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DMH79
Inspiring
April 3, 2013
Answered

Adobe Creative Cloud Activation/Deactivation Issues

  • April 3, 2013
  • 20 replies
  • 49047 views

The current way to activate and deactivate devices is a fairly frustrating experience. Especailly when you have more than 2 devices. With Creative Cloud, there needs to be a way to activate or deactivate a device remotely. I know that currently only 2 devices can be activated within each Creative Cloud account at once. That's okay. But if the user has 3 computers (one of which is a laptop) and they are out of the office and need to use the 3rd device (the laptop) there is no way currenly (as far as I know) to deactivate one of the two office devices in order to activate the 3rd device (the laptop). Am I mistaken or is there a better way to manage your Creative Cloud activations and deactivations? Is this feature going to be available to users in the future?

What would be ideal is if one could log onto their Adobe Creative Cloud account and see a list of their devices (which they've previously named) right there and simply activate and deactivate their devices whenever they need to. That way, you can be out of the office and not be stuck with no way to remotely activate another device on your account.

Is there any hope for this?

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer David__B

    This behavior has improved for Adobe as well. From the account management page a user can remotely deactivate specific devices. See this article showing the workflow: Sign in and sign out to activate Creative Cloud apps

    Activated%20Devices%20new.jpeg

    20 replies

    ZumayaBooks
    ZumayaBooks
    Participant
    January 11, 2019

    I have been unable to access the "manage devices" option on my account for the last two weeks. I'm told to reload the page, which does absolutely nothing. Does this mean that after six years Adobe may actually be addressing this issue of managing one's devices?

    I will also note that given the amount being paid, it would be useful if a "credit" could be made available for those of us who only use a small number of the available apps. That is, I don't need or use Dreamweaver, so as long as it's not installed on any of my machines I would have a "credit" that allows me to install Acrobat, which I do use, on more than the standard two devices. Reading over the various posts to this topic, I suspect I'm not alone.

    I realize this might complicate matters, but since Creative Cloud can clearly determine which apps are installed on my devices, it doesn't seem to be outside the realm of possibility. After all, we aren't paying for the individual apps but rather for access to same.

    D
    donnag89059712
    Participant
    February 3, 2017

    I got an error message when I signed one that I had to many devices on file. Which is odd because I have not added any. I noticed my laptop had a (2) next to it so I deleted my laptop and my mini however there is no live link to activate to re activate of my computers so I know have 0 computers on my account. Please help.

    M
    Maurer9424910
    Participant
    October 13, 2016

    This is still a problem for me. Clicking on Manage Activated Devices doesn't take me to a page where I can manage devices.

      davel49727403
      davel49727403
      Participant
      June 2, 2016

      One more voice of frustration.

      Requiring us to activate devices but then not be able to see and manage which devices are activated is a seriously awful user experience.

      Office 365 has it right:

      David__B
      Adobe Employee
      David__BCorrect answer
      Adobe Employee
      June 9, 2016

      This behavior has improved for Adobe as well. From the account management page a user can remotely deactivate specific devices. See this article showing the workflow: Sign in and sign out to activate Creative Cloud apps

      Activated%20Devices%20new.jpeg

        pablopoo
        pablopoo
        Participant
        July 21, 2016

        Hi David,

        how about latin american users? We have a different account manager page, there is no such option to deactivate devices.

        N
        nickwilsdon
        Participant
        April 1, 2016

        Hi Adobe,

        I'm running into this issue. Simply tried to authenticate on my tablet but appears that I need to call customer services. Please don't put us through that. Recent UK survey in the Guardian pointed out that the average household in UK has 7.4 devices now (2015), I imagine the US is in a similar position. Limiting the licence to 2 devices is a dated approach, especially for your tech-savvy professional audience. If you need the business case from your side, this issue impacts customer satisfaction and increases your support costs.

        If you can't give more licencing, then consider some of the options users have suggested here in terms of better authentication management or the ability to purchase add-ons.

        Thanks

          A
          alisters9008592
          Participant
          March 26, 2016

          Hi - I have just found this thread, as I have a desktop and a laptop which up till now have both been on my CC licence. However, I have just bought a tablet, and am trying to explore how I can use it.

          It seems this thread has been going nearly three years, with promises from Adobe staff that the issue will be brought to the attention of the right department. But after all this time, still nothing has changed.

          Come on Adobe! With the proliferation of tablets, phones etc, there are going to be more and more people who want to be able to use their software on more than 2 devices at different times. Please give us an option to do this!

            8
            8rik
            Participating Frequently
            February 11, 2016

            To Adobe: I just want to deactivate the installation on a laptop that was stolen.  Please don't require me to call someone in customer service, or have to install on a 3rd device (assuming I have one) in order to deactivate all - let me manage activated installations myself.

            Thanks.

              K
              KevinDeam
              Participant
              April 8, 2016

              Hello All,

              I just want to share that Adobe has implemented a self service deactivation mechanism as of a few weeks

              If you don't have access to the previous computer on which you installed Creative Cloud—whether it was lost, was stolen, crashed, or locked— or are are unable to deactivate your software you can deactivate the apps from your accounts page on adobe.com.

              Sign in to the Adobe accounts page with your Adobe ID. Under Plans & Products, click Manage plan. Under Activated devices, click the x next to your previous device.

              For more detailed instructions, see Deactivate a device.

              If you need help, have your Adobe ID ready, and then contact Adobe

              Hope this is a usefull addition for you guys

              -Kevin  

                A
                alexander_rodriguez
                Participant
                April 13, 2016

                That is wonderful. I tried to deactivate a device and that worked but my other device does not want to activate and says it is still on a trial base. Is this normal?

                digitalninja02
                digitalninja02
                Participant
                February 7, 2016

                I've never activated the software on more than one machine. I'm now attempting to activate on a second machine but can not identify the "ghost" machine that Adobe claims I've activated on. As far as I'm concerned, this is the same as my Adobe account being hacked. Ridiculous that a list of machine types and their names are not displayed within my Adobe account profile.

                  andrewnoel
                  andrewnoel
                  Participating Frequently
                  November 3, 2015

                  *Bump - Please advise, need to use CC on a new computer but don't want to deactivate the old ones. What a pain.

                    A
                    Alanairedale
                    Participating Frequently
                    November 3, 2015

                    If the system needs to have a computer on line to know when it is active, why couldn't you simply have a rule that only one computer can be active at any time (which is in fact the rule), and Adobe would know that from the sign-on.   In other words, suppose I have CC loaded on two desktops in two locations.  One desktop in this scenario is always off and one is on.  If I shut down the one that is on and go on a trip and I want to use CC on a Macbook, and sign on, wouldn't the Adobe system allow that because there is only one sign on?   What am I missing?

                    I
                    infotechstudio
                    Participant
                    October 9, 2015

                    Can I just chip on this subject of multiple machines. I understand the 2 machine rule and have no issue with it apart from I have 3 machines and I want to have my Creative Cloud files synced across all 3 machines but I can't, even if I buy another license because the other license will be against another email address/account so they work seamlessly. I'd like the option to just pay 50% extra for each machine I want to use against the same account. At the moment I have to pay for 2 full CC subscriptions and yet the 3rd machine is not linked. It's a proper pain the backside.

                      Rajashree Bhattacharya
                      Rajashree Bhattacharya
                      Legend
                      November 3, 2015

                      Hi Jeff,

                      I got your point, shall convey this issue to the concerned team.

                      Regards

                      Rajashree

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