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Pirate software alerts ever 15 minutes.

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
January 28, 2017
18 replies
106521 views

Hi, I started getting alerts every 15 seconds yesterday at work about my adobe software not being genuine. It's completely distracting.

A) I've been purchasing adobe software for 28 years now. ALL of it is legitimate. Every upgrade was purchased through Adobe—by me. Ever update was manually performed through Adobe's site—by me. I'm a sole proprietor and have literally spent upwards of $10,000 from my own pocket on Adobe software and to be harassed by Adobe alerts like this is ridiculous. I cannot find anyway to turn it off.

B) I've spent hours online searching for a resolution... nothing.

I've called Adobe a dozen times but cannot get to a real person without paying money for a support contract.

I finally called Adobe sales to talk to a real adobe person and they simply say I have to upgrade to CC because they no longer support CS6. I told them I don't want product support, I want them to stop falsely accusing me of pirating, and I want these alerts off my system. Nada... he could only sell me CC.

C) I will never be going to the CC version, especially when CS6 works perfectly fine for me... I use InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat Pro, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and a few other programs from Adobe.

– CC is WAY beyond my means of affordability. (one person here... loyal customer for 3 decades)

– I live/work rural and can only access a satellite connection: Capped Data Here!

– I will not put client work in at risk in a cloud where it can be hacked.

All of the above are givens... there's no disputing it. I don't want an adobe rep to advise me how they can use a payment plan, or how all i need to do are Dismiss the alerts. I've had to dismiss it 3 times already just writing this.

I want to know

1) Can Adobe TURN OFF THESE ALERTS?

If not:

2) Why is Adobe FALSELY ACCUSING ME OF PIRATING their software. I have proof of legitimacy, including serial numbers

3) Isn't disrupting someone 50 times—and forcing them to perform an action—AN ILLEGAL BUSINESS PRACTICE?

4) Why would Adobe spit in the face of a loytal customer they've made so so much money off of?

5) Exactly how much more money does Adobe feel is owed by a loyal customer like me?

I feel like I'm being held hostage, and some of research has referred to CS6 owners not even being allowed to reinstall their owned Adobe software. Heaven forbid I get a new computer (and toss my current computer) and need to reinstall my owned software.

I'm not looking for software support. I simply want the software I legal own to not expire on me, given that there were NO expiration dates on it's usage to begin with.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Terri Stevens

Hello, I know you mean well but comments like this don't help people with the problem. Shutting down the service sometimes works temporarily, but the important thing is what happens if you ever need to re-enter your product key as it will get rejected. The thing to do is work this through with Adobe. They know the product keys they have issued and the rest are just generated by keygens. It is very unfortunate that people have bought an illegal product, but often the price was a fraction of retail and should have triggered alarm bells.

Adobe are certain their validation process works properly and I think the number of complaints about annoying pop-ups probably confirms that as only a tiny percentage of the user base are complaining. In short contact the company, get them to check if your serial is genuine and on how many computers it's registered. If there is an error then they will help you, if not then you may be offered a deal on a subscription to Creative Cloud.

B

benwiggy

Inspiring

I have also just starting seeing this "Genuine Software" alert. This is running Creative Suite 6, which I've had since it came out. I bought it on an academic license, so had to send Adobe proof of my academic status, and then obtain a response code to my serial number from Adobe at installation. And I registered my serial number with my Adobe ID.

So I would say that's pretty clear proof that genuine installations are being affected!

editb31393992

Known Participant

Hello,

I contacted technical support, but from July 13 nobody would answer me. Adobe claims that I have unreliable CS6 software, although I have proof of purchase, I registered and activated the product (I have done so several times so far). On one of the pages you write: "With the new CS6 installation, honest customers will now get confirmation that the software they install is genuine Adobe software. The reason we set the 7 day grace (vs longer) to activate and login was so that customers who were duped into purchasing high quality counterfeit can immediately realize the problem and quickly act upon it... ". I sent you a record of the conversation with the technical support from 2013 in which you confirm that my serial number is legal, and now suddenly, Adobe withdraws from what it confirmed itself. It's probably something wrong and I'm being ignored by the service. You write that someone will be contacted within 24 hours, and almost two weeks have passed.

Was checking the keys five years ago faulty?

Edyta

D

DebbieW1964

Adobe Employee

editb31393992 - I will respond to you in a personal message to get more details.

D

DebbieW1964

Adobe Employee

Hi everyone - My name is Debbie Walsh and I work with the Adobe Genuine team. RNR1995 - I will message you privately to discuss your situation.

For all on this thread - Adobe sends notifications to users of software that has been found to be non-genuine or counterfeit. We ascertain software status through software validation testing. Notifications have recently extended to end users within organizations, and it sounds like this is an instance where the user who received a notification has contacted the original supplier of the software. RNR1995, it sounds like your original supplier provided non-genuine software to you.

With regard to the software being out of support, I still believe a reseller could approach the original supplier of this non-genuine software.

For information on the Adobe Genuine program, I urge everyone to visit www.adobe.com/genuine and the associated FAQ

Best,

Debbie Walsh

ProDesignTools

Community Expert

Thank you, Ms. Walsh – that's very helpful.

It's been challenging trying to have a conversation with someone who insists their software is genuine yet somehow doesn't see any need to locate a proof of purchase to check or confirm that, or even contact Adobe with that information or about the issue altogether... The insults and insinuations don't help either, and are out of place on these Forums.

Thanks again.

O

opensrc

Participant

So the current state of things:

Adobe now installs a process called Adobe Genuine Software Integrity Service along with their software updates. If it can't validate that your Adobe software is genuine it pops up a warning notice. The stated purpose is to protect users from the dangers of using pirated software that could contain malware or otherwise be harmful. The warning is in the form of a nag screen that will repeatedly pop up as long as you have the software open.

People encountering this include:

Those who are knowingly using pirated software, though they probably aren't coming to an Adobe forum asking for help.

Those who purchased software from untrustworthy sources and may unknowingly ended up with pirated software.

Those who purchased software directly from Adobe or their authorized distributors and are running legitimate software.

Solutions:

For those who may have unknowingly purchased pirated software Adobe seems to be willing to offer them a discount if they subscribe to the Creative Cloud versions of the software. For those who don't want the subscription software the alternative is to follow the directions available both here and elsewhere on the Internet for disabling the validation process or removing it from view. The downside of that is that if your run into a situation where you need to reinstall the software the installation will fail.

For those who purchased from an authorized source AND still have your proof of purchase, Adobe seems willing to issue you a new key and have you reinstall the software. They seem to be slow in acknowledging that your software may be genuine, you have to be persistent, and you need proof of purchase. For some people this approach has worked for a time and then the pop ups returned, and they had to prove their case to Adobe again. Adobe appears to not want to acknowledge that their validation process is flawed and people involved come away feeling like Adobe is still maintaining that the user has done something wrong.

For those who purchased from an authorized source some years ago and can't produce their proof of purchase you are in the same boat as those who purchased from an unauthorized source. Adobe seems reluctant to acknowledge that there are users who purchased genuine software that are getting the pop ups, and the solution they offer is frustrating and unsatisfying. Adobe isn't responsible for people using pirated software, but they should be responsible for fixing the flawed validation software and be more gracious and responsive to legitimate users wrongly flagged by that software.

A

Anonymous

I can verify that legitimate keys are being flagged, wasting valuable time

had it happen to a client today, even though this "Genuine Software" program has been around for years

Usually people do not pirate software at their place of business

The software was installed for years, now it is illegitimate? (Acrobat Pro XI)

Clearly there are issues here and Adobe should address them

Seems this pirate notice is appearing on software that the support has expired, I guess software itself now expires?

Years ago had other companies with activation schemes refuse to activate products that were reinstalled when people moved to Windows 7

Needless to say we do not use that software anymore, not sure what to do with Acrobat though?

Greed is not good....

ProDesignTools

Community Expert

Hi RNR, here's the scoop:

1. Very slowly and carefully over the past few years, Adobe has been more broadly rolling out their Genuine Software Integrity Service to more and different products and geographies... Meaning, something that previously 'worked' before the service was activated for your particular product and region may no longer do so.

2. Just because support has expired has no connection at all to the software itself "expiring." The insinuation that a Fortune 500 company like Adobe is somehow driven by greed to illegally revoke actual genuine licenses from customers really has no place in these Forums.

kikujade

Participant

Debwarr, I only registered here to answer your question, see if it might help you. I originally had the same problem as you, so I spent all day looking for a solution and I came across this thread hoping someone would have pointed out some easy fix. Or a complicated fix, anything.

Anyway, this is something that worked for me in my Windows 10 laptop. I know the Apple OS is different, but perhaps there is an equivalent to the solution I employed?

I realized that the culprit for the continuous pop-ups from the Adobe Genuine Software Integrity Service was an application called "AdobeGCClient.exe" which I found in the Common Files folder (Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\AdobeGCClient). I know this may sound obvious to a lot of people, folder location, culprit, etc, BUT I figured there had to be a way to disable it (which was the not-so-obvious part). I tried disabling the service in the services.msc but to no avail. Then I happened to bring up the properties of the .exe file by right-clicking it, hoping to find a clue. I clicked on the compatibility tab and I decided to change the compatibility to run on Windows 95 option. The pop up has not returned. Somehow this seems to have disabled it.

I don't know much about the Apple OS as I mentioned before, but hopefully there is a similar feature? Anyway, I hope this helps you. Good luck.

Terri StevensCorrect answer

Legend

Hello, I know you mean well but comments like this don't help people with the problem. Shutting down the service sometimes works temporarily, but the important thing is what happens if you ever need to re-enter your product key as it will get rejected. The thing to do is work this through with Adobe. They know the product keys they have issued and the rest are just generated by keygens. It is very unfortunate that people have bought an illegal product, but often the price was a fraction of retail and should have triggered alarm bells.

Adobe are certain their validation process works properly and I think the number of complaints about annoying pop-ups probably confirms that as only a tiny percentage of the user base are complaining. In short contact the company, get them to check if your serial is genuine and on how many computers it's registered. If there is an error then they will help you, if not then you may be offered a deal on a subscription to Creative Cloud.

C

Claire Thomas

Known Participant

My programs have been validated by Adobe as genuine. I've been given a NEW serial number BY ADOBE and reinstalled my programs while on the phone with the Adobe tech. That was in April. I began getting the pop-up AGAIN just days ago. Your comments are off base. Even those with LEGITIMATE (as confirmed by Adobe) versions are getting these pop-ups.

I DO NOT WANT TO GO TO CC!!!! And to me these pop-ups going to legitimate owners is a ploy to get us to switch. I'll be contacting the BBB AGAIN about this.

T

tserings94419823

Participant

I am going to look into this. FYI, the original owner retired last year as senior engineer at Intel, so I highly doubt that he would use a pirated software. I originally thought it might have been transfer of ownership issue but reading this thread made me think otherwise. Anyways I did reach out to the original buyer and he was very adamant that the software is 100% genuine. It sounds really annoying that a super expensive bundle of software would have some kind of clause to avoid transfer in ownership when the license was registered for this laptop. Thank you beverly, I will reach out to the support team to see if anything can be resolved.

T

tserings94419823

Participant

I am having the exact same issue!!!! I bought the latest Mac Pro from an engineer who works at intel and when I bought the laptop from him, the laptop came with bundles of pro software including the Adobe, Microsoft, final cut etc. The engineer told me that he gets a good deal on software since he works at intel and bought many of them ( the software in my computer is worth almost 3 times the value of the newest touch bar Mac Pro). Anyways, I had no doubt about the authenticity of the softwares since he gave me the paper with the license/serial number and all the other software seemed to work great. I tried using Adobe premiere pro and I get this alarming message stating that the software is not genuine. I thought I was ripped off but didn't think that the seller had bought fake softwares since he has a very reputable background. Now reading this thread and your post makes me believe that the software is GENUINE!!. I hope they stop sending these warnings because it is really disturbing and embarrassing when it pops up when I am working with a partner/client.

Beverley Gray

Community Manager

Hi tserings94419823

I would suggest you contact our support team by clicking the 'More Info' option when you get the pop up.

Kind regards

Bev

brbsoup

Participant

"Adobe will survive without your business and has absolutely no need to be deceptive as it values its good name. In the age of alternative facts it is a real problem trying to help people like you." ~ Terri

LOL, people have proof of purchases and being harassed by the software they hundreds if not thousands for, exhaust ALL option with support and sales people trying to make them dish out more, so finally come to the forum here defeated asking for help and promptly get told to suck it up, that it is their fault, and some B.S. about "alternative facts" and what a problem "people like you" are. Ridiculous. I get it, a lot of these peoples posts were a bit over the top but what do you expect after being treated like that. The fact that a Better Business Bureau complaint got the issue fixed for a user just validates their "paranoid" responses because it ended up working for them! And not even an apology or admission of being wrong from any of the completely respectable and kind and helpful "ACP" forum users (/s), just from this Terri a half dozen follow up posts trying to get people to disable the Integrity Service which won't even work LOL! Guess it took more and more people showing up to this thread before real Adobe employees took notice though. Good luck to everyone with issues, if it still all fails in the end then PM me and I can give you some more tips on how one can potentially fix this harassment (I'll only tell over private message though, I think these "ACP" pro's won't appreciate my alternative facts for fixing the issue ).

Terri Stevens

Legend

You were very selective in quoting what I said and achieved what I suspect was your objective in misleading people in this thread. For the record here is what I did say to Debbie. Debbie was convinced Adobe was involved in a conspiracy to get her to upgrade to Creative Cloud and talking of moving to alternative software and so I responded as follows.

"You are getting totally paranoid with this. Nobody is lying to you or trying to make some commercial gain. You are valued as a customer but Adobe will survive without your business and has absolutely no need to be deceptive as it values its good name. In the age of alternative facts it is a real problem trying to help people like you convinced by conspiracy theories".

Debbie responded positively , unlike you, and did not take offence at what I said. In the end her problem was resolved. As a non Adobe employee my job here is to help people with problems and I did make some suggestions for workarounds as I was and still am of the belief that most people in this thread are not software thieves. However, Adobe is convinced that the software validation process is sound and detecting illegal software-a point of view I concur with, and so we need to conclude a lot of people have been tricked into buying something that was not genuine. There are plenty of scams duplicated serials, selling off seats from volume licenced software, educational software that stops working after two or three years depending on the course length at a particular school and then there is the ubiquitous Painter crack -which in fact contains malware. Don't take my word for it, check it out with a free scan on VirusTotal

For anyone contemplating brbsoup offer of assistance can I make you aware that this person has never posted here before, as I checked the history, and is trying to point you in the direction of what I would guess is a software crack. He thinks this is an intelligent solution for honest people, but I would strongly advise against it. The software integrity service has been introduced to stop people like this OP not the average person in this thread. Work with Adobe, use the contact number and discuss it with the team, but if it turns out your software is not genuine then don't blame Adobe as crime is part of life. Think of it this way, If you bought a car just stolen from a car showroom and had it then impounded by the police, would you expect Ford, BMW or whoever to give you a replacement? Might be nice if they did but life doesn't work that way.

brbsoup

Participant

Terri,

Thanks for your continued kind replies. It's not a conspiracy that the only

support these people were getting was pressured sales tactics to purchase

CC, and the whole first page of this thread is verified Pro users telling

them its their fault for not purchasing new software that they dont need. I

dont need to turn this thread into a flame war, but I will leave these

comments I've made here up as the one person speaking up about how these

users were treated here, including by you before you very obviously and

abruptly changed your tone after threats of class actions and reports to

BBB were brought up.

Anyway, my C6 software works.

Cheers!

Hairfarm

Participant

Here's a thought. When the lame "Adobe Genuine Software Integrity Service" message pops up just tuck it into the bottom left (or right) corner of your mac and forget about it. This is what I do. If you click on "REMIND ME LATER" it will continue to harass you. throughout the day.

You'll be surprised just how far you can drag it into a corner to hide it. You don't have to look at it anymore and it won't pop up either. Just do it once a day when you log onto any of your Creative Suite 6 Programs.

Attached is a screenshot of how much of the annoying windows actually shows when I tuck it into my bottom right corner. Only a millimeter or two shows. Try it. You'll forget about it in no time!

Friends don't let friends use subscription based software!

Terri Stevens

Legend

Novel idea, but if you ever need to reinstall your software it's highly likely the serial will get rejected. The solution to this is to work with Adobe and find out why your software is being flagged as counterfeit

Hairfarm

Participant

Hi Terri,

Are you saying that simply reinstalling my CS6 software will resolve my issues with "Adobe Genuine Software Integrity Service"?

If that's the simple resolution to the problem then why is it happening at all? Am I understanding this correctly?

Magic_Murder_Bag

Participant

I got pegged by this kerfuffle of a mess just yesterday despite having it since 2014 with no problems, hell adobe even registered the serial number and all was set at the time. Now I'm constantly getting pegged every 15 minutes by the NAG window, and there's no way in hell am I going to get CC (graphic design projects are too far and few between for me and I'm technically unemployed and going back to pursue a masters). For now, I've disabled CC from my computer (I rented out Indesign for a few months that the client payed for) and the pop ups have stopped. I swear the DRM nightmare from gaming companies has returned to haunt my profession.

Letterpress Maven

Participant

Same thing going on; I took screen shots of specifics - listing CS6 programs as "passed" (i.e. "authentic") - and couldn't get any kind of answer that was reasonable. I downloaded from Adobe in 2014 - via validation number etc. etc. and have updated successfully several time since - but my online "help" essentially had NO answers whatsoever and told me to go back to the vendor. I am beginning to think it is a ploy to drive users to CC.

Terri Stevens

Legend

Try disabling and turning off the 'Adobe Genuine Software Integrity Service' found under the Control Panel/Administrative Tools section on Windows. I don't know the location on a Mac , but wherever all the services are managed from.

This isn't a ploy by the company to force upgrades, they simply don't need to do that with over seven million Creative Cloud subscribers. Last Summer a validation system was introduced to counter piracy, not unlike the validation Microsoft uses on it's products. Unfortunately some users of CS5 and CS6 have fallen foul of some form of bug in the detection system that flags their software as tampered with. I'm not quite sure whether Adobe themselves fully understand why this is happening as it doesn't affect everyone. For me the most likely explanation is that customers are running quite old software(CS6 is over 5 years old now) on updated operating systems that the products have never been tested on and indeed were never designed to work on-this may explain why everyone running older versions of the software are not having a problem. Unfortunately there is zero development now on CS6 and earlier and only very limited technical support-apart from on these forums where we'll cover CS2 if necessary. This may possibly account for why online help is unable to be of assistance. It's true you can update , but the stinger would come if you tried to reinstall as I suspect the serial might be rejected

DebbieW1964 Debbie from the genuine software team hopefully will look at this thread-placing her name here will alert her she has been mentioned.

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