Photoshop Elements 12 not able to sign in

[Tim37514461jhv2]

Just a headsup if anyone wants to install Photoshop Element 12.

After installing you get a prompt to sign into your adobe account to verify your license. After presumably doing this successful, the window closes and nothing happens. When starting PSE 12 again you get the prompt again and are stuck in this infinte loop. This happens under Windows 10 and 11, both fresh installs, even in compatibility mode. After not getting it fixed I conntacted the Adobe Tech support, which states:

"PSE 12 is no longer available and supported Windows 10 64 Bit system."

This is a problem caused by the new login system from early this year (I used PSE 12 under win 10 for years without any problems).

The only fix I get from Adobe is to buy a new 100€ license for PSE 2024, nevermind 80 € because I get the discount.

As bad this is for the customers, this is a pretty good marketing move, just lock the old users out of their software, so they have to buy a newer license. Do this every few years and you get a good amount of new income.

tldr: Adobe gatekeeps PSE 12 users from using a perfectly fine working piece of software.

[kglad]

disconnect your computer from the internet and see if you get the option to activate offline.  that has not changed. ie,

disconnect the installed computer from the internet

Launch the product.

At the Serial Number Validation screen, click Having Trouble Connecting To The Internet.

Click Offline Activation and click Generate a Response Code.

Write down the Request Code.

Switch to an online computer and navigate to www.adobe.com/go/getactivated.

Click Offline Activation.

Sign in with your Adobe ID.

Enter your Request code and click Generate.

Write down the Response code.

Switch back to the offline computer.

Enter the Response Code and click Activate.

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/serial-number-validation-launching-cs6.html

[Tim37514461jhv2]

Would probably still work, but I get an error, that I have to many active PCs, which I can't deactive, because they don't show up in my profile and adobe support straight up denies to help me, because it is no longer supported.

[Peru Bob]

 I have to many active PCs,

By @Tim37514461jhv2

Unfortunately, deactivation is now only available if you have access to the application on the computer to be deactivated.

[Stuart Watson]

I have just encountered the excactly the same problem when trying to reload PSE 12 after reloading win 10 on my PC. Very very frustrating when I too have been using this software successfully since 2013. I'm not sure whether it is legal for Adobe to sell a product with a perpetual license only to later rescind it. I see that if you buy PSE 2024 it has a limited lifetime of 3 years so it's more of a rental than a purchase. I'm not really impressed with Adobe's current treatment of it's customer base and now seems to be the time step away from Adobe.

[kglad]

use an updated default browser that's not opera.

[Stuart Watson]

I've also tried the solution by kglad above. However to obtain a Response code you need to enter the PSE 12 serial no ( quite reasonably  but this follows a request for what it calls a machine specific request code which seems to be impossible to locate. 

[kglad]

@Stuart Watson 

what's your default browser (including version)?

[Stuart Watson]

Microsoft Edge Version 130.0.2849.27

[kglad]

that's a beta version.

try the current chrome browser.

[Stuart Watson]

When you say use the current Chrome Browser  - but for which operation 

1. to Download PSE 12 from

2. or to sign on to Adobe when trying to start PSE 12 and you are asked to sigh in

Thanks

[kglad]

when signing in, but the browser issue also applies when not explicitly using a browser and contacting adobe's secure servers like when using the cc desktop app.

[Tim37514461jhv2]

Totally agree with you, what they are doing is probably not that legal, but could be a grey area. I even thought before trying to reinstall PSE 12 on a new computer to buy a new version next year or so, but after several emails with support and "the version is not support, you can buy the new one with the discount" and literally no one who wants to help activate it/deactivate my old computer, this won't happen.

[kglad]

@Tim37514461jhv2 

you have a different problem if you're seeing an excess activation count message.

[Tim37514461jhv2]

Problem is still the same, you can't activate PSE 12 directly anymore, only offline.

[kglad]

if you can activate offline, do so.