Looking for assistance in activating legacy Design Standard CS5.5 and Acrobat Pro 9.0 products; previously functioning activation codes are not working.

Forum|Forum|28 days ago
July 9, 2026
7 replies
67 views

Looking for assistance in activating legacy

Design Standard CS5.5 and

Acrobat Pro 9.0 products;

previously functioning activation codes are not working and I am simply looking to activate these products to access legacy files; I note the compatibility issue with current operating systems, but as perpetual purchases the T&C require Adobe to allow continued access !

Correct answer Jeff_A_Wright

Thank you for posting to this public discussion forum, @sinkii.

I appreciate your continued use of our software and services, and I apologize for any confusion you may have encountered while installing and activating your Creative Suite 5.5 Design Standard license.

I checked your account, and the copy you registered in 2013 is a volume-licensed copy of Creative Suite 5.5 Design Premium for Windows, @sinkii.

Activation is not a factor for most volume license installations, but you will need the correct installation files to complete the installation and licensing process. The installation files available under your account on Adobe.com are retail license files, not volume license files that are required to use your serial number.

Please see https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/volume-licensing-site.html for information on how to access the installation files that were provided with your organization's purchase of Creative Suite 5.5.

Please update this discussion thread if you have any additional questions, @sinkii.

S

sinkiiAuthor

Participant

Hi Jeff,

thanks for taking the time to provide such a thorough reply;

I have installed from original DVD media and am still getting the “This serial number is not valid for this product” message; are the downloadable files in the LWS system different from the original media files ? If I download from there, will they work ?

Also, The LWS system also does not have any serial numbers associated with the product.

Is it likely to be a cookie type setting on my system which is blocking the authorisation or do the serial numbers need to be re-associated with the licence; or is it something else ?

any further assistance would be appreciated.

kindest regards

Gary

kglad

Community Expert

@sinkii

if you saw an invalid serial number you either made an error when entering the number OR you have the wrong installer. details:

assuming you're using a valid adobe serial number (6 groups of 4 numbers), you have a mismatch between your installation file and serial number. ie, you can have a valid serial number, but if it's for program A and your installation file is for program B, you will see an invalid serial number message.

common mismatches are language/region (eg, serial number is for western europe and installation file is eastern europe), platform (eg, serial number is for a mac and installation file is win), license type (eg, education vs enterprise vs individual). and one of the most common is using a program installation file with a suite's serial number. eg, using a cs6 suite serial number with a photoshop cs6 installation file. that won't work even though photoshop is included in that suite.

you must use the (correct) suite's installation file (and you can choose to only install one program from the suite). here's official info about that error, http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/error-serial-number-valid-product.html

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sinkiiAuthor

Participant

Thanks all, the account has been reduced to max. two installs, with one being on the machine in question; after install, at ‘provide serial number’ we get yellow triangle with exclaimation mark and ‘This serial number is not valid for this product’ message, not allowing clicking of ‘continue’.

any ideas ?

Jeff_A_Wright