Skip to main content
Participant
May 6, 2025
Question

Cannot activate Acrobat Pro 2017 with a perpetual volume license

  • May 6, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 903 views

I purchased Adobe , which was specifically acquired to allow installation across multiple computers in our organization. I am the IT Administrator responsible for managing these licenses.


The issue: When attempting to install the software on a new computer, I receive an error stating "The Serial number is already in use by the maximum allowed computers. You need to deactivate another computer within 24 days to use this product."

 

all the installed software (since 2018) wasn't signed in, just installed. since 2018 many employees left and had new arrived and never had problems.
Adobe support told me that I should deactivate the software for every employee that leave from the 'Help' menu, but there was no option to do it (picture attached). the support guy just repeat that this is EOL product and he cannot help.


Since the activation check occurs online against Adobe's servers (we don't have a local license server), Adobe must have the capability to see which machines are counted against our license and reset the activation count.


the answer I get from Adobe support is "Acrobat Pro 2017 is an End Of Life product so we do not provide support for this anymore also, we do not have the ability to make changes from our end or to deactivate the licenses."

The fact that this is a perpetual license that's no longer sold doesn't eliminate Adobe's obligation to provide basic license management for legally purchased software.

I'm not asking for technical support for the software itself, but rather access to manage the license activations that I've legitimately purchased.

I appreciate your assistance or work around with this issue.

1 reply

Community Manager
May 6, 2025

Hi @Aspect1

 

Thank you so much for reaching out! 

 

If you have a volume license with a serial number meant for multiple activations, you usually wouldn’t receive this message unless it was flagged during an audit or misused. Unfortunately, I can't access the serial number to pinpoint the issue or recommend sharing it.

 

If you believe you have a volume license, please create a serialized package using the Acrobat customization wizard: https://adobe.ly/4iNeXkc.

 

Since this serial number is intended for multiple computers, I encourage your administrator to contact our dedicated Teams/Enterprise support team. They’ll be more than happy to help verify your serial number! 

 

 


~Tariq

Aspect1Author
Participant
May 6, 2025

Hi Tariq,

Thank you for your response. I have a volume license and tried to use the Acrobat customization wizard with offline exception (picture attached). The installation went good but then I got "Serial number' message (picture attached).
maybe I'm doing something wrong.
Thanks

Jony