Photoshop CS6, non Creative Cloud, keeps asking me to register

[BKKDon]

Rogier,

My apologies for not saying that mine is a 'straight' versoin not a cloud version.  And also I am running on Win x64.

Don.

[frustrated_cs6]

Jeff... Do you know if repairing WMI or completely recreating the repository has helped before?  Recreating the repository can have some ill effects but someone may have tried it.  Thanks

[Jeff A Wright]

I have already tried repairing the repository it unfortunately had no effect.

[frustrated_cs6]

When you say repaired do you mean following something similiar to below?  Basically, did you rename the repository folder?  I'm curious because if that was done then I'm going to pursure other options other than spending time troubleshooting WMI.  Thanks.

Warning: Rebuilding the WMI repository has resulted in some 3rd party products not working until their setup is re-run & their MOF re-added back to the repository.

If /salvagerepository or /resetrepository does not resolve the issue, then manually rebuild repository:

1. Change startup type to Window Management Instrumentation (WMI) Service to disabled
2. Stop the WMI Service; you may need to stop IP Helper Service first or other dependent services before it allows you to stop WMI Service
3. Rename the repository folder:  C:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\Repository to Repository.old
4. Open a CMD Prompt with elevated privileges
5. CD windows\system32\wbem
6. for /f %s in ('dir /b /s *.dll') do regsvr32 /s %s
7. Set the WMI Service type back to Automatic and start WMI Service
8. cd /d c:\  ((go to the root of the c drive, this is important))
9. for /f %s in ('dir /s /b *.mof *.mfl') do mofcomp %s
10. Reboot the server

[Jeff A Wright]

No I don't have the exact commands in front of me but there is a command line switch which can be run which will restore the repository to the same condition it was when Windows was initially installed.  I believe it was - salvage or something to that affect.

[frustrated_cs6]

Gotcha.  So it sounds like a manual rebuild hasn't been done.  Which I kind of suspected support wouldn't try that measure as it could cause other problems.  If I see WMI errors syncing up with the issue I may give the rebuild a try.  If I do I'll defnitely report back.  Thanks.

[Jeff A Wright]

Ok thank you Frustrated_CS6 I will be very interested in seeing your results if you do end up trying.

[frustrated_cs6]

I've been able to replicate it a couple times this morning and I have not seen the WMI errors reoccur so I'm a bit hesitant to rebuild the repository without seeing the events.

Unfortunately, although I can replicate it most reboots it is not every one so it is slowing my troubleshooting.  Also, deactivating, changing computer name, then reactivating did not help.

[frustrated_cs6]

I have not been able to reproduce this issue since yesterday morning.  My wife said it had been happening multiple times a day and after each restart.  I'm not sure about the frequency for other users.

The things I did yesterday morning were turn off the ability for the machine to sleep since she said it was happening multiple times a day.  So I'm not sure if something is triggered or breaks after returning from sleep that would contribute to the problem.

The other thing I did was after it was successfully activated I disconnected all network connections, rebooted, and ensured the product was still activated.  I then rebooted once more and restored network connections.  No idea why that would make a difference either.  Just listing steps taken.  I'll give it a few more days and see if it comes back up.  Turning off sleep will hopefully cut down the reoccurrence to only reboots though.

I'm thinking shutting down for an extended amount of time versus restarting might trigger it also and I will try that after the registration pops up again.

[sherweb]

Thanks, frustrated_cs6, for all you are doing.  Although, I do believe that Adobe should be doing this testing and not the users.  Just to let you know, I used to turn off my computer at night, but stopped doing that a few weeks ago just to make my mornings easier.  It made no difference in what the CS6 programs were doing - they ask for the serial number either way.  I also still believe that software should be developed to work with the OS and should have been thoroughly tested before release.

[frustrated_cs6]

So just to be clear... if you do not turn off your computer and the product is successfully activated (you are able to see and highlight the Deactivate button under help versus it being grayed out) the registration screen never occurs for you?  It only happens after you start your computer after a night of it being shut down?

[sherweb]

The software asks for the serial number in both cases - whether I turn the computer off at night or if I leave it on and let it hibernate overnight.

[frustrated_cs6]

Oh ok.  The hibernation would be similar to sleeping, which is when it was happening for my wife... it is at least closer than a power off or reboot.  So have you tried leaving it on with hibernation disabled?  I can understand if that may not be possible for whatever reason, just curious of the results if you have already tried that?

[sherweb]

No, I prefer to keep my electricty usage down.  But I could try it one night if it would help.

[frustrated_cs6]

Nah, that's ok.  I was just curious if you had tried.  The pattern seems to be that if the computer is off, hibernating, or sleeping for a certain amount of time... the issue then crops up.

[Jeff A Wright]

Frustrated_cs6 thank you as well for testing these different scenarioes.  One other thing I looked at with many of my users was also the dependencies assigned to WMI.  Unfortunatley besides Intel Rapid Share technology I found no relation between any of the users I worked with.  One of the users even removed the software which also removed that dependency but the problem continued.

[sherweb]

I have been experimenting and can confirm that.  I turned off the sleep mode for a couple days and CS6 worked fine. I let the computer sleep again  and the problem came back.  I turned  off sleeping again and the problem disappeared.  In summary the problem of CS6 thinking it is a trial and asking for a serial number everytime I try to start one of the programs only seems to occur if I turn off the computer or let the computer sleep.  It does not occur if the computer does not sleep.

However, I do not find leaving my computer on all the time without sleeping to be a viable solution.  Again, the software needs to work with the OS. I should not have to make adjustments to what is a normal setting just to get CS6 to work properly.

Any thoughts, anyone?

[sherweb]

Good news and bad news.  I did another chat with Adobe this morning.  After an hour they did admit that this is a known issue.  Good news - the engineers are working on a patch.  Bad news - it could take another month or two.  Meanwhile the only solution is to type in the serial number every time a CS6 app is opened.

BTW, Jeff.  You might want to talk to whomever creates the content on the portal page.  As of 9am PST this morning the following message was there:

Adobe's Customer Support Portal is undergoing a system update in order to implement major system enhancements, and will be temporarily unavailable beginning at 3pm Pacific Daylight Time on Friday, October 9th. Customers will be able to access the portal again beginning at 3pm Pacific Daylight Time on Wednesday, October 14th. We apologize for this extended outage. Please check back at that time to access the Customer Support Portal. (my bolding)

Both the month and the time are wrong.  Does not help Adobe's image.

[Jeff A Wright]

Sherweb we are facing some server issues at the moment.  Our I.T. department is aware and working on it.  Thank you for the reporting the issue though.

[lamarc05]

Hi I've been reading a quite a bit about this "prompt to activation" issue and this is the first time I see something that may give me hope that ADOBE is aware and as some indication into what the issue really is.

I too, have been having the issue since I re-activated my Web premiun CS6 (non-cloud) software, that I downloaded, on my brand new 64 bit win7 system.  All this talk about re-installing etc... makes me ....

I can wait to see the patch, as I'm gettng quite fed up with the prompting, almost every time I reboot.

I need to also mentionned that it did affect also my program that I still run as part of CS4 and CS5. Seems OK now, but I know I had registered all my software/version to be prompt again at a later time.

I'm just hoping it's only my CS6 that needs fixing and that a solution can be found soon.

[sherweb]

A couple more things to clarify.  First, I have a downloaded copy of CS6.  Second, it runs fine on my laptop with Win 7 Ultimate 32bit edition.  The problem occurs on my desktop wtih Win 7 Ultimate 64bit edition.

[sherweb]

I am a bit skeptical that reinstalling Win 7 would be the solution as my problem started happening with a new install of Win 7 on a brand new computer.

[prior2]

I've started having the same problems on my Mac OS10.7.5 this is really anoying!! I'm not intrested in Creative Cloud or being asked to keep registering CS6.

[sherweb]

Hey, Jeff.  I was told in November that Adobe was working on this issue and the patch could take a month or two.  Tomorrow will be February.  Any news on the patch?

[Jeff A Wright]

Prior2 this issue with Activation only affects Windows users.  You may be facing a difficulty with a release of Photoshop which would appear to cause similar behavior.  Please update your copy of Photoshop to the latest version.

Sherweb our engineers are continuing to actively investigate this issue.  I was actually speaking with them this very morning on this same topic.

[leilaniana]

My husband is having the same issue with his copy of CS6 on a Mac with OS X 10.8.2 and CS6 13.0.3 x64. Have they resolved this issue yet beyond the help file that says to keep your serial number in a text doc so you can keep pasting it over and over again? In his case, it probably wouldn't be so bad if it just happened when turning on the computer or starting up the program, but his will actually shut down the program while he's in the middle of editing a photo to ask for the serial number again, so he loses all of his work.