Deactivation option grayed out

[Ralph_C__Oser]

Good Morning -

I need to deactivate my former installation of Acrobat Pro XI to reinstall it on a new hard drive after Win 10 hosed my old one.

I tried installing it again on my new hard drive and it went nuts.  I assume that request would exceed the number of machines I can have it installed  on per my license,

I tried to deactivate my Acrobat from my old hard drive but the option to do that is grayed out so I can't.  And yes, I'm live on the internet.

Any ideas?

[AadeshSingh]

Hi ralph‌,

Open Acrobat, navigate to Help menu & repair the installation.

Now try to Deactivate Acrobat.

Regards,
Aadesh

[Ralph_C__Oser]

Subject: Re: [Installing, Updating, & Subscribing to Acrobat] Deactivation option grayed out

Thanks Aadesh, good idea, thank you.

I gave it a try and unfortunately it didn't work.

Although for some reason the clean up process gives a progress bar first reflecting 1 minute remaining, then after a while 2 minutes, and then after more processing it abruptly ends so it's not clear whether or not my installation was in fact repaired.  Odd.

Because of this unexpected behavior I tried to repair my installation several times with the same result.  Drat.

R

[AadeshSingh]

Hi Ralph,

Is it a volume licence for Acrobat XI?

Is there any error message when you directly try to install Acrobat XI on the new system?

Regards,
Aadesh

[Ralph_C__Oser]

Good Morning, and thanks again for your help.

No, I've licensed my acrobat versions directly.  It is an upgrade from a prior version though which I removed once this version was activated successfully on my old drive.

I can download and install it on the new drive, but need to deactivate it on the old drive to comply with the terms of my license, and that's what's grayed out, the deactivate function under help in the former installation.

R

[Ralph_C__Oser]

Aadesh

Good morning, we're not getting anywhere on this.  I can't deactivate my former installation of Adobe Pro XI on the HD it was on (repairing the installation didn't solve the graying out issue of the Deactivate function), and the first pc it is installed on I no longer have access to (former work pc and I'm retired now).

Help desk want's me to install cloud based Adobe - which I'd be happy to do, but it's on a subscription basis and I've already paid something over US$400, in 2012 I think, for my Pro XI license that I am trying to install. If Adobe will refund that license fee, I'll stitch to the cloud based app, or permanently waive the fee for me for it, it's successors.

To me it makes sense to solve the deactivation issue of Pro XI instead, but I'd like to get it done so I can do some work.

Thanks, the courtesy of a reply is requested.

Best,

R

[techadmin90034]

Hi, I am a Tech Consultant logged in as my client firm.  The client firm had the same issue.  Here's what I did to resolve it.  I hope this is helpful to you.

----------------------

Problem deactivating/activating Adobe Acrobat:

     Problem: 
1.) Deactive/Registration items don't appear in Help menu

     OR

2.) Deactive/Registration items are is greyed out in Help menu

----------------

Problem is resolved by opening a file and selecting Adobe as printer.

1.) If Deactive/Registration options do not appear on Help menu:
    - Open a PDF file

2.) To get Deactivate/Registration to become available (not grayed out):
    - Select Adobe PDF from list of printers (no need to print)

Deactive or Register product.

I hope this solves your problem also.

Good luck!

[techadmin90034 · Accepted solution]

Oh, and Ralph,

The bombing of the repair installation sounds as if it is because you don't have sufficient resources on the machine to run the Adobe installation again (to "Repair").

1.) Make sure you're logged in as an Administrator, preferably the same Administrator account that originally installed Adobe.

2.) Close any programs you have open (including your browser).

3.) Disable and unload from memory any anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-spyware, program. Also disable any firewall temporarily.

4.) Every possible icon in the bottom right near the time that can be disabled, turned off, exited, should be.

5.) If you have any programs that continually upload such as iCloud, OneDrive, Carbonite, iBackup, or similar, pause or disable them.

It sounds as if you don't have enough working memory (RAM) available to do the Adobe install.  If you disable anything and everything you can, you should be able to do the install.  (You can also run MSConfig at the "run" line and reboot with EVERYTHING disabled, then run the Adobe Repair, then run MSConfig again to re-enable everything.)

If you STILL can't run the repair, I'd suggest download an Adobe install msi or exe that matches your version number. It may be that the CD or executable that you are attempting to install from is now OLDER than the version that is on your computer, due to automated updates.  If that's the case, you can't repair a newer version of software with an older set of installation files.

I hope you are able to figure out what you need.  Btw, I first tried UNINSTALLING Adobe thinking that would automatically deactivate it, but it did not.  I had to reinstall it, then figure out how to deactivate it before I was able successfully to move the license to another computer.

Good luck.

Maria

(Tech Consultant to the legal industry on Los Angeles' Westside for 28 years)