Adobe Captivate Subscriptions Become the New Normal

[Saurav_Ghosh]

Overview

As Adobe continues to focus on developing new products, solutions and flexible licensing options, we have decided to discontinue Adobe Captivate perpetual licenses, worldwide.

Adobe Captivate, post February 15, 2022, will be available through subscription licensing options only, which anyway is today’s preferred licensing option by the vast majority of our users.

Subscribers get several advantages. The cost is lower for subscription and subscribers are provided both feature and security updates very regularly. The updates even include new media assets to use in your projects. Given that shift, subscription will become the new normal in February of 2022. At that point the old ‘perpetual’ model licenses will no longer be available. Instead, Captivate users may purchase Adobe Captivate using any of the subscription options. You can learn more about a Captivate Subscription here. https://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/buying-guide.html

What does the discontinuation of Adobe Captivate perpetual licenses mean?

After February 15, 2022, perpetual licenses of Adobe Captivate cannot be purchased in any geography through Adobe.com, or through Channel (Adobe authorized resellers) under:

• Transactional Licensing Program (TLP)
• Cumulative Licensing Program (CLP)
• Adobe Software Assurance (ASA) [New or renewal]
• Maintenance and Support (M&S) [New or renewal]

Will Adobe Captivate stop working for customers with perpetual licenses?

No. You can continue to access and use the current version of Adobe Captivate through your current license plan/serial key, but please note that post February 15, we will not support any security patches with the current version of Adobe Captivate.

We have an ASA/M&S contract. Until when can we access Adobe Captivate?

Customers who are currently enrolled for Adobe Software Assurance (ASA) or Maintenance and Support (M&S) plans for Adobe Captivate will continue to avail of the benefits for these programs till the expiry date of the current contract.

I want to use a serial key for Captivate. Where can I access a version which will allow me to use serial key?

Note that after February 15, 2022, we will not be supporting any security patches for the version which allows serial keys. However, if you still wish to use that version, you can download it from here – Windows | macOS

How can I upgrade to new versions of Adobe Captivate?

You can purchase subscription licenses from Adobe.com or through Channel.

For any information, contact Captivate support.

[RodWard]

Hi Saurav,

Thank you for this information.

I think the obvious questions on the mind of many Capivate users right now would be:

• If there will be no further updates for current Captivate versions after February 22 next year, will there be any updates for Captivare 2019 BEFORE that date? 
• Will Adobe issue updates to ensure Captivate 2019 is fully compatible with Windows 11 and the latest Mac OS, or will that only apply to Captivate 2022?

My personal concern here is that if Captivate 2019 will NOT be receiving updates to address current known incompatibilities, this effectively forces users to upgrade to the next version of Captivate (whenever it comes out) in order to continue building e-learning.   For many corporate users, that process can take many months.

From my own experience with Captivate over almost two decades, whenever there was a major shift in the design of the app, that particular version always had a larger than usual number of very serious bugs.  I am not looking forward to going through that again.

[iDoNotBelieveIt]

Good points made by Rod. I hope the new version fixes some significant bugs with the current version (e.g. the Vimeo bug which renders the Vimeo 'support' useless for me). It is highly likely though that the new version will require an update or two to fix issues that prevent its deployment for many users.

[Creamer Training]

>>this effectively forces users to upgrade to the next version of Captivate 

Perhaps a method to their madness?

[Jacob Hokland]

Dear Adobe,

You're wise to investigate whether you end up being sued by the EU Commission if you choose to stop writing security updates at such short notice.

/Jacob

[Creamer Training]

I would think that the Adobe lawyers are all over this, but time will tell. 

[Jacob Hokland]

EU has Marianne Vestager. She is already informed.

[ryokeken]

word

[Allan04888]

As it is not the 15th of Feb 2022 yet, where I can I purchase an upgrade for my 2017 copy of Captivate?

[sigur_rosser]

Hello Adobe...

I'm subscribed to Captivate but using version v 2017.  Can I stick with this version past the deadline, for 2 more years, say?

Thanks,

Eric

[RodWard]

This is NOT Adobe Support.  This is the Adobe Captivate User Forum.  You need to try and contact Adobe directly to get an answer to your question (which will probably be NO).

[Creamer Training]

So far, I've found that I can install any older version as part of my subscription IF I was subscribed when the older version came out. I would expect this to stay the same but time will tell. 

[RodWard]

That might only remain the case if you DO NOT upgrade your PC operating system in any way by installing the next version of an Operating System (e.g. Windows 11 or Mac OS).

Traditionally these major OS upgrades have often broken Captivate in some respect.  And Adobe does not offer patches for anything other than the last version or so.  Captivate 2019 is now three years old.  Captivate 2017 is unlikey to get any help at all.

[Creamer Training]

>>That might only remain the case...

Agree.

I wouldn't say "in any way" but an OS upgrade can certainly prevent old software from working. Much more prevalent on Mac than on Windows but it's harder to stop updates on Windows than on Mac. (I hope the OP realizes by now that there are no more updates to 2017.)

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

I decided to download a clean copy of Adobe Captivate from my https://account.adobe.com/products page, where I also go to get my serial number. Unbeknownst to me the version I downloaded is the new 11.8.0 which my serial number is apparently not compatible with. I need to publish work for one of my clients today and I can't afford to waste time on this. @Saurav_Ghosh I thought this was something you were going to look into when I asked about Adobe Captivate eLearning Community contributors who get a complimentary copy of Adobe Captivate. Please let me know as soon as you can.

[Lucien22983480yqz3]

salut Paul Wilson, Paul Wilson,pour salome aubenas 

[907evangeline]

How is this going to work for those of us who purchased the stand-alone version less than a year ago? It isn't acceptable to charge stand-alone prices and then a few months later require a subscription.

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

You can continue to use the 2019 perpetual license release indefinitely. Like all the Creative Suite Version 6 users can still use those applications. If they wish to upgrade to a newer release, they have to switch to Creative Cloud.

[Sujoy228408145ifg]

What about the obvious bug in Captivate. The Video Demo features crashes captivate whenever we try to launch it. I was thinking of purchasing it after trying the demo version. However the Video Demo feature in the latest version is not working. This is one of the most powerful feature of Captivate. With this we can record our screen. What is the use of purchasing Captivate if the this feature does not work at all. Adobe is not even trying to get a permanent fix for this bug.

I wrote a post in community forum, and waiting for a solution. I am still waiting for @RodWard  to resolve it for me. There are many other posts, such as this related to this bug. 

[RodWard]

Please be advised that Rod Ward will NOT be helping you further to resolve any issues because he does NOT work for Adobe and is therefore NOT required to tolerate abuse like this:

The fact that a small number of users have experienced issues with Video Demo, usually due to software conflicts on their systems is the reason why there are several posts on this forum about the issue.  That's what User Forums are designed for.  But, the accusation that this feature of Captivate "does not work at all" is wildly inaccurate. Video Demo is working fine on Rod's system so he's busy using it to earn a living building e-learning courseware.  

[Sujoy228408145ifg]

"Rod Ward does NOT work for Adobe", however he has been a great advocate of Adobe Captivate. Why does he even care ALWAYS to address the issue in different posts, in the past as well as in the present. So, quite obviously, people would expect a solution from him. He should let people express their own experience, good or bad, with Adobe Captivate. Rod Ward must understand that any Windows 10 pro update, is NOT a software issue. Further even a handful of clients facing this issues is not a Adobe concern—says Row Ward, who does not work for Adobe. Whose concern are they, by any means? Shouldn't Adobe take any responsibility?

In the past Adobe was able to fix such issues by attaching a copy of Capture.dll as in this post. Thus a solution does exist. Further, not any other software of Adobe has this kind of issue with Windows update nor does Captivate fail entirely. Can Adobe not implement any system check prior to installation; of course it can. All I suggested that there should be a permanent fix for this type of problem. And when I said "...does not work at all...", with all common sense, the context was "...in my system..."

Anyways, since Rod has emphasized that he does not work for Adobe, I would not expect any reply from him and I apologize if I have hurt his sentiments.

[RodWard]

Rod Ward accepts your apology.

[ryokeken]

Rod,
this message is not meant to be sarcastic nor disrespectful but clear and
direct to the point

maybe you shouldn't be working for free for a multibillion dollar publicly
traded company.
Is it fair to help Adobe's CEO *Shantanu Narayen* fill in the gaps for the
poorly staffed Costumer Support units at adobe?
have you considered that when you work for free you're depriving someone of
an actual job?
Plenty of institutions helping people for free are actually grateful for
someone *knowledgeable* *willing to help* for free.
IN context here's what i found at salary dot com

Shantanu Narayen


Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Total Compensation

$45,889,954

Pay Rank By Title In Business Services industry #8

Abhay Parasnis


Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, and Chief Product
Officer, Document Cloud

Total Compensation

$9,901,191

Pay Rank By Title In Business Services industry #4

Scott Belsky


Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President, Creative Cloud

Total Compensation

$9,841,725

Pay Rank By Title In Business Services industry #7

[RodWard]

Not sure I understand your "clear and direct point".

Are you saying the ones helping other Captivate users on this User Forum should stop generously in giving their time because the CEO and other executives of the multinational company that owns Captivate all earn a lot more than we do?  

If we were mainly interested in financial reward, none of us would be answering questions on this forum.  We'd only come here for answers.  And if no actual experienced Captivate users were willing to answer questions without being paid for it, then Captivate users would be left entirely at the mercy of Adobe's "support".  Is that what you want?  

The truth is that it requires many years to acquire the depth of practical knowledge and expertise with Captivate that allows someone to answer many (but not all) questions about Captivate.  Those highly paid executives are paid for their smarts, not their looks.  They're smart enough to know that it is uneconomical for them to try to train their Support people to have that level of expertise. 

Are they taking advantage of our generosity? Probably.  But the fact of the matter is that we're not doing this because we care about Adobe executives.  We're doing this for the Captivate users that need help.  I like to think that it shows there is still some "neighbour love" left in this jaded and selfish old world.

Be careful what you wish for.

[Creamer Training]

It would seem to me that the people that purchase or subscribe to the software are the ones giving Adobe all the profits. (I did not fact check @ryokeken 's information or figures.) Why jump all over other users, such as @RodWard, who tries to help others?