How to Activate CS5.5 Offline!

[allan=ia]

I have a legitimate copy of CS5.5. Recently an MS update BSOD'd my SP4 (3rd time in two years - Grrr). I've reinstalled my CS5.5 (Acrobat and Dreamweaver only), but cannot activate online. I believe this is because my ISP now uses CG-NAT, so in effect I am double NATed and as a result CS5.5 thinks that I'm not connected to the internet - I AM, I'm posting this.

I was directed to an offline activation page, but CS5.5 does not generate activation request codes (it was designed in the days of telephone activation). CS5.5 only provides me with information that was meant to be given to adobe to validate the product. So how can I perform an offline activation for CS5.5?

[kglad]

go for it.

[qmacker]

Jeff Wright - the correct answer is that Adobe have taken down the CS5 activation site/servers. You should know this answer as an Adobe employee, instead of wasting this unfortunate gentleman's time over several days.

I happen to have a client with a perfectly good copy of CS5 that they cannot deactivate/activate either because the site/servers are down. 

See for yourself! https://activate.adobe.com/servlets/status.jsp

[allan=ia]

Thanks qmacker for confirming what I suspected from the beginning. Jeff never did follow up on my report about that site responding with a 503 error. So I guess the question is will Adobe do the right thing and provide unlocked versions like they did for CS3? I'm not holding my breath and am moving on. Finding a good alternative to Acrobat or Photoshop is not too hard, but a good alternative to Dreamweaver is difficult, especially as I fell into the trap of utilising the unique template feature of Dreamweaver. Still, unless Adobe suddenly decides to do the ethical thing and provide versions that do not need activation like they did before with CS3, I'm moving on and will avoid Adobe in the future.

[Jeff A Wright]

Qmacker, I am sorry but I have received no notification that the activation servers have been shut down for Creative Suite 5 or 5.5.  Also, the offline activation tool is still active.

If the licensing files have become damaged then it could lead to a failure to activate the computer.

Allan, as previously discussed, I would recommend working with our support team at https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html for further assistance with attempting to activate Creative Suite 5.5.

[allan=ia]

Hi Jeff,

I would love to work with the support team, but they only tell me to use the offline activation server and that they cannot do anything else. When I expalin that there is no way to generate a request code they tell me that they have no information about CS5.5 and cannot help me further and refer me to this site. Support told me that they can not do anything and refer me to here.

While I accept that you have not been notfied that the activation servers have been shut down please address the following three issues/questions:

1) You now have three people who can confirm that the activation servers will not respond. They may be active but they are not working! When accessed directly using a browser https://activate.adobe.com/servlets/status.jsp, they return a 503 error at best and nothing at worst with a timout. So if they are meant to be active they are not working. As qmacker said check for yourself.

2) Offline activation requires a 44 character Request Code which CS5 and 5.5 cannot generate. They do not have any button/link/menu item anywhere to generate that Request code. Without that the offline activation servers will not work.

3) Surely as an employee and with now three people reporting an identical problem, you can elevate this internally, especially as support refuse to do this and can fob each of us off individually, never identifying a common issue.

This is an impossible situation for each of us individually to solve as Adobe Support are not providing any. They report its now an unsupported product.

[allan=ia]

See here:

[Jeff A Wright]

Allan, can you confirm that your most recent support case was on 11/17/2019 and is case number ADB-9978917-F3J5?  Also is the phone number that is on file the best phone number to contact you at?  If not, you can use the process listed in https://helpx.adobe.com/manage-account.html under Access your Account details to update the information.

I look forward to your update.

[allan=ia]

Hi Jeff. I've logged in and checked the case numbers. For me it was all one, but Adobe has three! They are (in the order listed in my support cases):

November 18, 2019  Offline Activation ADB-9978630-Y5C3

November 17, 2019  Offline Activation ADB-9973246-L6D7

November 18, 2019  Offline Activation ADB-9978917-F3J5

All are marked resolved - they are not. It's impossible for me to determine which one is last, but they are really all the same case.

I've checked the phone number and it is my mobile (cell phone). It's the only number I can be contacted on.

[Jeff A Wright]

Thanks. Allan, and I am sorry for the continued difficulties you have faced with activating your software.  I have referenced this public forum discussion and requested that you be contacted directly to solve the problems you are facing activating Creative Suite 5.5.

Please update this public forum discussion if you continue to have any difficulties with the activation process after working with our support team directly.

[luisyeh]

I couldn't activate my new installation of CS5.5, either. ><

[Abambo]

Please follow the instructions that Jeff gave. They should also be valid for your case. 

If folloing the instructions does not help, you too need to contact customer service. Keep the link to these forum entry handy, as it may prove helpful if the support agent refers you to the fora. 

[Richardnz]

I am havig exactly the same problem trying to activate CS 5.5 after reinstalling the OS. We spent over 6 hours on chat trying to get it resolved. We have been through all the troubleshooting steps, check the Hosts file, disabled firewalls etc etc etc. The activation server just isn't responidng, and the log files seem to back this up. Am back on live chat with support. They have said they are escalating it and someone will get back to me in 48 hours.

[allan=ia]

Hi Richard, I'm still working with the support team. They have remoted into my machine on at least 4 occassions so far and they cannot figure it out either. They now clearly get that there is no ability to generate a suitable request code and I have to give them full points for trying, but so far they have simply proven what we all know, that you cannot activate online. My ticket is still open, but so far no joy. 

[allan=ia]

FWIW, my current guess (and that is really all it is) is that Adobe have changed the activation process. It now requires a 44 character request code. For CS5.5 the "Description 1:" item is the equivalent request code, but being only 25 characters long it does not meet the requirements of the current activation servers and hence fails both online and offline requirements.

Support were meant to get back to me Friday (Australian time) but did not - probably because they have nothing new to try.

Jeff if you're still listening, I've spent many hours on the phone and online with support now and to be fair they have tried, but something is just not working. This needs to be escalated as the numbers starting to report this problem are increasing. I'll keep working with support, but suspect that they are really out of ideas.

[Richardnz]

I think part of the problem is getting through to the right person, as the first few levels of support on online chat only seem to know basic things, and are probably just following some form of flow chart. . Each person also tells me it is something different. The last person told me that it was due to my windows software . But I had just reinstalled windows and CS5.5 as a clean install in the hope that it would fix it, and it is doing the same thing. Even tested it under windows 7 and windows 10 on the same PC. That is why I think they had to escalate it, so that a technical person could look at it. I do wonder if it is affecting everyone who installs CS5.5 in all regions, or just those in certain countries, as prior to this  when I tried to activate it in New Zealand, I got an error , but that was due to another probelm with their activation servers, which requires NZ users  to set our timezone to US Pacific time, in order for the activation to work as shown at https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/error-129-17-launch-creative.html  . But doing that this time also doesn't work, and I am not getting that eror anyway.

But it is frustrating, and time wasting, and I hope they get it resolved before my software expires, as I have only got about 20 days before it says the software will stop working. These systems shouldn't be

inconveniencing their customers who have paid a lot for this software.

 I am always wary of software that needs activation servers to be installed, beacause it is likely that at some stage the activation server may stop working or be retired, even though the  software shouldn't ever expire.

[Richardnz]

I have had a reply which says it is the resolution. They say to uninstall the software, and then to download a copy of it via a link they sent me, and to then install this. They have given me some links to download the software version I have, which is the Master Collection. The explaination is that I was trying to install the software using an old method. I was installing via DVD that I purchased from a local retailer. I haven't yet tried this as it is still downloading as it is a 5GB file, but wondering if this solution was provided to anyone else, and if it worked. 

[allan=ia]

That is similar to where support ended up with my software and it has stalled. They downloaded a file from the archive as engineering said that the CD-ROM installer would no longer work. The problem with that from my end is that my Serial Number is for an upgrade version and therefore will not work with the copy that they downloaded because it's not an upgrade product. The support tech was trying to get me a new SN to proceed and see if that solution works, but I'm still waiting.

So if your copy is an original copy and not an upgrade it could well be worth the try. Please let me know how you get on.

[Richardnz]

Thanks. I have tried it but it still was not able to activate. This version however did give the option to activate over the telephone. However becuase I closed the actviation screen, and set it to attempt activation at next lauch, I can't get the activation screen to reappear. However I looked at the amt3.log file, and it still shows it is on the 30 day trial, and the deactviation is disabled in the menus. When it is activated, I should be able to 'deactviate ' it from the 'help' > 'Deactivate' tab in the menus. Do you know how to force the activation screen to reappear again? I think I have to wait for about 7 days for it to reappear, which is what happened last time. If I can force it to reappear again, I maybe able to see what he telephone activation process involves.

[allan=ia]

Hi Richard. I think you may be right in needing to wait 7 days. I have never found a way to force the activation screen to come up, but the support person did. But he changed so much I'm not sure which thing he tried worked. One thing that may work is to uninstall and reinstall. Given that you're not activated, there should be no need to deactivate, but if the de-install screen gives you the option (mine did), then I'd tick that box. I also suspect that once you get there, that you're likely to see the same screen as you can see further up in these posts. The Description 1 item in mine is only 25 characters long, so unless your screen gives you a 44 character version, neither you nor support are going to be able to use the off-line activation process.

[allan=ia]

Just to note Richard, I'm seeing messages from you which do not sho here and do not show in my private message area - so not sure how that all works. Just for the record, I understand that you tried the archived version that support told you to download and that still did not work. Is that correct, or are you still trying to get the activation screen back up?

Please respond directly on the thread so that we can maintain a record of the problem and hopefully, eventually a resolution.

[Richardnz]

Tahnks, I am not sure how that works either, I am just pressing the blue reply button in the thread. So I didn't know my messages weren't appearing on the public thread properly.

Yes I have installed the updated version via the link the Adobe support sent me, and that also doesn't actviate. Same internet connection error. The file link they sent had the word 'trial' in teh filename, so I think that used to be the version they had on their website at one stage which you could download to try out, and purchase online. So it is probably the most upto date version, but there were still application updates it needed to download after that. So I am not really any closer to getting it resolved either. I should be pretty simple for Adobe to work out what is going on here with their activation server, it probably just needs escalating to the right people in their organisation.

[Richardnz]

I see there was someone else on another thread in the last few days at https://community.adobe.com/t5/get-started/cannot-deactivate-cs5/m-p/10790886 who was wasn't able to deactivate their CS 5 software, and it was coming up with a similar 'no internet connection warning'. So I suspect this is affecting most people who are reinstalling or deactviating the software. I suspect there aren't a large number doing this due to it being an older version, and most people here would be using the monthly subscription version of the software, and haven't purhcased it outright.

My situation is that I am still waiting for one of their managers to provide me with a solution. With telling me that that I need to use a downloadable file, instead of the dvd I was sold, as things have changed at adobes end, suggest that they have certainly changed things at their end. But their solution didn't work, and it is still won't activate.  I just dont want to waste any further hours on it, and I don;t want my software non operational either. I understand with some older versions of CS, they provided people with versions that didn't need activating, after I understand they shut down the activation servers for older versions. So perhaps they will need to do that again for people who have purchased CS 5.5, so it doesn't risk expiring after 30 days of no actviation. 

[allan=ia]

Yes clearly we are both experiencing exactly the same thing. I managed to find my old CS3 dreamweaver disks (and serial number) and was able to download the non-activation version of Dreamweaver CS3 (just to make sure that I had it in case all else fails), but that does not solve the issue of the rest of CS5.5 not working. I now have a non functional system and cannot even use Acrobat as the support tech downloaded the archived version, but it will not accept my serial number as its a serial number for the upgrade disk.

At the very least as more and more people get to try deactivating and activating, this thread will provide evidence that they are not going mad and that it's a common problem. Hopefully it might eventually include a solution. A non-activation version of CS5/5.5 in the same vein as was done for CS3 would be a really good solution at this point.

I really do want my CS5.5 working and I have wasted hours and hours and hours on this problem running around in circles following non-solutions from Adobe.

[Jeff A Wright]

Allan_ia, thank you for your private message, I am showing that case ADB-10276544-N0L0 is still active and the errors you are experiencing continues to be investigated.  Please use the process listed in https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/customer-support-portal.html to review your open support case.  

[allan=ia]

Okay, but I just hope that somewhere Adobe is seeing this as a multi-person problem and not wasting time treating each one as an individual case. If multiple people are experiencing the same problem, then it points to a common issue.