How come register Acrobat again?

[adwul62]

All of a sudden Acrobat 2017 Pro states I have x days left, whereas it was a registered product before.

In the top right corner of Acrobat my name is displayed and I can log into 'My Account'.

There it shows the order history and under Acrobat 2017 Pro also the registration key.

When launching the Acrobat the file history is displayed, etc.

So, everything is like before, except then...  Acrobat displays it is a trial...

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

p.s. Maybe the only way is the re-install it?

[Adorobat]

Hi adwul62,

As per the issue description mentioned above,  you are getting trial message in Acrobat 2017, is that correct?

Try signing out from the application using Help > Sign out , relaunch Acrobat > sign back in and check if that helps. Also, check if an update is available for Acrobat using "Check for updates" option under "Help" menu, reboot the machine after installing update and check

If that doesn't work, try uninstalling Acrobat by going into programs & features > locate Acrobat > right-click > Uninstall, reboot the machine once.

Then download Acrobat 2017 installer from here: Download Acrobat 2017 

You need your Acrobat 2017 serial number to complete the installation.

Let us know if you need any help.

Shivam

[adwul62]

Regretfully that didn't help. Tried it twice.

Whilst checking which version was installed (32bit or x64)  I noticed a x64 folder was created within:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat 2017\Acrobat

That one was created yesterday.

That was after restoring a Windows image and

that again was because when trying to active/download/install .NET 2.0 Windows (10 x64 latest version) ended

with BSOD (fltmgr.sys, whatever)

I am running a 32bit Acrobat.

I just now remember:  yesterday, I got a popup that Acrobat was updated.

Usually that is nothing special.

This time I suspect it may be the cause of the issue.

Should there be 2x AcroCEF.exe running?

Bottom line I might indeed have to reinstall Acrobat, but how to prevent this from happening again?

Thanks!

[adwul62]

Later

uninstalled Acrobat

re-installed it

entered the license key (required at the very start)

at the end entered the key of the previous version (it was an update that I installed)

launched Acrobat, 6 days left...

log-off Acrobat/Log-in makes no difference, it offers me to purchase a license.

In the meantime I discovered that I am not the only one facing issues with the Acrobat installation.

A bit weird, a big company like Adobe, they seem to have problems with a decent licensing system, resulting in legitimate users spending a lot of time trying to get the software registered.

[adwul62]

A bit of a weird solution/workaround, but sofar it looks(!) like it is working.

Up front, to do the below it is necessary to have an image of Windows.

In fact, one containing a normally working version of Acrobat, i.e. one that has no 'license'-issues.

Exit Acrobat, if that is running

Open the Windows image (I am using Macrium for that)

Within the image copy the entire SLCache folder from: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\SLCache

to a temporary folder - obviously outside the image, e.g. x:\temp\GoodSLCache

Close the image

Delete the SLCache of  C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\SLCache

Copy the entire contents from 'GoodSLCache'  to SLCache

Launch Acrobat

For a short moment I again got this warning of '7 days remaining', but after half a minute that disappeared.

Again, I admit, it is a bit peculiar.

I exited and relaunched Acrobat a few times and let it run.

Looks okay. Crossing my fingers it will still be okay tomorrow though 🙂

[adwul62 · Accepted solution]

Indeed, this was the above solved the problem.

So, basically, delete the entire SLCache and copy the contents of the 'good Acrobat' (good: one without having registration issues) over into the one with that has/had registration issues.

One needs to have a backup of a 'good Acrobat' though.

[Test Screen Name]

So, you restored Windows - was it to hardware different in any way? If so, you will usually have to renew the licensing/activation.

[adwul62]

No, I did not restore Windows.

Sorry for the confusion.

Within running Windows I did following:

(first exit Acrobat in case it is running, of course)

a) deleted all contents of SLCache (including SLConfigs)

b) opened (not restored) an image of a previous Windows, the image was opened as a virtual drive,

so, let's say, X:\Windows

c) using Explorer I browsed to SLCache within that virtual drive, i.e. to X:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\SLCache

d) then copied the entire SLCache from:

X:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\SLCache 

into ->

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\SLCache

e) launched Acrobat and the 'trial' mode was disabled, i.e. Acrobat is running as before.

Now, with me, under 'Preferences->Updater->Automatically install updates' was tagged/enabled.

I remember that Acrobat was updated, got this notification popup window.

Thereafter it was changed into trial mode...

Regretfully, even uninstalling and re-installing my licensed version did not help. 

Somewhere I read about messing with the SLCache, so I gave that a try.
That worked out well.

I wonder though, imagine the situation that this would nót have solved the issue (can this be expected from a normal end-user??)

and neither an uninstall and re-install does, then what?