How to recover serial number for Photoshop CS5

[Gregory Peter Snowden]

I am also having this same issue and after speaking with Indian tech support I was directed to come to forums - which doesn't exactly fill me with confidence that a paid tech support person sends me to a free community support system to find answers...

This software was purchased almost 8 years ago. Regrettably, I have moved literally 6 times in that 8 year period and I can not find my media boxes (which used to have the license keys in them). Furthermore, I downloaded Adobe Lightroom 5 (about 5 years ago), and I see no emails related to the purchase, and also no info about the license key. I'm not even sure where I bought it now... maybe it was on Amazon - I'll check there next.

Here's the deal... I've been using these products for literally almost a decade, and now I need to wipe my laptop to rebuild it. But, I can't even BUY this software anymore since you all moved to your CC model.

How do people like myself who want stand alone software ever get our software to work? This is literally $1000 worth of software, I've never spent more out of pocket cash on a suite of products than on Adobe, and now you're making it impossible for us? Basically, I will never be able to wipe this box without spending more $$$ to get the software again? But from what I saw, you can't buy it now even if you wanted to?? This makes no sense.

[Jeff A Wright]

Gregory Peter Snowden, sorry you are facing difficulties locating the serial number you used to previously install your Adobe software.  The best way to persevere you purchase of Adobe software is to complete the registration process.  You can find information on how to locate registered Adobe software titles at Find your serial number .

I did review case ADB-3439528-S1N9 and can confirm that the serial number you offered in the chat session is not valid and is unable to be decoded.

If you do discover any additional e-mail address or phone numbers that you may have used to register Creative Suite 5 or Lightroom, then please contact our support team directly at Contact Customer Care .  I can also confirm that there are no Adobe software titles registered to the e-mail address you are using to post to this public discussion forum.

[Gregory Peter Snowden]

To be honest, prior to this day, I have  never registered any of my software products online by submitting my personal information along with the license info because 1) it was not needed to actually use the product and 2) unlike most people it seems nowadays, I actually do concern myself with personal privacy. However, in this case I reviewed the Adobe privacy agreements and I have so little personal information that I valued using the software more than my previous concerns. And so, after posting this I went digging around and found the Help -> Register links. And, good news - my Lightroom License was filled out and checked! So I was excited. I went ahead and told it to register now and the Lr message eventually displayed below. Obviously I have internet connection else I couldn't be posting this.

Then, I went into my Windows partition (yea yea, used to be a Windows guy when I first got my Mac, so I use Parallels and the Adobe CS5 Create Suite there, but I truly regret that) and tried the same thing from Illustrator (most used product) and even though I can logon with my Adobe ID, I still got the following message:

So... I really don't know what to do...

[Jeff A Wright]

Gregory Peter Snowden, the error in your recent post is just stating that the online registration service is no longer available.  It was replaced by the process listed in Find your serial number several years ago.

While you have access to your Creative Suite 5 serial number I would encourage you to complete the registration process on http://www.adobe.com/ this will help you protect your software license if you need it again in the future.

[Gregory Peter Snowden]

Unfortunately, it does not actually SHOW the number....   And you cannot select the entries for copy either...

[Gregory Peter Snowden]

I'm sorry to have confused the situation. This is 2 separate purchases, 2 separate installations. Lightroom was a downloaded purchase activated from a trial version. CS5 was a physical product that was either stolen or lost during moves, regardless I cannot find my software box after moving.

[Gregory Peter Snowden]

I downloaded a trial Mac Product Serial number finder and it supposedly found my serial numbers, but I am loathe to spend $30 if it doesn't actually work. It only shows the 1st 4 digits.

Can you please confirm whether Lightroom serial number beginning with 1160 and Creative Suite CS5 starting with 1407 are valid entries?

[Jeff A Wright]

Ok, thanks for the clarification, Gregory.  Please do bookmark Find your serial number in case you locate your previous purchases or purchase any new Adobe software titles.

Serial numbers can vary.  If you feel that you have retrieved the serial number then you can complete the registration process to confirm.  Adobe does not endorse the use of any software titles to attempt to retrieve your license. 

I am unsure what process they are using to decode the serial number from different licensing files or registry entries.  This is part of the reason we moved to a mandatory registration process in later versions of Creative Suite.

[Gregory Peter Snowden]

Sigh... so my only hope at this point is to trust this supposed third party decoder... This is the problem with product loyalty. I remember when I first started out doing this, freaking forever ago, Corel Draw was what I used. But Adobe products really impressed me so I switched. But damn man.... now I gotta shell out $600 a year for life? That's the only solution Adobe is willing to offer? I gotta get a drink.

[Jeff A Wright]

Branching to a new discussion.

I understand it is frustrating, Gregory.  I take special care to register any of my expensive purchases after seeing individuals lose their software licenses in the last couple of decades.

[kglad · Accepted solution]

you have 3 ways to recover a serial number that you once had:

1. if you purchased from or registered with adobe (automatically done with cs6):,

    a. you can check your account, https://accounts.adobe.com

    b. you can check with adobe support* (be prepared to give the email address used when registering purchasing)

2. if your adobe program is installed on another computer you can recover its serial number from that computer, (win:) http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html, (mac:)  https://mac-product-key-finder.com/

3. http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/find-serial-number.html

*

using a browser that allows popups and cookies,  contact adobe support during pst business hours by clicking here and, when available, click 'chat', http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/service-ccm.html