Adobe won't recognize my subscription

Report · Jan 23, 2019

I keep receiving a message stating that my free trial is expired and I need to purchase AcrobatPro in order to edit PDFs. I purchased the upgrade and Adobe doesn't recognize the purchase.

Report · Jan 24, 2019

If you paid for Acrobat Pro, did you ALSO download it, and install it, and uninstall the Acrobat Reader you don't need any more?

Report · Jan 29, 2019

Hi Kyler,

We see that you have an active subscription of Acrobat DC registered under your account. If you are still being redirected to the buy now page then there must be two scenario-

If you have used Acrobat DC's 7-days free trial, then you may "Sign Out" from the application. Open Acrobat>Sign Out and "Sign In" again to sync your subscription. Download Pro or Standard versions of Acrobat DC | Non-subscription
As TestScreenName said, make sure you have the Acrobat DC installed . If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader DC installed which is a free application then you wont be able to use Edit toll in it. And you will be directed to buy now or trial expired page. So uninstall Adobe Acrobat Reader DC.

Let us know if it causes any further trouble.

Regards,

Akanchha

Report · May 13, 2020

Neither of these options work for us. The user in our company currently with the issue never even had adobe reader installed, they only had acrobat pro. Some how their license got removed from our company account, so i added them back and had them sign out and back in. That did not work, so we uninstalled the program and reinstalled it. Still doesnt work. How do we fix this?

Report · Sep 03, 2020

Hi! I'm having this same issue and need to edit some files ASAP. My company also updated the license but Adobe isn't recognizing that when I open the Acrobat DC Pro desktop application. The same subscription message keeps coming up.

Report · Feb 22, 2025

I've had this issue repeatedly with Adobe. Trying to figure it out led to them double charging me last time. I canceled that time. Trying it again and it's still an issue. You would think they would figure this out. Max level frustrated.

Report · Oct 12, 2021

I am having this same issue today even after having an Adobe Rep try to remotely assist - he/she tried uninstalling/rebooting/cleaning numerous times to no avail, but the program still says that my plan is expired, and I am unable to print a document to PDF. This is crazy.

Report · Oct 12, 2021

Well that's very disappointing - my next port of call was hopefully going to have Adobe to a remote access fix. Obviously that is pointless.... groan.

Report · Nov 08, 2020

Hi,

got a similar problem with Acrobat Pro DC (current version). Even though I've got a running subscription, the message that my membership is expired won't disappear and the editing functions stay disabled. Signing out and in didn't work for my case. Neither did restarting the application, the whole system or fully reinstalling the program solve the issue.

Would be really great to find a solution for this problem soon.

Thanks in advance.

Report · Dec 10, 2020

Hi, any luck guys?

I am having the same issue, chat support is busy. Anu advice on what it worked for you will be much appreciated

thanks

Report · Dec 10, 2020

Hi Alexandru,

We are extremely sorry for the experience. We are aware of the issue and are working on a priority basis to address this as soon as possible. You can also check the status of the ongoing issue here: https://status.adobe.com/

Thanks for your patience on this, we'll keep you posted once the issue gets fixed.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

Report · Dec 10, 2020

There is a service outage as it states quite clearly on the front page of the forum Acrobat Activation Issue - Alert - License expires - Adobe Support Community - 11666527

Report · Dec 10, 2020

Hi,

Thank you so much for your cooperation and for your patience on this.
Please sign out from the Acrobat application, restart the app, then sign back in and check.

Let us know how it goes and share your observations.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

Report · Mar 01, 2021

The issue persists. I have uninstalled the free trial, reinstalled from the link that Adobe sent me via email with my subscription. Still did not recognize my paid subscription and I uninstalled and reinstalled... Spending all morning on this and still does not recognize my subscription!

I cannot edit my documents unless I go through the Adobe website.

Is there a fix for this yet?

Report · Mar 02, 2021

Hey!

Sorry for the trouble.

We see that you have recently subscribed to Acrobat Pro DC.

Could you please let us know what happens when you try to activate the application?

Try uninstalling the application using the cleaner tool and reboot the machine.

Then reinstall Acrobat from this link: https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/download-install-acrobat-subscription.html

Let us know if that helps.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

Report · Oct 12, 2021

I am having the same issues. Have uninstalled/reinstalled multiple times, used the CC Cleaner Tool multiple times as instructed, uploaded log files as requested, and yet still Acrobat DC continues to not recognise my subscription. This is getting beyond frustrating. Also, any attempts to contact a 'real person' via the chat system seems to be completely in vain

Report · Oct 14, 2021

As with others in this, and many other threads in the community, I've tried numerous times and have had no success. Could somebody from Adobe please contact me directly to arrange a full refund of our subscription. No point paying for something that quite obviously doens't work effectively.

Report · Oct 04, 2022

This is what I did to resolve this issue. Uninstalled Adobe Acrobat, deleted the registry entries for Adobe under HKLM and HKCU software keys. Deleted the Adobe subscription account in our Adobe admin console, created a new account, with a new email ID (one of the alias'), reinstalled Adobe and signed in with the new ID. Then the user was able to use Adobe again.

Report · Nov 09, 2022

I've just wasted an entire day trying to resolve this issue, even updated the operating system and it still won't work. Used Adobe Cleaner, even went into the Terminal to delete Adobe files. Incredibly frustrating and I can't believe I've wasted so much time trying to edit a PDF, which would have taken me 10 minutes.

Adobe was apparently having this issue two years ago, so they must not want to fix it. Thanks Adobe for wasting so much of everyone's time. I will take any possible opportunity to not use your software for the rest of my life. Shame on you.

Report · Feb 15, 2023

This is VERY common, I would say routine experience for our user community. Beggars belief that people willingly pay Adobe for this experience. Hope triumphing over experience 😀

Report · Nov 05, 2023

Same issue here.

There is no 'sign out' either. There is only an 'exit application' option and that does not work either.

Class action lawsuit time?

Report · Nov 06, 2023

Hi Robb33405605v5gn,

Thank you for reaching out.

If you get the message about the subscription expired, try reinstalling the application using the following steps:

-Remove the application and run the cleaner tool (https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/Labs/cleaner.html).
-Reboot the machine
-Install Adobe Acrobat from the following page: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/acrobat-dc-downloads.html.

Then, try to sign in to the application.

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks,

Meenakshi