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Known Participant
August 4, 2025
Question

Activate Adobe Creative Suite 6 after successful deactivation

  • August 4, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 2425 views

Why do I need to deactivate 'both' old activations, when I only want to activate one new computer? What if I'm not able to re-activate on any computer afterwards? Right now I'm not able to activate the new computer, nor re-activate the old one, which confirmed successful deactivation yesterday. Now I'm worried to deactivate the last working activation on my other old computer ...

3 replies

Jeffrey_A_Wright
Community Manager
Community Manager
August 4, 2025

@animaatn thanks for posting your question about managing your activations for Creative Suite 6 to this public discussion forum. Please see https://community.adobe.com/t5/download-install-discussions/activation-limit-reached-for-non-subscription-adobe-desktop-applications/td-p/14804413 for details on how to manage any remaining Creative Suite 6 activations in 2025.

animaatnAuthor
Known Participant
August 5, 2025

Thanks so far! So which computer you think does need further treatment - the old or the new one? I already saw a 'Deactivation Successfull' screen on the old computer - can I rely on that or may the deativation (despite the success screen) havn't reached Adobe servers at all?

Jeffrey_A_Wright
Community Manager
Community Manager
August 5, 2025

No, there is no way to know if it was successful except to try activating on the new computer, Animaatn. The deactivation message will be displayed regardless of whether the computer was able to contact our servers or not.

 

If you have already deactivated, and are still receiving a message that the activation has been exceeded, then you will need to find a new solution for your creative needs in 2025, Animaatn. ^JW

 

Participating Frequently
August 4, 2025

Deine Sorge ist begründet. Ich rate dringlich davon ab, Versionen von CS6 oder älter zu deaktivieren! Es wird nie wieder funktionieren, egal, was Dir erzählt oder versprochen wird. 

kglad
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 4, 2025

@Julian375578873js1 

 

you're partially correct and partially incorrect.  you're correct to caution others about deactivating a working version, but you're incorrect about it being impossible to re-activate.

Participating Frequently
August 5, 2025

Ich bin immer gerne bereit zu differenzieren. In meinem Fall ist es leider trotzdem bislang unmöglich, CS5.5 zu reaktivieren. Die Option zur offline-Aktivierung wird bei mir gar nicht angeboten (siehe Screenshots). 

Zum Hintergrund: Meine Lizenz erlaubt die Aktivierung auf zwei Computern. Eines Tages - das ist mittlerweile fast ein Jahr her - wurde ohne Vorwarnung und ohne irgendeine Aktion meinerseits die Lizenz gelöscht. Ich habe versucht, CS5.5 neu zu installieren, was nicht gelang. Seither kann ich nichts mehr machen, weder deaktivieren noch reaktivieren - obwohl es dieselben Computer sind.

jane-e
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 4, 2025

 

 

 

Why do I need to deactivate 'both' old activations, when I only want to activate one new computer?

By @animaatn

 

You don't. You need to have one activation available to activate one computer.

 

 

What if I'm not able to re-activate on any computer afterwards?

 

Adobe does not reset activations. If you can't deactivate, then you can continue using Photoshop on the existing computer, but cannot activate it on a new computer.

 

Jane

animaatnAuthor
Known Participant
August 4, 2025

But I already deativated one of the two old computers: "Deactivation successful" it said ... but the error message on the new computer still says "serial already in use by the maximum allowed computers" ... what can I do now? I have acces to all computers ...