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StashT
Participant
April 6, 2017
Answered

Adobe Acrobat Pro XI deactivation/activation hell

  • April 6, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 6477 views

I'm hoping someone here can help me.  After over an hour in a support chat session that went nowhere I am very frustrated.

We have a user here who has Acrobat Pro XI installed on her PC.  It was time for her to get a new desktop and I wanted to transfer her XI license over to the new PC and did the following:

1. Deactivated XI on old PC

2. Installed XI on new PC

Now whenever I start XI on the new PC it wants me to sign in with an Adobe ID to activate.  I do not want to do this, I have the serial for XI that I deactivated and I just want to activate the product with the serial no.

I see no way of doing this and it's driving me insane.  Adobe chat support kept transferring me around and saying I need to sign in with my Adobe ID.

I don't understand.  I installed it on the "old" PC just using a serial no, how come I can't do that on the new PC?

Anyone else run into this very aggravating issue?

If I sign in with my Adobe ID, it activates but then deactivates CC on my computer here.

Thanks!

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer kglad

uninstall everything cc including preferences, https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/uninstall-remove-app.html

then uninstall the cc desktop app, https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/uninstall-creative-cloud-desktop-app.html

clean your computer of cc files per http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

restart your computer (don't skip this)

reinstall acrobat xi and activate.

2 replies

W
WDannen
Participant
August 30, 2023

It is amazing how hard Adobe makes it to speak with a human.
I tried "repairing" the adobe acrobat in my old computer. The repair added an uninstall menu item but hung up writing a file to my system folder.  So, while the system folder error message was up I pulled down the menu and selected uninstall.
I THINK this might work.
Oh if Adobe only gave a damn about those it takes money from...

kglad
Community Expert
kgladCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 30, 2023

@WDannen 

 

keep us posted if you have a problem.

W
WDannen
Participant
August 30, 2023

Will do.  Fortunately my old computer wasn't dead-dead, it just arrived at that point in a Microsoft system where it crashes regularly and had to be moved to the closet in the office.
I appreciate this forum, thank you for it.

kglad
Community Expert
kgladCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
April 6, 2017

uninstall everything cc including preferences, https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/uninstall-remove-app.html

then uninstall the cc desktop app, https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/uninstall-creative-cloud-desktop-app.html

clean your computer of cc files per http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

restart your computer (don't skip this)

reinstall acrobat xi and activate.

S
StashTAuthor
Participant
April 7, 2017

Thanks, that worked.  I didn't have any CC apps on that machine so just had to uninstall Pro and reinstall.

I reinstalled from the disc I had so that would indicate that the install package for Acrobat Pro XI that Adobe has on its site has an update that forces Adobe ID activation and no longer gives you the option to activate by serial number which is ridiculous.

Thanks again.

T
Tata23231037q8go
Participant
February 18, 2022

another adobe mystery (and there are plenty).


Hi Kglad,

 

I am having difficulty transferring a deactivating a license for adobe acrobat standard xi since the user do not work with the company anymore and the computer has been re-imaged. is there a way to deactivate it online?

 

key: <removed-kglad>

 

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