Issue with CS6 activation

First question : Do you have an active Creative Cloud account?. You state you have Photoshop so maybe you have?. Please confirm

If not, your options for de-activating an old installation of CS6 look to be very limited as Adobe changed their policies on this back in 2025.

Also, as Peru Bob states - if you change hardware in your machine the licencing server may see it as an incremental activation.

If you have an active Creative Cloud account have you logged into your Adobe Account? .

You should still be able to see the old CS6 listed under products it if you have a perpetual licence.

Then look for Products where you can confirm your serial number for CS6 to make sure it is still registered..

You can also see activated computers from the list on the left.

You need to make sure you do not have CS6 activated on more than 2 machines. You could try de-activating one machine and try again.

I’m sure you are aware that CS6 is no longer supported by Adobe.

Frankly you may end up having to just make life easier for yourself and get a Premiere subscription.

CS6 was designed quite a few years back.

If you made any hardware changes (mobo, hard drives, etc.), it might be seen as a new activation.

A successful deactivation also depends upon the ability for the computer to meet Adobe’s security requirements to convey the deactivation to the Adobe servers. It can show deactivation on the computer, but Adobe could not recognize that.

Only way to reset is to deactivate the ones already in use first.