Installing Dreamweaver CS4 to new computer, but the serial number is not accepted

[markusdeserno]

I have searched the FAQ on this site, but can’t find anything that helps. So here’s my case:

Some years ago I had purchased Dreamweaver CS4 and installed it on my Mac. Now I got a new MacBook Pro and would like to install DWCS4 there. This turns out to be a major problem. I’ve already been through a lengthy chat with an Adobe representative that didn’t resolve the issue. She told me I should ask in the forum. So here’s the jist of my problem:

I can’t install DWCS4 from the CD I have, because it claims that the serial code, printed on the box, is incorrect. I don’t understand how that’s possible.

The chat person then sent me a link to the download site for the CS4 software that should work for me:

     https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/cs4-product-downloads.html

I was able to download DWCS4, but when trying to install it, my serial number again did not work.

That’s the same trouble I had when trying to install it from the CD I have: the serial number

which worked when I installed it on my old Mac is now not recognized.

The chat representative tells me I should go to the licensing website:

     licensing2.adobe.com

But no matter what I do, that site always complains “Adobe does not recognize you as an authorized user of this web site. Please contact Adobe for assistance.” But I have an Adobe ID and I can log in to my Adobe account just fine. Why does this site suddenly not like me? (I removed the history from the web browser, didn’t help.)

My license key is not registered with my account, either because I forgot back then, or because I don’t remember my account details. But I told the chat representative, and she tells me that she associated the license with my account. But it doesn’t show up in my account. And when I alternatively try to register it with my account, the system says that the number is already in use. (Of course, by me!)

So here we are: I have the product and the license number, but I can’t install it, because the system doesn’t recognize the number. But I also can’t go to the licensing site, because that site doesn’t even let me in. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Something seems messed up. I really would like to continue working on the webpages I have developed, but getting the new computer seems to cause a major hurdle here. What do I do?

[Nancy OShea]

Which operating system do you have?

Did you deactivate your last CS4 installation?

[markusdeserno]

I'm running MacOS X, High Sierra, version 10.13.6.

I've tried to connect to the site via both Chrome (Version 69.0.3497.100) and Safari (Version 12.0 (13606.2.11)). I've wiped the history of the past day clean, but it matters not. I am "pleased" to learn that I'm not the only one with troubles on the licensing website, though. Something seems to be off there.

I have admittedly not yet deactivated Dreamweaver on my old MacBook, but this is a matter of worry and necessity. I absolutely need to update my webpages on a regular basis, and before I know for sure that I can do this on my new MacBook, I am too scared to deactivate it on my old one. I'm more than happy to wipe it off there after it runs on the new one, because, why would I work on an old MacBook if I don't have to. But until the new version runs, the old one is my lifeline...

[Nancy OShea]

See this link.

Installing Creative Suite on macOS 10.12 (Sierra)

CS4 is not certified to run on Sierra or High Sierra.  It might just be a case of old software is not a good fit with newer operating systems.   You can try it, but I cannot guarantee you'll succeed in running CS4 on your new Mac.  Too much has changed in 10 years.  Another option is to run an older Mac OS on a virtual machine.

Meanwhile, you can download a free 7 day trial of the latest DW CC 2018 which is Sierra compatible to update your site. 

Free Dreamweaver | Download Adobe Dreamweaver CC full version

[markusdeserno]

My understanding is that there exists a legacy version of CS4 products that runs on newer versions of MacOS but that is no longer supported or updated. That would be fine with me.

The present trouble, however, isn't software incompatibility. The trouble is that (a) the system doesn't recognize or accept my serial number and that (b) I cannot log into the licensing site to do anything about it.

[Nancy OShea]

Read the CS4 system requirements.

Dreamweaver system requirements

• PowerPC® G5 or multicore Intel® processor
• Mac OS X v10.4.11–10.5.4
• 512 MB of RAM
• 1.8 GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system or on flash-based storage devices)

[markusdeserno]

The compatibility between CS4 and High Sierra is a topic of lively debate on the Internet. It seems to work for some, and not for others. But I simply cannot help but repeat myself here: I'm not even getting a chance to try, because my serial number is not being recognized. This is a trouble at Adobe's end. And most obviously, the fact that I can't even log into the licensing website and do whatever that might do for me is a trouble at Adobe's end. It might very well be that once my license gets accepted and I start the program, it doesn't work. If so, then so be it. But we're not there yet. I'm simply requesting to be given the chance to try, and that means that my software should accept the serial number that indeed does belong to me, since I regularly purchased that product. And notice that the installation software works just fine up to the point where I type in the last digit of the serial number. So it's definitely not a matter of incompatible binaries.

[Jon Fritz]

What is the exact error you're seeing?

Is your current software an "Update Version" by chance?

[markusdeserno]

When typing in the last digit of my serial number, the program shows a red "X" next to the 16-digit window, which I interpret as the installer telling me that I've entered the wrong number. This happens irrespective of whether I directly start the installer, or do the trick of letting it show the package contents, drag the unix executable into a terminal and then execute that. The program runs fine all the time, up to the typing in of the number, when it balks.

The error when going onto the Adobe LWS site is a window that mysteriously claims "Adobe does not recognize you as an authorized user of this web site. Please contact Adobe for assistance".

I'm not trying to install an "Update Version". I had bought a full version of Adobe Dreamweaver CS4.

[Nancy OShea]

From whom did you purchase CS4?  Directly from Adobe or a reseller?

[markusdeserno]

This is too long ago, so I don't remember. I have an original CD box, though.

Anyways, until now this never was a problem. Adobe knows that the serial number I have is a valid serial number. This I checked with the Adobe Chat. It is not linked with my Adobe Account, tough. But I can't register it there if I can't log into the licensing site. Again, it boils down to this: I am pretty sure there's an obvious solution that involves Adobe and not me. I have the number. The number is correct. The number worked so far, but I have not yet registered it under my Adobe account. I'd be happy to do so, but I can't log into the site that would presumably allow me to do that (and neither can you, as you kindly confirmed). None of this has anything to do with operating systems or stone ages old softeware.

[Nancy OShea]

Forget the Adobe LWS site.  That looks like it's for Adobe Staff and I odn't know why they sent you there.

Your Adobe Account is this link.

https://accounts.adobe.com/

Sign-in with your Adobe ID and password. 

Scroll down to where it says Register a Product.

[markusdeserno]

Thanks, but of course I had tried this.

It doesn't work because the website says that this particular serial number is already in use. Yes, it is---by me! The trouble could be that (I think) I hadn't registered it before, so it should be floating around as a valid but unregistered number.  There's now only two other possibilities that I see. First, someone ELSE registered that number. This would be bizarre, because I wouldn't know how that would happen, because I have not handed my CD to anyone else. Or, I in fact *did* register the software, but under a different Adobe Account that I no longer remember (it's 10 years ago after all). The second option also sounds unlikely, though, because the Adobe Chat person I texted with just recently, told me that she could see my Adobe account, with my email as the username, and she said that she linked this account with my serial number of DWCS4. But alas, that didn't seem to work, because otherwise it'd show up under my products, but it doesn't.

Again, I understand the logic by which this should work, but alas, it doesn't work like this for me...

[Nancy OShea]

markusdeserno  wrote

It doesn't work because the website says that this particular serial number is already in use.

Some resellers wrongly sold volume licenses for institutions to private individuals.  So maybe it is registered to another user.   

At any rate, this user forum cannot help you with your serial number.   You will have to take that up directly with Adobe.

[markusdeserno]

Yes, that's a possibility. It's still weird why I run into this only now.

But I'd be happy to contact Adobe, yet I find it difficult to get hold of them. I only found the Chat, and there an Adobe representative couldn't help me and instead pointed me to this forum, where volunteers (thank you---I appreciate!) but not employees of Adobe give tips.

How can I directly get in contact with Adobe? Is there an email I can use but could nowhere find?

[Nancy OShea]

It could have been a legitimate license up until Adobe learned that the reseller was violating their terms of service.

Go back to online Chat and ask for a supervisor.  You can reference this discussion.

porting Dreamweaver CS4 to new computer, but license trouble

[markusdeserno]

That will work? Somehow I doubt that anybody would like to read all we've been writing here...

[Jon Fritz]

With the volume license reselling, the activation number comes up as "Revoked". That's not likely to be the issue here.

Since you were working with an actual Adobe rep, and they said they were making sure your account and activation number were linked, I think the much more likely issue here is they simply left something unfinished in the process.

Either way, the forum itself is user-based, there are very few actual Adobe employees here, and fewer still that could help with this kind of activation issue. I'll reach out to one I know of and see if she would contact you and get you up and running.

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

Markusdeserno, I am sorry that you have faced so many difficulties installing Creative Suite 4 on a modern Mac computer running macOS 10.13.6.

I reviewed the serial number you provided in case ADB-3984143-P7V8 and can confirm that it is for a volume license of Dreamweaver Creative Suite 4 for Mac OS.  This is why the retail installation files available for download at Download Adobe Creative Suite 4 (CS4) products does not accept the volume license serial number.

You mentioned in post #11 that you have the original CD box.  Do you still have the CD?  If so then use a Mac computer that has an optical drive to copy the files to a USB drive.  You can then use the workaround offered by Nancy in post #4 to install the volume license version of Dreamweaver CS4.  You can find more details regarding the importance of using the installation files provided with your serial number/license at Error: "The serial number is not valid for this product" | Adobe Creative Suite , Markusdeserno.

If you did receive a CD then it is unlikely the volume license installation files for Creative Suite 4 are available to you at https://licensing.adobe.com/.  Enabling the electronic download was an additional cost during the Creative Suite 4 time period.  If you still continue to receive the error that the serial number is not accepted then you may want to request that your password is reset for https://licensing.adobe.com/, Markusdeserno.  If you previously had an account, and a download was purchased, then you can use the process listed in Adobe Licensing Website | Serial numbers, orders, and accounts to download the installation files.

I would recommend first focusing on copying the files from the CD, Markusdeserno.  Please update this public forum discussion if you have any questions.

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

Moving this discussion to the Downloading, Installing, Setting Up forum.

[markusdeserno]

I appreciate everybody's help. Thank you!

All the more frustrating it is that nothing whatsoever works.

I had, of course, also tried to install directly from CD. That was in fact the first thing I tried. This, as well as all subsequent attempts to get a different CS4 download, ultimately led to the same error: an unrecognized serial number. Following up on what Jeff had written, I moved through the trouble shooting tips in Error: "The serial number is not valid for this product" | Adobe Creative Suite and removed the Adobe PCD folder and the caps.db file, which were described as potentially corrupted. Well, that I think broke it completely, since now the installer doesn't even get to the point of asking me about the number. I guess I should first have tried that other tip of registering for a trial and then afterwards typing in the number.

Unfortunately, now I'm stuck, because my attempts to exactly recreate the removed folders as they were failed, and now I can't even coax the installer into priming me for the serial number. It's somehow weird that an installation would require pre-existing folders in my own directories in order to run. How would Adobe folders get there before I have bought DWCS4?

This is sadly taking forever, and I don't have so much time. My desperate attempts to resuscitate DW have been taking up more than 95% of my entire migration efforts time---absolutely everything else ported smoothly, but of course there were newer versions, so that's not all Adobe's fault. But I have numerous webpages that I have created with DW, and if I can't revive it, or some successor at an affordable price, that basically creates a huge mountain of work for me, namely, redoing all these webpages with a different product. I would really really like to avoid that, but I'm getting close to the point where I simply see no more way out.

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

Markusdeserno, sorry for the continued frustration with this process. Adobe applications were never designed to be migrated/copied from one computer to another so that is likely making a difficult situation worse.

Can you please post a screenshot of the folders that you removed?  Information on how to post a screenshot can be found at FAQ: How do I capture and post a screen shot or video? .

[markusdeserno]

I know how to do screenshots, but since I removed the folder, they are no longer there...

Here's what I removed, based on the recommendation of that webpage:

     Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe PCD

and in

     Library/Application Support/Adobe/caps

I removed the file caps.db

After that crashed the whole process, I replaced the removed caps.db by the one in the folder Library/Application Support/Adobe/backup, and tried to recreate Adobe PCD from my old installation on my olde Macbook, but this only leads to an installation process that hangs, presumably because these files are in fact different.

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

Ok, thanks, Markusdeserno.  Try removing the folders themselves.  They will be recreated during the licensing and install process.

If the installation continues to fail, then you can use the following steps to try to recover from the migration of Dreamweaver CS4.

1. Run all available uninstallers from the Applications/Utilities/Adobe Installers folder
2. Download and run the CC Cleaner tool - Use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems
3. Reinstall Creative Suite 4 from the installation files on the CD.

Beyond causing install errors migrations can also cause the licensing files themselves to be corrupted or damaged.  This may be why you were unable to install even with the correct installation files, Markusdeserno.  The steps above though have allowed multiple individuals to recover from using the Migration assistant.

[markusdeserno]

I did all of that.  If I now try to install, all I get is this error message: