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O
OC Photoworx
Known Participant
September 26, 2017
Question

XI: Unable to connect to the Adobe server right now...

  • September 26, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 3227 views

This is just one piece of a much larger puzzle, but I uninstalled Acrobat Pro XI and then reinstalled it.  The installation went smoothly but at the very end, I received an error message:

Renew your subscription

We're sorry, but we're not able to connect to the Adobe Server right now.  Please click here to

trouble-shoot any connectivity problems.  If this problem persists please contact Customer Support.

Go to the Subscription Manager to renew your subscription for Creative Cloud and continue using your

product uninterrupted.  If you have just renewed your subscription, please wait 15 minutes and try again.

You are signed in as ....

Clicking on the link takes me to this page: helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/activation-network-issues.html where there is a list of steps to take.  Before I went through them, I logged on and checked my subscription; it is in force.

  1. Test your connection to Adobe activation servers.
    1. To determine if you have access to the Adobe activation servers, click this link.  [I did and got the two logo verification.]
    2. Start an Internet browser and open one of the following links, depending on the version of your product: [I did and got the pong verification.]
  2. Reset your hosts file.
    1. Download the Limited Access Repair tool.
    2. Extract the downloaded file, and then run the Limited Access Repair tool in Admin mode.  [I ran it and it said it worked, but did 0 records.]
    3. Reset the Hosts file manually.  I went through the procedure, but there were no Adobe hosts listed in it when I opened it for editing.
  3. Make sure that you can access secure sites.  [I can.]
  4. Check the GlobalSign Root CA certificate.  [I did and it was correct.]

So that's it.  The computer has no problem establishing connections to secure website, there are no problems with the hosts file -- and the installer even recognizes that I'm signed in with my Adobe ID.  But it still can't connect to the Adobe Server.


What's going wrong?

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

E
eugejenia
Participating Frequently
January 8, 2018

Hi! I have a problem similar to yours. Did you get answers to solve the issue?

    kglad
    Community Expert
    kgladCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 26, 2017

    do you have any current adobe subscription programs?

    if so, using a browser that allows popups and cookies,  contact adobe support during pst business hours by clicking here and, when available, click 'still need help', http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/service-ccm.html

    if not:

    uninstall everything cc including preferences, https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/uninstall-remove-app.html

    then uninstall the cc desktop app, https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/uninstall-creative-cloud-desktop-app.html

    clean your computer of cc files per http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

    uninstall all acrobat and reader versions

    if win, clean per Download Adobe Reader and Acrobat Cleaner Tool - Adobe Labs

    restart your computer (don't skip this)

    reinstall acrobat xi

    O
    OC PhotoworxAuthor
    Known Participant
    September 26, 2017

    Thanks, kglad.

    I do have a current subscription.  I followed the link you provided, but did not see a "Still need help" option.  (I was logged on, specified Creative Cloud, then Acrobat Professional, then Licensing & Activation.  It responded with several self-help options, then three other options: Forum, Chat, and Call.  I had already tried Chat and was told "We don't support XP."  I assume I would get the same answer if I called.  Chat person told me to post the problem online -- which is what led us here.)

    As part of the bigger puzzle, I had already uninstalled everything Adobe using the Control Panel.  Some things uninstalled and others did not.  I then used the Creative Cloud cleaner (which failed to remove everything that the standard uninstalls had not removed) and I used the Acrobat cleaner (which took more entries out of the registry, but still left links in the registry and files on the disk).

    The many problems I'm encountering all stem to some updates that Adobe pushed out earlier this year.  They took a system that had been rock solid for years and introduced errors.  Better yet, the suggestions from Adobe support made things progressively worse.  The initial problem was annoying but trivial: I couldn't "print" from websites to PDFs.  Now the only Adobe product I can use on this computer is the version of Photoshop CS2 that doesn't require authorization.

    Best of all is that after essentially trashing my system, Adobe support responded with, "Oh, well -- just upgrade your operating system."

    It's a wee bit frustrating.

    As an editorial aside, earlier this year Business Insider published a graph showing what operating systems are being used.  According to them, there are more people CURRENTLY using Win XP than Win 8.  There are CURRENTLY more than twice as many people using Win XP than are using the current version of OSX.  There's no way Adobe would turn its back on the Mac community -- so why are they so dismissive of a much larger customer pool?

    kglad
    Community Expert
    kgladCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 26, 2017

    ask for help with cc. 

    i'm not sure there is a solution to your issue.  generally, your cc subscription will override your xi perpetual license and if adobe finds you don't have a subscription for your acrobat, you can't open it (after a trial period).

    that said, why don't you use your acrobat dc subscription?

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