Activated CS6 reverting to trial

[sj41]

I have Photoshop CS6 on Windows 7 (64 bit).  When I activate it, activation seems to be successful, but a few hour later it reverts to the trial edition.  I have been in contact with Tech Support every day for over 10 days now with no resolution of the problem.  We have tried stopping Windows Management Instrumention, installing as administrator, installing into a new account, installing (updating) Adobe Application manager, several other things I have forgotten.  I have given over (remote) control to a rep using "Connect" (don't know what he did -- too fast), but nothing has worked.  Tech Support finally told me that this is a known issue.  Has anyone on this forum experienced it?  I tried searching, but didn't find anything.

[sj41]

For the last 5 days, PS has started without reverting to trial.  I have done nothing new, WMI has been off throughout, and there have been a few Windows Updates.  I don't know why it's working, or if it will continue, but for now it's ok.

[sudarshan.t]

That is great news. Maybe one of the Windows updates fixed it? This info could possibly help Jeff and his team as well!

Let's hope it continues to work

-ST

[Jeff A Wright]

Thank you for the update sj41.  In general though we don't recommend running with Windows Management Instrumentation off for the long term as it is a basic service of the Windows operating system.

[sj41]

Jeff -- in response to your email I turned WMI back on, rebooted and tried

Photoshop. It immediately reverted to trial. You guys don't play nice

with WMI apparently. What do you recommend? Do I turn off WMI again or do

I contend with the f@$$#&g trial nonsense indefinitely?

[Jeff A Wright]

This is what our Engineering team is investigating at this point.  There was a way to repair WMI with Windows XP but none of those procedures work for Windows Vista or 7 users.

[sj41]

You haven't answered my question.  Should I turn WMI off again until you fix the problem?  I really really really don't want to have to enter in that serial number everytime I use PS.

[Jeff A Wright]

It is not recommended to run Windows without the Windows Management Instrumentation service being enabled.  I can certainly understand the frustration though with inputing the serial number.  If you are going to run with Windows Management Instrumentation turned off I can only recommend it when using your Adobe applications.

[apb_liv]

Jeff

Does Adobe have any idea when this might be fixed? I have had this issue for 6 months now and as far as I can tell nothing seems to be happening at Adobe. I am beginning to suspect that the fix will be in CS7 (you could go back to an activation system that works for everyone then like the one in CS4), and the Adobe solution to the problem will be for customers to buy another Adobe product. Am I right? Apologies if I seem too cynical, but I feel abandoned by your company.

Alan

[Jeff A Wright]

I understand Apb_liv.  I don't have any additional details at this time.  I will be actually featuring comments from this thread during my next meeting with our engineering team.

[sudarshan.t]

Jeff A Wright wrote:

This is what our Engineering team is investigating at this point.  There was a way to repair WMI with Windows XP but none of those procedures work for Windows Vista or 7 users.

Jeff, Will WMIDiag work? It is officially supplied by MS to diagnose current operational state of WMI service.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=7684

-ST

[Jeff A Wright]

Sudarshan Thiagarajan I looked at this too while trying various steps with the users I worked with.  It seems like it only analyzes the state of WMI but doesn't repair it.  If someone who is currently experiencing this difficulty wants to try the utility I would be interested in seeing the results.

[frustrated_cs6]

I tried pretty much everything WMI related, including this, except for completely rebuilding WMI which has the possibility of causing issues with programs you have installed.

On another note, this morning I was trying to reproduce the error again by rebooting an now it says my serial number is invalid and has been activated the maximum number of times.  So... it looks like I will be spending some time with Adobe this morning to get back to a working state.  Sigh.

[Jeff A Wright]

Frustrated_cs6 can you send me a private message with either the e-mail address associated with your account or the serial number.  I can bump up the activation count for you.

[apb_liv]

Happy New Year (not).

I have now had this problem for 7 months, but the one saving grace was that it only affected my laptop and not my desktop. Today, my desktop has started asking me to register CS6 after 7 months without a hitch.

Is anybody at Adobe willing to state how many users are known to be affected by this issue?

[ReneDamkot]

Issue started yesterday on my MacPro 1.1 (OSX 10.6.8) as well. CS6 13.0.2, now updated to 13.0.3

First time it pops up, I get 32767 days of trial, then it's 30 days.

At first I thought it might be caused by a PS crash just before, but today it popped up again without any prior issues.

As I need the software for work, I'd not like to run out of activations (although I thought it's the de-activations that were limited to 20?), so I'm a bit hesitant to keep on re-entering the serial number…

[Jeff A Wright]

The activations are based off your computers configuration.  If for some reason you do receive a message that your activation count has been exceeded please contact our support team and they can increase your activation count.

[sj41]

Jeff,

I have been in contact off and on for the last 2-3 months with Baljeet Juneja of your Americas T2 Creative Suite team about this activation problem and still no resolution.  I am really getting frustrated.  I have to run with WMI disabled or type in the damn serial number every time I start Photoshop.  I still, of course, get the trial window and have to reset it every 30 days.  I know you don't recommend running with WMI off, but you try typing in the damn SN everytime you start PS and see how long you're willing to do it.

Is Adobe really serious about fixing this problem are is it just planning to stall until the next release?

[apb_liv]

sj41

it is frustrating, isn't it. A bit like buying a new car and finding you have to get the jump leads out every time you start it. The difference is that with a new car the company would fix it. Adobe seem to think that because we can start the program and then it functions properly, they have done their job. David Metzger who I have been in contact with in the UK since last October responded thus: " I understand that it is inconvenient to have to re-activate the software regularly but you do still end up with fully functioning software once you have done so". There you have it. Keep using the jump leads until a new functioning model comes out and then buy it...

Alan

[ReneDamkot]

Seems the latest update (13.0.4) fixed the issue for me…

Mac OSX 10.6.8

[Jeff A Wright]

Rene-) the topic you are referring to is documented in Trial with 32767 days left displays opening CS6 applications - http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/trial-32767-days-left-displays.html.  This is separate from the issue which sj41 and others are facing which can be referenced at 64-bit products convert to trial on launch or prompt for activation after licensing | CS6, CCM - http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/64-bit-creative-suite-applications-repeatedly.html.

[JGS-ITAdmin]

ok Jeff, we have been waiting a fair bit of time now, and Enough is Enough...

i have been patiently waiting and reading this post and others for long enough now and im really getting annoyed..

i have over 40 users of which 11 have this issue, currently we are just publishing an SCCM advert that allows the user to install over the top, as advised by the last adobe engineer i spoke with, this seems to work for another week before it dies again, seriously this is NOT good enough..

if the issue is with the WMI Service, then your techs SHOULD be talking DIRECTLY to Microsoft to develop a fix TOGETHER,

i can phone Microsoft myself and talk to an engineer, if i knew how your software works id do it myself and then Sell you the fix !!

This is Your Product, and Your Responsibility..

if we dont have a fix by the end of the month i will be requesting REFUNDS for all my CS6 products and will put my artists onto another product which doesnt deactivate..

[Jeff A Wright]

I can understand your frustration JGS-ITAdmin and I do apologize for the continued difficulties you are facing.  I spoke with one of our engineers, working on this issue, at the beginning of this week and he did indicate he had some promising new leads to investigate.  I still do not have any updates to provide regarding when and how the solution will be implemented.  As previously indicated the document referenced in message #72 will be updated once a solution is available.

[JGS-ITAdmin]

sorry jeff but the amount of time this is taking is a joke, i dont mean to rant at you as your not responsible for the issues and your not the person whos looking into the issues, your just the poor sod stuck on here to take the abuse from disgrunted customers..

how many engineers do you have working on this issue ?

have you been in contact with Microsoft ?

clearly you need to get more people on this and escalate the state of this call, if i left any of my customers waiting 7months for a fix to one of our main products id have my P45 in the mail and im sure others would expect the same..

[TiredofInterruptions]

I have been talking to Adobe for months off and on about same issue on Gateway computer Desktop running Windows 8.  They never mentioned the WMI fix and what borders to me on fraud is the fact, that they act like they are helping you fix the problem, without cluing you in that they know these fixes historically don't work (as this thread verifies).  Thank goodness that the software works on my laptop.  Without a doubt, I believe they could mail us a copy of the software that doesn't require activation, but because of the threat of piracy out there, we customers are the ones left suffering.

[TiredofInterruptions]

And it is very clear why they won't keep an unsolved case open.  Makes them look incompetent.  So instead, the continually close the cases, make you waste time opening new ones, then they can pull up a statistics sheet saying look at all these cases we successfully closed.