Known Participant

Question

Activate Adobe Creative Suite 6 after successful deactivation

Forum|Forum|6 months ago
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 ...

Jeffrey_A_Wright

Community Manager

@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.

A

animaatnAuthor

Known Participant

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

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

J

Julian375578873js1

Participating Frequently

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

@animaatn

deactivating AND conveying that to adobe's servers is far from easy. it is by far the most difficult part of the process.

if you see an excess activation count after deactivating, you are confirming that paragraph.

if you don't see an excess activation count, you can always use offline activation:

disconnect the installed computer from the internet

Launch the product.

At the Serial Number Validation screen, click Having Trouble Connecting To The Internet.

Click Offline Activation and click Generate a Response Code.

Write down the Request Code.

Switch to an online computer and navigate to www.adobe.com/go/getactivated.

Click Offline Activation.

Sign in with your Adobe ID.

Enter your Request code and click Generate.

Write down the Response code.

Switch back to the offline computer.

Enter the Response Code and click Activate.

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/serial-number-validation-launching-cs6.html

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animaatnAuthor

Known Participant

the problem is when you deactivate on a computer, it deactivates locally (no problem), but conveying that deactivation to adobe's servers is the problem.

you can confirm by trying to open an app on your old computer. if it's deactivated, see if you can activate it.

No, the old computer also says 'already in use by the maximum computers'. So the communication to the activation servers seems to work this way around - for activation. But not for deactivation, while pretending so: fake-confirming deactivation and disabling a computer that remais 'activated' on the licence counter ... do I get this right? Are the activation servers shredding valid licences this way ...?

I meanwhile managed to trigger offline activation on the new computer (by completely re-installing CS6 in offline mode following this tutorial). But offline activation finally confirmed: '2' activated computers already ...

So - what's the 'difficult' way for deactivation? Is there still a chance to actually deactivate my already fake-deactivated computer? And is there a safe way to actually deactivate my other old computer?

jane-e

Community Expert

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

A

animaatnAuthor

Known Participant

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 ...

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