Inspiring

Answered

Withdrawal of Activation Count Reset service on perpetual licenses

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
March 10, 2024
7 replies
13220 views

Users of older perpetual licence products may not be aware that Adobe Customer Service are no longer able to reset your Activation Count if you hard disk fails or if you mess up the deactivation/reactivation when transferring your software from one computer to another. You will therefore eventually lose the use of your software.
Whilst I understand that Adobe may no longer wish to support these older products, they have no right to block our lawful use of them. It is my opinion that the withdrawal of the reset service is an appallingly dishonest action by Adobe intended to force us into costly software upgrades.
I have written today to the Adobe UK office at Maidenhead to request that my Activation Counts are reset to remove spurious activations, and that they restore a long term mechanism for activation resets. I have advised them that I will seek to recover my software license costs from them, should they fail to do so.
I am making this Community post to request that other UK users join me in a campaign to have the Activation Count reset service restored, or to participate in a class action against Adobe if we are initially unsuccessful.
I would suggest to global users that they take similar action within their own jurisdictions.

General troubleshooting

Correct answer Les3538903406qj

My issue is now fixed (sort of).

In the UK (and I guess elsewhere) there is a "small claims" court procedure where you can recover your debts without the need to employ a lawyer. I wrote to Adobe UK with a "Final Demand" letter to require them to reactivate my product or to refund my license fee. My letter is required as the final stage of the small claims procedure before issuing a court summons.

I reckoned that I had a clear cut case for breech of license so that even if Adobe chose to hire a hot-shot lawyer to resist me, and to try to transfer the case to a higher court (where I would need to employ a lawyer and thereby make my claim uneconomic) then I could deny this by asserting that my claim falls fully within the small claim rules.

In response to my letter, I got a call from a "manager" at Adobe US Customer Service who has sent me a shiny new licence key for my product. I am now able to make 2 installs, abeit that my old license key is still dead. I will lose my licences again if I chose to upgrade my hardware.

So there you have it.

My assumption is that there is no way that activation counts can now be reset. If you have lost your activations then the only solition is to get a new key, and to get a new key you will need to get tough with Adobe.

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carole_cassel

Participant

I have the same problem with my CS5. I have ONE computer. I installed on ONE computer, but I have upgraded it twice (last time, 2 weeks ago). I didn't know that transferring from one HD to another counted as an activation. I was never told and never got any warning after my first upgrade, years ago. Now, I can't use any of the programs in the suite. I bought it in a box.

When I asked for help from support, they kept asking me to "go to the previous device to disable the activation". I don't have a PREVIOUS device, or an OLD device. I have ONE device. I also use it only sparingly, and not enough to be worth a monthly fee.

I am in Canada. I wonder if there are also small claims that could be filed here? Anyone knows?

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Les3538903406qjAuthor

Inspiring

Even if you had deactivated it on the old HD it would have made no difference. I think you could have saved the old activation had you created a byte for byte copy of your old disk using "Create system image" in Windows and then restoring it onto your new HD using the repair options on a Windows install USB. As your new disk is presumably larger than your old disk you would then need to use a tool such as Aomei Partition Assistant to resize the main partition to fill the disk. Obviously this is not a procedure for the feint hearted if you are not used to messing about with the technicalities.
Yes, Canada doues have a small claims procedure https://www.ontario.ca/page/suing-someone-small-claims-court
The more of us who have a go at this, the more likely Adobe will relent and finfd a practical solution.

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carole_cassel

Participant

Thanks. It looks like it might be by province. That is for Ontario and I am in a different province. I will still look into it in my province.

tomaszr7126974

Participant

Hello Everyone,

I have exact same issue, they refused to Reset activation count on my Adobe Acrobat Pro 2020. I have the issue while the message is displayed telling me it exceeds limit of 2 computers. Can someone help me out, what shall I do ? They tried to convience me to buy monthly subscription. But I am really using this software from time to time in a casual way for my studies. Shall I also claim to give my money back as the product is not running any longer? I reinstalled the OS on my laptop as its get really slow, and I can't use back the product that I have already paid for.....

Can't just they deactivate old serial number, and re-issue me with the new one? I dont ask for that much, just for the product I have paid....
Thank you for any help,

best regards

G

Gerry38926410ggjl

Participant

It's sad ....I had to rebuild my PC due to a completely unrelated Adobe
software issue and Adobe canceled my perpetual license as a result.

I spent 2 months going back and forth to Adobe and they were unmovable.

I finally ask them to refund my original purses purchase price but to no
avail.

There single fault is not publicizing the fact that they only allowa
limited number of activations unles you deactivate first.

It's a little secret that Adobe want to keep hidden until they triggered
the deactivation.

Of course this is only a new thing introduced after you purchased the
license and not something that they want to publicize they want to get rid
of all perpetual licence holders.

Shameful behavior from a large international company.

I no longer use adobe or any other products.

Gerry

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Les3538903406qjAuthor

Inspiring

I also claimed for a full refund of my license fee from Adobe, by sending a formal letter regarding the breach of license, to their directors as a first step under the UK small claims court procedure. This resulted in them issuing me with a new license key. Obviously I will have the same problem again when I upgrade my computers, but it solves my problem for now.
Many other countries including the US, have small claims court procedures where people can recover debts without the need to employ a lawyer. I woulds suggest that following this procedure would be your best option.

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Gerry38926410ggjl

Participant

I have had the same experience.

My perpetual license was de activated by Adobe as a result of trouble shooting a c drive issue on my PC.

I am beyond disappointed.

Adobe are recently pushing all to go on their subscription system and pay for your lifetime.

I simply want my €600 back for the product they withdrawn. It is outrageous they are allowed to get away with this !!

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Les3538903406qjAuthor

Inspiring

The United States have a small claims procedure similar to the one that I used in the UK https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/small_claims_court

Adobe have broken the licence agreement, so I recommend that US Citizens use the procedure to reclaim their full licence fee. I was given a new license key, however if enough of us make life difficult for them, then maybe they will come up with a more satisfactory solution.

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Dilanka37075265kff9

Participant

Had the same issue, where our company have a number of these perpetual licenses. Users in australia are currently ok, but recently our UK based user get a warning saying the serial number is no longer valid! even when they haven't switched devices. They used the license perfectly without any issues until last week (17/05/2024), and now all of a sudden they are gicing a warning when they open adobe XI. How can they block a user from using a product that we already paid for !?

it says:
"This app will disabled in 5 days. The serial number used to activate this app is no longer valid. Adobe has recently identified misise of the serial number used to activate one or more of your adobe apps. As a result, this adobe app will be disabled soon. Start a free trial or buy genuine adobe Apps - *at a discount today*"

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Les3538903406qjAuthor

Inspiring

If they do become disabled, sue them for the full cost of your licenses. It is important that as many of us do this as possible to encourage them to abndon this fraud. You can sue without a solicitor. The procedure is eplained here https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money
This is the company to sue https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC101089 . You can try suing them at the registered office however I had success by writing to them (initial letter then "Final Demand") The Directors, Adobe Systems Europe Ltd, Market House, 34-38 Market Street Maidenhead, Berkshire SL6 8AD They responded to the Final Demand by issuing me with a new licence key however I got the same messeage as you have when I ran the software two days ago...

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Dilanka37075265kff9

Participant

Hey Thanks a lot for this info, appreciate it!
So they gave you a new license key, but when you use it, you still gets a adobe genuine services warning!?

I wonder whether it is some mistake on their end or does adobe actually plan to make their customers throw away a working product that's already been paid for. not supporting an old anymore is perfectly okay, but forcing people into buying new product instead of old one's... Is it even legal? who makes these decisions!?

try67

Community Expert

Adobe employees confirmed that resetting the activation counter is no longer possible, but that the activation servers still work, so make sure you always deactivate your legacy software if you want to be able to keep using it!

See: https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/error-activation-limit-reached-sign.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/manage-account/using/policy-account-sharing.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/using/install-apps-number-of-computers.html

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Les3538903406qjAuthor

Inspiring

This is theft and a breech of the perpetual license.

I will ask for my license money back and take the matter to court if necesary.

Abambo

Community Expert

This is theft and a breech of the perpetual license.

By @Les3538903406qj

Well, as long as you do not change the hardware and the OS, the software still works. So I don't really see where the breech is.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer

Abambo

Community Expert

I suppose that one could argument also, that the software continues to work until you change something on your system. If Adobe cannot reset the activation count anymore, that means that their system for doing so fails because the old hardware/software they used is end of life.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer

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Les3538903406qjAuthor

Inspiring

If that was the case then it would seem strange that the licensing server is working at all

Addobe need to provide a work-around if they do not want their customer service to be bothered with these resets. I would suggest making it possible for users to reset their own activation count or do away with the activation count altogether and just enforce the "one copy running at a time" rule.

Abambo

Community Expert

If that was the case then it would seem strange that the licensing server is working at all

Addobe need to provide a work-around if they do not want their customer service to be bothered with these resets. I would suggest making it possible for users to reset their own activation count or do away with the activation count altogether and just enforce the "one copy running at a time" rule.

By @Les3538903406qj

Basically, you had a running system and changed something with that. I understand that you want to continue to use the system you acquired a licence for, which is different from buying a product, but indeed, support ended a while ago.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer

try67

Community Expert

Did they explicitly say they can no longer do it, or that your version is old and unsupported, or something like that?

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Les3538903406qjAuthor

Inspiring

I contacted Customer Service on the website chat and they wrote

"I would like to inform you that our access to the activation servers has been revoked by the upper management which is why we are no longer able to assist our customers with the issue."

I then asked to speak to a manager who confirmed the same thing.

try67

Community Expert

For which version(s) of Acrobat?

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