CS6 License deactivated

[Adam25719900eiou]

I had both CS6 and CC installed for quite a while on my PC but today for some reason the license for my CS6 programs disappeared. When I launch any of them I get a prompt that asks either to buy a license key or to start a 30 day trial. It happened on it's own since it worked the day before and nobody had access to the computer inbetween when I turned off the pc after work yesterday and today when I tried launching InDesign.

[Adam25719900eiou]

Forgot to add, that we might not be able to find the license key before the trial runs out since it's likely somewhere in offsite archival storage along with it's box.

I'm assuming it's because of that cursed CC app that does things on it's own without asking the user as there was no windows updates or any other than the CC ones.

[Ben M]

There were two versions of CS6 that were available. One was a perpetual license and the other was a Cloud license.  I'm not aware of them shutting down the Cloud licenses, but at some point it may stop working with your system.  Also serial numbers that are registered for old perpetual versions are always available for the admins (volume licensing) or your own account (individual licensing).  For individuals, if you go to https://account.adobe.com , click on Plans and Payments, and then Products, you can see all registered serial numbers. 

[Adam25719900eiou]

It was bought long time ago likely upgraded from a CS4 or 5 license that was bought as a lifetime license with a physical box version of the software and it was activated with just the key not assigned to this account, I will try to see maybe some other email on our domain has a adobe account with that license tied to it.

[Ben M]

There are no lifetime licenses, never were. There were perpetual licenses.  The difference is that with the perpetual licenses they allowed you to pay a one-time fee to use the software, but was never yours for life as there were clauses about upgrades and other things that may cause your software to become incompatible over time that they would not be responsible for fixing once the product reached end of life which CS6 did in 2017.

If you know who you used to buy from back then you might be able to get records from that vendor.  Unfortunately unless someone registered the license and has a record there won't be any other way to get that from Adobe.

What exactly do you need CS6 for if you have a CC license? Is there a particular plugin that you require? If that never upgraded, someone might be able to help offer alternatives to you so that you don't have to go through all the trouble of figuring out the CS6 situation.

[Adam25719900eiou]

What I meant by "lifetime" license is that I buy it once and can use that particular version of software for as long as I'd like and don't have to pay a monthly fee.

As for why I need CS6 it's because CC is a mess that chooses to update while working, has severly degraded performance with THE SAME tasks, adobe fonts doesn't work as good as old .ttf .otf etc. files, constantly going out of sync and has gone backwards in terms of usability with it's constant pushing of cloud storage when saving etc. Not to mention things like laggy interface having to merge layers yourself when saving as .jpg, moving that save function to "Export as" instead of "Save as" for some unknown reason.

But that doesn't matter, if we bought the license and didn't break any of it's terms why should it just deactivate without any user intervention? Just because you leased a new car that doesn't give the dealership the right to take your old one away.

Why should I give up on something that's rightfully mine?

[kglad]

do you have a current subscription?

do you have your cs6 serial number?

[Adam25719900eiou]

Yes I have a current CC subscription and a lifetime license for CS6 but I likely won't be able to find the serial number as it's in offsite archival storage and with how much work we have at the moment we likely won't be able to retrieve it until the trial runs out.
This shouldn't even be an issue because before installing CC everything worked great.

[kglad]

you don't need your serial number, if you have a current subscription.

does your cc desktop app show your cs6 program(s)?  if so, click open.  click sign-in, if prompted.

[Adam25719900eiou]

No the license for CS6 wasn't tied to mine CC account, the account was created because adobe required one to activate CC and so it doesn't show the CS6 programs.

[kglad]

if you have any pre-cc programs installed at the same time you install a cc app, cc takes over the licensing without notification.

[Adam25719900eiou]

What does it mean that it "takes over" the licensing? I don't see the CS6 tied to the account, and the programs ask for a license, when I try to sign in with the cc account it doesn't recognize the license and still asks for a key. It worked fine for almost a year but only now the license "disappeared".

[Adam25719900eiou]

Found an old account registered to one of our company's email addresses, there are two different indesign 8.0 serial keys one phtoshop 13.0 key and one photoshop CS5 key, when logging in through the activation dialog and entering the serial key as instructed it asks for a "qualifying product" (translation might be wrong), I'm assuming that's a previous version serial key because the current one is a "upgrade" instead of a standalone license, when trying with the CS5 key registered with the account it says that the CS5 serial is "not meant for a qualifying product". I also feel as though these are not all the serial keys since we had the CS6 Suite with Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign and Acrobat. Is there a "master" serial key for the whole suite or are there only seperate keys for each program?

[kglad]

your key much match your installer. eg, if you purchased a western europe business cs6 suite, your serial number will work only with that installer.

if you purchased 3 different adobe cs6 programs, you would have 3 different serial numbers, one for each program.

ie, everything must match:  location, license type and product name.

[kglad]

and yes, when installing an upgrade, you are first prompted for the product's serial number and, if the previous version is not installed, you will be prompted for the qualifying product's serial number.

[Peru Bob]

Was CS6 purchased from Adobe?

[Adam25719900eiou]

I think it was from a ceritified adobe reseller and it was probably CS4 or 5 that was later upgraded to CS6

[Nancy OShea]

@Adam25719900eiou 

CS6 is 12 years out of date & discontinued.  Why do you need it if you already have current Creative Cloud?  

No such thing as a LIFETIME license. Adobe ended support for CS6 several years ago.  Many files created with Creative Cloud apps won't work with CS6.  For all practical purposes, it's just taking up space on your hard drive and of no value anymore.  You should uninstall CS6 or use the Adobe Cleaner tool below to wipe it off your system once & for all.

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html

Hope that helps.

[Adam25719900eiou]

Your house is probably also older than 12 years so I guess the insurance company or the city should just take it away from you.
Is purchasing a license and keeping it such a hard concept to grasp? It doesn't matter if it's old, new or whatever. I bought it and I should be able to keep it.
CC is trash, opening the same files takes 4x the time, adobe/pantone decides which colors I'm allowed to have on a whim, they decide which fonts I'm allowed to use despite having paid for them. And it isn't a case of "just request new ones", many of the stores/people these were bought from are no longer active and deprecating an industry standard for some cloud "solution" isn't great. Don't get me started on adobe fonts.

Why post in a thread if you have nothing to contribute?

"Oh you lost the keys to your house, well just get rid of it entirely it's old anyway"