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Illustrator CS 6 activation

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
July 3, 2023
1 reply
8516 views

HELP! I just reformatted my hard drive and now cant activate my CS6 illustrator. Does anyone have a work around [illegal activity removed — this will get you banned if repeated]. I only use legit but it appears if you dont upgrade they are forcing us out! I dont want a subscription!! I like perpetual license!

Performance

Correct answer Monika Gause

Hello community,

Does anyone have a work around for this CS6 activation issue?

I cannot even open Illustrator CS6 as the software is claimng too many activations. This is an error possibly caused by a power surge. I previously had been using CS6 on this computer for 2 years (there are no other computers with this license on them.) Said differently: I cannot deactivate the license on another computer because there are no such installations or activations.

This issue began either when adobe shut down the activation servers -OR- as a result of a week of mutiple power surges in our area. I am not sure which, as it wasn't discovered immediately
I downloaded adobes CC cleaner and tried that and reinstalled. But still cannot past the "retry activation" screen
My 2nd question is... If Adobe shut down thier activation servers, how does my CS6 software think there are other activations. How would it keep track of that if there are no servers to down load from?

This never ending loop just does not make and sense.

Please help!

Please refer to this: https://community.adobe.com/t5/download-install-discussions/activation-limit-reached-for-non-subscription-adobe-desktop-applications/td-p/14804413

and this: https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/invalid-revoked-serial-numbers.html

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

ebowen,

I believe this still counts (literally):

https://community.adobe.com/t5/download-install-discussions/activation-support-to-adjust-your-activation-count/m-p/12125990

@Jeffrey_A_Wright ?

jane-e

Community Expert

EDIT: In July 2023, what I wrote here was true. Since then, Adobe Customer Care no longer resets activations. Deactivate first.

@ebowen911

Deactivate first as it says on this Help page. If you can't, you might need to get your activations reset first. Contact Adobe Customer Care.

https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/activation-deactivation-help.html

Jane

Jeffrey_A_Wright

Community Manager

Yes, great advice! I appreciate everyone's input...

- I tried everything in the article "Activation limit reached for
non-subscription Adobe desktop applications
<>"
with no success.
- I tried support in the chat and they said that they no longer have
access to the activation servers and cannot help me. They referred me to
the community.
- I finally called support...
- A gentleman in tech support was very helpful and got me past the
activation window so Illustrator would actually load, but then the "Too
many activated devices' message popped up again. He transferred me to the
"perpetual Licenses" department
- I connected with another helpful person, but in the end the message
was the same.
- For non-subscription products such as the CS series, Adobe
CANNOT reset the activation count.
- Nor can they do any troubleshooting with your installed app
even if it is a software error as in my case (not actually
activation).

As all of the other posts concerning this issue state...

- In the end, all they can do is offer you a new subscription with a
short term discount
- He had his supervisor call me to discuss, and all she could do was
sell me a subscription with a reconfigured discount to look like it was a
sweeter deal

I already have a Photoshop/Lightroom subscription, but only use Illustrator
once in a while therefore, my CS6 was more than adequate for my needs (and
it was paid for).

- I used Photoshop 7 for years before upgrading to CS6
- I managed technology (as an Adobe Loyalite) for a creative shop with 5
full CC subscriptions for 7 years
- Then I worked for an agency for 4 more years where we had probably
15-20 CC licenses
- After so much loyalty, apparently it was just too much for Adobe to
let us continue to own and use a stand-alone copy of a CS product

Goodbye Illustrator, Adobe has been successful in sending another lifelong
customer to the competition.

Thanks for tagging me @Monika Gause!

@redduck40 I am sorry that you have exceeded the amount of allowable activations for Photoshop and Illustrator. You mentioned you already tried the suggestions referenced by Monika at https://community.adobe.com/t5/download-install-discussions/activation-limit-reached-for-non-subscription-adobe-desktop-applications/td-p/14804413. If this includes the use of the CC Cleaner tool, then you have completed the only troubleshooting steps that are available. Activation limits are no longer being increased, so you will need to purchase new software for use in 2024.

Please update this public discussion if you have any questions or encountered an error while running the CC Cleaner Tool. I did include a section on what can be done to preserve the number of allowable activations at https://community.adobe.com/t5/download-install-discussions/activation-limit-reached-for-non-subscription-adobe-desktop-applications/td-p/14804413.

I recommend investing in some protection if you think that multiple power surges affected the integrity of the licensing files on the computer. The more common cause is the apps and licensing files being moved from one drive to another. Did you have to do this after a power outage, @redduck40?

Were the drives or hardware on the computer damaged and needed to be replaced after the power outages?

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