure way of creating a mess of unnecessary virtual. copies.
