Photoshop Elements 15 will not accept valid serial number

Question

Photoshop Elements 15 won't accept my serial number. I had uninstalled it and other Adobe things (to make space on my C drive, which Adobe was hogging up)

Now Elements 15 won't accept my serial number, I put it in, and it takes me right back to the "Photoshop Elements 15 Trial" popup window with the "Buy Now", "License this Software", and "Start Trial" buttons, and Elements never opens.

Maybe someone knows of a registry key or something that might be messed up for the serial number? I will happily nuke adobe* and start over with an Elements 15 re-install if I knew something different to try.

Greg_S. · Answer

Did you buy the program from Adobe or a third party (such as BestBuy)? A while ago we saw a number of users with this problem, and it turned out that the third party software only had a 10 year limited license.

If that is not the case, try disconnecting your computer from the internet and activating the license offline, using the instructions found here. Some users have reported that this works. But I do not have sufficient data to know what the circumstances are. Please report back if it works for you.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.