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freddysmith12
Participant
January 19, 2016
Answered

Activating CS3

  • January 19, 2016
  • 3 replies
  • 2763 views

I have a legitimate copy of CS3 Design Premium purchased when I was a student, hence an education licence. Recently had a major issue with my PC and had to rebuild the O/S without being able to de-activate CS3. I have now reinstalled the O/S and CS3 but the activation wont work, it says there are too many activation. There is now no telephone activation and the instructions on the website don't seem to apply to the education version, i.e there is no way to sign in using my Adobe ID. I don't use this suite very often, occasion picture to edit and a website to update so purchasing a new suite is out of the question, can anyone help please?

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Jeffrey_A_Wright

    Thanks for finding the case number. Unfortunately, it vanished for me when the chat session ended. Both are valid licenses. I'm merely moving CS3 from one hard drive to the other, releasing the license on one and reactivating on the new one.

    The applications were cloned along with the other files on the hard drive. I have the original CDs to installation, but would prefer not to have to start over installing gigabytes of Adobe app files on the new hard drive – since they're already there. I don't need to use the Adobe Creative Suite 3 products download link. I have the files already on the original CD. The installer is the one for the educational serial number, they match, so I wouldn't think that was the issue.

    I have CS3 installed on my laptop and then on a second computer, which is permissible under the terms of the license. I am upgrading the hard drive on the second computer.

    I'll try to activate the license for the CS3 Production Premium instead and see if that works.

    Thanks for the suggestion.


    Thank you for the update Bself.  Yes the cloning, or transferring of the applications, from one drive to another is likely leading to the current error.  The licensing data either has become corrupted or the incorrect permissions are set which is causing your current error.

    To resolve the error I would recommend running any available uninstallers in the Applications/Utilities/Adobe Installers folder.  Once the uninstallers are run you will then want to run the CC Cleaner Tool to remove any remaining installation information.  You can find details on the use of the CC Cleaner Tool and the download at Use the Adobe Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems.  Once you have ran the cleaner tool the licensing files will be removed and you should then be able to install successfully.

    As mentioned I would recommend utilizing the original installation files if available.  If not you are welcome to utilize the retail installation files discussed in message #7.

    3 replies

    B
    bself
    Participant
    January 19, 2016

    Do questions just get moved around – or is there someone here that also answers them? Not trying to be too testy. I'm not sure where the thread was moved to in order to follow it.

    Jeffrey_A_Wright
    Community Manager
    Jeffrey_A_WrightCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    January 21, 2016

    Freddysmith12 and Bself I am sorry you are facing difficulty activating your Adobe software.  Do you have a case number from your interaction with our support team that I can reference?  I would also recommend reviewing Learn to activate or deactivate Adobe applications which discusses how to resolve a variety of activation related issues.

    B
    bself
    Participant
    January 21, 2016

    How can I get a case number if Adobe herds CS3 customers to the forum and refuses to help them? I've reviewed the "Learn to activate or deactivate Adobe applications" link you sent – several times – I have followed the direction – and it doesn't work.

    I need someone at Adobe to reach into the computer system and do something very simple – reset the number of session that are activated. I was simply upgrading a hard drive to continue using CS3 as I always have – and the deactivation/reactivation process is NOT WORKING to activate CS3 on the cloned hard drive after deactivating on the old one. The notice says I have too many copies – when I don't.

    Adobe's poor customer service is why I terminated my Adobe Cloud membership. I've been using Adobe products since the early 90s, and before Adobe had a monopoly on the design industry.

    All I want is the simplest of things done – and there appears to be no way to contact a real human being inside Adobe to address the issue.

    Profoundly annoying.

      B
      bself
      Participant
      January 19, 2016

      Have had a very similar problem with upgrading my hard drive in my computer and the deactivation/activation schema employed by Adobe is unfathomable – as is the lack of support to be able to reset the session count on the Adobe computers. I've spent the better part of an hour going in circles with someone probably in India giving me lethal doses of politeness – but failing to help solve the problem. Because I need a bigger scratch drive for editing, it was necessary to upgrade the size of the hard drive. Adobe doesn't make the transfer an easy process at all.


      Anyone know the answer? Thanks in advance.

      TriciaLawrence
      TriciaLawrence
      Inspiring
      January 19, 2016

      Moving this post to Creative Suites forum.

      Steve Werner
      Community Expert
      Steve WernerCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      January 19, 2016

      Moving to Downloading, Installing forum

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