Device Activation Limit (any Creative Cloud app)

[alasdairt44327953]

I've seen quite a few posts here about this specific problem but no clear answer about how to correct it. The post at Device Activation Limit shows the details of the problem nicely. Frequently, when I open any CC app (Acrobat, PS, AI, etc.), I get a dialog saying "You've reached your device activation limit" and instructing me to "Sign out of one of the devices below to continue." The device I'm trying to use and the other two devices shown are all the same machine (and OS and user and Adobe ID).

Environment:

• Windows 11 Enterprise x64 22H2 [Version 10.0.22621.1413] (all updates applied)
• Creative Cloud All-Apps [Version 5.10.0.573]
• This license of CC is only installed and activated on this machine
• No additional (dual boot) OS and not running in a VM
• Two physical CPUs and 40 Cores
• Two (active) ethernet ports

Observations:

• The problem seems to occur when an Adobe app is first started after a reboot.
• Once the current "instance" of the machine has been activated, there are no more problems until the machine is rebooted.
• Any reboot might cause the problem to arise again, not just reboots due to system changes or updates.
• The problem doesn't come back after every reboot, just perhaps 40% of the time (haven't really measured).

Problem:

It appears that the activation check Adobe does when an app starts, checks the machine identity against a list of activated identities. Two installations would mean two different activated identities. But it seems the algorithm for identifying a machine is faulty: it does not generate a unique identity. That's why I mentioned the dual physical processors (two CPU serial numbers but using only the s/n of the CPU running the identity algorithm might cause alternating identities) and the dual adapter (similarly, with adapter MAC, etc.).

The suggested solution seems to be to sign out one, or both, of the duplicate devices and then sign the same device back in. While it's true that this works (until a future reboot), it is a colossal waste of time and can't possibly be what Adobe intended.

Question:

Is there any way to stop CC apps from doing this (aside from not using them, that is)? Has anyone found the reason for this happening and/or a way to prevent it? Are others still running into this?

Thanks in advance.

[kglad]

no, there's no way (short of some extra-adobe hack) of preventing the cc app from doing its job and checking your computer id.

i've not found the reason the adobe cc desktop app can erroneously identify the same computer as two different computers.

i've encountered the problem a few times over the years, most recently about 2 weeks ago.

[alasdairt44327953]

Oops! In my questions, I didn't mean "stop CC apps from checking identity", I meant "stop CC apps from finding multiple identities for a single installation." I'm all for validation but it shouldn't interfer with using the product. This does. Many other companies have demonstrated that validation doesn't have to.

[kglad]

i haven't spent time researching this because it's so quick and easy to work around it.

but yes, there's some failure on the part of adobe because a workaround shouldn't be required.