Questions about reinstalling CS 5.5

[JohnM77]

I purchased and registered CS 5.5 in December 2011. I have some user numbers and ids in my records. I do not have any disks. When I sign in to my Adobe account, I see that my CS 5.5 is registered with a 24 number code. Is that my serial number?

I have a number of additional questions. The first is,

• Should I wait for Adobe Customer Service to open on Monday to get definitive answers to the questions below and above?

Then

1. I have a 2012 Mac Mini that currently has High Sierra and CS 5.5. Apple tells me I have no hardware problems, but I get the beach ball A LOT. They recommend a Clean Install, including wiping the disk.
2. If I wipe the disk, I will have to reinstall CS 5.5. What information will I need to do that? Will Adobe give me the information I need if I don't have it?
3. Alternatively, I could reinstall the OS (which would probably be Mojave) without wiping the disk, i.e., leaving the CS 5.5 on the disk. Would I still need Adobe serial numbers or IDs etc. to make CS 5.5 work?

Also

1. I have a 2011 Mac Air with CS 5.5 installed that is having similar beach ball problems. I'm assuming that in terms of running CS 5.5, the advice for the 2011 Mac Air would be the same as the advice for the 2012 Mac Mini. Is that correct?
2. Last but not least, what is the best OS for CS 5.5?

Thank you for your help,

John

[Peru Bob]

JohnM77  wrote

• Should I wait for Adobe Customer Service to open on Monday to get definitive answers to the questions below and above?

Short answer: Yes.

[JohnM77]

I got an email from "Team Adobe" at "AdobeDesk@usa.com" — which is clearly not part of Adobe.

They said they could help me and asked for my ID and password. I asked if they were part of Adobe. Of course they didn't reply.

In that, at least, they are somewhat like real Adobe. I twice spent 20+ minutes waiting for an Adobe chat agent.

Is there any way to contact Adobe about CS 5.5? (800) 833-6687 doesn’t work for CS 5.5.

thanks

[John T Smith]

1st, post the Adobe user ID of that fake support person (not the email you posted, the Adobe ID)

2nd, I don't think a real Adobe support person is going to be able to help... since the download links for the education version you have no longer exist

[John T Smith]

Serial numbers are 6 groups of 4 numbers

If you don't have discs you will need to download the install files

Adobe removed old links from public view https://theblog.adobe.com/changes-to-creative-cloud-download-availability

-also read https://prodesigntools.com/adobe-limits-software-downloads.html

IMPORTANT NOTE:

The process below WILL NOT WORK if you have a (CS6 or earlier) serial number for an education or volume version, since the only downloads now available are the retail installers, which DO NOT work with an education or volume serial number

Start by reading reply #10 https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2620448

-Also read https://helpx.adobe.com/in/download-install/kb/downloaded-older-app.html

-And https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/find-downloaded-file-app.html

-OR... Go to https://www.adobe.com/about-adobe/contact.html

-click on the Chat bot on the bottom right hand corner of the first screen

--the chat bot is the circle with a funny looking box with 3 dots inside

-click on Downloading or Installing, then type Agent

Do NOT let the support agent tell you to come to the forums for help... no user in a public forum has access to Adobe's internal links, you MUST obtain the program and update links from Adobe support

AND when you finally do have a download link, be sure to copy every file you download to an external drive (or 2 or 3) so you never have to hunt for download links if they are moved again... also make a text file containing ALL of your serial numbers and copy that file as well

[JohnM77]

Thanks. After reading the responses here and poking around on the web, it looks like,

1. I should wait for Adobe Customer Service
2. I should make a Clean Install but NOT wipe the disk (because it looks unlikely that I'll be able to download CS 5.5).
3. If CS 5.5 then asks for the serial number, it looks like I have that.

Among the things I found on the web are that CS 5.5 problems start with High Sierra, and my InDesign 5.5 version 7.5.2 requires 10.5.8 (Leopard) or Snow Leopard. I haven't yet found Mac OS requirements for my Photoshop 5.5 version 12.1 x64, but I'm hoping Mavericks will work with both, because it seems that's what came on my Macs.

[John T Smith]

>I can't download CS 5.5 on the web

Yes you can... Re-read my last reply to find out how to get download links

[JohnM77]

I have an education version.

[John T Smith]

Oh... if you had discs, it's too bad you lost them... if you never had discs, it's too bad you didn't make copies of your downloads

At this point, I don't have any other ideas

Well... if you know someone with exactly the same version that you have... with discs... I **think** it would be legal to use their discs with your serial number