My Adobe account won't let me activate Acobat XI Pro, even after deactivating all activations!

[markc01]

Help Please!  😞 

So I am having problems trying to activate (& reactivate) my own (old) copy of Adobe Acrobat XI Pro.
1. I have have this software for years. It has never failed me. I have moved it to new machines in the past without issue (even last year!).
2. Now, I re-downloaded it from my account, tried to put it on our new home computer, but account message said I needed to deactive another machine.  No problem. I have two activations now for this software (my old HP desktop & my MS Surface Pro.) I actually deactivated it from BOTH by mistake.
3. However, now I can't activate the program on eithe my new computer or my old desktop!

   -even though I have ZERO activations!!(?). When trying I get the same error message: "The serial number xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx is already in use by the maximum allowed computers. You need to deactivate another computer within 21 days to use this product."
4. My account now shows that it is not/not in use and I have NO/NO activations for my copy of Adobe Acrobat XI PRo. . . yet Adobe website won't let me activate it!  This can't be correct!

Can you please help me with this?
5. What I need as an outcome:
#1) I plan to activate this AA XI Pro on our new desktop (a new HP desktop named "xxx-XX-Desktop").
#2) I plan to reactivate AA XI Pro on my old HP desktop (where AA XI PRo was/is installed/activated until about an hour ago!)
#3) I DO NOT PLAN to reactivate my Acrobat XI Pro on my Surface Pro 7. Our new desktop will fill that role going forward.

SO I will have still or again have only the two activations, that seems to be the limit. (and which had been working great for years!)

6. Trying this myself did not work - I have removed/reinstalled AA XI PRo on the new machine -rebooted it. On ling, my account now shows NO activations for this product --and yet I get the activation warning/error message. 😞

I am stuck! Thank you in advance

Mark

[PII removed by moderator]

[kglad · Accepted solution]

you can contact adobe support and ask them to "reset your activation count".  there are 2 ways to contact adobe; chat and twitter (now x):

chat:
use a browser that allows popups and cookies
and click here, https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html?rghtup=autoOpen
in the chat field (lower right), type AGENT
be patient, it can take quite a while to reach a human.

twitter/x:
tweet @AdobeCare

p.s. if you're contacted by anyone (via email or private message), it's much more likely to be a scammer than an adobe representative.

[markc01]

Thank you for this information! 

I followed these steps and got a chat agent. 

The agent worked with me and seems to have fixed the problem! 

The activations seem to be working - the agent was VERY patient and careful and clear in walking me through the steps /actions! 

GREAT SERVICE

GREAT RESULT 

Thank YOU for pointing me in the correct direction!

Mark!  🙂

[kglad]

excellent!

[michel.velazquez]

The exact same thing happened to me with my Adobe CS 5.5 Web Premium and I attended with support but they tell me that they have no way to reset the activation records. I deactivated it from a computer to migrate it to a new one and it no longer allowed me to activate either on the new one or back on the old one.

Anyone who knows any other method?

[kglad]

see if you can reactivate cs5.5 on that old computer from which you deactivated it.

[michel.velazquez]

It doesn't allow it, even though I haven't formatted the computer.

[kglad]

what message do you see?

[michel.velazquez]

[kglad]

on your old computer, did you tick "retry activation", enter your serial number and click continue?

[michel.velazquez]

I have done this process on different occasions without any problem. This time what happened is that I could swear that I deactivated the license and then uninstalled the Software. I installed it on the new computer and when I tried to activate it it showed me the limit reached. I decided to install it again on the old computer, it had not had any other additional movements to the uninstallation. When the installation was completed, it did not ask me to activate it. I opened Photoshop, it gave me the option to deactivate it, so I did it again and proceeded to try to activate it on the other computer with the same unsuccessful result. I returned to the other computer and realized that it was disconnected from the internet, so I deactivated it while offline. I tried to activate it again and it no longer allowed me. I guess the offline thing was what caused it but now I'm left without the ability to reinstall it.

[michel.velazquez]

As an additional piece of information, it was interesting to me that on the old computer I uninstalled the software while Offline, cleaned registries, ran the cc cleaner, restarted and reinstalled while still offline and even so, without an internet connection and it told me the same thing.

[kglad]

i'm not sure you answered this:  can reactivate cs5.5 on that old computer from which you deactivated it?

[michel.velazquez]

Yes, it was not possible, I mentioned that after I deactivated it and tried to activate it on the new computer and it did not allow me, I realized that on the old computer I had deactivated it while being Offline. When I tried to reactivate it on the old computer it no longer allowed me to activate it either. Indicating that the activation limit had been reached.

[kglad]

ok