Cannot activate CS5.5 - internet connection error with Adobe servers + customer service non-existent

[DVExpert]

Just purchased CS5.5 and it works fine however I am not able to activate it. The program says I don't have an internet connection but I clearly do I as I am able to connect to all websites & email etc...

I have tried to contact customer support 6 times:

Contact 1: on hold for 1 hour and 20 minutes after which I was disconnected

Contact 2: on hold for 35 minutes then told it was out of business hours

Contact 3: on hold for 45 minutes then someone picked up the phone and then hung up on me

Contact 4: on hold for 15 minutes then someone hung up on me

Contact 5: on hold for 5 minutes then someone spoke with me and told me to delete a "host" file in Windows32 folder on our system. This didn't fix the problem and then the support person simply hung up on me...

Contact 6: currently on hold for 55 minutes and still waiting...

What is happening at ADOBE? You used to be so reliable now I am not even able to get through to support? It is very worrying... I have no options available any more... what do I do?

PLEASE HELP PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE I AM NOW PLEADING FOR SUPPORT!

Richard

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

Yea we have reports that the host file might be being updated when other software is getting installed.  It might not necessarily have been a copy of Adobe software.

[bmal78]

I've also been struggling with adobe activation for a few weeks now after buying CS5.5 master suite back in december... nothing will open after installing successfully. I've been throught the hours of phone support and web searching for solutions to which there still has been no resolve. Checked host file while on the phone with adobe support and basically that phone call ended with the support guy saying it was a Mac issue and that something in OSX was blocking activate.adobe.com so that's not his problem.

I've reinstalled everything (OS included), tried as a diff user, checked host file, disabled any antivirus to rule that out blocking things and still nothing... I've posted a few things on the Apple support community but no result there...

so far not really impressed with the massive investment to upgrade to CS5... shouldn't have upgraded from my old MBpro and CS4...

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

bmal78 what region are you in?  Also have you tried a different connection or has all of this been done on your home/office network?  It is possible that there might be some type of a hardware firewall set up.  This would be why you would still have difficulties even after reinstalling your operating system.

[bmal78]

I'm in Australia - have been struggling through this at home on private ADSL2 connection and during the trouble shooting I've stripped everything back to just a Belkin wireless router using WPA encryption. At this point in time I cannot find a single thing MAC/OSX related that would be blocking activate.adobe.com...

In referencing lingbotphoto's earlier post regarding host file:

There should be a line in the file that says something like "[IP address] activate.adobe.com"

Add a "#" in front of the IP address. e.g. "#124.1.1.3 activate.adobe.com" (no space needed between # and IP address)

When I was on the phone to Adobe support checking my host file he didn't say anything along those lines... We went through my host file character by character and he said it was fine...

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

You might try an alternate internet connection then.  One not hosted by your ISP.  It could be something upstream from your home connection which is still blocking the activation.

[bmal78]

ok.. that may take a day or two for me to get to another internet connection...

excuse my ignorance - but what has changed from my old MBPro (running 10.6 and CS4) to cause so much grief? I'm just a bit frustrated by the fact that I've gone from what was an extremely stable old system (albeit a little slow) using exactly the same network & ISP to one that is now unusable & unproductive...

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

I don't know the process you went through when migrating to your new Mac so I am not really able answer most of your question.  One the thing I can answer is that you have a new computer thus a new request for activation.

[tapani12345]

I have the same problem with DW6 in Mac OS X Lion. I found out that Adobe is using an SSL certificate signed by GlobalSign. GlobalSign was hacked a few months ago and their root certificate is now marked as not trusted. Because of this all HTTPS connections Adobe Application Manager tries to make do not succeed. I really suggest adobe to update all certificates and use Verisign, Thawte or any other trusted certificate authority.

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

Tapani12345 thank you for your input.  This thread is regarding activating your Adobe product.  Were you having difficulties with the activation process?  Was it related to entries within the host file as was the solution for many of the posters within this thread?

[Mark_Newby]

Happening here too in the UK.

Started around 2-3 hours ago and have been googling potential solutions without luck since...

It's 2:58am and I had planned to push through the night working on a client project. Impeccable timing Adobe!

The issue began around midnight as I tried to start Photoshop CS5.1 up - Adobe Application Manager opened, Photoshop closed (as normal) but then AAM just sat lamely bouncing up and down in my dock for 5 mins - right click - 'Application Not Responding'. Great...

I've tried:

   - Rebooting

   - Tried upgrading AAM / reinstalling it (mentioned somewhere on here) - can't install it - I get an AppleScript error code -1712 [event timed out]...

   - Following advice based on the above from googling around, I removed a font file from my macbook... still nothing.

   - i've checked my hosts file - no mention of activate.adobe.com in there

   - Ping activate.adobe.com - PING activate.wip4.adobe.com (192.150.16.69): 56 data bytes - Request timeout)

   - Accessing activate.adobe.com in chome sends me to https://activate.adobe.com/test which is a JBOSS Server giving a 404.

   - Tried waiting 2 hours and trying to run any CS5.5 app again

   - Tried renaming / deleting /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe PCD/cache/cache.db

   - Tried starting any CS5.5 app without an active internet connection

   - Read through the file at /tmp/amt3.log - states my subscription has lapsed (adobe.com says otherwise...) - contents: http://pastebin.com/hhtZYwwd

Prior to rebooting my macbook pro (early 2011 model) had been powered up for 4 days straight - at point of start up I opened Dreamweaver without issue and haven't installed any software since.

No guesses / research pointers left to try - adobe, my £85 / month subscription is at your mercy. Please get this hugely expensive software working on my machine again pronto. If anyone from adobe wants to touch base my email is mark@camiloo.co.uk - please, please, please don't hold me up all night as I really night to work through whats left of tonight on this project for my client...

Mark.

[Guest]

I know how you feel Mark, I got adobe software to make my study easier, NOT HARDER!

I have projects that are due in the very near future that i've been locked out of working on! Arrrrrrrrrr

[Shaftster]

Hi everyone, Im a newbie subsciber of PS in the last 5 days and everything was going fine until this afternoon, when i too started seeing this activation error.  The error is definately something blocking the adobe servers communicating with the machine and recent the post by lingbotphoto almost worked.

Adding the hash sign before the ip address did nothing for me, but when i deleted all the entries that ended with adobe.com and saved the file, photoshop authenticated the activation code and has worked ever since.

This is definately a host file setting issue, and by removing all the adobe.com lines it should work for everyone else too.

Here's what i did on a mac:

Quit all Adobe applications.

Click on Finder > Go > Click "Go To Folder"

Type "/etc"

Search for the "hosts" file.

Drag a copy of that file onto your Desktop and then open it in TextEdit.

delete all lines that end with adobe.com (ie activate.adobe.com

Save the file and then drop it back in the /etc folder (replacing the old file).

Try opening up an Adobe application again. Should be ready and active.

Hope it works for everyone else too.

[WillMaverick]

DVexpert,

I had the same issue with Flash CS6, and I finally figured it out by myself - after going through all troubleshooting steps proposed by Adobe support.

Note that I'm on Windows 8, 32 bits. My firewall is enabled and my hosts file is reset.

- Open Internet Explorer;

- Go to Tools > Internet Options;

- Select the Advanced tab;

- Scroll down to the Security section;

- Check "Use SSL 2.0" (only SSL 3.0 was checked by default);

- Uncheck "Check for server certificate revocaion";

- OK everything and restart your computer.

Voilà!

[FreerideTheWorld]

Hello All,

I see that some people have had both success and failures with this issue so I though that I would put in my "two cents."  I had a problem similar to this in that I could not get Adobe to connect to the internet and register my copy.  I thought that this was quite weird since I was clearly connected to the internet so I did some troubleshooting.  Along the way I realized that many of the people with this issue live outside of the US, ie LuLuMil and DVexpert.  Some people had even pinged the adobe server but still could not get through. So with that information at hand I figured that Adobe must have some sort of firewall built into their servers that for whatever reason is rejecting outside IP Address. With that piece of information at hand I went straight to my VPN and got and IP Address based in the US, I'm currently stationed in Germany so I use it to watch NetFlix etc.  Low and behold I had no issues and Photoshop registered right away.  To make a long story short:

GO TO A VPN WEBSITE AND USE A PROXY SERVER OR YOUR OWN VPN.

Hopefully this works for some of you. I'm in communications and am by no means a tech geek but this worked for me so hopefully it works for someone else.

[z3r0gk]

What "VPN Wesbsite" would you recomend?

[z3r0gk]

I am having the EXACT SAME THING!!...  and the problem persists exactly the same as yourself before... I've actualy tried evertying in this thread tho and still nothing!!!... I SERIOUSLY NEED HELP OR A REFUND!...

[bmal78]

My problem was eventually resolved through a connected session with Adobe support. I had to share my screen etc and work through things for a while. The only thing that we could find that was causing conflict was that for some unknown reason part of the install had defaulted to USA instead of Australia, and therefore looking for different authentication servers. From memory it was something like Photoshop and maybe one of the other package elements had defaulted to US and were using US english as a default as well. Once these things were fixed up and reset to local it has been fine. Sorry I can't be more specific reporting the technical fix for my specific circumstance - the support person worked pretty quick and it was a bit of a blur in the end...

[dialtech@verizon.net]

You will never find anyone that has even an once of brain tissue at Adobe.