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.

[try67]

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

[Les3538903406qj]

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"I would like to inform you that our access to the activation servers has been revoked by the upper management which is why we are no longer able to assist our customers with the issue."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

For which version(s) of Acrobat?

[Les3538903406qj]

Versions 10 and 11 (X and XI) definately as I own those. Almost certainly earlier versions and probably anything earlier than 2017 perpetual licences.

[Abambo]

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. 

[Les3538903406qj]

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]

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. 

[Les3538903406qj]

You are mistaken. My Licence Agreement states "The Adobe product license agreement allows you to install and use the product on a primary computer and also on a secondary computer (on a desktop computer at home or on a laptop computer), provided that the two copies are not used simultaneously. For more information about Adobe software licenses".
This does not tie the software to any specific machine.

[Les3538903406qj]

indeed the provision of a ["dectivate" -> "new activation"] procedure within the software clearly indicates Adobe's intention that it may be transferred either to your new computer or sold to some iother person "like book".
Adobe are now in clear breach of their licensing terms, so I would urge other users, either as individuals or collectively to take legal action against Adobe to recover their licence fee paid according to the law in the juresdiction where you boufht your software. I would resist any attempt by Adobe to pay less than the license fee, because while you have had the use of the software, they hve had the use of your money.
I hope that if enought people do this then Adobe will resolve activion issuses so that the whole community can continue to enjoy the software that they have paid for.

[try67]

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

[Les3538903406qj]

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]

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.

[Les3538903406qj · Accepted solution]

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.

[try67]

That's a good result (for you), but it's a shame it has to come to that for Adobe to treat its customers decently. They should just have offered a non-activation version of the application to all previous customers with a valid license, or kept the activation servers running. A multi-billion dollar company can certainly afford to do it.

[Les3538903406qj]

I agree. The number of activations is irrelevant. They could protect the licenses by runing a check that multiple copies are not in use at the same time. "Like a book".

[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.  If enough of us make life difficult for them, then maybe they will come up with a more satisfactory solution.

[try67]

Official statement by Adobe on the matter: https://community.adobe.com/t5/download-install-discussions/sharing-your-individual-adobe-membership...

[cg089]

This is not a statement on "we aks you to deactive your existing licenses and we will not activate them afterwards, so you can't use them anymore". This statement has nothing to do with our current problems IMHO.

[cg089]

Today I deactivated my Acrobat XI install on my Windows 11 computer. However, I still cannot re-activate it on my new Windows 11. Is this serious? Is my $400 license completely useless now?

[Abambo]

The issue may well be Windows 11, but it may also lie in the activation servers. Why do you have a new Windows 11?

[cg089]

I had two calls in the meantime from Adobe, both wanting to sell me new products for $420 or a reduced montly fee which is of course not an option.

My case is now "escalated the case to the highest level". I am positive, the CEO himself will give me a call in the next couple of days. Or maybe they just ignore the case.

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[try67]

If you deactivated it on the old computer then you should be able to activate it again on the new one.

[cg089]

This is not the case.

I have both pcs standing there. I deactivated my license following the adobe help entries. This worked fine. However, I can not acivate it anymore, neither on my new pc, nor on my old pc where I was using it for years.

Today, I got a call back from Adobe. They say they changed their policy and there is nothing they can do about it. They offered me a new montly license with 6 month reduced fee. wtf? is this really serios?

I am willing to open a legal case in germany on that. There was no warning upon deactivating!

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[Les3538903406qj]

I lost one of my Acrobat X licenses the same way. Unlikely to be Windows 11 but in any case the main problem is that Adobe customer services cannot reset your activation count as per my initial post.

We need to get together and take out a legal class action against them.

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