Captivate Sign In Required Loop

[AnDrewPro-sEM9mO]

Captivate 9 and 2017 are suddenly popping up with a "Sign In Required" window when I try to start them up. I click the Sign In button, see a "Thank You" window, and click Continue. Captivate begins to load, and then the "Sign In Required" window pops up again in an endless loop, preventing preventing use of the application. I have paid licenses for both.

Creative Cloud apps are working fine.

[AnDrewPro-sEM9mO]

I am still having this issue. Paid full price for Captivate 2017 and can't use it at all. I tried uninstalling Captivate 9. Didn't work. Uninstalled 2017 and re-installed. Still stuck in the "Sign In Required" loop.

[StevePixel]

I would contact Adobe Support directly. If you have a valid subscription you should only have to sign in once. I would also get them to  start date the subscription, from when you can actually use it. 

Cheers,
Steve 

[AnDrewPro-sEM9mO]

The endless Sign In loop is fixed, but it's still asking my to sign in every time I open Captivate, and once it's opened, it doesn't acknowledge that I'm signed in (the Help menu still gives the option to Sign In).

I contacted Adobe Support, and at first they thought it was a permissions issue. So they had my co-worker sign into Windows and open Captivate. My coworker didn't experience the loop, and now when I sign in it doesn't go into the loop, just the partial sign in problem I described above. Adobe said that it must be a firewall issue with my company, so I needed to contact my company's IT to get it resolved.

I did that and tried opening Captivate outside of the company's firewall (when I was at home and not on a VPN), but I still experienced the issue. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling Captivate, CC, and all of my Adobe applications. I've tried literally every solution that is posted anywhere online. Nothing worked.

I emailed Adobe again about the issue on Friday and CC'd the internal IT person who was helping me here so that they can work together to get it resolved. I haven't heard back yet. I will update this post if and when this issue is fixed in case there are others who are having the same problem.

[AnDrewPro-sEM9mO]

Creative Cloud is up to date. I've uninstalled and re-installed it (along with all of my Adobe applications), I've run "Repair," and I've run AdobeCreativeCloudCleanerTool.exe.

Additionally, I have done the following:

• Changed opm.db to opm.db.old in Users/<my user name>/AppData/Local/Adobe/OOBE
• Ran CleanPreferencesWin.bat
• Ran Captivate as administrator
• Changed my internet settings to every possible combination

I'm still being asked to sign in every time I open Captivate, and when the application opens I am not shown as signed in when I look at the Help menu.

Yesterday I discovered that at least one of my coworkers is also stuck in the sign in loop. A different coworker was able to resolve her loop by updating Creative Cloud.

[AnDrewPro-sEM9mO · Accepted solution]

I received a call from Adobe Support again yesterday and was finally able to get the issue fixed. They uninstalled all Adobe products, and then manually deleted all of the leftover Adobe folders and files in all their various locations (there were still folders all over the place after the uninstall). That did the trick. Sign in worked after reinstalling Captivate. The whole process took about two hours.

After all the hassle, I have to say it would have been much easier just sticking with Captivate 9. I would recommend people wait to upgrade until all the kinks are worked out and a version is released with more worthwhile features.

[Lilybiri]

I totally understand your frustration, but do not agree with the conclusion. Since I am daily on this forum, can confirm that only a few users did have the same problems. In my case, it went smoothly, I do have CC subscription and several versions of Captivate installed on several systems, Win7 and Win10.

[AnDrewPro-sEM9mO]

Keep in mind that my post represents dozens or possibly hundreds of users who had the same problem and didn't post about it on this forum. I personally know at least four other people who experienced the same issue and didn't post about it.

My main concern is for independent contractors paying for their own licenses. If I'd been under a deadline with a client, I might have lost that client because I was completely unable to use Captivate for an extended period of time. If you're an independent contractor, that means you might not be able to pay your bills that month.

The worst part was that the Captivate 2017 problem also prevented me from using Captivate 9, which I've been using since it was released. Additionally, after talking to them on the phone for about an hour, Adobe Support assured me that the problem was caused by my company's firewall and not Captivate, so it would need to be resolved through my company's support staff. In the end, that turned out to be false. The problem was that when Captivate was upgraded and/or uninstalled, it left behind a lot of old files, and one of those files was causing the sign in loop. Why are Adobe applications leaving behind so many files when you uninstall them? And in so many different places on your hard drive?

I'm glad there are so many people who, like you, never seem to have any issues whatsoever with any Adobe products. Based on my personal experience, I recommend people wait to upgrade until all the kinks are worked out and a version is released with more worthwhile features.

[Lilybiri]

Do not change my words. I have had problems with Adobe applications (more with Photoshop and InDesign than with Captivate). I am a freelancer, not working for Adobe, which means I also have to pay bills and respect deadlines. I just mentioned that it is strange that the problem you mentioned didn't appear many times on these forums. I do use Captivate 9 and 2017 (and CP7) on the same system.

BTW I have had similare or worse issues with MS applications, with AutoCad etc.  It is a long time since really very well tested applications were released (like WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3). This is not a 'sickness' of Adobe, it is a common plague in the software world.

[jjohartigan]

For the record, I work with team of 10 instructional designers located around the globe. We have all had this issue and I was also on the phone with Adobe for two hours before it was resolved. We all continue to be plagued by this loop about every two weeks. This is a problem that Adobe needs to address.

[chloeh31866798]

Is there a benefit to keeping both Captivate 9 and Captivate 2017?
Why not uninstall Captivate 9?

[AnDrewPro-sEM9mO]

It's best practice to not switch versions in the middle of a project since the new version might behave unexpectedly.

[RodWard]

If everyone in your organisation is using the latest version and there are no users that you may need to liaise with that still only have the older version then by all means uninstall it. 

But if you happen to be a contract e-learning developer like myself and you need to work for a variety of clients, with no guarantee what version of Captivate they are using, then you would be wise to leave the older versions installed.  I have Captivate versions 7, 8, 9 and 2017 installed on my development PC.

[chloeh31866798]

Thank you. I am the only one in the company that uses Captivate. I was having an issue with the assets. Every time I download new assets it always wants to open in captivate 9 and I was thinking uninstalling it would make Captivate 2017 the default thus eliminating this issue.

[piotr.burchart]

Hi,

Not really few. In only our company we have 4 computers with the same problem.
So now is a BIG problem.

KR

PB

[Mayank_Meh]

Hi Piotr,

Apologies for the inconvenience caused. We have received few issues  regarding the same and are committed to fix it ASAP.

Can you please email us at tcssup@adobe.com to contact you and look into the issue at your end? 

Regards,

Mayank

[jjohartigan]

I feel your pain. I went through the exact same madness.