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A
Anonymous
August 8, 2020
Question

Bought Acrobat Pro license after Creative Cloud expired: Acrobat still says Subscription Expired

  • August 8, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 2095 views

I have now spent a solid working day -- maybe two -- trying to get Acrobat Pro DC working on my PC.

 

I had an annual license for Creative Cloud (for all apps).  It expired.  I did not want to renew.  Rather, I purchased a license for Acrobat Pro DC (the student and teacher edition).  Acrobat Pro DC does not recognize the new license.  It tells me that my subscription is expired.  When I try to do various things in Acrobat, a screen pops up and prompts me to either "Renew Now" or "Activate."  If I click "Renew Now," it takes me to the Adobe website, where I can see that I have a valid license.  If I click "Activate," a pop-up screen tells me "Sorry, something went wrong," and asks "Are you connected to the internet?"  (Yes, I am certainly connected to the internet, thanks...)

Initially, both the expired Creative Cloud license and the new Acrobat license showed up on my account.  It was ridiculously difficult to remove the Creative Clous license.  There was no button that would allow me to remove the license from my account.  After doing a lot of research that should have been uneccesary, I decided to add a payment method for the old, expired account.  I did that, and finally an option to cancel the account appeared.  Why Adobe thinks it is reasonable to make people add a payment method to GET RID OF a license is beyond be.  In any case, I was finally able to get the expired license off of my account, and it is no longer listed on my account page.  Only the new Acrobat license is listed.

 

I have also taken the following steps:

 

  • Signed out from my account and signed in again (many times)
  • Uninstalled Acrobat Pro Dc and reisntalled it (many times).  I have used the download link that is on the "Access your apps and services" page for my new Acrobat license.
  • Uninstalled Creative Cloud (many times).  I didn't want to reinstall it -- I only want Acrobat Pro DC -- but for whatever reason, Adobe sees fit to install it automatically whenever I instal Acrobat Pro DC.
  • Deleted various Adobe-related files and folders from my Program Foles folders and AppData folders, as suggested on various tech forums.  Of course Adobe puts such an obnoxious amount of junk on one's computer when you install it's products that it's hard to know for certain whether there may be something left that could be causing an issue.
  • Download and ran the Adobe Acrobat Cleaner (AdobeAcroCleaner_DC2015.exe)
  • Done all of the above in various combinations and in various orders

 

None of those things have solved the problem.  I wanted to e-mail Adobe's customer support people, but they do not have an e-mail address or even a contact form.  Thanks, Adobe!  I tried to chat online with a customer support representative two days ago, but the initial rep said he couldn't help me and would need to connect me with a tech support person.  After waiting ten minutes for a tech support person to come online in the chat window, I gave up.  Now it is a weekend, and apparently there are no phone or chat-based support options whatsoever available on weekends.  Thanks, again Adobe!

 

This process has been absurdly difficult, and I still haven't been able to solve the problem.  I can see pretty easily through searching support forums that such license-related problems are quite common.  I almost didn't buy the new license in the first place because there are other options out there, but I figured that I'd rather have the "real thing."  I currently have nothing.  After going through all of this, I seriously doubt I'll be renewing after this year's license has expired (if I can ever get access to that license, which I have paid for).

If anyone has any ideas about how to fix this problem thatI haven't tried yet, please let me know.

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

M
mg79702128
Participant
August 17, 2020

Original poster here, back on a different account after deleting my other two personal Adobe accounts.

 

Adobe couldn't figure out how to fix the problem.  A support rep took remote control of my machine and did all of the things I had already done multiple times plus maybe one thing that I hadn't done.  No luck.  That rep did a good job and put in over a half and hour of work -- maybe an hour -- but he could not fix the problem.

 

He said he was transfering me to an account person, as it looked like perhaps the license wasn't activated correctly.  The line went dead a couple of minutes after I had been placed on hold for the transfer.  I called three times after that, and in each instance, I got some nice elevator music while on hold until the line just went dead a minute or two later.  On the fourth try, I got through.  That account rep said everything looked okay, and that they would need to forward me to some other sort of account rep.

 

The third rep couldn't help me.  I wanted to try setting up a license on an entirely different account, but I noted to the third rep that the student and teacher license that I had purchased was no longer available for purchase on the Adobe website.  He said that he could allow me to purchase it, so I bought the same license for an entirely different, unconnected account.  Acrobat Pro DC would never recognize that licenese, either.  My best guess is that student and teacher licenses for only Acrobat can't be activated anymore, even if you've purchased them.  Who knows?

Three plus work days (and three days of my life) down the drain.  I had both of my Adobe accounts deleted altogether.

 

I really wanted "the real thing," but I'm going with Foxit now.  Adobe software has become so bloated and the licensing system so convoluted that they can't even activate licenses that they sell to people.  After using Acrobat for over 20 years, I'm done buying it for myself.  My employer has also stopped installing it on machines by default due to the increased cost.

 

For what it's worth, I don't know why a moderator moved this thread to the Acrobat forum.  This was cleary an instalation/license problem.  I guess it's easier to move a thread than solve a problem.

V
Vesa5EAD
Participating Frequently
September 3, 2020

I have had similar problems with Adobe products. I had huge issues with just cancelling my subscription before! They have awful customer service choices, but really good products, I'm considering quitting them alltogether though if these issues continue... Now having troubles with my ongoing subscription to get to the products I have paid for!

T
Test Screen Name
Legend
August 8, 2020

Licenses don't really expire for most people, they have to be cancelled. Your old plan may be active, what did you do to stop it?

A
Anonymous
August 8, 2020

I cancelled it.  As mentioned in the original post, I actually had to add a payment option to the expired plan in order for the "cancel" option to become available.  Once I added a payment method, a "cancel" button became available, so I clicked it.  Before I cancelled, the old license showed up on my account, and after cancelling, it no longer shows up on my account, so it should be cancelled.

 

This is all just so absurd.

T
Test Screen Name
Legend
August 9, 2020

From what you say, though, you purchased the Acrobat subscription FIRST and cancelled All Apps SECOND. 

So at the time Acrobat was purchased, I guess Adobe had no idea what to do with it, since it just duplicated what you already had. We might hope that cancelling the All Apps caused the Acrobat subscription to kick in as normal, but I suspect that isn't what happens. To sort this out you probably need to get back to customer service. But if you can only wait 10 minutes you really aren't going to get anywhere. Expect hours. No, there is no email.

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