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Julie88
Julie88
Inspiring
January 22, 2014
Question

Subscription Issues: 6 to 7 and beyond

  • January 22, 2014
  • 2 replies
  • 613 views

Hi,

I have been reading about the licensing issues and have spoken to Adobe Support.

I wanted to come on here to confirm and share what I have learned/heard:

I became a subscription user for version 6, which I now regret.

I am faced with a decision of whether I stay on subscription.  What I have found is:

  • I can not go from a v6 subscription back to v7 "retail box" for the upgrade price.
  • You do not get updates/upgrades if you buy the "retail box" version even though you pay more for it.
  • If I stay on subscription, Adobe only allows you to have the most current version and one version back - ON ONE MACHINE
  • If I want to put Captivate on my Desktop and laptop I can only have one version each.  I.E. v6 on my desktop and version 7 on my laptop.  IS THAT TRUE???!!!! This is what Adobe told me.
  • I am now locked into a one year commitment as Adobe auto-renewed me, but really didn't tell me I coudn't get out on a monthly basis.

I like other developers have clients who we have to support.  I can not be dictated to as to how long I can keep versions.  Some clients will not want to upgrade every year - there can be too much content to do this with and not everyone has budget for that.

This is a terrible situation to be in and I feel duped by Adobe.  If I stay on subscription I can't support clients two versions back.

How have other folks handled this?  It really seems like Adobe is putting us in a corner.  I am going to seriously check out Articulate and their licensing.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    2 replies

    S
    Adobe Employee
    Sharad Vatsa
    Adobe Employee
    February 19, 2014

    Hi ,

    A single user subscription for Adobe Captivate allows the user to install the same version of product on a maximum of 2 machines or 2 different versions on the same machine provided they both are not being used simultaneously.

    For a single user perpetual license, you may install the same version on 2 machines for the same user provided both are not being used at the same time.

    Hope this helps in answering your question.

    Regards,

    Sharad

    RodWard
    Community Expert
    RodWardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 20, 2014

    Thank you for replying Sharad to clarify the official Adobe position on these subscription licenses.

    However, may I submit that by NOT allowing more than two versions of Captivate (subscription version) on the same development machine Adobe is severely hurting those of us that are professional e-learning developers supporting a number of different clients who may be using Captivate versions 5, 5.5, 6. and 7. 

    How do we continue to support clients that may be 3 or 4 versions behind the current version of Captivate when we are only permitted to use two versions ourselves?  Many of these clients expect us to use our own PCs to perform the work.  Adobe is basically forcing us to maintain multiple computers just to continue servicing our clients.

    Could I please suggest that Adobe consider allowing 3-4 versions on the same PC rather than only 2?  With Captivate 8 due out in a few months time, this would allow us much greater professional freedom to continue using and supporting Captivate.

    Julie88
    Julie88Author
    Inspiring
    February 18, 2014

    Just checking back in - didn't get any replies to this.  Can anyone confirm or deny any of the above?

    Thanks!

    RodWard
    Community Expert
    RodWardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 18, 2014

    This is actually a user forum.  We're all still getting used to the ramifications of the subscription system as well.  If what you say is true, it will indeed become very difficult to support users more than a couple of versions back.  My guess is that Adobe is trying to "motivate" users to upgrade more often.

    Some of the questions you posed are best answered by an Adobe representative.  Sometimes they chime in on these threads but sometimes they don't.

    That being said, I would be careful about believing everything you hear from a phone support person.  They're not always as knowledgeable as they could be and they don't usually have any experience actually using the software.  So you may find that some of what you have been told is incorrect.

    The critical point here seems to be the issue of whether or not the subscription licensing checks to see whether you have more than two versions of Captivate installed.  If Adobe is TRULY preventing any developer from having more than two consecutive versions installed on the same machine, then that's going to be a huge issue for many of us here that service a number of clients that could potentially be using anything from Cp5 upward.

    Julie88
    Julie88Author
    Inspiring
    February 18, 2014

    Hi RodWard!

    I did know this was a User Forum and I posted here for the reasons you mentioned.  One was to verify with other users what they have heard and if an Adobe person was on maybe they could confirm or deny. 

    I agree that the phone support people may not have the correct information, but then who do I go to to get the "real" information from?  Again, if anyone on the Forum knows please let me know.

    And I absolutely agree that if my information is correct this is a real problem for me and probably for many other folks. So if it is true I want to get the word out.

    ADOBE if you are out there, please let us know what the subscription licensing entails!

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