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DreamLight_com
Inspiring
December 4, 2015
Answered

Acrobat 9 Pro serial number won't work

  • December 4, 2015
  • 3 replies
  • 3464 views

Hi,

I'm an old Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Premium user and still using that version on an older Mac.

I recently had to replace the internal hard drive and reinstall Adobe Creative Suite 4.

Everything works fine except for Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro.

At first the installer recognized the Acrobat 9 Pro was already installed (I had initially copied everything over from the old hard drive that was failing.) But it wouldn't let me reinstall over it because it was already there. I tried launching Acrobat 9 Pro and it would ask for a serial number but wouldn't accept the CS4 serial number that's on the back of the DVD case. I then uninstalled it using the enclosed uninstaller and tried again. Then the CS4 installer didn't show it as either installed or available to install. The only Acrobat related item listed was Acrobat.com.


I then found and downloaded the standalone Acrobat 9 Pro installer from here:

Download Acrobat products | 9, 8

I downloaded and installed that, but again when I get to the serial number screen it puts a red X when I enter my CS4 serial number.

Anyone know why Acrobat 9 Pro won't accept my CS4 serial number?

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer DreamLight_com

    Thanks.

    I think I found the problem. And it is related.

    When I first ran the CS4 installer for this new startup drive it had said that Acrobat was already installed, so I just let it install the rest and dragged Acrobat from the old hard drive. That didn't accept the CS4 SN. So I then tried downloading and installing the standalone Acrobat 9 Pro but that wouldn't take the number either.

    When I then ran the CS4 installer again it then didn't even list Acrobat as being installed or available for install, probably because it saw the standalone version and didn't consider it part of CS4, but since it was there it didn't show it as available to install either.

    After uninstalling all of CS4 and uninstalling the standalone Acrobat 9 Pro I then ran the downloaded CS4 installer again and lo and behold it said it was already installed and wouldn't let me install it along with the rest of CS4. It was NOT on the new startup drive at all. I verified it. However, it WAS still on the old hard drive as was the entire CS4. Once I unmounted the old drive and ran the CS4 installer again, it finally showed Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro as being available to install.

    So it looks like if you have CS4 already installed on a non-startup drive, such as when replacing it with a new one as in this case, none of the other CS4 apps care, but Acrobat does and will not install on the startup drive unless you first unmount the old drive.

    Now it's in the process of installing so I'll report when it's done if it now accepts the CS4 SN.


    Yes, that worked.

    So the trick was to unmount the old drive that had a previous install of CS4 on it, I was replacing that drive with this new one, or CS4 would refuse to install Acrobat, but would happily install all the other CS4 apps.

    3 replies

    gerberbt
    gerberbt
    Participant
    December 4, 2015

    GERBERBT

    I AM HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM.

    D
    DreamLight_comAuthor
    Inspiring
    December 4, 2015

    I was on chat and they said it should use the same CS4 SN. They are having me do a full CS4 uninstall and reinstall from a download again from this link: Download Acrobat products | 9, 8

    I had already installed it from the DVD and then again from that link once before, but I hadn't done a full uninstall first, I had just uninstalled Acrobat itself. So I'm doing a fresh download, will do a full uninstall and then try installing it again. It's frustrating because all the other apps worked except for Acrobat 9 Pro.

    I'll report back if it was successful or not.

    D
    DreamLight_comAuthor
    Inspiring
    December 4, 2015

    Oops, that's no the link, that was just for Acrobat.

    This is the full CS4 link they had me try (and that I had found and tried before).

    Download CS4 products

    D
    DreamLight_comAuthor
    Inspiring
    December 4, 2015

    BTW: My CS4 Web Premium was an upgrade to an older Adobe CS Premium that I think had Acrobat 6 Pro?

    kglad
    Community Expert
    kgladCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    December 4, 2015

    check for a separate (from the suite) serial number for acrobat.

    Find your Adobe product serial number quickly

    D
    DreamLight_comAuthor
    Inspiring
    December 4, 2015

    The very old CS DVD case has a bunch of serial numbers (though no separate one for Acrobat).

    The CS4 DVD only has one serial number on the back.

    I logged into my Adobe ID account but none of my older products are listed (neither CS or CS4). It was an old Adobe.com account that must have been merged into the newer Adobe ID system. These are older standalone products, not the newer CC subscription based accounts...

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