Expired fonts, and still have Adobe CC license

[savagequest]

I keep having this same issue with fonts expiring for no reason. Some I use for projects that may be revisited down the road and cannot use the same fonts when going back to the docs; Illustrator, Photoshop, etc.   

Why would fonts expire and how do we know which ones will be forever fonts so we can use them in projects and not worry about replacing them when they retire? 

This is frustrating and makes me want to use some other form of font management system because I like to be creative with typography, however, I've been learning that I cannot trust Adobe Fonts to remain available.

I would love to find out if the Adobe Font Management system will be stable in the future, or should I switch to something else to continue my work?  My company is also getting frustrated by this as it can be quite time-consuming to constantly keep going back to choose new fonts over and over for some simple projects. 

[J E L]

Hi @savagequest, just to be clear, are you talking about when Adobe Fonts expire after you haven’t used them in a certain period of time? Can't you simply renew them?

[savagequest]

Renewing them is working when under "Expiring Soon".  However, "Recently Expired" is where there appears to be a way to renew, or at least there's a renew/refresh function and then all I get is an error message "Font cannot be added due to conflict" (both screenshots below). 

I understand the font may be wholly expired and unrestorable, but how do we know this when we first install the fonts and must we constantly update Expiration Dates to keep the fonts we need? There must be a better way of retaining fonts, otherwise, how do I trust the same font will exist when I go back into the project files? 

[J E L]

@savagequest, interesting, I was just looking at that since replying earlier. The “refresh” icon works, and then it resets back to expiring soon for some reason. Seems buggy for sure. But you are right that we should have some indication of if and when an Adobe font we have installed or activated is expiring. But are you finding that an Adobe font is expiring FOREVER (i.e., no longer available through your Adobe CC subscription) or it's only expiring until you reactivate or renew it? There doesn't seem to be any indication of how long you have before a font expires after non-use, either. Is it six months? A year? Longer? I'm going to look into this a bit more, and others may have more insights, too.

[savagequest]

@J E L Thank you! Yes, the functionality makes no sense. I'm from the School of Forever Fonts, now I might uninstall fonts I didn't like or no longer use, but staple fonts for branding purposes I've already started acquiring these types of fonts elsewhere so I know I can rely on them when needed. My fault for assuming the font library here would be true licensed fonts. That subscription is probably way out of my budget $$$. 

I would also be suspicious that even if we had a time frame indication with fonts unless they could be downloaded and used for future projects, they would only be useful for special projects and one-offs at that time.  

[J E L]

Sure, I get that. Once you stop paying for your Adobe CC subscription, Adobe fonts won't be accessible to you anymore. But considering how expensive foundry prices are these days, it's actually quite a savings in licensing costs. I have scores of fonts from the old days, and I'm glad I kept them!

[savagequest]

That's true, great point! 

[MSAM.media]

Backup for Adobe Cloud Fonts?
Hi everyone! I’ve developed a small, handy macOS app that lets you easily back up your Adobe Cloud Fonts. If you’re interested, feel free to check it out: Backup for Adobe Cloud Fonts. I’d love to hear your thoughts!