View Full Version : Premiere CC2019 and 2018 compatability


Geoffrey Cox
October 9th, 2019, 12:40 PM
I am going to have to upgrade to Premiere Pro CC 2019 (from 2018) for reasons I won't go into (but it is unavoidable as I will be locked out of 2018 in a few weeks). I am unfortunately in the middle of a big project so wanted to check that my 2018 project will load OK on 2019 and if so whether anyone has noticed any specific issues that might arise? I couldn't find an obvious answer to this online.

I am also going to have to update my Mac OS so the whole thing is a pain but I have little choice beyond creating a special partition which would be a last resort.

Paul R Johnson
October 10th, 2019, 02:24 AM
My continually updated CC subscription has always opened everything - never had an issue opening older projects if that helps. Can't help with an old version opening the latest as I never have old versions on the machines at all?

Geoffrey Cox
October 10th, 2019, 02:39 AM
Thanks - I have also not had problems in the past but thought it worth asking. Actually I have had small issues like plugins disappearing and occasional issues with transitions.

I have to say it is such a shame what Adobe are doing with all this new licensing crap. We don't actually own their software any more and in my case they are now literally dictating that I upgrade or lose it and for me this means changing OS. This is a new tactic for large organisations with multiple licenses. I wouldn't mind so much if they didn't bring out a new version every 5 minutes!

Paul R Johnson
October 10th, 2019, 05:18 AM
I don't understand? You can still, I think download CS6 which is yours to use forever? I vowed I'd not switch to CC, but had to for one project, and I really don't mind. It's like Sky - if you don't pay them, then you lose the stuff you have on the hard drive? I think the entire point is that they can do continual, small upgrades - mine had 9 new ones this morning and I'm up to date - small things but useful. Better than waiting a version before shelling out hundreds of pounds, plus I have all the apps, even if I don't use them - plus I can swap machines. I have the entire thing on three computers, and can run any two of them. This is actually very handy. In truth, we've never owned software, it's always been a licence to use and all they've done is change the way we pay.

Upgrade or lose it? I can only guess that you've been on a subsidised scheme and are now ineligible. I know those students who got it cheap have a limited period and if they're still students it's OK, but clearly some are now at work. Seems fair to me. If Adobe increased the subs, then unless there was a part-package that gave me after effects, photoshop and premiere, I'd have to pay for the whole thing at whatever price they set, but subscriptions are a business expense, so pretty neutral in the accounts - just reduces my profit and I pay less tax.

Geoffrey Cox
October 10th, 2019, 05:44 AM
This is the first time this has ever happened. Yes this is related to my employee who pays for a major organisational license. In the past I have waited to upgrade when ready but this time Adobe have made that impossible by changing the license terms - you must upgrade to 2019 by a certain date after which 2018 will cease to be authorised so won't load (they are now starting to check you in intermittently to look at this). I still have 2015 so maybe that will carry on working - who knows, no-one can tell me. I also still have CS6 on my machine but it no longer works. Trouble with 2015 is that I have got used to using things like the optical flow slomo and the colour match function in Lumetri colour and 2015 ain't got them.

I think it will be OK though, I hope: I will upgrade my OS (required for 2019) and hope everything works but will make a clone to be safe and roll back if need be and create a special partition for CC2019 with the new OS. The latter bit will be a massive pain though if I have to do it. I only have one machine sadly.

Andy Wilkinson
October 10th, 2019, 08:46 AM
Whilst I can't confirm that you'll have no compatability problems between CC2019 and opening a part finished CC2018 project, I can confirm that I've never had issues opening CS6 or previous CC projects with my (currently locked down) CC2017 subscription on this nMP, running Sierra. Let us know how it goes!

Geoffrey Cox
October 10th, 2019, 01:30 PM
Will do. Have to do it soon. The worry is an Mackie Onyx mixer I use and trying to find out if that will work on Mojave seems impossible without trying it.

Robert Young
October 10th, 2019, 06:03 PM
Geoffrey- you mention the possibility of finishing your project in Premiere 2015.
In my experience projects are absolutely not back compatible.
PPro 2015 will not open a PPro 2018 project.
If you open the project in PPro 2019, a new 2019 project file will be created, and the old 2018 project file will be saved.
At this point in time IMO the bugs have been worked out in PPro 2019.
I think you could update your 2018 project successfully.
A big help for those of us with individual licenses is that we can keep multiple editions of PPro active- at least so far...

Paul R Johnson
October 11th, 2019, 01:31 AM
Ive had a few warnings from some software I use advising to wait before updating the OS but I'd really doubt the mixer will be an issue as its a fairly undemanding audio device. The only problem I have had is that the 32 channel card in one device functions normally on my MacBook but will not work on a colleague brand new one, but I suspect that is not related to OS. I'll try to compare the two Mac versions later today to check. The Mackie is a simple stereo interface isn't it, not multichannel.

Geoffrey Cox
October 11th, 2019, 02:04 AM
Geoffrey- you mention the possibility of finishing your project in Premiere 2015.
In my experience projects are absolutely not back compatible.
PPro 2015 will not open a PPro 2018 project.
If you open the project in PPro 2019, a new 2019 project file will be created, and the old 2018 project file will be saved.
At this point in time IMO the bugs have been worked out in PPro 2019.
I think you could update your 2018 project successfully.
A big help for those of us with individual licenses is that we can keep multiple editions of PPro active- at least so far...

You're right of course. I do have an earlier version of the film project in 2015 as I started it in it for various reasons. I was thinking at least I had this if all else failed! I tend to be pessimistic. I could even transfer more recent files manually I suppose since so far the film is fairly basic edit only.

Geoffrey Cox
October 11th, 2019, 02:09 AM
Ive had a few warnings from some software I use advising to wait before updating the OS but I'd really doubt the mixer will be an issue as its a fairly undemanding audio device. The only problem I have had is that the 32 channel card in one device functions normally on my MacBook but will not work on a colleague brand new one, but I suspect that is not related to OS. I'll try to compare the two Mac versions later today to check. The Mackie is a simple stereo interface isn't it, not multichannel.

It was typical that when I looked into this the advice was if you had the mixer with serial number starting with 003 it didn't need any driver updating and it would be fine, but if it started 204 you would but that they had now stopped updating the drivers and a more complex solution was needed. My mixer has a serial number that starts with 002. Bets?

Paul R Johnson
October 11th, 2019, 03:19 AM
I think you will be fine. Always best to be positive. I'm pretty positive your one will be a core audio device, and that'll be fine!

Oddly - my MacBook is on Mohave, and the one that won't work with the older Behringer X32 interface is on High Sierra - which making no sense is earlier.

Geoffrey Cox
October 16th, 2019, 01:06 PM
Phase one complete and with success. Went to High Sierra in the end and so far it seems all external hardware is working!