Withdrawal of Activation Count Reset service on perpetual licenses

[Les3538903406qj]

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.

[Domenic36286353fcbs]

Same problem here

[Les3538903406qj]

I managed to get my laptop hard disk working on another computer enough to pernamently deactivate the license however my activation count is still stuck at 2.

I have issued Adobe UK with Final Notice before recovery proceedings for my breech of license. I expect that they will ignore it so I will be issuing small claims procedure in UK Court next week. They will then either resolve the problem, or more likely (as is the case with corporate [moderator removed inappropriate text]), they will engage a hot-shot lawyer to resist my case. If they do so, they will have underestimated my determination to resolve this matter. Watch this space.

[Amal.]

Hi there

Hope you are doing well.

This is something better handled by our product team. Please click on the dotted icon in the lower right corner of the page https://adobe.ly/44iuzqr to start the process.

~Amal

[belross]

That opens the "virtual assistant" which is useless. Other contact options are not available since I don't have an "active paid plan" since I do not use Creative Cloud. I want to install, activate and use my existing perpetual CS6 licenses.

[Dilanka37075265kff9]

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*"

[Les3538903406qj]

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...

[Dilanka37075265kff9]

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!?

[Dilanka37075265kff9]

Correction: the way they discontinued support is also NOT okay. they should allow a process where people can reset a device count in case a device where the Adobve XI perpetual license was installed crashed or was lost. How do they expect users to deactivate it before installing on another device!!?

[Gerry38926410ggjl]

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 !! 

[Les3538903406qj]

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.

[tomaszr7126974]

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

[Gerry38926410ggjl]

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

[Les3538903406qj]

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.

[carole_cassel]

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?

[Les3538903406qj]

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.

[carole_cassel]

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. 

[Martin Toth]

Hi there,

I don't think thaat creating a system image is an option. When I bought a new computer, I took the old HDD with its OS and everything (to avoid migration), placed it into the new PC and pushed the ON button. Everything was exactly the same as it was as in my old PC (just had to update drivers for some hardware like graphics, USB roots etc., but no need to reinstall anything.) All my licensed SW (MS Office, Flipping Book, Acronis, digital signatures and certificates, access codes for e-governemnt, technical standards, etc.) work flawlessly as if no change occured, EXCEPT OF Adobe Acrobat X.

Adobe's online assistant is useless as it does't even see the registered product in my account, whereas when I log-in, the product is there listed as registered and when I try to use the license key again (which I obviously still have printed on the box I bought the product in), a message appears saying that it is impossible to register again due to the fact that it is already registered. So it seems that I will have to either switch to another product (any suggestions?) or buy a new license?

What a bugger.

[Guest]

I had the same issue with Acrobat Standard 2020 and Photoshop/Premiere Elements 2024. The funny thing is that I have signed out on my old computer before upgrading. So deactivation should have worked, right?
What can I do? I paid a lot of money for these products. I will never use a subscription.

[Les3538903406qj]

Adobe have turned off their server software which resets the activation count. Once you have 2 activations you are unable to reinstall the software. This is a breach of your license. The court systems of most countries have a small claims procedue where you can sue for breach of contract without needing to employ a lawyer. For example this is the one for the UK https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money
Adobe will generally send you new license keys once you sent them a letter that you wil sue them for your money.

[Guest]

I have contacted Adobe Support and escalated. They provided me with new serial numbers for Adobe Acrobat 2020 Standard and Elements Photoshop/Premiere 2024. When they did this I had to agree to the following text

Please note that by providing a new serial number, you agree to the following terms: 

1.   The new serial number is limited to two activations. You are responsible for managing the activations and deactivations of this serial number.

2. Activating the new serial number acknowledges your agreement to these terms. No additional remedies will be offered for this activation Limit.

3. Adobe has transitioned to a subscription model, and perpetual products have been discontinued.  In future if you exhaust the activation count, the only available solution will be to switch to a subscription.

Which I agreed as I have no other choice.

As I will never use a subscription model for this kind of software I guess these are the last Adobe products which I will ever use and I need to start looking for alternatives.

My problem is that I suspect that when you have both Photoshop/Premiere Elements and Adobe Acrobat installed and when you sign out (there is not deactivate option, only sign out) from Elements for example, then the Adobe installation is not actually deactivated. Anyone knows the proper way to deactivate the products when for example you have more than one product installed?

[carole_5992]

Could you point me to the documentation that states Adobe's terms? I am not sure what documentation to use for filling out acourt document.