Participant

Question

too many activations error

Forum|Forum|17 years ago
October 30, 2008
16 replies
18667 views

When trying to reauthorise my ADE I recieve the message
E_ACT_TOO_MANY_ACTIVATIONS http://adeactivate.adobe.com/adept/Activate 577%3A7577%3A8577

I only have ADE installed on two machines, one mac and one PC, but for my job frequently have to deactivate my PC ADE, reauthorise it using someone elses account in order to install their ebooks on their reader authorised to their account.

How can I get back into my account, with my books?

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A

Anonymous

Penny,
By new user I meant new user account (not ADE account) on the computer you are using.

Tommid,
No, to support your scenario you should not deauthorize your account, but instead should be doing exactly the same thing I am suggesting for Penny. Create a separate windows user account for activating your friends Sony Readers and do not deauthorize ADE on your own account.

Caroline,
Contact customer support using the support links found on http://www.adobe.com/support/digitaleditions.

_

_Caroline_Olawaiye_

Participant

I have also had the same problem. I have one computer, use windows xp, and a sony ereader. I am unable to access purchased books because I have to "authorize" my computer each time. If you do this once, that should suffice. Anyway, in trying to activate this time, I received this response:
E-ACT-TOO-MANY-ACTIVATIONS http://adeactivate.adobe.com/adept/Activate553%3A6553%3A7553

Any help would be appreciated as I am very frustrated right now.

D

D620

Participant

I have the same problem. I am using ADE for one book on one computer. I even do not deactivate the account. Obviously an error in the software requests every now and then the activation - until the limit has been reached today. My impression is that it happens when I switch from permanent network connection to one via a VPN client.

I see two problems that Adobe is creating and needs to fix asap. First it needs to stabilize the detection of a computer's need for activation, so it does not try to re-activate the same computer all the time. And secondly if still for any reason a reactivation is required, it should not count the reactivation of one and the same computer for a second time.

If Adobe claims to replace the paper by ADE and encourages users to invest in eBooks locked by their DRM then this product needs to be absolutely stable or have a robust process to cure remaining technical problems.

When reading these posts I see the opposite. It appears that my problem is quite common. It appears as if Adobe accepts that technical problems in their program prevents customers from accessing their purchased eBooks. That books can have significant monetary value as well consequences can have when surprisingly not being able to access them. Support answers like "sorry, we cannot reactivate" appear incredible. And seeing that this program is becoming a kind of de-facto-standard with the new electronic readers hitting the market, this seems to become a global risk.

If we do not see a resolution from Adobe in our cases that is both short-term and convincing, then I am afraid everyone of us needs to decide whether this worldwide global risk does not deserve public interest.

_

_Tommib_

Participant

Hi Jim,

I have the same problem, I deauthorised and reauthorised an account several times and then got the TOO MANY ACTIVATIONS error.

Deauthorising a machine really ought to free up an activation in the same way that iTunes does i.e. you can have five computers set up with a single Apple ID, deauthorising one frees up an authorisation for another computer.

Take this scenario:

I have a PC and know several Mac users who want to use Sony readers. Because they can't authorise the device on their Mac I do it for them on my PC, In ADE I temporarily log out of my account and into theirs, then back into mine.

If I do this six times I've used up my activations, but it's all been on the same computer!

When you say create a new user account, do you mean on Windows? If Penny is not an admin this may be impossible.

Instead of threatening to cut people off who need their activations reset, perhaps you could work out a way of actually improving the authorisation system.

How about this:

When I authorise a machine, your activation server counts 1 for my account, when I deauthorise, it subtracts 1. That's how iTunes does it, works brilliantly.

Tom.

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_Penny_Reid_Author

Participant

How do I create the new user account without disabling 'my' ADE?

A

Anonymous

Penny,
Note that deactivation of ADE does not increase the available activation count, it just clears out the cruft on your machine. If I were you, instead of deactivating on my own user account, I would create a new user account and do the activations/deactivation from there.

As nice as our tech support people are eventually you'll get tired of having to open up support cases (or we may end up cutting you off).

--
Jim Lester
Adobe Systems

Beth_Bakeman

Participating Frequently

Penny, open a support webcase and we can get your activations reset pretty quickly.

To open a Digital Editions 1.5 Technical Support case, please use the contact links at http://www.adobe.com/support/digitaleditions.

P

PeggySueHanson

Participant

I bought an e-book because I have a progressive, terminal illness and find it difficult to make trips to the local library. It's just causing me more stress though. My e-book was giving unable to open file messages so I reset it and then Adobe Digital Editions gave me the Too Many Activations message. I have ADE installed on two computers and I get the same message on both of them.

I already had a web case for this issue some months ago an Adobe support corrected it for me but now I can't figure out how to re-open the case or file a new one.

I'm about ready to send the e-book to the thrift shop and just give up on reading.

H

heidikmd

Participant

Thank you. I will try this.

I am having the problem so many others are having. I am astounded that people have been reporting this problem for over 2 years and it still exists! My short story (without all the time and frustration I have spent on Barnes & Nobles "Customer Agitation" line, or in the store, or on Adobe's "Customer Agitation" line). I bought a Nook. Open ADE, no Nook shelf. Call BN, guy tells me to deauthorize computer, then reauthorize. It worked. Got library book. Couple weeks later, tried again. No Nook shelf. Couldn't remember the commands to deauthorize/reauthorize, called BN. Spent an hour having my blood pressure raised by a woman who had no idea what she was talking about. Finally got the command, wrote it down. Next time I try to get a library book, open ADE, you guessed it, no Nook shelf. Go to BN store, spent an hour with a tech savvy guy trying to fix it. Success. Until the next day when I again opened ADE and again found no Nook shelf. Totally reset Nook to factory. Opened ADE, no Nook shelf, deauthorized and attempted to reauthorize, and now I have the too many activations error. Spent 35 minutes on hold with Adobe (wait time was supposed to be 7-10 minutes) for a woman who had no idea, and had a very thick accent. I had great difficulty understanding her. She told me there is no support for ADE available on the phone. How excellent! Adobe has a product in wide use that has no customer support! So I found this forum and how to open a ticket, and just did so. 3 days it will take! Meantime, the book I checked out sits unused, with the borrowing time (14 days) ticking away. And, like I said at the beginning, this problem has existed for 2 years?

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