PS CS5 activation customer service help?

[na4m]

Whats the best Adobe customer service contact route that can help resolve a Photoshop CS5 serial number activation issue?   I've looked around and find nothing obvious for CS activation issues.

[John T Smith]

As far as I know, there is NO support for that old version... see my reply in this message

https://community.adobe.com/t5/download-install/need-to-download-adobe-design-standard-6-0/td-p/1140...

[na4m]

John - thanks for your reply.

Your referenced reply seems to refer to downloaded Adobe products.

I thought I read elsewhere that CS6 was on life support but not dead yet.  Perhaps it is after all.

My PS CS5 is boxed Adobe DVD media with serial number originally purchased new by me.  It installs OK on my new computer - but when entering the serial number to activate it says it's invalid. I've tried the steps on the Adobe link but no help.

[LinSims]

They're still giving support for resetting the number of activations, but as far as I know, that's it.

[na4m]

What is the contact info for resetting PS CS5 activations?

[John T Smith]

Be sure to ONLY ask for activation reset

Be sure to remain signed in with your Adobe ID before accessing the link below
-you must also allow 'cookies' in your web browser for this to work
https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/support.html for chat or https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/phone.html
-click the chat icon at the bottom right of the page to open a chat session
-the chat icon looks like '3 dots inside a circle' at the lower right
-type AGENT into the chat window to connect directly to a person rather than the AI
Do be aware that Adobe's staffing is impacted by the virus, so wait times are long

[KMoonwalker]

I followed this but sadly I was informed that this is no longer possible as they do not have access to old activation servers 😕

any ideas what to do?

[kglad]

you must deactivate from a computer that has a current activation.

[KMoonwalker]

thing is that I upgraded my mobo/cpu and I sold old one without deactivating (but I do have old hdd)

In the past over years I used this on several computers and never had such issue and I deactivated perhaps once 😕

[kglad]

deactivation changed recently. what worked last month and earlier is no longer applicable.

[KMoonwalker]

for the amount of money I paid Adobe as I do have Master Collection this is not really a good nor proper explanation what they say about it being old or anything as it was not a 100 euro software licence or something 😕

I also just started my older rig where it was activated few years ago before I moved to more modern one and it shows same screen like on this new rig that I reached activation limit - this is really strange

[KMoonwalker]

to be precise it was activated before I started indesign after connecting to internet...

[kglad]

you can't activate a third time.  ie, you must deactivate your licenes from a computer that has a current activation.  because it's not possible for you to deactivate it, it's not possible to activate it, again.

[Abambo]

to be precise it was activated before I started indesign after connecting to internet...

By @KMoonwalker

If you can't deactivate on your old system, and you have used up your 2 activations, there is nothing that can be done for you. Adobe support can't reset the activation count anymore. There is no way to get support on your 10+ years old software.

(I only report the facts. Don't shoot the messenger.)

[KMoonwalker]

well I did found my old notebook and deactivated there but it did not worked as it should - no I do have it deactivated virtually everywhere 😕

For you to understand the problem I have in full:

I had it installed and working on new rig - till Saturday 27th when it somehow decided to be deactivated.

I made complete uninstallation with CS5 removal tool on new rig and manually removed all folders listed via support and made clean installation and it appeared to be working for two or three app starts but then I installed new adobe reader and just after that it started to show again that activation limit message 😕
Need to investigate it more when I find a bit of time

Regarding 10 years old software I agree about problematic support but if a company is selling an perpetual licence it means that it should provide ways to activate that software (or a way to get around of that as some companies are doing while software reaches EOL - simple website to enter a code and get activation one for example or adding management in users profile to remove a PC from there as they do have those servers actually running cause something is registering those deactivations/activations made by users themselves).

TBH this is not a good way of solving this matter for such high profile company.
I agree - no updates, fixes, patches, etc they do cost time and salary for programmers to make but if they would made simple activated seats management like for example you do have with norton antivirus seats it would cost them no time spent on this later.

Perpetual licence after all means for customer  that he can use that software as he pleases for as many time as he wants on supported via that software machines - I seen someone from UK mentioning that on other thread.

What they are doing here is making it work like a time limited licence just not with yearly period or shutting down if not paid again...  

[KMoonwalker]

(Installation on new rig some time ago was a last installation made with this code by me and it was working after installation for a month or longer without any messages of trial or something as perhaps I am not using it daily but only from time to time when I need it)

[KMoonwalker]

I often reinstal software on some very old industrial or scientific hardware like for example audio analysers computers or oscillscopes and they are working with sometimes very ancient windowses like 98 and have some special software also needing a dongle or some activation code and some were made back in 90ties and you can get those codes without any problem

[kglad]

perpetually licensed software has a 30 day trial.  you will not necessarily see a nag screen to activate it except when installing and near or at the end of the trial period (when opening the app)

[KMoonwalker]

I logged with my Adobe ID during installation and it shown it is activated on screen after if I remember correctly

[KMoonwalker]

Installation I tried yesterday I did not logged with Adobe ID to exclude this and it shown me that too many installations message after two or three applications uses 

[KMoonwalker]

anyway with my rare use I can live with extra windows and reinstalling second rig every some time but I do not like the way it was forced on me

[kglad]

your messages are very confusing, but from your last message, i infer you're unhappy but can adapt to your situation.

[KMoonwalker]

OK small all in one for you:
I replaced CPU/mobo for new ones back in December...
and I used my rig ever since but not installed CS5 till some month ago or 1,5 month but after installation it was working fine till 27th...
so I contacted support and was advised to deactivate on old rig but I sold my old cpu/mobo sadly and far away from me 
I do not loose my old system drives as some peek in for settings is being usefull so I plugged it on some old hardware used as file server to make running some rig I had like +/-8 years ago but it shown me same message that software is deactivated
So I did started my offline copy old notebook with XP that was my usual second copy of CS5 used for old scanner, etc and it was used offline for like decade or so I think and I was asked by support to deactivate it - so I did (sadly) - I was told new one should activate now but it did not

Effect is that I do not have it activated anywhere now ^^

So as you can see I may not be very happy after spending few hours trying to make it working...

[kglad]

@KMoonwalker 

is english your native language?

[KMoonwalker]

clearly no ^^