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it_90
it_90
Participant
March 10, 2026
Answered

Licensing issues with laptop replacement

  • March 10, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 52 views

I manage a small business IT dept.  We have Adobe Acrobat Pro 2020 licenses.  I have a laptop that died  and wish to install Acrobat on a new laptop but it says the license is in use on another device.  I cannot get onto that device to deactivate.

I tried logging in with the user account from that laptop and it states there is no account.  This is bizarre since I had to create the account to register the product.

I can find NO phone number to call support and have been running around in circles. 

I am so frustrated with Adobe right now I am thinking of switching to another product.

 

Any advice would be helpful. 

    Correct answer Jeffrey_A_Wright

    @it_90 thanks for posting about managing your licenses and activations for Acrobat 2020. I am sorry for any confusion. Please see 

     for details on how to manage any remaining activations for Acrobat 2020. If you are receiving the message that the license is in use on another device, then you will need to deactivate the software on the previous computer. If the software has already been removed, then you can reinstall the software to perform the deactivation process. If you no longer have access to any of the computers where Acrobat 2020 was previously installed, ​@it_90 then you will need to find a new solution to your PDF creation needs in 2026. 

     

    It is not possible to remotely deactivate older software titles, and the computer will need to be up to date enough to contact Adobe servers to send the deactivation request.

    1 reply

    S_S
    Community Manager
    S_SCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    March 10, 2026

    Hi ​@it_90,

     

    Hope you are doing well. Sorry for the trouble with using Acrobat.

     

    From the description, it seems like you logged in to the correct account, but selected a different profile.

     

    In case you want to try again, please log in to https://account.adobe.com/products/ and de-register Acrobat Pro 2020 from there.

     

    Also, you might want to further proceed with removing any active sessions for the account by going to https://account.adobe.com/security/ and scrolling down to the active sessions section, and remove any/all that lists there.

     

    Let us know if this works for you.

     

    Regards,

    Souvik

    it_90
    it_90Author
    Participant
    March 11, 2026

    Thank you for the links.  When I log into the products page, I see the serial numbers for each product we own.  I can download the software from here.  However, when I switch to activated devices, there is nothing…  So, I cannot deactivate a serial number on a specific computer and reregister it on the new one.

    S_S
    Community Manager
    S_SCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    March 12, 2026

    ​@it_90, 

     

    Thanks for the response. 

     

    Are you able to de-register the product from the page? 

     

    Also, you can review this link: https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/transfer-product-license.html

     

    This has details on how to transfer product license.

     

    Hope this helps.

     

    Regards,

    Souvik

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