Skip to main content
cpcurtin
January 5, 2026
Question

Deactivate hard drive I no longer have

  • January 5, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 116 views

I have Adobe photoshop 2024. Early December the hard drive on my laptop crashed. I replaced HD and loaded all software I needed. Photoshop loaded but says I need to deactivate old computer in order to use it on new hard drive. I went to my adobe account and no devices are listed. Need help. Spoke to Adobe tech support, they said to reach out here. Please help.

 

2 replies

Peru Bob
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 5, 2026

I suspect you have Photoshop Elements 2024, not Photoshop 2024.

If that is the case, you can't recover an activation if you can't deactivate it on the computer on which it is installed.

Elements products are not shown in the activated devices section of your account.

cpcurtin
cpcurtinAuthor
January 6, 2026

It is in fact Photoshop elements 2024. Any suggestions

 

Peru Bob
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 6, 2026

Unfortunately, you are out of luck if you can't deactivate from a working computer.

creative explorer
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 5, 2026

@cpcurtin that's hard to believe that Adobe Support would try to pass th buck and sent you here?! They would be able to solve the issues, or that you aren't asking th right questions. If your account shows "no devices" but the app says "limit reached," it is a database error on Adobe's side. Only an Adobe Tech support with "License Reset" permissions can manually "clear the deck" for your account. 

When you sign in, there should hav been a pop up window saying something like '"Activation limit reached?" Inside that window, you will see a list of "Other computers." You should be able to Sign out of other devices or Deactivate all other machines. Adobe allows you to remotely sign out of all previous sessions directly from the app interface on a new install. This will reset your count to zero, allowing you to sign in on your new drive immediately. Click on one of those computers. If you know it's all yours, and there is more than one, deactivate the ones you think isn't yours

m
cpcurtin
cpcurtinAuthor
January 6, 2026

They passed me around to 3 different people. Last person said try here. Beyond frustrated. Any help is welcomed