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4
4099
Participating Frequently
April 30, 2025
Question

CS6 revoked serial number after reinstalled that was only necessary because of adobe!

  • April 30, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 5945 views

hi,

i purchased a cs6 master collection licence in december 2019, via a reseller in the uk. i did activate it back then and used it flawlessly since then. now i got a new computer and had to reinstall the software and reactivate the licence:

 

which i successfully did on monday, april 28 around 10 am. i think you can see the activation attemps on your server log.

 

because i made the mistake to install the whole suite, i got the warning that a driver of elements was not compatible with windows 11 security (because it does not have the necessary certificate), it was suggested to disable a core function of windows 11 so that it would not make this security checks - i did not disable any core function.

 

however i did install the neccessary patch for adobe acrobat X, i did sign in with my adobe account to activate the licence - and it worked beautifully.  all programs were working on the activated serial number. perfect!

 

then i restarted the machine and it crashed an basically got stuck in windows repair loop. it was all due to windows\system32\drivers\PxHlpa64.sys

 

well, so i did a clean fresh install of the whole system, basically because of an incompatibility of adobe CS6 with windows 11 - which - whatever i could have avoided had i done the research first. so fine, since it is a lifelong licence and the product is no longer supported with updates, that is not the issue.

 

the issue comes now:

 

i reinstall everything on the fresh windows 11 install, and this time i only chose to install the programs i really am using: indesign, photoshop and acrobat X.

it works fine - no issues. i put in the serial number and all of a sudden it says "the serial number has been revoked".

 

can you please let me know how this is possible? and yeah i am gonna safe us some time and be straight and direct: my mistake was that i did never register the serial number on our adobe account. i was not aware of this. and so now your hotline tells me that there is a different email address assigned to this serial number. fair enough i missed that step. but can you please send me anonymized screenshots or data showing that this serial number was misused in the last five years, i am sure your server logs show exactly when attempts for registration/ activations were made ... because honestly to my legal understanding it does not really matter which email address is assigned, since i also have a legal civil purchasing contract with ... i guess that person, but i do not have this person's private data (only company name, and no direct email address since the contract was processed via ebay). but if there was only my activation (five years ago) on this serial number, the successful activation on monday, april 28th 10AM and then with multiple attempts yesterday, i do not see how this is an issue. since it was not necessary to assign my adobe account with that serial number for activation.

 

so the point is, i would not be in this trouble if i hadn t tried to install elements. then my system now was up and running. but then all of a sudden the serial number gets revoked by adobe? why? and i read already many posts on here - so i see the pattern, this is not only my problem, it seems to be adobe's attempt to force everyone (even those who bought the licence directly via adobe) into signing up for the subscription model, thanks, but NO thanks.

 

i really would appreciate your help to get the lifelong licence i purchased back working, please help! i do not want to get a subscription model, because to me this is a terrible development in all the software services - and i myself believe in open source. i do not need updates, i do not need artifical intelligence or anything, i just want the product i am happy with and that i bought to work.

 

looking forward hearing back from you!

all the best outta vienna

mk

1 reply

kglad
Community Expert
kgladCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 30, 2025

who's at fault and what happened in the past are not primary issues at this point.

 

having a revoked license is the primary issue you have to resolve before proceeding.

 

the 2019 purchase was probably problematic because that was only legal if the vendor was a private party and you have a signed license transfer from adobe.

 

and even that last paragraph you can hold in abeyance for now while you try to contact support and see if that revocation was an error on adobe's end.  if they state that it is, you can proceed with the next steps.

4
4099Author
Participating Frequently
April 30, 2025

thank you for your reply.

i was in contact with customer support yesterday and today. they transfered me to the english technical support hotline. they did not say that the licence was not legit, the issue as i described above, was that it was not my email address. they did not say that it was a a problematic serial, they just say it is a different user name and email.

 

the technical support hotline said, that they cannot help because they do not have access to the server logs. they said my only chance of resolving the issue was posting here. so this is what i do.

 

and thank you for teaching me about the word abeyance, since english is not my first language i always enjoy learning something new. but i disagree, because other people are reading this forum and i really wish for change in this world on many levels, i think it is important to mention my point, if this makes one person think about what is happening with all software turning to subscription models, i might have encouraged some more discussions and awareness.

 

only maybe the line about "i don t need updates" i would take back - because many open source programs provide neccessary updates. what i meant was: i do not need any new tools.

 

and since i hope people with similar issues are reading this, i will recommend switching to affinity, since they still provide a life-long licence.

 

i would love to see how many times my serial got activated since 2019. i think that is fair enough to ask of adobe ...

 

 

kglad
Community Expert
kgladCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 30, 2025

ok, that was helpful. 

 

as mentioned, if you purchased from a private party AND have that license transfer (https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/transfer-product-license.html), you can resolve this in your favor.

 

if you purchased from a third party and don't have that license transfer, you might be able to make the transfer now.

 

did you purchase from a private party?

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