Skip to main content
M
michaelp16701650
Participant
May 21, 2021
Answered

Activation For Older Adobe Products

  • May 21, 2021
  • 4 replies
  • 11528 views

I am in the process of listing a bunch of older adobe products I have for sale on ebay. I discovered now Adobe has discontinued the activation servers for many of these products. I have several copies of the following: 

 

Acrobat Pro 6, 7, & 8

Photoshop 6.0, 7.0 CS, CS2, & CS3

Illustrator 7.0, 8.0, CS, CS2, & CS3

(I know some of these are REALLY old but people are still buying them for some reason.)

 

Are these products impossible to activate now? I read Adobe used to provide a link and new activation key for some of these versions but I don't know if you can still get that. I don't want to sell something that can't be activated without telling the buyer that there's no way to activate it and at that point I don't see why anyone would buy it. People are still buying these versions on ebay so I don't know if they are just geting scammed or if there is still a way to activate them. Thanks for your help!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Nancy OShea

    @Retune,

    #1  PS 7.0 predates CS2 which means it won't run right on modern equipment.  This isn't just about which OS you have.  It's about the scratch disk which is something else.  Photoshop 7.0 cannot see drives bigger than 1TB.  Such a disk will be invisible to PS 7.0 so you will receive error reports that no scratch disk is available.  Anyone who is familiar with Photoshop knows that available scratch disk is essential for using the software.

     

    #2  Adobe doesn't accept transfer of license requests unless BOTH parties -- the current owner (seller) and new owner (buyer) -- submit a written request.  And the seller must prove they have a registered, legitimate serial number that is neither an educational nor volume licensed edition.  Good luck with that.

     

    "Copies of Photoshop 7.0 have recently sold on ebay.co.uk for £227 and £272"

    ===========

    #3 You can believe whatever preposterous Internet claims that you care to believe but that doesn't make it true.  For software, eBay is a pirate's den of scammers & thieves who will say and do just about anything to extract money from people.  Scammers who enlist cohorts to up-bid on auctions is nothing new  BTW ;-). 

     

    Real people of sound mind do NOT pay more than 5 Euros for 15 year/outdated software.  Not when they can outright purchase new & supported software like PS Elements  -- which does more than PS7 ever did  -- for less than $100 Euros. 

    https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-elements.html

     

    Or they can lease the Photography Plan for about $120 euros per year.
    https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography.html

    There's just no upside to buying or selling outdated software on auction sites.  In the end, the seller ends up paying more in listing fees and other nonsense than they actually make on the sale.  And buyers put themselves at huge risk for cracked software that's potentially infected with malware or ransomeware.  Sorry but it's just not worth it for either side.

     

    Goodbye & stay safe everyone! 🙂

     

    4 replies

    Nancy OShea
    Community Expert
    Nancy OSheaCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 13, 2021

    Nobody cares about old software anymore.  It has next to zero value.  Why?

    • It's not collectible. 
    • It's not consumable. 
    • It's not transferable.
    • It's not supported.
    • Chances are it won't run much less install on modern equipment and operating systems.

     

    Save yourself the time, trouble and listing fees. Toss the disks into your recycle bin and be done with it.

     

    Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
      R
      Retune
      Participating Frequently
      June 14, 2021
      quote

      Nobody cares about old software anymore.  It has next to zero value.  Why?

      • It's not collectible. 
      • It's not consumable. 
      • It's not transferable.
      • It's not supported.
      • Chances are it won't run much less install on modern equipment and operating systems.

       

      Save yourself the time, trouble and listing fees. Toss the disks into your recycle bin and be done with it.

       


      By @Nancy OShea


      It's clear that old software does have value, as the original poster reports. Copies of Photoshop 7.0 have recently sold on ebay.co.uk for £227 and £272. I invite you to check the prices paid for the other software the poster lists. I doubt the purchasers were collectors, and I'm not sure what 'consumable' means in this context. We are, of course, well aware that Adobe no longer supports these products.

       

      While some products can't be installed on modern hardware and operating systems, others can. I can confirm that Photoshop 7.0 installs and works under Windows 10. The same is true for Photoshop CS3 and Illustrator CS3, though installation requires the activation-free installers that Adobe no longer provides. Some people still use older hardware that is not supported by CC; for them, these older products are the only option from Adobe. As for transferability, are you suggesting Adobe will no longer honour licence transfers submitted on this form?:

       

      ttps://helpx.adobe.com/content/dam/help/en/x-productkb/policy-pricing/transfer-product-license/_jcr_content/main-pars/procedure_2/proc_par/step_0/step_par/download-section/download-1/Transfer of License Form.pdf

       

      We could, of course, just recycle our old disks, but in some cases that would mean throwing away a still powerful suite of software that cost over £2000 for the Master Collection, and then paying £600 a year to use the modern equivalents. Doubtless there are many users who find the new features invaluable, but for those who are perfectly satisified with the old versions (perhaps for occasional use), the upgrade to CC may be less than compelling.

      R
      Retune
      Participating Frequently
      June 12, 2021

      Not all of these products require activation. As far as I know, your pre-CS versions of Photoshop (6.0, 7.0) and Illustrator (7.0, 8.0) do not, and I think Acrobat Pro 6.0 may not either. In these cases, you will just need the licence key.

       

      The activation servers for CS, CS2 or CS3 have been switched off. Adobe did make replacement installers with generic keys that do not require online activation available for CS2 on the open web, which would presumably be OK to use with your licence if you happen to have them. Unfortunately, the relevant page has been deleted from the Adobe site, though you may still be able to find the cached copy on the Wayback Machine. As noted in a previous reply, beware of scam sites.

       

      CS3 installers that do not require online activation were also briefly made available by Adobe, but via a more complex process that required signing in and providing your original licence key in exchange for a new (probably unique) key. Anyone who has one of these installers presumably already has a licence, and you won't find the installers on legitimate sites. Unfortunately, Adobe no longer provides these keys or installers, so your CS3 copies may now be worthless.

       

      Note that some of these products won't be compatible with modern systems (some will not even install). I don't think any are compatible with current Macs. I have installed Photoshop 7.0 and CS3 on recent Windows 10 systems, and with some tweaks to the compatibility settings was able to make them work well (PS7 needs to be installed on a partition no larger than 1TB). Note also that old products may have serious security issues (especially Acrobat!).

      Peru Bob
      Community Expert
      Peru BobCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      May 21, 2021
      quote

      People are still buying these versions on ebay so I don't know if they are just geting scammed 


      By @michaelp16701650

      Some are getting scammed and some are getting "preactivated" pirated versions loaded with malware and/or spyware.

      John T Smith
      Community Expert
      John T SmithCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      May 21, 2021

      Those are now dead products

      The CS2-CS3-CS4 activation servers have been removed from service
      -https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite.html?promoid=19SCDRQK

        Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
        Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices